Now Open: Hawaiian Breakfast in South Mission Viejo

With macadamia nut pancakes and coconut syrup on the table, you know it's an island feast.

Stacks Pancake House opened for business Thursday.

• Address: 27680 Marguerite Parkway, Ste. C
• Phone: 949-218-4600

On the first morning, a rush of customers gathered for the restaurant's Hawaiian-inspired dishes, owner Nixon Panuwidjaja said.

Panuwidjaja, a Ladera Ranch resident, immigrated to California from Indonesia when he was 19, and spent 14 years working for a Japanese restaurant chain.

• Hours: 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day

In 2008, he moved to Honolulu to learn the art of Hawaiian breakfast. The original Stacks in Dana Point has been open for two years, four months.

"It has been [a good response in Dana Point]," Panuwidjaja said. "We have people come from as far as San Diego."

Now, Mission Viejo residents don't have to fight beach crowds to get a tropical breakfast. Here are some of Stacks' most popular dishes, and some of the owner's descriptions:

• Portuguese sausage: a popular spicy sausage. "You don't find it easily in California"
• Loco Moco: a hamburger patty on a bed of rice smothered with brown gravy and two eggs, any style
• French toast: coated with Cap'n Crunch cereal and macadamia nuts, then cooked "until it's golden brown and tasty"
• Chicken katzu 
• Island teriyaki beef
• Kalbi (Korean-style short ribs)

Although Stacks specializes in Hawaiian breakfast, it also offers American fare and Japanese choices.

"We do focus on [Hawaiian], but we also offer Japanese items, like chicken teriyaki, Japanese fried rice omelette," Panuwidjaja said. "It's like a melting pot."