Where to Get Great Coffee in Kailua (14 Local Picks 2026)

Kailua is the windward Oahu town that built its name on Lanikai and the Kailua beach grid. The morning rhythm here is beach traffic by 8am and a coffee stop on the way back. The Sunrise Shack runs the windward outpost of the North Shore brand. Morning Brew sits on Kailua Road and has held the local register for years. Kalapawai Market has anchored the corner across from Kailua Beach Park since 1932. The Collective shares a roof on Uluniu with a tattoo studio and a gallery.

Below are four Kailua cafes drawn from the editorial coverage. The list reads like a slow morning between the beach and the boutique row, the way windward Oahu actually drinks coffee.

The Sunrise Shack

130 Kailua Road, Kailua, 96734

The Sunrise Shack on Kailua Road is the windward Oahu version of the North Shore brand, opened after the original yellow shack in Haleiwa became a Pipe-side institution. The Kailua location is brighter and more deliberate than the original, but the menu is the same: butter coffee, acai bowls, smoothies that lean tropical. The crowd is Kailua locals on the way to the beach lots, mainland visitors staying in vacation rentals up the hill, and the occasional surfer on a windward swell. The Termini brothers built this brand by being North Shore real before they were a brand. Order the Bulletproof if you came for the drink that built the operation. Order the acai bowl with macadamia nut butter if you want the post-beach version of breakfast that Kailua does fast.

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Morning Brew

Morning Brew sits on Kailua Road in the windward town that built its reputation on Lanikai and the Kailua beach grid. The cafe is a longtime Kailua specialty fixture, with a roaster relationship that pulls from Hawaiian and mainland microlots. The space is wood and tile, with a counter that reads more Portland than plantation, and a back patio that fills with morning regulars before the beach traffic starts. Locals come for the cortado and the breakfast burrito. Visitors come because someone told them Kailua had a real coffee program. Order the cortado if you came for espresso dialed for a small pour. Order the breakfast burrito and an iced latte if you want the Kailua breakfast that residents order on their way to the lots before the parking fills.

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Kalapawai Market

306 South Kalāheo Avenue

Kalapawai Market has anchored the corner across from Kailua Beach Park since 1932. The blue plantation-style building is a Kailua landmark before it is a market, and the cafe operation inside is the daily ritual for windward Oahu residents who walked or biked over from the beach lots. Coffee is the Kalapawai house roast, dialed for breakfast traffic rather than nuance. The deli runs sandwiches that go in coolers headed for the sand. The wine selection is unexpected for a beach-corner market and is part of why locals pick up dinner here on the way home. Order the breakfast sandwich and a coffee if you want what Kailua eats before the beach. Order a sandwich and a bottle of wine if you came for the picnic version of Lanikai that residents have been doing for ninety years.

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The Collective: Tattoo, Cafe & Gallery

407 Uluniu Street, Kailua

The Collective lives on Uluniu Street in Kailua, a few blocks back from the beach path, sharing a roof with a tattoo studio and a gallery wall. The cafe side runs Perfect Day Ice Cream, a New Zealand-style real-fruit operation that opened inside the space in 2024, and the coffee program leans on Traditions Coffee Roasters. Pour overs and cold brew share the counter with bagels from Big Time Bagels and matcha lattes hot or iced. The Collective has art on the walls, ink in the back room, and conversations at the tables that drift between sketches and lunch. It is the kind of windward stop where you can drop in for a bagel and leave with a tattoo appointment. Order the cold brew with a real-fruit float if you want the Kailua afternoon you didn't plan. Order the matcha latte and a bagel if you came because someone told you The Collective is the move.

Visit The Collective: Tattoo, Cafe & Gallery on Pulled →

A Kailua morning that starts at Kalapawai before the beach, runs a Morning Brew on the way back, and ends at The Collective on Uluniu in the afternoon is one windward Oahu day. The Pulled directory plots every cafe in the radius with check-in support for the iOS app.

Pulled Coffee maps every cafe in Kailua. Check in with the iOS app to start earning real cash. Visit /earn for the rules.