A new Kalihi restaurant is mixing Hawaiian ingredients with Korean-style tabletop grilling, and it's running a deep discount on premium wagyu that's good news for diners this week.

• Kale's Hale bills itself as the first Hawaiian fusion yakiniku spot, swapping local ingredients into Korean barbecue classics.
• Its best-known dish reworks Korean seaweed soup using taro leaf, pork belly, and house broth.
• For the last week of August, top-grade A5 wagyu is going for $5 an ounce instead of the usual $30 to $50 — sold at a loss to pull in new customers.
• The owner, Kale Afong, was an insurance broker until COVID killed his client meetings, then built a following selling sushi cakes on Instagram.
• That side hustle grew into catering, a food truck, a bar, and now the restaurant on North School Street.

Outlook: The wagyu deal ends with August, so the crowds should thin out once full pricing returns.