If you’re staying in Waikiki without a car, Ala Moana Center is the one “trip” that doesn’t feel like one, and Mai Tai’s Bar & Grill on the fourth floor is where we would sit down once the shopping bags get heavy. Happy hour runs every day from 3:00 to 7:00 pm, the room is open-air, and there’s live music with no cover. We last sat there in May 2016, when the place was still called Mai Tai Bar. Prices have moved a lot since then, so here is what the restaurant posts today and how we would do it now.
The happy hours, as posted today
The official Ala Moana page lists regular hours of 11:00 am to 12:30 am, seven days a week, and two happy hours:
| Window | Days | What the restaurant’s pages say |
|---|---|---|
| Pau Hana, 3:00–7:00 pm | Every day | Specials on select drinks; half off the pupus menu |
| Hana Hou, 8:00–11:00 pm | Sunday–Thursday | Drink specials only; $2 off select beer bottles, pints and pitchers |
The food discount lives in the afternoon. The happy-hour page puts “1/2 Off on Our Pupus Menu” inside the 3–7 pm section, and the late-night section lists drinks only. Friday and Saturday have no late window. We are asleep by then on any day of the week, so the late one is reported, not field-tested.
The address is Ho’okipa Terrace, 4th Floor, 1450 Ala Moana Blvd, Suite 3247. The restaurant describes itself as “located by Olive Garden & Texas de Brazil,” which is the easiest way to find it once you are on that level.
What a basket of fried things costs now
Here is where the years show. Our 2016 photos include the happy-hour card from that afternoon: 4:00 to 7:00 pm daily, a Longboard Island Lager pint for $3, and a “Pupu Specials, Dine In Only” list where calamari and popcorn shrimp were $6 and chicken chinois was $7. We ordered all three, and six pints of beer went with them over the afternoon.
The current food menu still carries all three dishes under its “Pupus” heading. Here are the regular prices, and what half off would make them, by our arithmetic:
| Pupu | 2016 happy hour | 2026 menu price | Half off (our math) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Popcorn shrimp (with fries) | $6 | $17 | $8.50 |
| Calamari (with fries) | $6 | $18 | $9 |
| Chicken chinois | $7 | $16 | $8 |
The menu pages don’t say how the half-off is applied at the table, so take the right-hand column as an estimate and expect tax and tip on top. Other items under the same Pupus heading include smashed burger sliders ($15), shrimp ceviche ($15), poke-style edamame ($12) and a pepperoni pizza on soft flatbread ($15). Wings ($19), fries and onion rings sit in a separate “Shareables” section on the menu page, and the happy-hour page does not say whether that section counts. Ask before you build an order around wings.
Drinks during Pau Hana, per the same happy-hour page: Kona Longboard and Kona Big Wave drop from $9 to $7, Bud Light, Coors Light and Miller Lite from $7 to $5, and wines by the glass, including a Sauvignon Blanc and a Chardonnay, are $8 instead of $9. The Original Mai Tai goes from $13 to $10. We’ll leave the namesake to you. We are beer people, and in 2016 the beer was the point for us here, too.
Getting there: the Pink Line is $6 now
The Waikiki Trolley’s pink route is now called the Ala Moana Line, though the operator still calls it “Pink” in the ticket name. The one-day ticket is $6.00, the operator says it comes about every 15 minutes, and the full loop takes about an hour. A few numbers from the posted stop list that matter for a happy-hour run:
- The first run reaches the Hokulani Hotel stop at 10:22 am and Ala Moana Center at 10:43 am, so the ride in is about 20 minutes.
- Because the loop is about an hour, the ride back from the mall to that same stop works out to roughly 40 minutes by our math, since the trolley goes on to the Ilikai, Hale Koa and Ka La’i before it swings back through Waikiki.
- The trolley stop at the mall is at the Nordstrom Wing, Level 1. The bar is up on the fourth floor, on Ho’okipa Terrace, so leave a few minutes to get up there.
- The latest time listed at Ala Moana Center is 8:15 pm, but the schedule labels it “Last Stop,” not “Last Pickup,” and that run ends at Ka La’i Waikiki Beach. If you are counting on a ride back, don’t plan around that time; ask the driver on the way in.
We do not rent a car, so this is how we would do it. If you drive, Mai Tai’s advertises free parking on its Ala Moana page.
How we would do it
Our afternoons start early. On most days we are thinking about a drink by 2 pm, and 3 pm is a late start for us. So we would ride over around 2, do the errands first (that’s the real reason to go to Ala Moana anyway), and be at the bar near 3, when the half-off pupus begin.
Then we would do what we did in 2016: two or three fried things and pints of Longboard. At today’s prices, popcorn shrimp and calamari at half off come to about $17.50 by our math, before two beers at $7 each, tax and tip. That is not 2016 money. It is still a fair price for a long sit in an open-air room with music.
We would be on a trolley back well before 7. The one thing we would not do is stay for the Hana Hou window. That is a different evening from ours.
The new branch on the Waikiki side
There is now a second location. Mai Tai’s Aqua Palms page calls it “the new Waikiki location,” at 1850 Ala Moana Blvd, “next to IHOP,” and describes it as the same idea “in a more compact setting.” The hours and both happy-hour windows match Ala Moana’s. The trolley’s stop list also has an “Aqua Palms Waikiki” stop, the one just before Ala Moana Center.
Its own happy-hour menu PDF, dated May 2026, works differently from the half-off rule on the main pages. It lists five pupus at flat prices: pepperoni flatbread, smashed burger sliders and shrimp ceviche at $7.50, poke edamame at $7 and calamari at $9. Popcorn shrimp and chicken chinois are not on that list. Wines are $1 off, and Kona Longboard and Big Wave bottles are $6.50.
We have not been to the Aqua Palms location yet, so we cannot tell you how it compares. For a happy hour with no shopping errand attached, though, a branch on the Waikiki side is easier to reach. For a day at the mall, the original is still where the errands are.
Before you plan around this
- All prices and hours above are from Mai Tai’s own pages and the trolley operator’s page as we checked them on October 9, 2026. Happy-hour menus change, and the main happy-hour page is not labeled by location, so confirm at the table.
- The 2016 numbers are from our own photos of that visit. They are history, not a forecast.
- The trolley site asks riders to check its reroute notices before riding. Do that on the day.
Details
- Mai Tai’s Bar & Grill, Ala Moana: Ho’okipa Terrace, 4th Floor, Ala Moana Center, 1450 Ala Moana Blvd, Suite 3247, Honolulu. 808-941-4400. maitaishawaii.com/ala-moana
- Mai Tai’s Bar & Grill, Aqua Palms: 1850 Ala Moana Blvd, Honolulu. 808-260-1410. maitaishawaii.com/aqua-palms
- Happy hours (both locations): daily 3:00–7:00 pm; Sunday–Thursday 8:00–11:00 pm (as of October 2026)
- Waikiki Trolley Ala Moana Line: $6.00 one-day ticket. waikikitrolley.com/ala-moana-line
If you are already at Ala Moana for something else, this is one of the easier ways to sit down there. If you are not, the Waikiki-side branch is now an option. For another Ala Moana bar menu that starts later in the day, see our notes on Morton’s Power Hour.
