Kailua Palace

I’m actually torn between zero stars and five stars because we still had a blast, got loaded and sang a lot in spite of the of weird vibey tenseness. Comments that were made or heard: To me by a random guy at the bar: «Take you blue eyes and go home to bed.» By one of the guys we came with: «We might have to fight our way out of here.» Between me and one of my friends, me: «Next time we gotta find a place that’s more Haole friendly»… my friend’s response: «Nah, it was edgy and it wouldn’t be as fun.» Or to put it another way… Ghosts of Don Ho’s Homey’s after the glory days meets Orange is the New Black with a little biker-​less biker bar element on the side. Be in the mood for that.

Best bar ever! Cheap beers, rowdy clientelle, fun bartenders! Love this little hole in the wall.

Oh my god… I’m writing this review live from kailua palace because I felt the need to share my thoughts immediately. First of all if you like karaōke and have a soul then this is the place for you. Once the UH game finishes you can dry your tears with the uplifting lyrics of Madonna ‘s like a virgin while drinking your sorrows away. The drinks are top notch and will get you drunk, so everyone wins… come down to the palace and experience the hidden gem of kailua.

A dive bar in the truest sense.
–Cheap drinks.
–Karaōke that will rock your face off. One of the bartenders is nothing short of Huey Lewis from ‘Duets’…
–A bathroom that has a pull curtain for the main toilet. (I don’t recommend dropping a doozy in here, if that’s your thing it’s quite an experience)
–I watched a local dude sleep un-​disturbed on the plush bench seating for at least 3×80’s love ballads before a bouncer even checked to make sure he was breathing. He was, the wife and friends snapped a selfie with him once they confirmed he wasn’t a corpse.
–You can bring Taco Bell in to stuff your face in between belting out ‘Sweet Caroline’ and .38 Special!
–You can walk right over to Taco Bell at the end of your night!

Their latest feature seems to be an arbitrary closing time, whether busy or not. 12:55 Sat night — with about 20 customers — and they refuse to either serve or explain why. Just «we’re done.» OK, good for you. This place has about lost whatever charm it once held. I’m done with it.

A group of us went out for a fancy dinner to celebrate a birthday, and after, the bday girl wanted to hit up a bar. Since this one was in walking distance we decided to go here… against our better judgement.
My first impression was «GROSS! They smoke in here?» and yep, they do. So get ready to wreak like an ashtray by the end of the night. There is karaōke, but the same 4 people kept singing over and over, which was more tolerable than the people that seemed to be strung out on… something, and were walking around claiming to have lost their cell phone. I’m not kidding when I say there were at least 4 people who did this.
I, for whatever reason, have an Oprah like quality about me, and random people want to tell me their life story, this isn’t new to me, but it is a little less tolerable when you’re my age. I don’t care that you are 38 and left your husband of 15 years for a 21 yr old Molly dealer. WTF is Molly? No, we cannot be BFFs. The other patrons kept telling me I was «shiny» and «not like the others». Uh, okay? I started getting the impression really quick that I wasn’t the type that frequented that establishment and they didn’t know if they hated me or liked me.
After I spent way more time in there than I cared to, we left and I would not be upset if I never go here again. You probably shouldn’t either unless you are looking for drugs or a stinky place to get overpriced drinks.

If you want to absorb some local culture at a dive bar, you’ll want to check out Kailua Palace. We wanted to do karaōke and had gone to Ohana Karaōke in Waimanalo and got bad vibes and came here. They have a lot of songs, but I think they’re old. They didn’t have any Michael Jackson tunes, but they had my 2 favorites. Some of the other guests were friendly, others not so much. But hey, that’s life, right? Songs are $ 1 each. The karaōke music is music only — you’re not singing along with the original artist FYI.