Merriman has been a Hawaii restaurateur since the 1980s and also owns the fine dining restaurant Merriman’s, as well as Moku Kitchen and The Beach House. But this will be the first of his restaurants to be located in Waikiki.

“It is the best market area in the state, and that’s our chance to access a lot of people who spend their vacation only in Waikiki and don’t venture out to Ko Olina or come to Maui to try our place,” Merriman tells SFGATE. 

Slated to open in the middle of June, the restaurant’s oceanfront side has been completely knocked out. Now, glass railings are all that separate diners from the sand. 

“The beachfront locations in Waikiki are rare,” he says. “I’ve actually been trying to get this particular location for over 20 years. So finally it became available, and we jumped on the chance.”

The first Monkeypod Kitchen opened in 2011 in Wailea, Maui. Since then, Merriman has added restaurants in Kaanapali on Maui and in Ko Olina on Oahu. The restaurant is known for a casual experience, something Merriman actually prefers to his fancier spots.

“My existing restaurants were all fine dining,” he says. “I actually always wanted to do more like a cafe type of thing, and when I opened my restaurant in 1988, all my guests were saying, ‘No, no, no, we don’t want this. We want fancier food,’ so that’s what we did. But I always had this desire to do more cafe stuff.”

On a recent visit to Oahu, I stopped by the Ko Olina restaurant, on the island’s west side, to get a taste of what will be on the menu in Waikiki. Monkeypod Kitchen’s menu generally has salads, pizzas, burgers and fish, but its use of fresh, local ingredients elevates these basics. Merriman likes the idea of creating great food from dishes that are ordinarily less extraordinary.

“You can get some really awful cheeseburgers in the world,” he says. “But when you have house-made buns, vine-ripened tomatoes, hand-packed patties, then you can get something that’s really great.”

As I decide what to order, my Monkeypod Mai Tai arrives. It’s made with Kula organic silver and dark rums, lime, house-made macadamia nut orgeat and orange Curacao. On top is a pretty honey-lilikoi foam. The sweet, passion fruit-flavored topping really sets it apart from other mai tais I’ve tasted.

The appetizer menu has many options, but every item is tempting. I go with the Pumpkin Patch Ravioli because, unlike the poke and chicken wings, I’ve never had this before. It’s ravioli, filled with roasted local squash and chèvre, and topped with Mao Farms spinach and toasted walnut sage pesto. When I take a bite, I understand why my server, Makoa, says it’s a restaurant favorite. It’s a very appealing mix of creamy flavors, as soothing as any comfort food dish without the heaviness.

Next to come to my table is the Big Island Cheeseburger that Merriman described to me in our chat. It’s made with Big Island beef and topped with sauteed onions, butter lettuce, vine-ripened tomato and Dijon aioli. The burger is tender and juicy. I can tell by the texture that the hand-packed patty was made with intention — and several different cuts of beef for a deeper flavor. The seasoning is perfectly balanced with the aioli.

The bulgogi pork tacos come highly recommended by Makoa, so I order a trio of them, too. Merriman serves the classic Korean barbecue dish of thin, marinated slices of meat in corn tortillas. Inside as well are handcrafted kimchi, jalapeños, Asian pear and Sriracha aioli. The dish is sweet, salty, spicy and so mouthwateringly flavorful that one taco just isn’t enough. It’s now my favorite thing on the table.

“It’s almost never in a taco,” Merriman tells me later of bulgogi. “I find that the menus work best when we serve what I love to eat. I was on a bulgogi craze and trying to eat it in every different way. So we thought, here’s a possible way to be fun, and we can add some different accouterments to it and so forth. So yeah, it was just me trying to satisfy my own appetite, I guess.”

Just as I am ready to leave, Makoa talks me into dessert, and I’m glad he does. I choose the banana cream pie over strawberry, chocolate and coconut cream. It doesn’t take long to arrive. With just one taste, I already know this has to be the best banana cream pie I’ve ever eaten. Fresh, fluffy and light, the pie is filled with a Laie Vanilla pastry cream, local apple bananas and whipped cream on a housemade pie crust.  

All of the items I tried are going to be on the Waikiki menu. The only difference between Monkeypod Kitchen in Waikiki and the restaurant’s other locations is that it will be the first to serve breakfast. And it will have that excellent oceanfront view.

“You’re only about a few yards from the water, with a wonderful Diamond Head view, because we’re at the far end of Waikiki, near Fort DeRussy,” says Merriman. “It’s really going to be a great place to sit and enjoy a meal with pies, burgers and pizzas right on the beach. It’s going to be a fun beach party.”