Kailua has no shortage of breakfast lines, but only one place in town starts your morning the way a Singapore kopitiam does, and that is Cafe Kopi. Tucked on Kihapai Street a few blocks from the beach traffic, this family run cafe pairs French style pastries with the flavors owner Jeanne Ng grew up on in Singapore, and on weekends it serves the bowl we plan entire Saturdays around: a rich, coconut heavy Singapore laksa that has quietly become one of our favorite noodle soups on Oʻahu. We have sent a lot of friends here, and nobody has come back complaining.
Related: Kailua and Lanikai Guide, 50 Best Places to Eat on Oʻahu, and Best Saimin on Oʻahu.
The quick facts: 📍 45 Kihapai Street, Kailua, HI 96734. Open every day from 6:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with Singapore laksa served Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Menus and events are on the cafe’s site at cafekopihawaii.com.
What Cafe Kopi Is
Kopi means coffee in the coffee shop and hawker culture of Singapore and Malaysia, where a kopitiam is the neighborhood spot that handles your morning brew, your kaya toast, and your bowl of noodles all at once. That is the spirit here. Jeanne Ng, who is from Singapore, opened Cafe Kopi on the windward side and built a menu that moves easily between two worlds: buttery French style pastries and espresso drinks on one side, and dumplings, kaya toast, and weekend laksa on the other. The cafe sits in the low key stretch of Kihapai Street, an easy stop on any Kailua morning, about 12 miles (19 km) over the Pali from downtown Honolulu.
The room is small and friendly, the kind of neighborhood counter where regulars order without looking at the menu. It fills up on weekends, and there is a reason for that, which brings us to the noodles.
The Laksa Is the Move
Singapore laksa, one of the must-eat dishes we hunted down all over Singapore, is a coconut curry noodle soup, and Cafe Kopi’s version, served only Friday through Sunday, is the best we have found on Oʻahu. The broth is the whole story: rich with coconut cream, layered with chili and spice paste, deep enough that you keep going back for one more spoonful after you are technically full. It comes loaded with noodles, tofu puffs that soak up broth like little sponges, and enough protein to make it a full meal. It runs $18 a bowl, and for the amount of food and the amount of flavor, we think it earns the price.
Two pieces of advice from experience. First, treat the laksa like an event with a start time, because it begins at 10:00 a.m. and popular weekends can see it run low in the afternoon. Late morning is the sweet spot: you beat the lunch rush and the kitchen is in full rhythm. Second, ask for extra chili if you like heat. The default bowl is built for a broad crowd, and the sambal pushes it into the zone where a laksa really sings.
Kaya Toast and Kopi, Done Properly
If you have never had kaya toast, this is the place to fix that. Kaya is a coconut and egg jam, cooked slow with pandan until it turns silky and fragrant, and Cafe Kopi makes its nonya style kaya in house with Hawaiian pandan leaf infused coconut cream. It gets spread thick on toast with cold Irish butter, and the sweet jam plus salty butter combination is one of those simple breakfasts that makes you wonder why the whole world has not adopted it. Pair it with kopi, the strong Singapore style coffee sweetened with condensed milk, and you have the classic kopitiam breakfast without the 11 hour flight.
The kaya also comes home with us regularly. A jar of housemade kaya is one of the better food souvenirs on the windward side, and it disappears fast once your family figures out what it does to morning toast.
Beyond the Laksa
The pastry case is the other half of the story, with French style pastries in the $4.25 to $6.50 range that hold their own against any bakery case in town. The espresso program covers the usual lineup along with cold brew and batch brew, so mixed coffee loyalties are safe here. On the savory side, the Chinese style dumplings are a reliable order when the laksa is off the clock, and the weekday menu makes Cafe Kopi an easy everyday stop rather than a weekend only pilgrimage. Prices sit in the range you would expect for Kailua, and portions on the noodle bowls are generous.
Logistics: Parking, Timing, and How to Fit It Into a Kailua Day
Cafe Kopi opens at 6:30 a.m. every day, which makes it one of the earliest quality coffee stops in Kailua town. Street parking and nearby lots around Kihapai and the surrounding blocks are easiest before mid morning, and weekends get tight once the beach crowd rolls through, so an early arrival solves most problems. The location works beautifully as the first stop of a windward day: coffee and kaya toast here, then Kailua Beach or the Lanikai Pillbox hike, then back through town for lunch. If you are timing a laksa visit, remember the Friday through Sunday window and aim for late morning.
Our Verdict
Cafe Kopi is the kind of small, personal cafe we love writing about: one owner, one point of view, and a few dishes you cannot get anywhere else on this side of the island. The laksa alone justifies the trip over the Pali, and the kaya toast and kopi turn a quick coffee run into a small trip to Singapore. Put it on your Kailua morning rotation and thank us later.
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Hungry for more island eats? See our guides to the best dim sum on Oʻahu, the best Vietnamese food on Oʻahu, the best Thai food on Oʻahu, the best Japanese food on Oʻahu, and the best boba shops on Oʻahu. And if this bowl puts Singapore itself on your travel list, start with our guides to 10 free things to do in Singapore and Gardens by the Bay.
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