The Hawaii-inspired Las Vegas strip mall chain keeping locals fed

Liza Ochiai runs Aloha Kitchen, a long-running restaurant in the Las Vegas Valley that caters to a large population of former Hawaii residents and frequent visitors. Since 1998, the business has grown from a small location near UNLV to four spaces across the desert. The menu is designed to be approachable for tourists and locals, including familiar items such as chicken teriyaki, katsu, and loco moco, while also introducing dishes like kalua pig. The restaurant’s offerings are rooted in Hawaiian “local food” and expanded with pan-Asian and classic American cuisine. Ochiai continues to oversee lumpia and adobo production, and her Japanese connections influence items like chicken karaage, with support from her ex-husband Toyo at multiple locations.

"Since 1998, Ochiai's small but mighty Aloha Kitchen has been a staple for the greater Las Vegas Valley, first as a tiny restaurant at the edge of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus and now with four total spaces that dot the growing desert. She credits a mix of great timing, good food and a committed support network for her quiet success."

""I've always wanted it to be something for everyone," Ochiai said of her menu at Aloha Kitchen, which began with staples like chicken teriyaki, katsu and loco moco and has grown tremendously over the years. "I wanted to create something approachable, something for a tourist, for a local, someone who's never heard of kalua pig.""

"Much of Aloha Kitchen's menu falls squarely into the broad category known in Hawaii as " local food," though Ochiai has also infused the restaurant with a broad spectrum of pan-Asian and classic American cuisine. Born in the Philippines, she still regularly oversees production of Aloha Kitchen's popular lumpia and adobo, while the chicken karaage is a nod to Ochiai's time abroad with her Japanese ex-husband Toyo, who still helps oversee two Aloha Kitchen locations."

"The migration to Nevada has been so prominent, specifically over the past two decades, that Las Vegas is now known colloquially as the Ninth Island. The vast region is home to tens of thousands of former Hawaii residents, and hundreds of thousands more fly in every year to gamble, party, take in shows or, increasingly, see friends and family. And they all have to eat somewhere."

Read at SFGATE