Cafe 100Home of the Loco Moco
Hilo, Hawaii - Est. 1946

The home of the loco moco.

A family-run drive-in on Kilauea Avenue, feeding Hilo since 1946. Rice, a patty, Hilo-style brown gravy and an egg. That is where it starts, and it never stops there.

Order online See the loco moco board
Aerial view of the Cafe 100 drive-in on Kilauea Avenue in Hilo, with its red Cafe 100 signage, blue awnings and full parking lot beside the Wailoa pond and palms. Kilauea Avenue, Hilo

The loco moco family

One dish. More than thirty ways.

Widely credited as the home of the loco moco, Cafe 100 has built a whole family around it. Pick one off the board and see what goes on the rice.

The Board

Fourteen on the menu, and more than thirty once you count everything you can build one from.

A loaded Cafe 100 plate: fried Spam, grilled Portuguese sausage, a hamburger patty under brown gravy, two sunny-side-up eggs, macaroni salad and rice.
Cross-section of a loco moco: rice, protein, brown gravy and an egg.

Loco Moco

The original

The one that started it. A hamburger patty over two scoops of rice, ladled with Hilo-style brown gravy and finished with an egg.

Every loco moco starts the same way: two scoops of rice, Hilo-style brown gravy and an egg on top. Swap the middle and you have another one of the family. Ask about white or brown rice, doubles and supers, and how you want that egg.

Since 1946

A Hilo drive-in, three tsunamis, one family.

Richard Miyashiro opened Cafe 100 in 1946, right after his Army discharge, and named it for the unit he served in.

The first cafe stood at Kamehameha Avenue and Manono Street. A tsunami took it a few months later. He rebuilt. In 1960 a larger place opened on Manono Street, and weeks after opening a second tsunami leveled it. In 1962 the family opened again on Kilauea Avenue, Hilo's very first drive-in, and that is where Cafe 100 still stands.

Richard and his wife Evelyn ran it together and raised three daughters in the business. It is still family operated, and the beef stew and the loco moco are the same original recipes.

Named for the 100th

Cafe 100 takes its name from the 100th Infantry Battalion, the World War II unit of Hawaii-born Japanese American soldiers that Richard Miyashiro served in. The name is a tribute the family has carried on the sign since day one.

  • 1946Richard Miyashiro opens Cafe 100 at Kamehameha Avenue and Manono Street. A tsunami damages it months later.
  • 1960A larger building opens on Manono Street. A second tsunami levels it weeks after opening.
  • 1962The family opens on Kilauea Avenue as Hilo's first drive-in. Still the home of Cafe 100 today.
  • TodayFamily operated, more than 30 loco moco in the family, and a spot on Food Network and Hawaii News Now.

More than loco moco

The plate lunch, done Hilo style.

Cafe 100 runs rotating daily specials all week, plus the everyday plates the regulars come back for. Here are a few of them.

A cup of Cafe 100 oxtail soup with oxtail, carrot and choi sum in broth, served with a side of rice.

Oxtail Soup

Oxtail simmered with carrot and greens, ginger on the side, a scoop of rice to go with it.

A Cafe 100 beef stew plate with potato and carrot, two scoops of rice, macaroni salad and cabbage.

Beef Stew

An original 1946 recipe. Beef, potato and carrot over rice, with macaroni salad and cabbage.

A bowl of Cafe 100 chili with kidney beans served beside white rice.

Chili and Rice

House chili with kidney beans over rice. Add it to a loco moco and it becomes the Chili Loco.

Daily specials rotate through the week. For today's, call the specials line at 935-MENU (935-6368) or check online ordering.

Find us

Drive in on Kilauea Avenue.

Order ahead online, call it in, or pull into the lot. We are easy to find, right by the Wailoa pond.

Address969 Kilauea Avenue
Hilo, HI 96720
To order(808) 935-8683
Specials935-MENU (935-6368)
Hours
Monday to Friday11:00 am to 6:00 pm
SaturdayClosed
Sunday10:00 am to 3:00 pm
Order online Get directions