Tanioka’s at 48: How a Waipahu Poke Counter Built on Family Recipes Became a West Side Institution

Ask anyone who grew up in Central or Leeward Oʻahu where to get poke for a party, and Tanioka’s Seafoods & Catering is likely to come up fast. HONOLULU Magazine’s editorial director wrote last year that she’ll “stand in line” for its spicy ʻahi over sushi rice and fried chicken. A Frolic Hawaiʻi writer who grew up in Central Oʻahu once called its onion limu ʻahi “simply the best” Hawaiian-style poke.

The Waipahu shop has been around for 48 years. It started with a few family recipes, poke tested on bank co-workers and $300 a month in rent.

A fish market instead of a gas station

Mel Tanioka grew up in Wahiawā in a family that fished. He went to Leilehua High School and the University of Hawaiʻi, and his father belonged to the Haleʻiwa boat club, he told MidWeek in 2009. He knew he wanted his own business and narrowed it to two choices: a service station or a fish market.

Before he opened, Mel made poke from fish his father and his father’s friends caught. His wife, Lynn, brought it to her co-workers at Bank of Hawaiʻi’s Waipahu branch, the Star-Advertiser reported in 2025. People kept telling him he should sell it. In a 2016 Star-Advertiser story, Mel said he spent six months testing recipes on Lynn’s co-workers, and limu poke was the most popular at the time.

Tanioka’s opened on Halloween 1978 in a rented 1,000-square-foot space, down the road from where Lynn grew up. Mel told MidWeek they had two helpers, a few friends, his mother and Lynn’s father, and paid $300 a month in rent. According to the Star-Advertiser, the shop sold “just snack stuff” at first.

The recipes came from the family

Many of the dishes Tanioka’s is best known for started as home cooking. A 2018 Star-Advertiser profile and the company’s own history page both name the same signatures: Grandma Tanioka’s ʻahi patties, Grandma Sakuma’s maki sushi, Aunty Betty’s inari sushi, the limu poke and the crispy fried chicken.

Relatives worked the counter too. That 2018 story profiled Esther Ringor, Mel’s sister, who had worked at Tanioka’s for 40 years. For the first 30 she held a full-time job somewhere else and worked at the shop every weekend so Mel and Lynn could take one day off with their kids. She won the Star-Advertiser’s first ʻĪlima Unsung Hero award that year. The story said the shop had more than 30 kinds of poke and sold 500 to 1,000 pounds of it on a weekday.

According to MidWeek, Lynn gave the final OK on every recipe, from fried chicken to plate lunches and salads.

What makes the poke different

Mel’s rules are simple. “Whenever you start poke, you start with the salt,” he told the Star-Advertiser in 2016. He also said you need “good hands”: you mix poke gently so it stays fluffy instead of mashed.

HONOLULU Magazine’s Diane Seo listed what goes into the spicy ʻahi in a 2025 roundup of the staff’s favorite poke: shoyu, sesame oil, Hawaiian salt, chili paste, mayonnaise and green onions. She called it classic local-style poke.

Tries in town, and a comeback

Tanioka’s has tried selling closer to town a few times. In 2013, HONOLULU Magazine’s Melissa Chang wrote that a downtown Bishop Street outlet closed in less than a year because the company couldn’t hire fast enough to keep up with demand. In 2019 the magazine announced a three-month pop-up at Ala Moana Center starting Oct. 1.

Then came a temporary closure. In a March 2021 HONOLULU Magazine story, assistant general manager Tad Yamakawa said that after the shop reopened the previous October with a smaller team and menu, it started adding made-to-order specials. The idea came from the Ala Moana pop-up. Poke tots and pastele tots came out of that push, and they’re still on the menu today.

Who runs it now

Mel and Lynn’s children, Justin and Jasmine, run the company now. “As long as they’re around, we’ll always use them for guidance,” Justin told the Star-Advertiser in 2025. The company’s website says Justin was born a month before the shop opened and now serves as chief operating officer. It describes the business as growing from one rented stall to its own commercial building with more than 150 employees.

Catering for weddings, luʻau, graduation parties and funerals is a big part of the business. The website says Tanioka’s placed first for caterer in the Star-Advertiser’s Hawaiʻi’s Best in 2023. It also lists a Leilehua High School Alumni Hall of Fame induction for Mel in 2016.

