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Oahu has become a hub for Pacific and Japanese cuisines, seafood, and seasonal ingredients. Learn about 27 places where you should eat in Honolulu, the capital of the state and the biggest city on Hawaii’s third largest island.
Establishments appear in alphabetical order instead of order of preference.
20. Ray’s Cafe
Ray’s Cafe is a working class Kalihi cafe that serves hearty combo plates like fried chicken with grilled ono.
Ray’s Cafe is a working class Kalihi cafe that serves some of the city’s best Hawaiian comfort food. The tiny cafe plays no music and houses orange tables, tile walls covered with menus, and plenty of lucky cats with their paws up, overlooking the dining room for good luck. Ray’s is justifiably well known for their fried chicken, which arrives with thin, crisp crusts that plays well with Tabasco. Better yet, you can get two thighs in a combo with flaky grilled ono, mac salad with carrot and mayo, and two scoops of white rice. If they have grilled butterfish on the menu, by all means order a juicy fillet. Plenty of people also order Prime rib, which will either end your day, or fuel hours of work, depending on your objective.
MUST ORDER: Butterfish, Fried Chicken, Ono
21. Senia
Senia riffs on recognizable dishes like chicken liver mousse in inspired ways.
Chris Kajioka and Chef Anthony Rush met while working together at Per Se and opened Senia in Chinatown in 2016. The space features brick and white walls, a high ceiling with colorful cymbal-like chandelier, blue booths and banquettes. For dinner, they preside over a chef’s counter, and also serve an inspired a la carte menu. Lunch is a three-course, $35 prix fixe experience that whet my appetite for a full tasting in the future. Senia starts with supplemental “snacks” that riff on recognizable dishes, including “poké” featuring ruby-like ahi on crispy squid ink crackers; Kalua pork & cabbage croquettes with chile pepper water; Kualoa oysters on the half-shell, dressed with Guam-style Finadene sauce; chicken liver mousse served with honey vinegar and “everything spice” financiers; and buttery brioche rectangles topped with guacamole and draped with scored tuna. First course highlights include beef tartare presented in a shattering bric pastry tunnel with Maui onion soubise and alfalfa. Charred cabbage is a signature entree cooked with shio kombu, plated with Green Goddess sauce and buttermilk gel dots, topped with shaved Parmesan and powdered moringa (horseradish leaf). Dessert might include beautifully chewy brown butter mochi served with seasonal fruit (green apple planted in caramel); a decadent Senia cookie with peanut butter, Valrhona chocolate, and toffee; or airy Japanese-style soufflé cheesecake with matching ice cream, yellow lilikoi custard, Hershey’s kiss-shaped meringues, and Meyer lemon sauce.
MUST ORDER: Beef Tartare, Charred Cabbage, Chicken Liver Mousse, Kalua Pork & Cabbage Croquettes, Kualoa Oyster, “Poké” Cracker, Senia Cookie, Soufflé Cheesecake
Sushi Izakaya Gaku crafts sushi from seafoods like ankimo, moi, papio and saury.
Manabu Kikuchi’s Japanese restaurant doesn’t look like much out front, but indoors, Gaku’s is sharp, complete with wood beams and sushi bar, traditional sunken seating in back, pottery-lined sills and framed paintings. The sprawling menu showcases dozens of dishes, including raw, cooked, and preparations that fall somewhere in between.
MUST ORDER: Ankimo, Moi Sushi, Seared Saury Sushi, Eihire, Spicy Negihamachi Tartar, Aburi Satsumaage
23. Sushi Sho
Famed Tokyo sushi chef Keiji Nakazawa now serves delectable creations at Sushi Sho in The-Ritz Carlton Waikiki.
Fireworks at nearby Hilton Waikoloa Village greeted my arrival at The-Ritz Carlton Waikiki’s open air lobby and continued inside Sushi Sho, a 10-seat, 5-sided sushi bar from famed Tokyo sushi chef Keiji Nakazawa that forever raised my expectations for sushi. After 30 years in Shinjuku, Chef Nakazawa relocated to Honolulu in 2016 and left the original restaurant in a longtime protégé’s capable hands. In Honolulu, 80% of seasonal ingredients are “sustainable,” which the chef defines as coming from Hawaii or the U.S. coasts. Nakazawa only sources bluefin tuna and shad from Japan. Sushi Sho’s parade of eye-popping dishes included masterful nigiri built around prized ingredients like baby red snapper, Dungeness crab, and ankimo with pickled baby watermelon rind. Cooked marvels include chawan mushi chock full of Kona baby abalone, Santa Barbara sea urchin, Oregon matsutake mushrooms and French “white caviar” (escargot eggs). Pickled and smoked radish filled with funky sushi rice aged three months in a freezer with koji was another contender for top course. Still, I’ll give the nod to luxurious grilled miso-glazed opah (moonfish) belly topped with tart, bursting Big Island finger lime that Nakazawa squeezed on top before serving with sinus-clearing wasabi and piquant lime pepper. Reservations are hard to come by, and the base menu costs $300 per person, including gratuity, but Sushi Sho is worth the effort and expense for a sushi experience that’s as close as diners can get to Tokyo.
