Owners of Oli’s Kitchen, Skye Kaupiko and Oliver Kim, will open a second location this fall at KCC. (Photo by Sarah Burchard)
By Sarah Burchard | Staff Writer
It’s nearing noon on campus. The cafeteria is full of students either not eating or hanging out with sodas and chips. Colette “Aunty Coco” Andrade-Fujii is in her office at the Kīkaha o Laeʻahi Center in ʻIliahi, pulling out the lunch she brought from home. The center is packed with students eating lunch from Uber Eats or the occasional Sam’s Club run she does for them when everyone pools their money together.
Lunch options on campus have been scarce ever since the cafeteria and Subway – located in the Office of Student Life – stopped serving food in March 2020. Except for the bentos and frozen foods the bookstore offers, and a few food trucks that pop up at various times throughout the week, students are on their own. This fall, all that changes when Oli’s Kitchen moves into the former Subway space. The plate-lunch spot located on University Avenue in Mōʻiliʻili is owned by a KCC alum and chef who have been delivering catering to staff on campus for the past three years.
“Just being there is, like, super cool and impactful for me,” Oli’s Kitchen co-owner Sky Kaupiko said, tearing up. “It’s literally full circle. I get emotional, like, thinking about it because I can give back to [them] what they gave me.”
Oli’s Kitchen will be located on the first floor of the ʻIliahi building in The Office of Student Life. (Photo by Sarah Burchard)
Kaupiko and Oliver Kim, a couple from Hawai’i Kai, decided to open their own restaurant in 2021 after having their third child. Kim, who learned how to wait tables at Roy’s and how to cook at his sister’s restaurant, Sweet E’s, said he did it to create something for their kids.
Kaupiko, who has a master’s in Counseling Psychology from Chaminade University of Honolulu, kept one foot in the door at Kapiʻolani Community College where she started college in 2015 before transferring to University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and then Chaminade. After transferring out of KCC as a student, she stayed on campus as a peer mentor and is now a part-time instructor here using her Kanaka roots to teach Native Hawaiian Health.
In 2021, Kim began catering to his first customer: KCC. Word spread quickly throughout campus and department heads started placing orders for lunch regularly. When Kim found a vacant restaurant space on University Avenue , on the bus route to UH Mānoa, Kim and Kaupiko decided to create a restaurant that catered to both families and college students. Oli’s Kitchen opened in December 2023 with a casual, counter-service concept offering affordable prices and large portions of “home-cooked” food and breakfast all day. The menu is primarily Hawaiʻi plate lunch style (one protein with rice, mac salad or tossed salad). Entrees honor Kim’s Korean heritage, such as the Korean-style house burger ($12.50) and garlic chicken ($16.10), and breakfast items, such as the peanut butter banana stuffed French toast ($12.50), reflect his time cooking at Sweet E’s.
Garlic chicken with fried rice and mac salad. (Photo by Sarah Burchard)
Kaupiko said the decision to open a second location at KCC happened organically. Last August, during the I Love KCC event, some of the faculty members shared that they would love for Oli’s Kitchen to be on campus full-time with Kaupiko, and she agreed it would be a good idea.
“There is no food on campus,” Kaupiko said. “And that is a huge, insane thing that needs to happen.”
Recently, Kaupiko was dropping off catering at KCC when a staff member approached her in tears, because she was so happy Oli’s Kitchen was coming to KCC.
The couple is still waiting on insurance and the health department, but as soon as Oli’s Kitchen is approved, it will move in. Kaupiko hopes that will be no later than early October.
The menu at KCC will offer many of its University Avenue dishes. Items such as salads, sandwiches, spam musubi and breakfast burritos will be offered in grab-and-go form. There will also be a Japanese curry and two other hot dishes each day, such as the popular garlic chicken and one other that will rotate daily. Sides will include items such as mac salad sprinkled with sashimi togarashi and fried rice with chopped ham, egg, bacon and scallion. Prices will range from $5-$15. There will also be a soda machine and house-made plantation iced tea with more beverages to come in the future.
Instagram: @oliskitchenhawaii
Hours: Monday through Friday 8 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
Location: The Office of Student Life, first floor ‘Iliahi building, Kapiʻolani Community College
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