Cheesecake Fans: Otto Cake is Back in Downtown Honolulu

This popular Kaimukī cheesecake shop now has a second location in town.

March 30, 2015

Kawehi Haug,

Photo: Steve Czerniak

Otto Cake is back in town, this time as an outpost to what has become the flagship location in Kaimukī. Owner and cheesecake maker Otto reached chain status when he opened his second location in downtown Honolulu in mid-March.

Otto Cake got its start on Smith Street in Chinatown in 2009, but he moved his bakery and retail shop to Kaimukī after a number of life-threatening run-ins and confrontations with area drug dealers that made doing business too difficult for him and his staff. Since finding a new place to sell his wares, his business has thrived in what is quickly becoming this city’s go-to ’hood for sweet stuff.

The new Otto Cake is on the ground floor of the Davies Pacific Center on Bishop Street, where cupcake shop Cake Couture used to be. And, in true Otto fashion, the new place is unembellished except for a small chalkboard menu hanging on a wall, a hand-sewn garland of polka-dotted flags in the window and the words “Otto Cake” hand-drawn in window paint on the glass. Who needs fancy when the best reason to be there is the cheesecake?

Also: If you only get one more slice of cheesecake for the rest of your life (it could happen), get the almond cookie cheesecake. You’ll know it by the classic red dot almond cookie stamp on each slice. Sweet almond is brightened by creamy, tart cheesecake on a buttery almond cookie crust. Go now.

Otto Cake, 841 Bishop St., on the ground floor of the Queen Street side of the Davies Pacific Center, cheesecake slices and assorted pastries from $5, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, 834-6886, ottocake.com