Spinner's Cafe

Spinner's Cafe operates a takeout window at the Waianae Small Boat Harbor on the Leeward Coast, named for the resident pod of spinner dolphins that runs the bay. The hours are 6 to 11 AM, cash only, no inside seating worth mentioning. The menu is short: coffee, sandwiches, ice, breakfast plates, the occasional cookie butter French toast that has built its own following. This is not a destination cafe. It is the working cafe for fishermen pulling out of the harbor at first light, paddlers staging for ocean training, and Leeward residents who learned years ago that this is the morning stop. Visitors find their way here mostly by accident. Service is warm and fast. The mini loco moco moves volume. Order a coffee and the mini loco moco if you want what most of the harbor is eating before sunrise. Order the cookie butter French toast and walk it down to the breakwater if you came for the dolphins and want breakfast first.