Hawaiian Restaurant Near Me in Lower Nob Hill: Liholiho Yacht Club's 5pm Waitlist

Liholiho Yacht Club books tables exactly 30 days out at 10pm, but it also keeps plenty of seats for walk-ins who show up at 5pm and put a name on the list. The restaurant is at 871 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA 94109, at the Leavenworth corner in Lower Nob Hill, and it seats guests Monday through Saturday from 5pm to 9pm. If your Hawaiian restaurant near me search is really about a birthday dinner, this is the sit-down option, with tuna poke at $15 a piece.

The name comes from Chef Ravi's family. In the 1980s his Kealoha uncles on Maui ended up with a few Hobie Cat catamarans without really knowing how to sail. Every weekend they took the boats to the beach with friends, cooking, fishing, playing music and talking story. To cover repairs, gas and food, the group sold plate lunches at concerts, and since they lived on Liholiho Street, they called themselves the Liholiho Yacht Club.

Chef Ravi first heard the story in 2011 on his aunty and uncle's lanai in Haiku, and it sparked the idea for a pop-up that would only need to pay the bills while he explored what it meant to cook his heritage and spent time with his newborn son, Makoa. The restaurant's website still opens that page with a photo of his mother on Oahu in 1976, taken while she was pregnant with him.

The Sutter Street dining room took a two-year hiatus starting in 2020, according to The Infatuation, and came back with a refreshed interior. During that stretch the team also opened Good Good Culture Club, a livelier sister restaurant in the Mission. The house describes itself as a family-owned business and has moved to an equitable pay model meant to close the gap between kitchen and dining room wages.

The current food menu, dated October 2, 2026, opens with snacks sold by the piece. Tuna poke on a nori cracker with sesame tamari and spicy aioli is $15 each. The poppyseed steam bun, filled with braised pork jowl, daikon and pineapple-jalapeño marmalade, is $13 each, and The Infatuation calls the bun one of the trademark dishes regulars recognize from the early days. A caviar taro puff with smoked pineapple is $11.

Middle plates carry most of the island flavor. The fried rice is made with housemade Spam, LYC kimchi, mushrooms and cured egg yolk for $19. A pig head croquette with Japanese black watermelon, macadamia satay and fish sauce caramel is $22, and furikake potato chips with kimchi dip and smoked trout roe are $19. The kitchen notes that the menu is predominantly gluten-free by nature and that it does not cross-contaminate.

Larger plates sit under a heading called Cherry Cuts. Swordfish katsu with brown butter, Early Girl tomatoes, kohlrabi and green goddess aioli is $46, local black cod in coconut green curry is $42, and an American Wagyu zabuton is $63. A 6% surcharge is added to every bill to help cover employee benefits, so build that into the math before ordering a second round of cocktails.

Dessert is where the Hawaiian roots are easiest to taste. Baked Hawaii, the restaurant's spin on a baked Alaska, now comes with ube chiffon cake, salted kaya ice cream and caramelized pineapple for $15. Mom's Butter Mochi with coconut custard is the same price and reads like a family recipe on a fine-dining menu. A milk tea panna cotta with hina arare and a five-spice tuile rounds out the list.

The drinks list follows the same thread. A POG Sour from Howzit Punch and Alvarado Street brewery costs $15, the zero-proof Moonlighter mixes Iio Jozo umesu, li hing mui, soda and shiso for $15, and a guava tonic is $10. The Lost Coast stirs Mars Iwai 45 whisky with awamori, oloroso sherry, banana and macadamia for $19. Corkage is $30 per 750ml bottle, limited to two bottles.

Reservations for one to seven guests go through Resy and open 30 days ahead at 10pm; if your date is full, use the notify option, since cancellations do happen. Walk-ins are welcome, but the restaurant says the busiest stretch is 5:45pm to 8pm, with Friday and Saturday the hardest nights. If you are nearby, arrive at 5pm, add your name with a preferred time, and they will try to seat you close to it.

Rules are strict and spelled out. Cancelling inside 24 hours costs $25 per guest, no-shows are always charged, and arriving more than 15 minutes late moves you to the waitlist. Unlike many San Francisco dining rooms, Liholiho seats incomplete parties. Groups of eight to 14 can book the Ohana Table, a high-top at the front with a preselected family-style feast at $75 per guest, available at 5pm or from 8pm.

An honest skip: on a first visit for two, pass on the Cherry Cuts. The snacks and middle plates, from the $15 poke to the $19 Spam fried rice, carry the Hawaiian identity at a lower price than a $63 Wagyu plate. If the waitlist runs past your patience, plan B is Lers Ros at 730 Larkin Street, a Thai restaurant whose Google listing shows Monday dinner running from 5pm to 11pm.

The 27 Bryant stops at Leavenworth and Sutter, right at the corner, and the 2 Sutter has a stop at Sutter and Leavenworth, though Muni only runs that line from 6:30am to 7pm, so it works for arriving and not for leaving. The restaurant asks guests to allow ample time for parking, because tables are released after 15 minutes. All seating is indoors, and non-service dogs are not allowed inside.

A short walk south and east at 501 Jones Street, Bourbon and Branch occupies a space that ran as a speakeasy from 1921 to 1933, first listed in the city directory as The Ipswitch, then disguised as JJ Russell's Cigar Shop. The bar says a drinking spot has operated at that Jones Street address since 1867. It opens at 6pm daily and stays open until midnight Sunday to Wednesday and 2am Thursday to Saturday, with reservations available.

Liholiho Yacht Club, 871 Sutter Street at Leavenworth, San Francisco, CA 94109. Seating Monday to Saturday 5pm to 9pm, closed Sunday and on major holidays. Reservations via Resy 30 days ahead at 10pm; walk-in waitlist from 5pm. Tuna poke $15 each, Spam fried rice $19, Baked Hawaii and Mom's Butter Mochi $15 each. A 6% surcharge applies. Ohana Table $75 per guest for eight to 14 people; private Gen-Gen Room for 10 to 20.