What to order

Prices below come from Tanioka’s Oct. 16, 2026 menu on its website:

• The classic lunch: spicy ʻahi on sushi rice ($13.95 small, $26.95 large) with fried chicken ($3.95 a serving)
• Okazuya: ʻahi patties, garlic chicken, mochiko chicken and roast pork ($3.95 each), plus lumpia, shrimp tempura and andagi
• Poke by the pound: more than a dozen ʻahi styles, including onion limu, shoyu, ʻalaea, crunchy garlic and wasabi masago (1-pound minimum)
• Plate lunches: one choice for $18.95 or two for $24.95, with options like Korean-style boneless kalbi, kalua pig, Hawaiian barbecue pork belly and pastele stew
• From the 2021 specials: poke tots ($17.95) and pastele tots ($15.95)
• Bentos: the Tanioka Bento ($15.95) with an ʻahi patty, mochiko chicken, teri Spam and teri pork; bentos need 24 hours’ notice
• Dessert: sweet potato haupia squares ($4.95 for three) and kūlolo crunch ($5.95)

Weekday specials rotate. The current menu lists a garlic shrimp plate on Wednesdays, a hamburger steak plate and loco moco bowl on Thursdays, and pork guisantes on Fridays.

Thanksgiving note: Tanioka’s Thanksgiving package, which we listed in our Oʻahu Thanksgiving guide, is marked sold out on its website as of Nov. 14.

Know before you go

• Where: 94-903 Farrington Highway, Waipahu
• Walk-in hours: Wednesday to Sunday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. (pickup until 3 p.m.); closed Mondays and Tuesdays
• Phone: 808-671-3779
• Order ahead: online ordering is on the website, and a banner there says all same-day and future orders must be placed and confirmed through a coordinator. Call if you’re not sure.
• Go early. Popular items can sell out, and the shop closes at 2 p.m.

More Waipahu food picks are on our Waipahu restaurants page.

Related on Oahu Local: Oahu Restaurants · More Central Oahu stories · Leeward Drive-Inn: Six Decades of Fried Saimin, Turnovers and Orange Picnic Tables in Waipahu

Sources

• Tanioka’s Seafoods & Catering, “About Us” and homepage (hours, banner), checked Nov. 14, 2026: https://taniokas.com/aboutus.html and https://taniokas.com/
• Tanioka’s daily menu, Oct. 16, 2026 (PDF): https://www.taniokas.com/1016%20week.pdf
• Honolulu Star-Advertiser, “Waipahu: A Legacy of Labor, Love Family,” Marisa Yamane (Sept. 17, 2025): https://www.staradvertiser.com/2025/09/17/food/waipahu-a-legacy-of-labor-love-family/
• Honolulu Star-Advertiser, “It’s not just work, it’s family for Tanioka’s veteran,” Pat Gee (Oct. 9, 2018): https://www.staradvertiser.com/2018/10/09/food/its-not-just-work-its-family-for-taniokas-veteran/
• Honolulu Star-Advertiser, “Best poke starts with ‘good hands,’ salt, love and respect” (March 2, 2016): https://www.staradvertiser.com/2016/03/02/features/best-poke-starts-with-good-hands-salt-love-and-respect/
• MidWeek, “Mel Tanioka,” Food & Beverage Focus (Dec. 16, 2009): https://archives.midweek.com/content/columns/cheffocus_article/mel_tanioka/
• HONOLULU Magazine, “All Our Favorite Poke in Honolulu,” Frolic Hawaiʻi Team (Sept. 4, 2025): https://www.honolulumagazine.com/our-favorite-poke-honolulu/
• HONOLULU Magazine, “Tanioka’s Now Has Poke Tots, Pastele Tots, Pork Belly Katsu and More,” Kelli Shiroma Braiotta (March 19, 2021): https://www.honolulumagazine.com/taniokas-now-has-poke-tots-pastele-tots-pork-belly-katsu-and-more/
• HONOLULU Magazine/Frolic, “Foodflash: Tanioka’s Seafoods coming to Ala Moana Center,” Thomas Obungen (Aug. 23, 2019): https://www.honolulumagazine.com/foodflash-taniokas-seafoods-coming-to-ala-moana-center/
• HONOLULU Magazine/Frolic, “Our go-to: Poke bowls” (June 4, 2019): https://www.honolulumagazine.com/our-go-to-poke-bowls/
• HONOLULU Magazine, “Hawaii: In Real Life ~ Tanioka’s,” Melissa Chang (Jan. 9, 2013): https://www.honolulumagazine.com/hawaii-in-real-life-taniokas/