Muraoka, the founder and president of Big City Diner in Kaimuki, was busy yesterday overseeing the construction of his third Big City Diner going up in the Ward Entertainment Complex, just below the steps to the Ward 16 theaters.

Muraoka's original Big City Diner in Kaimuki actually saw sales increase about 12 percent after 9/11 and hold steady. He then started a second Big City Diner in Kailua in 2002 and plans to open his third restaurant at the end of the month.

"When we opened our first restaurant in '98, people said we were crazy," Muraoka said. "When we opened in Kailua, the banks were 'wait and see.' But we've done way better than we ever thought."

Muraoka has plenty of company — despite the National Restaurant Association's prediction of a mere 3.5 percent growth for Hawai'i.

The association cited a continued weakness in tourism for its projections of the Islands' $2.2 billion restaurant industry. But the prediction doesn't make sense to medium and low-priced restaurants in Hawai'i that have quietly enjoyed a business boom.

It started soon after 9/11 when restaurant owners said customers flocked to them seeking low-cost, comfort food.

"While tourism was sucking wind, our growth has been out of control," said Ted Tsakiris, the "Ted" in Teddy's Bigger Burgers. "It didn't even make sense. We are putting as many burgers on those grills as possible."

Tsakiris and his partner, Rich Stula, say they're running their Kailua and Diamond Head restaurants at full capacity. So by the end of this week, or maybe as late as Monday, they plan to open a stripped-down, lunch-time "Teddy's Bigger Burger Express" downtown on Alakea Street.

Then on Feb. 1, they hope to open another full-sized Teddy's Bigger Burger in the Koko Marina Shopping Center in Hawai'i Kai.

Many small, locally owned restaurants have actually been looking to lease new space for the past two years because of low interest rates that Tsakiris said amounts to "free money" to pay for equipment and other startup costs.

But interest rates also ignited a local boom in first-time restaurant owners, who snapped up available space and drove up lease prices.

"They were saturating the market," Tsakiris said. "The market is being flooded and they were driving up prices that my partner and I were not agreeable to. That's why it's taken a good two years to find the right locations."

Tarek Guirguis, the owner of Greek Corner on University Avenue and The Pyramid restaurant on Kapahulu Avenue, started a lunch-time version of his Greek food on Alakea Street last year, just like the folks at Teddy's Bigger Burgers.

He called the new shop Pyramid Express but couldn't make it work and gave up after a year.

The experience hardly slowed Guirguis' dreams of expansion.

"Now we're opening up a new location to make up for it," Guirguis said.

Guirguis' new Greek Marina restaurant also will open in the Koko Marina Shopping Center, sometime in March.

Margaret "Molly" Walker has looked at some of the same places as Guirguis and Teddy's Bigger Burger to complement her 3-year-old Molly's Smokehouse Texas barbecue restaurant on Kamehameha Highway in Wahiawa.

Walker checked out locations in Hawai'i Kai, Kailua, Mililani, Pearl City and downtown but hasn't found the right deal yet.

And despite the gloomy prediction by the National Association of Restaurants, Walker instead believes she's expanding at the right time.

"The time to grow is when times are slow," she said. "Hawai'i's still a tough place to do business. But it's still a fine market."