Honolulu and Waikiki offer
so many
food
possibilities that
recommendations are
inevitably highly
personal. For fine dining,
all the larger Waikiki
hotels have good
restaurants, and
Restaurant
Row mall near the
harbor in Honolulu is a
good bet. There are
excellent
fast-food
malls in the
Ala
Moana Center , and the
much cheaper and more
exotic
Maunakea
Marketplace on
Maunakea Street in
Chinatown, while Waikiki's
Kuhio Avenue is lined with
snack outlets and
fast-food franchises.
Arancino 255
Beach Walk, Waikiki tel
808/923-5557. Good Italian
trattoria in the heart of
Waikiki, with plenty of
moderately priced pasta,
pizza and seafood
specialties.
Bali by the Sea
Hilton Hawaiian Village
, 2005 Kalia Rd, Waikiki
tel 808/941-2254. Highly
refined gourmet
restaurant, with
irresistible views of the
full length of Waikiki and
very tasteful (and
expensive) "Pacific
Rim" cuisine.
Ezogiku 2546
Lemon Rd tel 808/923-2013.
Plain and very inexpensive
Japanese diner, with three
branches in Waikiki - the
others are at 2420 Koa Ave
and 2146 Kalakaua Ave.
Ramen soups plus rice and
curry dishes, all at $6-7,
to eat in or take out.
Kakaako Kitchen
Ward Center, 1200 Ala
Moana Blvd tel
808/596-7488. Mall diner
that dishes up
high-quality
Hawaiian-style fast food;
pretty much everything,
from the hamburger stew to
the signature dish chicken
linguine, costs $6-9, and
there's a menu of daily
$7.25 specials like meat
loaf or pot roast.
Maxime 1134
Maunakea St tel
808/545-4188. Bright,
clean, pastel-pink
Chinatown restaurant
serving very inexpensive
Vietnamese food,
especially pho
(noodle soups).
Oceanarium
Pacific Beach Hotel
, 2490 Kalakaua Ave,
Waikiki tel 808/922-6111.
Simply furnished
restaurant with a big
gimmick: you gorge
yourself beneath the
goggling eyes of 400 live
fish, plus the occasional
scuba diver. Open for all
meals, with noodles,
burgers and sandwiches,
and full surf'n'turf
dinners - all moderately
priced.
Perry's Smorgy
2380 Kuhio Ave, Waikiki
tel 808/926-0184.
All-you-can-eat buffets,
indoors and alfresco (with
hordes of scavenging
birds). Bargain prices -
$5 breakfast (7-11am), $6
lunch (11.30am-2.30pm), $9
dinner (5-9pm) - but the
food is bland in the
extreme. A second location
is at the Ohana Coral
Seas , 250 Lewers St.
Sam Choy's
Breakfast, Lunch and Crab
580 N Nimitz Hwy tel
808/545-7979. Copious
quantities of modern
Hawaiian cuisine, plus a
microbrewery, a mile or
two west of downtown
Honolulu.
Sansei
Restaurant Row, 500 Ala
Moana Blvd tel
808/536-6286. The central
Honolulu setting may not
be particularly
attractive, but whether
you go for the full
Pacific Rim menu or stick
to the sushi bar, the food
is excellent and very well
priced.
Shore Bird Beach
Broiler Outrigger
Reef on the Beach ,
2169 Kalia Rd, Waikiki tel
808/922-2887. Open-air
oceanfront restaurant that
serves an $8 breakfast
buffet, and dinner with an
open salad bar for $13-19,
depending on choice of
entree. Guests cook their
own meat or fish on a
communal grill.
Texas Rock 'n' Roll
Sushi Bar Hyatt
Regency Hotel , 2424
Kalakaua Ave, Waikiki tel
808/923-7655. A
high-concept, postmodern
restaurant/bar, with a
bizarre menu that combines
traditional sushi at
reasonable prices with
duck, barbecued beef and
chicken.
Yakiniku Canellia
2494 S Beretania St tel
1-800/331-9698. Korean
buffet restaurant a mile
north of Waikiki, where
you select slices of
marinated beef, chicken or
pork and grill it yourself
at the gas-fired burners
set into each table. Open
daily for lunch ($10) and
dinner ($16).
