Cafe Julia Hawaii Reviews

We had our wedding at Cafe Julia and it was an absolute dream! The venue is gorgeous and everyone said they felt like they were in an Italian botanical garden. They have beautiful greenery and the arches were a dream for my floral placement. The pool is so nice for pictures too! The venue was a 10/10! As for the staff… they were phenomenal. I didn’t need a wedding planner, Elijah was super helpful and attentive and detail oriented! I just provided my wedding binder with my inspiration and my day of timeline and him and his team made it work and I was so happy. They served our plate before the guest and made sure we had our drinks in hand. The food was so good, all the guests went in for seconds. I could not recommend cafe julia enough!! Thank you for making our wedding day super special & thank you for our wedding gift :)

I knew I wanted a central location that made for an easy commute to all our guest and Cafe Julia was the perfect hidden gem in downtown Honolulu. It was the first venue my husband and I went to visit and immediately we fell in love with the beautiful architecture and all the venue had to offer. The event/catering manager Elijah was amazing to work with as he is so knowledgeable and had excellent communication from start to finish. After our first site visit I had a list of almost 20 questions I forgot to ask and Elijah took the time to call me that evening and answered every question in detail which really put my mind at ease. From that day forward I knew we were in good hands. Whatever I needed, any questions (and there were many) or request from other vendors, Elijah always had an answer which made the wedding planning process such a breeze! Their venue package has so much included for the pricing I promise you it pretty much sells itself. The day of our wedding the whole staff was just top-notch. They flipped the courtyard from ceremony to reception so fast I was truly in awe watching everything come together. The food was delicious and all the rave from our guest confirmed it! And guys, if you aren’t sold already being able to purchase our own alcohol by paying a corkage fee per guest allowed us to provide our guest an open bar! (I bought soju and it was an absolute hit) At night all the lighting transforms the entire space into something even more spectacular. Everything about this place is magic! Thank you to Elijah and all the Cafe Julia staff for taking care of us and our guest on our special day we will cherish forever. Kim&Derrick

We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect venue for our wedding than Café Julia. Upon requesting more information from Elijah, the Event Catering Sales Manager, we knew this was the venue we wanted to get married in.

The team at Café Julia including the waitstaff, bar staff, and manager were incredible. They were attentive, friendly, and ensured that all our guests felt taken care of.

Now, let’s talk about the food! The meal was simply outstanding.

We got the THREE ENTRÉE BUFFET WITH APPETIZERS AND DESSERTS

3 Appetizers: MARINATED BEEF SKEWERS, SHRIMP COCKTAIL SHOOTERS, GARLIC CHICKEN DRUMETTES

3 Sides: WHITE RICE, GARLIC MASHED POTATO, FRIED NOODLES

3 Salads: CHINESE CHICKEN, PASTA SALAD, GREEK SALAD

2 Desserts: CHOCOLATE DIPPED STRAWBERRIES, LILIKOI CHEESECAKE SHOOTERS

3 Entrees: KOREAN STYLE SHORT RIBS, MACADAMIA NUT CRUSTED CHICKEN, CHINESE STYLE STEAMED MARKET FRESH FISH

Every dish was delicious, and our guests are still raving about it! The presentation was beautiful, and it truly added to the overall experience. We also got the late night snack that EVERYBODY LOVED!

We also want to commend Elijah, who was our main point of contact throughout the planning process and on the day itself. His communication was top-notch, addressing all our needs and wants with ease. They made sure that everything was executed flawlessly, allowing us to focus on enjoying our day.

Overall, Café Julia provided us with an unforgettable experience. We highly recommend this venue for anyone looking to host a wedding or special event. Thank you to the entire team for making our day so memorable!

Absolutely enchanted by our experience at Cafe Julia! The staff is incredibly quick and efficient and Elijah made the whole planning process very smooth. The venue itself is breathtaking, with stunning gardens and a beautifully decorated indoor space that perfectly fit our vision. The planning process was seamless, thanks to Elijah, who was attentive and quick to respond. He helped us every step of the way, ensuring that every detail was just right. I appreciate the clear communication and love that they are flexible to your event. I highly recommend this venue, hands down. Exceed all my expectations and he is so very kind! On our big day, we had absolutely no stress! Everything went according to plan and it was simply the most perfect day. The staff took care of everything and ensured a smooth process. Receiving rave reviews from all our guests, they couldn’t stop mentioning how delicious the food was and how magical the venue lit up at night. If you’re looking for a venue that combines elegance, exceptional service, and a picturesque backdrop, look no further than Cafe Julia! We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect place to celebrate our love! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

From our initial inquiry Elijah was extremely helpful in answering our questions and guiding us through the process. We did use an outside coordinator that worked with Elijah on day of scheduling and organization. They were very flexible and accommodating with our requests from the ceremony/reception floor plans to food options and guest entertainment areas. We highly recommend this hidden gem in downtown Honolulu.

