Walk into Hawaii’s most famous bakery, and you will not find a display case of doughnuts. There isn’t one, on purpose. Everything is fried to order, which means a roughly ten-minute wait outside and a bag of malasadas that arrive genuinely hot, every single time. Nothing here gets a chance to go cold.
Leonard’s Bakery has been on Kapahulu Avenue since 1952 and at its current address since 1957, five minutes from Waikiki, and it is still run by the Rego family. Margaret and Frank Leonard Rego Sr. opened it, and at first there were no malasadas at all. Rego’s mother suggested he make them for Shrove Tuesday. He was not sure Honolulu wanted them. Mom, as it turns out, knew best.
A malasada is a Portuguese doughnut with no hole, crackly with sugar on the outside and chewy in the middle, brought to the islands by Portuguese immigrants around the turn of the 20th century. Leonard’s is why the rest of the country knows what one is. If you’re working through every state’s single best doughnut, this is the entry that changed a state’s food culture rather than just winning a poll.
What to Expect When Visiting Leonard’s Bakery in Honolulu, Hawaii
Order inside, then wait outside. The line looks alarming and moves faster than it appears, because the bottleneck is the fryer rather than the register. The standard malasada comes rolled in granulated sugar, and there is a cinnamon-sugar version, along with a featured flavor that rotates.
The Malasada Puff is the other decision. It’s the same dough, filled to order, with options including custard and haupia, the coconut milk dessert that shows up at every Hawaii potluck. Filled ones cost slightly more and are worth it once.
This is a full Portuguese bakery beyond the specialty, which most visitors never notice. The counter carries pao doce sweet bread, Portuguese sausage buns, pastries, cookies, cupcakes, muffins, and custard pies. Resisting all of it while you wait is the actual challenge…