Dining district
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A roadside bakery counter near Sunset Beach whose chocolate haupia pie is the most exported thing on this coast.
Ted's is a bakery counter and a plate lunch window in a low building on Kamehameha Highway, between Sunset Beach and Pūpūkea, with a car park that holds maybe twenty vehicles and a handful of picnic tables outside. There is no dining room, no waiter and no reservation. It has, nonetheless, become the food landmark of the North Shore, and the reason is a pie.
Chocolate haupia cream pie is a layered thing: a base layer of haupia — coconut milk set firm with starch, a Hawaiian staple older than any bakery on this island — a layer of chocolate custard over it, and whipped cream on top, in a pastry shell. Coconut and chocolate is not a novel combination. What makes this version travel is the haupia layer's texture, which is firmer and cleaner than a custard and which cuts in a clean slab. Ted Nakamura began making it after taking over the family's store site and opening the bakery in 1987, and it has since ended up in Oʻahu supermarkets, in airline meals and in an enormous number of rental-car cupholders.
What people miss is that Ted's is not a dessert shop. The hot counter runs plate lunch — garlic shrimp, mahi mahi, chicken katsu, loco moco, the full local repertoire — and breakfast earlier in the day, and for anybody staying on this coast it is a reliable, cheap, unpretentious meal. In a stretch of highway with very few options between Haleʻiwa and Kahuku, that matters more than the pie does.
And then there is the thing nobody tells day-trippers. Ted's closes in the afternoon. So does most of this coast. If you are still on the sand at Sunset at six with a plan to eat at Ted's afterwards, you do not have a plan. The North Shore is not an evening place, and Ted's is the most common way visitors discover that.
On Kamehameha Highway between Sunset Beach and Pūpūkea, in a low building on the seaward side with a small car park. It is easy to drive past at highway speed — it is signed, but modestly.
From Haleʻiwa — east along Kamehameha Highway past Laniākea, Waimea and Pūpūkea. About fifteen to twenty minutes, and longer when the Laniākea turtle traffic backs up.
From Turtle Bay — west about fifteen minutes.
From Waikīkī — allow an hour and ten minutes via the H-2, Wahiawā and Haleʻiwa, plus whatever the Haleʻiwa bottleneck costs you that day.
TheBus route 60 runs along Kamehameha Highway past the door between Haleʻiwa and Kahuku, so this is reachable without a car, slowly.
The car park holds roughly twenty vehicles and it is full at lunchtime. The highway here is fast with a narrow shoulder — do not park on it, and take your time pulling out. If the lot is full, the Sunset Beach Support Park lot a mile up the road is an alternative, though you will be walking back along the highway, which is not pleasant.
Chocolate haupia cream pie is the order. Get a slice, or get a whole pie if you have a fridge — it is the standard thing to take back to a rental for the week, and it keeps better than a cream pie has any right to.
Beyond it:
Portions are large. A plate lunch here is a genuine meal and pie on top of it is ambitious.
Have cash. Card is generally fine, but small counters on this coast occasionally have card trouble and there is no ATM outside.
Order at the window, eat at a table or in the car. Seating is a few outdoor tables and they are taken at lunchtime. Most people drive a mile and eat it looking at the water.
This is the most useful paragraph on this page and it is not about Ted's specifically.
The North Shore shuts early. Kitchens between Haleʻiwa and Kahuku wind down in the late afternoon and early evening. The Kahuku shrimp trucks close earlier than a visitor from a mainland city will believe. Haleʻiwa's restaurants run later than the rest of the coast but not late. By eight on a weeknight, a substantial stretch of this coastline has nothing open.
This catches out two groups. Day-trippers from Waikīkī stay for sunset — which is the right call, because the sunset here is the best on the island — and then discover there is nothing to eat on the hour's drive back. People staying up here discover it on night one.
What to do about it:
Ted's is where most people learn this, usually while standing in front of a closed shutter with the sun still up.
