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From Lahaina to Fort Street Mall: The Haro Family Story Behind Lahaina Tacos, Downtown Honolulu’s Viral Taqueria

By Oahu Local Published 4 min read

Split image: on the left, Pedro Haro, a man with glasses and a mustache in a green apron, smiles in the shop; on the right, the red Lahaina Tacos sign above the takeout counter in a downtown Honolulu food court.
Pedro Haro, owner of Lahaina Tacos, and the shop’s counter in Pioneer Plaza. Photo: Pedro/Lahaina Tacos (via TODAY.com)

If you’ve seen a man in a cowboy hat speaking into a torn piece of tortilla, declaring that he is “literally and figuratively and exponentially ob-SESSED” with a taco shop in downtown Honolulu, you’ve met Pedro Haro. The shop is his family’s: Lahaina Tacos, a takeout counter on the first floor of Pioneer Plaza on Fort Street Mall.

The videos are funny. The story behind the counter is a lot heavier, and it’s why this little taqueria is worth knowing about.

Mexico, then Lahaina

The Haro family moved to Lahaina in 1988, according to HONOLULU Magazine and Aloha State Daily. HONOLULU Magazine says they came from near Puerto Vallarta, and Aloha State Daily says the family’s roots are in the Mexican state of Nayarit; Hawaii News Now reported the family once ran a taco stand in Tepic, Nayarit’s capital.

For more than 30 years, family members worked in Maui hotels and restaurants, including Leoda’s Kitchen, Star Noodle, the Royal Lahaina and the Ritz-Carlton at Kapalua, HONOLULU Magazine reported. The Lahaina Tacos website says the family was led by Armando Sr. and his wife, Camerina, and that the recipes come from their mother’s kitchen. “Mexico was our original home; Lahaina was our new home,” Pedro Haro told Hawaii News Now on Nov. 1.

The truck that never opened

Armando Haro, the eldest of the siblings, had a dream of his own: a food truck serving the dishes he cooked for his family. In August 2023, the Lahaina fire took that truck, the equipment he had bought for it and the family’s homes, according to HONOLULU Magazine. HONOLULU Magazine’s October profile adds that the fire came weeks before the truck’s launch. Hawaii News Now reported that five family homes burned, including the house where the family grew up celebrating birthdays.

The family relocated to Oʻahu. Accounts of how many came differ: Hawaii News Now reported in 2025 that 16 family members moved to Oʻahu, while HONOLULU Magazine wrote in October that Pedro Haro raised nearly $50,000 on GoFundMe to help his 25-member extended family get here.

A downtown lunch counter

Lahaina Tacos opened in Pioneer Plaza on Feb. 12, 2025, according to the restaurant’s website, HONOLULU Magazine and Aloha State Daily. Everyone working there on opening day had lost their homes in the fire, HONOLULU Magazine reported. Word of mouth did the rest: Hawaii News Now reported that the shop sold out in about two hours on its first Wednesday and Thursday.

What sets the food apart, the family told reporters, is the tortillas. They are handmade in-house, and the tacos are made the way the family made them at home in Nayarit, served on small corn tortillas with onions and cilantro, per Aloha State Daily. The fillings include asada, pollo, adobada (marinated pork), birria, lengua (tongue) and chorizo, plus a vegetable option. There are also burritos, quesadillas, tortas and plates with rice and beans.

A family dream changes hands

This spring, Armando decided to close the business and return to Mexico, HONOLULU Magazine reported. Pedro stepped in to keep it going. HONOLULU Magazine says he took over in May and that Armando remains a part-owner; TODAY.com put the handoff in June. Their sister, Chef Ana Haro, who cooked at Star Noodle and Merriman’s Kapalua per HONOLULU Magazine, runs the kitchen, and the restaurant’s website now says Lahaina Tacos is “led by Chef Ana.”

Pedro handles the finances and marketing, according to TODAY.com. He also has a day job: he has been executive director of the American Lung Association in Hawaiʻi since 2020, HONOLULU Magazine reported.

How the videos took off

His pitch is simple: the family can’t afford a real influencer, so he became his own, spoofing influencer clichés along the way. His first video posted in mid-September; his second racked up more than 400,000 likes, according to HONOLULU Magazine. Other bits have him doing a “get ready with me” beauty routine using the shop’s pico de gallo and sour cream, TODAY.com reported.

The results showed up at the counter. Per HONOLULU Magazine, the shop’s Instagram went from about 1,000 followers to 42,000, and lunch sales doubled. TODAY.com reported that the rush was so heavy at first that the shop had to close early one day, and that it started selling T-shirts, stickers and caps after customers asked for merch.

What to order

Start with tacos (HONOLULU Magazine listed them at $4 to $5 each when the shop opened), and try the adobada, which Pedro Haro recommended to Aloha State Daily as “not spicy, but it has a deeper flavor.” The birria torta and pork tostadas were the dishes the Haros brought to Hawaii News Now’s studio on Nov. 1, 2026, for a Día de los Muertos tribute to their late father. The website also lists a cheese-stuffed, egg-battered roasted pepper ($15.25) and Mexican street corn in a cup, and currently advertises free rice and beans when you buy three tacos.

Know before you go

  • Where: Pioneer Plaza, 900 Fort Street Mall, No. 190 (first floor), Downtown Honolulu
  • Hours: Monday to Friday, 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., per the restaurant’s website and HONOLULU Magazine
  • Ordering: Online ordering is available during business hours, per lahainatacos.com
  • Good to know: It’s a weekday lunch counter, so plan around the downtown lunch rush; on busy days the shop has sold out or closed early

Sources

Filed under Honolulu

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