I would like to thank the staff at Cafe Julia for such an unforgettable night. From the very beginning Elijah was there to help us throughout the whole process. He gave us a tour of the cafe, explained the pricing, gave food suggestions, communicated with us every step of the way, gave clear instructions and was not pushy at all. The venue really sold itself to us and for the amenities that you get, it was totally worth it. The venue has a rental fee but it includes the tables, table linens, fancy chairs, silverware, a nice projection on the wall, uplights and you can use their PA system if you dont have a DJ which is also really nice. The venue is a beautiful place to take photos and the staff are so helpful. They do not
charge extra for cake cutting or for bringing in your own cake, which I appreciated. They did not charge me extra for bringing in my own vendors either! I did not hire a wedding coordinator because my wedding was very simple and because Cafe Julia didn't require one. Saved me money right there! Elijah helped me alot and i didnt stress much because of my simplistic wedding. The food was amazing and the guests really loved the appetizers (we had the dim sum assortment and the sushi boat). For dinner we had the braised beef and the salmon which everyone seemed to enjoy as well as the salads. The lilikoi shooter was also a hit. Overall it was an amazing experience and Cafe Julia was the perfect venue for my wedding, all thanks to Elijah who really helped me along the way. He was great at helping me w the amt of alcohol to get, the layouts, the food selections,etc. His staff also helped me with setting up all the tables and chairs for the wedding, cutting up the cake, and just making sure that all the guests were taken care of. I really appreciate them all and can't thank them enough for making our wedding so special. It did rain on our wedding, but I'd like to think it was a blessing from above. At the end of the night, they helped to pack up all our leftover alcohol and cupcakes and off we went to the after-party. 😀

2 months. Only 2 months to plan the wedding of my dreams - a feat that would not have been possible without Cafe Julia, Elijah Samuel, and the entire Cafe Julia team. From my first email inquiry in November 2023 all the way 'til the end of the night on January 21, 2024, Elijah was an absolute God send. He helped us every single step of the way, and truly went above and beyond for us on our special day. He may be Cafe Julia's event/catering manager, but his actual position should really be event/wedding extraordinaire. Our wedding was almost 9 months ago, but our family and friends are still talking about it til this day. The courtyard, food, ambiance - all truly spectacular. We loved every single minute of our wedding, and we cannot thank Cafe Julia enough for everything!!

Cafe Julia is an exceptional venue if you are searching for the perfect place to exchange your vows. Situated in a great location, the property is filled with beauty and charm. The food served is absolutely delicious, and the staff members are simply awesome. I would like to extend a special note of gratitude to Elijah, Kelii, and the entire staff for their outstanding service. It's difficult to put into words how thankful we are for everything they did. Thank you all so much, and God bless!

Our wedding at Cafe Julia on 7/20/24 was wonderful! The venue was absolutely beautiful, all the staff were amazing, and the food was delicious! My guests also loved the convenience of the venue being in downtown Honolulu and not having to drive through Waikiki traffic or all the way to the North Shore/further areas of the island.

The event coordinator, Elijah was the best!!! He was so helpful and generous with his time and services (from our site visit and countless emails, to the alcohol/beverage drop off to guest parking, etc). He was always there to answer our questions and offer tips and advice to make sure our special day was as stress-free as possible! He worked so well with all our vendors and was very accommodating. He even offered us the use of his super cool new electronic sign -  it was amazing and a very nice touch; we received so many compliments on it! We can’t thank Elijah enough for all his help! It was truly the best day ever! We loved everything about our wedding and are so thrilled we picked Cafe Julia!

~ Shayna & Riki

We planned this wedding from the Mainland without ever seeing the venue in person until our rehearsal. We had my local relatives do a tour and booked once they gave us their opinions. Cafe Julia is just as beautiful and dreamy as it is in the pictures. We had our ceremony and reception in the courtyard and it was picture perfect.

