Hawaiian Restaurant on the UWS: Kine Musubi Spam Musubi

Kine Musubi sells one thing, Hawaiian musubi, and the Local, a slab of SPAM glazed in house teriyaki over jasmine rice and wrapped in nori, costs $6.50. The shop soft-opened on September 24, 2026 at 128 W 72nd St, New York, NY 10023, between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues, after founder Chi Ian Chan spent a year and a half running a Sunday pop-up. If your Hawaiian restaurant near me search lands on the Upper West Side, this counter bills itself as NYC's first Hawaii musubi shop, and it has been known to sell out.

The shop is on West 72nd Street, a block east of Broadway. The 72 St station on Broadway, served by the 1, 2 and 3 trains, puts you about two minutes away, and the B and C stop at 72nd Street and Central Park West is a block and a half to the east. The storefront previously held a smoke shop and, before that, Box Kite Coffee, according to West Side Rag and Hoodline.

The Infatuation's Bryan Kim, who reviewed it on October 12, 2026, described a nook of a storefront where the music and decor are both Hawaiian and the chef spent decades on the islands before moving to New York. It is a counter-service, grab-and-go room rather than a sit-down restaurant. The review's advice was to pick your rice and eat the warm brick of musubi while you walk down the street.

Chan's family moved to Hawaii when he was five, and he grew up in Honolulu's Chinatown, while his wife and business partner Lizzy Han grew up in Kona on the Big Island. He left his life in Hawaii in July 2022 to start the business in New York, and the couple made their first musubi sale in January 2023 through a neighborhood Facebook group. Chan told Hawaii Public Radio he missed the musubi his mother packed for elementary school field trips.

From August 2023 to March 2025, Kine Musubi ran a weekly Sunday pop-up inside Sushi Nonaka, which later closed. Eater reported that the pop-up's rotating specials included a musubi version of a bacon, egg and cheese. Chan has said the ratio of SPAM to rice is the whole game, and he and Han call their from-scratch teriyaki the liquid shaka sauce. The website bills the storefront as NYC's first Hawaii musubi shop.

The posted menu splits into classics, seafood and vegan. Classics are the Local at $6.50; the Ono at $7, with a layer of fluffy tamago omelet; the SPAM Lakika at $7, with crunchy takuan pickled radish and red chili flakes over gochujang; and the SPAM Mauka at $7, topped with fresh shiso. Every musubi is made with the house teriyaki, layered over jasmine rice and wrapped in crispy nori.

Seafood brings the Makai, Japanese-style cooked tuna salad with sliced cucumber for $6.75, and the Ebi Opae, crispy shrimp katsu layered with teriyaki mayo for $7.25. The vegan board lists the Tofu Mauka with shiso at $6.50, the Tofu Kolea with gochujang at $6.75, the Tofu Lakika at $7 and the Musu-V, built on a soy-based SPAM alternative, at $8.25. A mix-and-match box of five is $30, according to iLovetheUpperWestSide.

Every musubi comes on your choice of furikake rice, which contains sesame, or fried garlic rice, and the Infatuation found both worth ordering. Kewpie spicy mayo or a vegan Kewpie spicy mayo can be added for 75 cents. One warning printed in capitals on the menu matters for some customers: all musubi contain gluten, so this is not a safe stop for anyone avoiding wheat, including the tofu options.

The drinks list is short and entirely Hawaiian in spirit. Aloha Wai Hawaiian water is $3.75, Aloha Maid juices in assorted flavors are $4.25, a Hawaii-style iced coffee is $5.25 and Hapa Co. Hawaiian plantation iced tea is $6.25. Earlier coverage also mentioned UCC Hawaii Kona coffee. A SPAM Lakika on fried garlic rice with the plantation tea comes to $13.25 before tax.

The opening-day Instagram post from @uwsxnyc, cited by iLovetheUpperWestSide, singled out the SPAM Lakika on fried garlic rice as the poster's favorite of the two musubi they tried. The Infatuation praised the pickled-radish crunch of that same build. First-timers ordering two pieces should pair the Lakika with the plain Local, so the classic glaze and the pickled, spicy version can be tasted side by side.

During the soft opening the shop ran 11am to 5pm, Wednesday through Friday, and popular fillings ran out before closing. An Infatuation editor who arrived around 4:30pm one Wednesday in October was congratulated by the owner for making it just in time, and the tuna salad Makai was already gone. DiningOut then reported the official opening for Friday, October 16. Come before 2pm if the seafood or vegan options are the reason for the trip.

Skip the Musu-V if you eat meat. At $8.25 it is the most expensive piece on the board, and the tofu musubi, made with organic tofu, covers the vegetarian ground for less. If the counter is sold out, walk to Tiki Chick at 517 Amsterdam Ave, near 85th Street. Its $5 sandwiches include the S'tiki Tiki, with fried chicken, shaved SPAM and grilled pineapple, and it opens at 3pm on weekdays and noon on weekends.

Gray's Papaya at 2090 Broadway, on the corner of 72nd Street, is a two-minute walk west, a bargain hot dog stand in a no-frills room that also pours tropical juices, as its Google listing puts it. Pairing a papaya drink there with a musubi from Kine is an inexpensive Upper West Side lunch built entirely from counter food.

Walk east instead and West 72nd Street ends at Central Park West, where Strawberry Fields begins at the park's West 72nd Street entrance. The Central Park Conservancy describes it as a five-acre memorial landscape to John Lennon, across from the Dakota, where he lived with Yoko Ono, with the Imagine mosaic donated by the city of Naples, Italy. The benches around the mosaic are a good place to eat a box of five.

Kine Musubi, 128 W 72nd St, New York, NY 10023, between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues on the Upper West Side. Soft-opening hours were 11am to 5pm, Wednesday to Friday; DiningOut reported an official opening on October 16, 2026. No phone number is published, and the shop posts updates on Instagram at @kinemusubi. Musubi $6.50 to $8.25, box of five $30, drinks $3.75 to $6.25. All musubi contain gluten. Catering inquiries go through kinemusubi.com.