New McDonald’s Location Opens at Puna Kai Shopping Center

The Puna Kai Shopping Center in Pāhoa is welcoming a new, but familiar tenant.

McDonald’s has opened its 73rd Hawai´i restaurant in the center, located at 15-2714 Pāhoa Village Road. As part of the grand opening celebration, the fast food restaurant will offer $0.50 cheeseburgers on Saturday, July 24 from 2 pm to 5 pm. Customers may purchase a maximum of 10 cheeseburgers per vehicle at the drive-thru only.

McDonald’s of Puna Kai offers an 80-seat dining room that is open to customers. Seating is currently limited to 75% capacity and spaced six feet apart to adhere to social distancing requirements. Guests can opt for table service and relax while their orders are being prepared.

The restaurant offers several ordering enhancements for added speed and convenience, the restaurant said in a press release. Self-serve digital kiosks allow customers to browse the menu, customize their orders and skip the front counter line. Bright and easy-to-read digital menu boards hang above the front counter and are utilized outdoors in the double lane drive-thru.

McDonald’s of Puna Kai is the tenth location on the Big Island. It is owned and operated by Patrick Lim and his family. The company employs more than 300 employees island-wide, according to a press release, and is currently looking to fill multiple positions across all restaurants.

Interested applicants can enter “Hawaii” in the search box at www.careers.mcdonalds.com/us.

“We’re blessed to serve the community and offer a safe and relaxed dining experience that customers can rely on for their McDonald’s favorites,” Lim said. “We’d also like to support Hawai´i Island’s workforce with meaningful careers that offer competitive pay (and) flexible schedules, as well as college tuition assistance and advancement opportunities.”

In an effort to protect the health of both customers and crew members, the restaurant implemented multiple COVID-19 safety protocols. Some of these include wellness and temperature checks for crew, facemasks, gloves, social distancing floor stickers, protective barriers at order points and contactless ordering.

There are designated parking stalls for curbside pick-up when customers place mobile orders on their McDonald’s app. Customers can also order their McDonald’s favorites from home using McDelivery via Uber Eats.

McDonald’s new rewards program – MyMcDonald’s Rewards – will soon be activated on the app. For each dollar spent, customers earn 100 points that can be applied toward free food.