MUST ORDER: Omakase
Deep-fried, panko-crusted pork stars at Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin in Waikiki.
Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin serves seven varieties of panko-crusted, deep-fried pork cutlet. The most luscious version (with the highest fat content) weighs 7 ounces and derives from a Kurobuta pig. Thick-cut pork loin is another crowd-pleaser. Being Hawaii, there’s even a play on loco moco featuring katsu, curry gravy, and egg. Katsu also factors into a deluxe don with soft egg, onion, and savory sauce. A fun interactive bonus is the ability to mash sesame seeds at the table using a mortar and pestle, mixing with katsu sauce to form a delectable dip.
MUST ORDER: Kurobuta Pork Loin Katsu, Thick Cut Pork Loin Katsu, Bairin Special Pork Tenderloin Katsu Don, Katsu Loco Moco
25. Town
Town is the first Kaimuki restaurant from chef Ed Kenney and wife Kristen, and still relevant.
Local, seasonal and organic are popular keywords, but not all LSO restaurants are created equal. On Oahu, Town is one of the best. This hyper-local restaurant from chef Ed Kenney and wife Kristen resides in Honolulu’s Kaimuki neighborhood. The airy space features sky blue and ocean blue paintings, plus panels that inspire images of the Pacific Ocean and volcanic rocks. Town is justifiably renowned for their charcuterie, produced using prized Shinsato pigs, and they also present local produce and proteins in compelling fashion.
MUST ORDER: Aku Tartare, Big Salad, Corn Chowder, Mahi Mahi, Shinsato Salumi, Moloka’i Shrimp, Bruschetta, Clams, Hand-Cut Pasta, Pan Roasted Chicken, French Fries, Buttermilk Panna Cotta
26. Uncle Clay’s House of Pure Aloha
Uncle Clay’s House of Pure Aloha may serve Honolulu’s best shave ice and even makes mochi in-house.
Uncle Clay’s House of Pure Aloha, aka HOPA, has served sensational shave ice in Āina Haina Shopping Center since 2011. Clayton Chang and nephew Bronson Chang also run a second location at Ala Moana Center. At their small Āina Haina shop, which houses just five tables and two benches out front, the family makes syrups and mochi in-house and teams with Tropical Dreams ice cream on fluffy shave ice. Uji Kintori may my favorite Honolulu shave ice bowl, drizzled with green tea syrup, topped with earthy adzuki beans and supple house-made mochi, and capped with Tahitian vanilla ice cream.
MUST ORDER: Uji Kintori
Yakitori Hachibei is a Japanese import that now serves some of America’s best skewers.
Yakitori Hachibei managing partner Robert Yamazaki runs the Chinatown branch of a small chain that dates to 1940, when Tokichiro Yashima opened a butcher shop in Maebaru, Fukuoka Prefecture. His son Takemi hatched the idea of opening a yakitori restaurant using meat from the family’s shop, and Tokichiro’s grandson Katsunori Yashima made it happen. Hachibei launched in 1983 in Maebaru, serving top ingredients with creative flourishes. The company expanded to Honolulu in 2016, building on the success of five locations in Japan and one in Taipei. A young chef named Tommy manned the binchotan, deftly grilling skewers starring “the very finest ingredients from Hawaii’s many talented farmers, fishermen, suppliers and purveyors.” I enjoyed every skewer that passed before me, including a juicy pork belly and onion preparation called butabara; special grilled black pepper oxtail served on the bone with Dijon mustard and yuzu kosho; and “sukiyaki” skewers of enoki mushrooms and bitter chrysanthemum greens, both wrapped with juicy thin-sliced beef and dipped in egg yolk. Yakitori Hachibei sources free-range chicken from Julius Ludovico on Waialua’s “verdant planes,” where the birds are “exposed to the elements and everything natural.” Resulting skewers star firm hatsu (chicken heart), unctuous foie gras (“this isn’t your ordinary chicken liver”), and tsukune, an oblong construction with minced chicken, Chinese chives and onion. Skewer-free standouts include juicy fried chicken wings with shattering crusts and special yuzu citrus dressing; seasonal local corn karaage, deep-fried corn “ribs” showered with sweet barbecue sauce; and mentai dashimaki tamago, a Waimanalo egg omelet filled with tiny pink pollock roe and served with mayo on a shiso leaf raft in a savory Hakata-style broth. The restaurant also offers prix fixe menus for $45, $58, and $75, including dessert.
MUST ORDER: Butabara, Hatsu, Mentai Dashimaki Tamago, Seasonal Local Corn Karaage, Sukiyaki, Teba Karaage, Tsukune
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