Elijah was so easy and nice to work with. He answered all of our questions at a timely fashion. His staff were so kind and took such great care of us and our guests. We have no complaints.

The food was great, we had so many guest tell us it was the best wedding food. Overall, if I were to do this again, we would 100% choose Cafe Julia again and again.

Amazing venue in the heart of Downtown Honolulu! The courtyard area is a beautiful architectural design that was perfect for our 120 person adult only wedding. Because the building is picturesque by itself and the courtyard is full of greenery, we did not have to do much in terms of decor and florals! Perfect for a simple DIY wedding.

Next, let’s talk food. Absolutely DELICIOUS! Our guests could not stop raving about how delicious everything was! All night we were getting compliments on the menu selection! If you’re worried that you have to use Cafe Julia’s catering and not another outside vendor, don’t worry about that at all! They will not disappoint. We’re already looking forward to when we can return to Cafe Julia for lunch.

In terms of service and coordination, we were blown away by Elijah (event/catering manager) and his team. He really puts in so much effort to make your day go seamlessly and he was so on top of everything. Absolutely pleasure working with him and his team at Cafe Julia!

Highly recommend Cafe Julia for your Honolulu wedding!

We had such an amazing wedding at Cafe Julia. First and foremost, the coordinator Elijah was so fantastic from the first point of contact until the day after when we picked up all of our stuff. He was so accommodating for making our vision come to life, and the staff did such a great job all throughout the wedding. Also, since they are primarily a restaurant, the food was amazing. We had multiple people come up to us during and after the wedding to tell us about how good the food was.

Would definitely recommend booking this venue for your wedding!

We cannot recommend this venue more! Very reasonably priced, incredibly professional service (including help with all of the planning stages!), and just the most beautiful place. Every detail was thought through. No big decorations needed because the place itself is beautiful! Having our wedding reception at Cafe Julia made it better than we could have imagined. We were blown away just as much as our guests were. Food was great and options were plenty.

Elijah and his team were amazing!!! They answered all of our questions and were so responsive when we reached out. We couldn’t have asked for a better experience! Everyone loved the venue space and the food! We’d recommend this place to anyone looking for a beautiful space to have any event.

Elijah was very accommodating, very flexible, and made sure our wedding day was very special. The venue was breathtaking, the food was unbelievable, and the attention to detail, and the professionalism of the staff was worth booking. Thank you Elijah for everything you did. When you visit the venue you will fall in love with it. I would highly recommend Cafe Julia.

We had the pleasure of hosting our dream wedding at Café Julia, and it was a truly magical experience. Elijah was an amazing help throughout the planning process, taking care of everything from the initial stages, such as the logos, lighting, and more.

The stunning venue provided the perfect backdrop for our special day. The beautiful architecture created a charming, garden-like atmosphere that our guests are still talking about. The venue is incredibly versatile and allowed us to have both the ceremony and reception in one place so that our guests could fully enjoy the experience.

Held my wedding this past summer at Cafe Julia. The staff led by Elijah did an excellent job. They were helpful in helping us having a wonderful experience with their support and expertise. The food was also delicious and everything overall was at a great value.

Cafe Julia is a beautiful venue in downtown Honolulu with stunning architecture. We had our wedding here and it was a delight to work with Elijah and the staff at Cafe Julia. We got a ton of compliments on the venue and food, and the staff did an amazing job of taking care of us the entire night!

My new wife and I just recently had our destination wedding reception at Cafe Julia in September 2023. We basically started out by googling venues, and we saw this venue had beautiful arches, a pool, an enclosed courtyard, and patio lighting on trees. Our criteria was to have a venue that would have the capacity for approximately 50 guests or more, a DJ, dance floor (some venues require you to rent a floor to on top of their own floor to prevent scratching), photo booth, and a private outdoor venue with a backup indoor space should the weather not cooperate.

We reached out to Cafe Julia to inquire about the venue and in a couple of days, Elijah responded to us and answered our questions, and even provided the pricing information as well as layout of the venue with some photographs to give us an idea of what the venue would look like during the day/night. This was a destination wedding reception, so that meant we never saw the venue in person. Elijah was kind enough to do a FaceTime call to walk us through the venue and how things would be set up there. Having him take the time to FaceTime us and answer our questions and show the venue online really showed us how inviting and proud he is of Cafe Julia. For me, I think that was a quality that stood out and helped us determine to use Cafe Julia for our reception. When we chose the venue, Elijah had a mini floor plan of what our venue would look like based on the number of tables that we required, and where our head table was, and much more.

