2026 Hale ‘Aina Awards: Anna Miller’s Is a ’70s-Era Time Stamp
Not much has changed in 53 years at Anna Miller’s—exactly why we love it and name it this year’s Old-School Restaurant We Love.
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Old-School Restaurant We Love
The cornbread. That chicken fried steak. Those lavish, fresh-baked pies. For half a century, Anna Miller’s has beckoned from its corner on Kamehameha Highway, a time-stamped sentry in a fast-changing world. It’s ingrained in much of O‘ahu’s collective nostalgia—the kind of place where regulars seat themselves at favorite servers’ tables and cooks know what to prepare as soon as they come in. As Hawai‘i poet laureate Lee Tonouchi wrote, “I’ve run into Mililani cousins, Neighbor Island relatives, and even some of my townie friends who insist dey NEVAH drive past Kalihi. Local people fully love Anna Miller’s.”
Founded by Stanley Miller in California in the late 1960s and spun off as a chain of 25 restaurants in Japan, at one time, there were 35 Anna Miller’s in the world. The one at Pearlridge Center opened in 1973. It was an era of homey American food—remember Chowder House and Yum Yum Tree?—and was named after Miller’s grandmother. And from 2022 until February, Hawai‘i’s Anna Miller’s was the only one on the planet.
That makes it the repository of all things Anna Miller’s. The uniforms, complete with heart-shaped nametags, are still on every female server; they’re said to have inspired Japan’s maid cafés. The menu of classics shrank after the pandemic, which also turned the restaurant from a 24-hour stalwart into a breakfast, lunch and pie shop. But you can still get chicken fried steak with eggs for breakfast, and a hot pastrami sandwich or shrimp Louie salad for lunch. “Before, we used to have eight different clubhouse sandwiches,” area manager Antonio Natividad says. Now, there are five. “Club 5 is turkey, avocado, bacon, lettuce, tomato. That one is the most popular.”
Through 53 years, the backbone of Anna Miller’s consistency has been Stanley Miller, who still flies in regularly from the mainland, and his three managers. The first one’s tenure was short, but Wade Hashizume, the second manager, ran things for nearly 50 years. Now, Natividad is the third area manager, and his family is another secret to Anna Miller’s success. His mother worked there from very early, and as they came of working age, she brought in her four sons. Natividad started bussing tables in high school in 1978; to this day, it’s often him cooking your eggs and chili. With his wife, three daughters, son, a brother and a cousin, family members make up 16% of payroll.
In his mid-60s now, Natividad is already grooming a successor: his daughter and dining room manager Anna Marie Saoit. She grew up in the restaurant—literally, because Natividad and his wife worked their shifts while she watched from her highchair. Which means this Old-School Restaurant We Love will continue in good hands.
Pearlridge Center, 98-115 Ka‘ōnohi St., ‘Aiea, (808) 487-2421, annamillersrestaurant.com, @annamillershawaii
