Highway Inn Restaurant - Kaka'ako

Initially established in Waipahu on Farrington Highway, the business has undergone three relocations and expanded to three locations, with the third generation of the Toguchi family currently at the helm.

The story begins with their grandfather, Seiichi Toguchi (1914–1994). Born in Hawai‘i, Seiichi was raised in Ginoza-son, Okinawa. After returning to Hawai‘i in 1928, he began working as a dishwasher at the old City Café at the age of 14, where he met his future wife, Nancy Toguchi (1914–1975). Driven by a strong desire to improve his life, Seiichi started learning to cook Hawaiian food and was quickly promoted to cook’s apprentice.

After the outbreak of World War II in 1941, Seiichi, Nancy, and their three children were forcibly removed from their home and interned in Jerome, Arkansas, and Tule Lake, California. Working in the mess halls of the War Relocation Authority camps, Seiichi honed his culinary skills and began perfecting his American recipes. By the end of 1946, the Toguchi family returned to Hawai‘i, where Seiichi worked hard to regain financial stability. Despite several unsuccessful attempts to support his growing family, he eventually settled on a simple, practical idea: providing food to feed his seven children.

In September 1947, the grandparents opened the original Highway Inn on Farrington Highway. Soon, people were lining up outside their modest establishment, eagerly waiting for lau lau and beef stew. In 1960, they relocated to Depot Road, just below the old Waipahu Sugar Mill. The Depot Road location continued to attract families from the west side, and under the ownership of their son Bobby, the restaurant moved to Leoku Street in 1984. In 2000, Bobby added a poke counter and catering services, allowing customers to enjoy Highway Inn’s flavors at baby luaus, graduation parties, and corporate events.

In 2013, they opened a second location in Kaka‘ako, a downtown Honolulu area that had been known for salt ponds and agriculture but has since transformed into a vibrant urban neighborhood. By 2015, they began operating the Café at Bishop Museum.

On December 23, 2019, they closed their Leoku location and reopened one week later in a larger space on Moloalo Street off Farrington Highway, not far from their original roots.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, they started packaging some of their popular dishes and offering frozen food shipping inter-island, to the continental United States, and within O‘ahu.

From its humble beginnings in Waipahu with only Seiichi, Nancy, and a hired dishwasher running a small restaurant, Highway Inn now employs 110 people across its three locations: SALT at Kaka‘ako, the Bishop Museum Café, and Waipahu. Highway Inn has been honored twice as the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Honolulu County “Family Business of the Year,” and Seiichi and Nancy Toguchi have been inducted into the Hawai‘i Restaurant Association’s Hall of Fame. In May 2019, in recognition of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Highway Inn was featured in a Google Small Business video as part of the #MoreThanABusiness series, highlighting the impact of small businesses worldwide. Under the leadership of third-generation owner Monica Toguchi Ryan, Highway Inn was named the 2023 Hawai‘i State Women-Owned Business of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration.