Honolulu Food Guide

It's now cheaper than ever to travel to Hawaii on a direct flight, making is an increasingly popular destination for Kiwis to vacation. We visited Honolulu a few months ago on a quest to find great beaches, shopping and even better food.

You'll find a melting pot of culture on this Pacific island, including native Hawaiian Polynesian culture, Japanese culture, Korean culture and Filipino culture. This is heavily represented in the cuisine, with various Asian preparations styles of seafood and popular Polynesian slow cooking of meat.

We did our research before travelling to the island of Honolulu to find the best food on the island and it would be rude not to share our fantastic finds with you. It was a hard task eating our way around Waikiki and beyond but we did it and can easily say that the food is worth the airfare alone.

How we would love to be sipping a cocktail and devouring poke with chips with a beach view. Ono Seafood

This hole-in-the-wall type food spot is largely regarded as the best place to buy poke (pronounced pok-eh) on the island. Ono Seafood is a family run eatery that specialises in fresh tuna, specifically ahi poke. There's no time for mucking around here, you either order a poke on rice meal or request a tub to go, we went for the latter. At their peak times there will be a line, trust us when we say it is worth every minute of waiting. We love the fact that most of the customers are locals, how you know that it's good. The best way to enjoy their poke is taking it away for a beach picnic with a can of Hawaiian soda. We visited three times and if that doesn't show how much we loved the poke then we're not sure what will.

Doraku Izakaya Restaurant

Take yourself to this popular Kalakaua Ave sushi spot for a shopping break. Service, seafood and spice are the three stand-outs here. The menu is a twist on classic dishes, specializing in fresh seafood rolls. Ask the waiter to help you navigate their impressive menu and recommend some of their most delectable dishes. Our top picks are the ginger chicken kara-age, ahi poke (of course) Doraku ultimate roll and their spicy tuna roll. If you’re all about food presentation then this is sure to impress you.

Kirin Restaurant

This restaurant specialises in Hong-Kong style dim sum with a Hawaiian flare. If you're staying in Waikiki then this is an easy spot to get to, sitting right on the beach boulevard. It's a fantastic spot to escape the bustle of the city and enjoy some delicious juicy, steaming pork buns and dumplings. Shrimp is everywhere in Honolulu, and Hawaiians do it well, we ordered the honey walnut shrimp and it was as tasty as it sounds. Giovanni's Shrimp Truck

On the other side of Honolulu in Waimea Bay is the famous family-run food truck, Giovanni's Shrimp Truck. There is absolutely no avoiding the queue here, everyone has heard about it and wants to get their hands on a plate of butter garlic shrimp and rice. The location isn't the best, it's in a parking lot in between many other food truck, we recommend taking a plate away and enjoying it at the local bay. Presentation goes out the window here, it's the food that is the star. Why isn't garlic rice a thing in New Zealand? It is dangerously delicious.

Leonard's Bakery

This Portugese bakery opened in 1952 and people have been crazy over their spectacular, sweet malasadas ever since. Near the highway entering Waikiki, the bakery can be located by it's fabulous retro sign. If you haven't heard of malasadas, picture the softest doughnut with a heavenly cream filling and coated in sugar. Our favourite has to be the custard filled doughnut. This is a must-visit for sweet treats.

Da Crawfish and Crab Shack

If you're doing a road-trip, make this your destination for a sit down lunch. The garlic shrimp on rice is unbelievably delicious, we can't bare to think about our life before and after it. Dare we say it, but we think this is better than Giovanni's shrimp on rice. Everything about this dish is so tender and rich in flavour, served pipping hot. So despite being called 'Da Crawfish and Crab Shack', no crawfish or crabs were consumed here, and almost everyone visits for the shrimp dishes. Monstera Waimea

Another Waimea Bay delight is this sushi restaurant. Tucked away from the main street, this is a beautifully decorated bar and restuarant that serves seriously good sushi. We really enjoyed the spicy tuna roll and volcano roll.