Our Story

Oslo Streetfood, 2018 — and Ruth’s uncle in Hawaii

Yngvar Halvorsen has always loved food. He grew up with parents who each cooked in their own way. His father liked making more ambitious dishes and trying new recipes and techniques. His mother was the expert on everyday comfort food: pizza, spaghetti and something sweet.

Ruth, his wife, is from Hawaii. At her uncle’s place they had poke bowls and poke nachos with guacamole, and that became the starting point. Poke means to cut into pieces in Hawaiian: fresh fish in cubes, marinated and served over rice. In Hawaii it’s everyday food you pick up at the grocery store.

When Yngvar got a spot at Oslo Streetfood in Torggata in 2018, they opened Hawaii Oslo with exactly that on the menu: poke bowls and poke nachos.

After a good first year in Oslo, they heard about Matkvartalet in Hamar and were offered a spot there. Towards the end of 2020, the Halvorsen family moved to Stange and opened Hawaii Hamar.

Then came two years of pandemic, and they only just made it through. In early 2022 the third location opened, at Barcode Streetfood in Bjørvika.

By Lake Mjøsa in Hamar lies Mjøsfronten, a waterfront meeting place with food stalls side by side. That’s where you’ll find Hawaii Mjøsfronten in summer.

Today Yngvar and Ruth run four locations, two in Oslo and two in Hamar. All of them are where people already go to eat, in food halls and at food stalls where several kitchens share the tables. The menu has grown since 2018, but the idea is the same: poke the way Ruth knows it from home.