The day of the wedding reception, we had the groomsmen drop off our wedding cake and favours, suit, dress, and miscellaneous items in advance, which helped us a lot. We came in early with our parents before the start of the reception to set up everything, and Elijah and his team were so prepared. We had a banner that we wanted to use as a photo backdrop to take photos at the beginning, and Elijah recommended to either move it or tie it down further and weigh it down to not get blown/knocked over. Elijah and his team have the experience and knowledge of the venue, if they make a suggestion, I would recommend that you listen to them because they are well knowledgeable of their venue. Elijah and his team were into the details such as the design of a napkin to hold your dinner menu. They had extra easels (even suggesting where to place an easel so it doesn't get blown over), flower plants, uplightings, extension cords and hid them well. When it was almost time to start, our photo booth arrived and they needed a table. I just made a quick call to Elijah and he got a table for us so quickly. Our reception had the buffet style dinner, but unfortunately we didn't get much time to enjoy it too much since we had a tight agenda for the night. However, the feedback for the buffet food was a positive review, which was a bonus. Afterwards, the dance floor was open and it was just nice to have the space for guests to mingle, take photos, and dance.

Overall, everything was amazing that night for us. We couldn't emphasize enough how great Elijah and his team were to make everything run so smoothly for our special night. The whole Cafe Julia venue, the staff, the food, the setup was all on point.

Elijah is amazing! Cafe Julia is a hidden gem in Honolulu, you won't be disappointed with the location, architectrue, service, food, ambiance, EVERYTHING. We didn't have to bring in almost any outside vendors for our wedding (but you can). The vibe there is top notch! Couldn't recommend it any more. Can't wait to go back and celebrate our anniversary everyear. Such a secret spot in Honolulu and we couldn't have been more happy

Elijah and his team were amazing! He was always available and very easy to work with in prep for our wedding. The process couldn’t have gone more smooth.
The venue is gorgeous which relieved stress to not have to go over the top with decorations and lighting was already set up. The food was amazing and the option to bring our own alcohol was nice. The amazing courtyard, the walkway, The cute cafe and the backup enclosed space was exactly what we needed. We couldn’t have found a better place, whixh just happened to be at a very affordable price.

We are so grateful to have our wedding at Cafe Julia. After a thorough search of venues we were lucky to find Cafe Julia for both the wedding ceremony & reception. We had a great experience working with the Events Manager, Elijah, and his wonderful catering & events team. The staff were very accommodating and went above & beyond to ensure a smooth transition from ceremony to reception, and ensured an enjoyable night for our guests. We utilized their preferred vendor list and had a fantastic time working with them. The food and bartenders are SO incredible! We had our wedding on a Saturday, which allowed for a very quiet downtown by Iolani Palace for some wonderful photos. Overall, highly recommend Cafe Julia for couples to book -- incredibly chill & so great not having to worry about anything on the wedding day of.

Cafe Julia is the best kept secret in Honolulu for weddings and events. Elijah and his staff are super responsive, professional, and take the and attention to detail to thinking of the smallest detail, and really take on your event like it’s their own. The food was very very good, appetizers, main course and desert.
Bartenders kept the lines short and everyone refreshed.
It was amazing, highly recommended.

We can’t say enough great things about this venue and its staff. Beautiful, affordable, and the most accommodating catering manager you’ll find. Because of Covid restrictions, they had to split our wedding into two events on the same day and made it all happen seamlessly. Elijah, the catering manager, went above and beyond to fulfill our every request and eased our worries during a stressful time with the last minute changes to Covid restrictions. We would highly recommend this venue and the staff to deliver a memorable wedding day that’s stress-free.

We loved having our wedding at Cafe Julia!! It’s such a beautiful venue that you don’t need to add much decor. I really appreciate that most things are taken care of and included in their pricing (tables, chairs, tablecloths, silverware, catering, trash maintenance, glassware/bar, uplighting, bathrooms, etc.). The staff are all experienced and extremely efficient at arranging the chairs and tables and flipping the courtyard from ceremony to reception. The corkage option makes it affordable to have an open bar. We highly recommend this venue!