Hale Aina Caterers

Hired Hale Aina to cater a small corporate networking event and everything was delicious! We ordered heavy pupus for 40 people and there was definitely enough food. My favorites were the slow roasted chinese pork bao and the salmon ahi tartare. Since we had a kitchen at our location they were able to cook and serve everything hot and fresh! Judy was easy to work with and responsive when it came to emailing and phone calls.

Just had my third private event in which Kanani and Hale Aina Caterers provided the most amazing food. Presentation was excellent, staff very friendly and professional, and the food is absolutely amazing. Every course was exquisite! Everything is done is a timely manner — set up, serving, and clean up — and not a single flaw at any of the events. To top is all off Kanani is an extremely personable, charismatic individual, and plays whatever role is required of him. His personal addition to the quality of food and service cannot be understated!

We couldn’t be happier with our experience having Hale Aina Caterers cater our recent event for 40 people. Chef Kanani’s menu was creative and delicious and KathE was very professional and accommodating throughout the whole process. Angel and ‘Jersey’, our servers, were friendly, easy to work with and did a great job from set up to clean up. Having Hale Aina made all the difference in us being able to enjoy our event. I look forward to hiring them again and again!

We are so happy that we went with Hale Aina Caterers. We just held our open house for our new office, and we received so many compliments about the food and guests wanting to know who the caterer was. We worked with KathE who together with Chef Kanani came up with the perfect menu for the type of venue it was and the budget we were working with. The food was delicious and beautifully presented, and even though we were a smaller event Chef Kanani came himself to oversee the setup of everything. This guy is so talented — he also made the beautiful koa bases that the chafing dishes were set in. He and his staff were all so kind and gracious, it was such a pleasure working with them. If we ever need to hire a caterer again, we will definitely go with Hale Aina Caterers, and I highly recommend them if you want fantastic food, impeccable service and a stress-​free event!

You absolutely cannot go wrong with Hale Aina!
Kanani, Heather, and their entire crew did a superb job catering a 150-​person Christmas reception at our house.
From the personal site visit, to menu selection, to food prep and service, Hale Aina is the caterer of choice.
Many of my guests were senior military officers who raved about the food and service and will also avail themselves of Hale Aina’s catering.
I am booking them for next year.

I found Hale Aina via this site. I’d used another caterer in Honolulu before but this time they weren’t filling me with hope that they could pull of the intimate sort of dinner I wanted for my husband’s 50^th birthday. And I was trying to organize it from overseas so it made it harder to talk to companies. We wanted a home chef cooked dinner (we were 11 people, including 3 young chlldren).
Found Hale Aina here and fired off an email. Got an almost immediate response from Kanani, which filled me with confidence. It took a little back and forth to sort the menu — mainly caused because of an 11 hour time difference and our schedules so we had to do it all by email, however we got there.
We were hosting the party at our newly remodeled house in Honolulu, which was supposed to be finished by then, but turned out it was still a building site — with no kitchen. Kanani rented the cooking facilities he needed, we rigged up builders’ lights and he wasn’t fazed by any of it.
The evening was a huge success — the food would have been astonishing cooked from a kitchen but from a grill in an unscreened back porch it was a miracle! Fantastic flavors — Kanani catered for palates from young to old to gluten intolerant. Kanani incorporated family favorites with local twists and children’s tastes.
I even arrived with an unannounced Angel Food cake (some people never grow up) that I gave to Kanani with apologies and said please could he serve it somehow as we’d made it and I hadn’t had time to give it to my husband. Without a hint of horror — Kanani suggested slicing it, filling and covering it in cream and stuffing it strawberries and serving it at dessert with the preplanned chocolate mousse! NEVER has my home baking tasted that good.
Heather, who came to help serve, lent her hand to martinis — shaken not stirred, trying to get my candles to stay in their holders (coming up with an altogether better solution) — and provided flawless service from start to finish.
Needless to say, Hale Aina Catering is now a must for us, and all our guests who came, we absolutely couldn’t have asked for better. It’s nerve wracking to hire a company from Unilocal — I know because I just did it but I am certain you will be delighted.

We hired Kanani for a special dinner for 14 at our vacation home. He came highly recommended and lived up to everything we were told about him. He helped us create a 5 course meal that worked for everyone, including a special meal for the kids that met their high approval. The kitchen has a sit up bar, which allowed him and his team to visit with us — or more so us watching and visiting with him. His team set and decorated the tables, served the appetizers to the room, pairing with the wines and champagnes. Bottom line is the food was fabulous, the ambiance, professionalism, and presentation impeccable, and we will hire him again in an instant. Do not hesitate to us Kanani or his team!!!

I cannot say enough good things about Kanani and his amazing team. We met Kanani at an expo and he was so friendly. He had samples of his chocolate haupia tartlets at the expo and they were soooo delicious. After shopping around for a bit, I kept coming back to Hale Aina and finally we decided to book.
We decided on a menu & the necessary rentals pretty quickly. I gave Kanani a price range I wanted to work in and a few of the items we liked off his menu and he put it all together. We could not have been happier with the menu! I didn’t really have to touch base again until close to the wedding –which was nice to not have to worry about it. By the time the wedding came around, Kanani had hired Jarrod as an assistant. Jarrod touched base several times in the 72 hours leading up to the wedding to make sure we had everything ready to go. I didn’t see him much the day of, but my family said he was great — ran around and made sure everyone was happy.
Now, to the food — AMAZING!!! We never had the time to do a tasting beforehand so I was a tad nervous. Kanani and his team did not disappoint. Everyone was talking about how delicious the food was that night and still now a week later. We did several hand passed appetizers — the ones that stood out were the salmon & ahi tartare on wonton crisps and the kalua pig wontons. For dinner, we did Opah with a mango salso and a rib eye. The fish was moist and flavorful and the rib eye melted in your mouth. The mashed potatoes were sooo creamy and had a great flavor. The real winners were the desserts. We did the mac nut spring rolls with lilikoi sauce and chocolate haupia tartlets — I could’ve eaten a whole tray all to myself.
At the end of the day, you want your guests to have had a fabulous meal and I know we succeeded on that front thanks to Kanani and his team. The service staff were so attentive — I never once had an empty water glass or wanted for anything. I would highly recommend Hale Aina for any event where you want yummy food and good service!

We hired Kanani to cook for our family vacation. We had a group of 18 adults and children. He helped us plan menus, shopped and prepared 8 – 9 course meals every night. Special dietary needs and kid palettes were accomodated and all were satisfied. The meals were all delicious and beautifully presented. His staff served and cleaned up. They really allowed us to enjoy our vacation and take advantage of every moment together.
Although he had an emergency one night, he was very professional. He made arrangements for another chef to come cook for us the night he was away and we had no stress and no interruptions.
We would highly recommend Hale Aina caterers and would hire them again.