Starbucks — Restaurant in Honolulu

The yellow caution cone sits incongruously on the polished terrazzo floor, a humble reminder that even the most carefully crafted corporate spaces must reckon with reality. At the recently renovated Starbucks in UH Manoa's Campus Center, that reality includes humid tropical air, heavy foot traffic, and students expecting more than efficient caffeine delivery.

This is no ordinary campus coffee shop. The $2 million renovation transformed a modest campus Starbucks into something resembling a high-end urban outpost. Wood-grain paneling lines sleek counters, industrial lighting creates dramatic shadows, and a vibrant mural by Punky Aloha Studio attempts to weave "the rich culture of Mānoa" into an unmistakably corporate aesthetic.

The design succeeds brilliantly—and fails completely.

Walking through feels like witnessing a cultural negotiation in real time. The mural bursts with tropical mountains and lush Hawaiian foliage, its saturated greens echoing the teal patio umbrellas. Yet these local flourishes cannot disguise what this fundamentally represents: the corporatization of campus culture.

Students have noticed. When the university announced a second Starbucks in January, Instagram comments erupted. "We shouldn't support a business okay with genocide," social work major Kala'e Kaluakini told the campus newspaper, referencing boycott movements. "I wish that UH put a student-managed business similar to the Bean Counter."

Ah, the Bean Counter—the locally beloved coffee bar serving Hawaiian-grown beans and Lox of Bagels bagels. Students speak of it with genuine affection, the way locals describe a favorite hole-in-the-wall. It represents what this Starbucks, for all its thoughtful design, cannot: authenticity.

Yet dismissing Starbucks entirely would miss its genuine appeal. Students claimed every outdoor table on a recent afternoon, laptops open beneath teal umbrellas, iced Americanos sweating in 85-degree heat. The location offers what Bean Counter cannot: convenience. Students pay with meal plan points, earn rewards, order through mobile apps—small luxuries that matter when racing between classes.

The outdoor space reveals the renovation's hidden genius. Inside feels corporate and rushed, designed for quick transactions. But the patio creates something approaching the relaxed coffee culture Hawaii students expect, where industrial aesthetic gives way to mountain views and trade winds.

Business major Jordan Julich, who visits "nearly every day," captures the prevailing sentiment: convenience trumps ideology, barely. Weekend hours provide caffeine access when most campus dining closes. For residential students, proximity matters more than politics.

During peak hours, the careful flow design breaks down. Students cluster around the narrow counter, exactly the crowding the renovation aimed to eliminate. The space works efficiently until it doesn't, much like the broader corporate-campus relationship.

Perhaps most telling is what students do with the space. They order inside, then migrate outdoors whenever possible, voting with their feet for authenticity over efficiency. Iced drinks outsell hot beverages by wide margins—not just climate adaptation, but cultural preference for laid-back over hurried.

This Starbucks succeeds as infrastructure and fails as community space. It provides necessary services while highlighting what's missing: authentic campus gathering spots that build lasting connections. Students tolerate corporate presence for practical benefits but still pine for alternatives reflecting island values.

In the end, that yellow caution cone might be the space's most honest element—a reminder that even polished corporate environments must occasionally reckon with the messy realities of...

Repent the kingdom of heaven has come near to you. I don't appreciate rude impatient employees especially ones who become extremely tense after being asked if they love their neighbor as themself or if they are a kind or a friendly person. If you get tense after being asked if you're friendly and if you become extremely upset and loud and demanding that a person leave then the answer is obvious and that answer would be not friendly not kind and no love for the neighbor. Starbucks employees were extremely rude to me, Starbucks guests were extremely rude to me. I would have been welcomed if the people around were mature and professional and considerate and willing to be of and do what is right. No aloha there. No spirit no justice, just evil and selfish women and men. I do and know what is right and I have been treated unfair because of it and was demanded to leave. Evil protects evil and hates good. That's what happened at the campus location. People are employed and not working. People have put on the facade of being nice and have been exposed as grouchy. Ew! They do not serve the community, they serve their own kind, evil folks of the world, biased. I don't appreciate anyone who caters to the immature antisocial or selfish. Repent. I rebuke you all save the woman who was kind enough and mature enough to walk me out. Being have said that, all of you still could have done better. The kingdom of heaven has come near to you. If you value God and what is right you will have value for me, because I come from Him. I don't know why that would make you upset except if you are trying to live a lie oh ah ha yes that is why. You all wish to live a lie and to believe a false version of what and Who God is so that you can attempt to falsely justify the improper way of living and treating others the same way you treat yourself not good. Hypocrites. Evildoers. Such titles are not exaggerated but very accurate. Anyone who has a heart that is listening come to me, repent, and follow me. If you seek for Him you will find. If you lead with your ego you will not. Repent, then...

This Starbucks is located in UhManoa by Campus Center. I’ve ordered drinks at this place only twice because the first time I ordered, they got my ordered wrong. I ordered a medicine ball (aka honey citrus mint tea) As the name suggest it has honey, but when I got my drink, it was just the two tea bags and hot water. I work at Starbucks in Waikiki for over a year now and many tourists order this drink all the time. It’s 1 teabag of peach tranquility, and 1 teabag of jade citrus. I ordered a grande so two pumps of honey syrup, half hot water and half steamed lemonade. Yet, the drink was just a regular tea. Second time I came in, I ordered a chocolate almond milk shaken espresso (blonde shot, xtra ice). Mind you, this is an ice drink meant to have more ice than normal so when the milk is poured on the top (after shaken) it creates that flowy look of the milk flowing down. When I got the drink, it was less than 3 pieces of ice! As in not even whole pieces of block of ice. It was clearly all milk. The drink doesn’t even look shaken at all because shaken drinks always will normally have a foam on top. This however, looks like they mixed the choco malt with the espresso, put the milk to the rim and added the lightest amount of ice. Like damn....