Ted's is on the seaward bend of Kamehameha Highway between Sunset Beach and Pūpūkea, which places it within a few minutes of most of what people come to this coast for.
North and east, Sunset Beach Park is about a mile away — in winter one of the most serious waves in the world, in summer a flat swimming beach. Ehukai Beach Park and the Banzai Pipeline are a couple of minutes the other way.
Inland and south, Pūpūkea climbs the hill: Foodland for supplies, the road up to Puʻu o Mahuka Heiau — the largest heiau on Oʻahu and a sacred site rather than a viewpoint — and, on the coast below, Shark's Cove and the Pūpūkea Marine Life Conservation District, which is exceptional summer snorkelling and genuinely lethal in winter surf.
Further west, Waimea Bay and Waimea Valley are five to ten minutes on.
The practical shape of a day up here is: beach in the morning while the parking exists, Ted's or the Kahuku trucks at lunch, a second beach or the valley in the afternoon, supplies from Foodland before five, sunset somewhere with no buildings in it.
The car park at Ted's is small and the highway here is fast with a narrow shoulder. Turning in and out at lunchtime requires patience. Do not park on the shoulder.
Operators run these trips past Ted's, or stop there as part of a longer route. We list what the booking data supports — not everything that mentions the name.
These bookings run through Viator and pay us a commission. Your price is the same and the list is ours.
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Straight-line distances, so allow more on the road — the island is long and has one main parkway.
Beach
Two miles of sand that swallows swimmers in January and lets you snorkel off it in July, with a car park that fills by nine.
1–4 hoursFree. County beach park with free parking in the beach-front and support-park lots.0.5 mi away
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Two miles of sand the winter ocean removes and the summer ocean puts back, with the coast's most notorious rip running through it.
1–4 hoursFree, with a free lot that is larger and more reliable than anything else on this stretch.0.5 mi away
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The small county park you stand in to watch Pipeline — and, for four months of the year, an ordinary swimming beach almost nobody visits.
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The best shore snorkelling on Oʻahu for four months of the year, and one of the most dangerous places on the island for the other four.
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8 min readMalia Fonoti
A layered cream pie: a firm base layer of haupia — coconut milk set with starch, a Hawaiian staple much older than any bakery here — with chocolate custard over it and whipped cream on top, in a pastry shell. The haupia layer is what makes it travel; it is cleaner and firmer than a custard and cuts in a clean slab. Ted Nakamura opened the bakery in 1987 and this is the item that made its name.
In the afternoon — it opens for breakfast and shuts well before dinner. We are not quoting a time because small counters on this coast revise hours seasonally and close for holidays without notice. The wider point matters more: most kitchens between Haleʻiwa and Kahuku wind down in the late afternoon. If you want to eat after sunset on the North Shore, buy supplies before five or drive back to Haleʻiwa.
No, and that is the part day-trippers miss. The hot counter runs breakfast and plate lunch — garlic shrimp, mahi mahi, chicken katsu, loco moco — with two scoops of rice and macaroni salad, and it is a cheap, large, reliable meal on a stretch of highway with very few options. For anyone staying up here it is a working lunch stop that happens to sell a famous pie.
Yes, and it is the standard move for anyone with a fridge in their rental. Whole chocolate haupia pies are sold to take away, alongside a rotating set of others — pineapple cream, coconut cream, chocolate cream and lilikoʻi when it appears. Popular pies sell out before closing, so come earlier in the day rather than at the end of it if a specific one matters to you.
Not many places, which surprises people every night of the year. Kitchens between Haleʻiwa and Kahuku close in the late afternoon and early evening, the Kahuku shrimp trucks earlier still. Haleʻiwa runs latest but not late. The practical answer for anyone staying up here is to eat the main meal at lunch and buy dinner from the Foodland at Pūpūkea before five — it has a hot counter and poke and stays open longer than the restaurants.