Here are some of the places we ate at in Hawaii and that I highly recommend! If you’re planning on visiting Honolulu be sure to bookmark this page. :)

Shave Ice at Waiola’s
Wow I’ve never had such finely shaved ice. It was SO goood. Unlike any shave ice I’ve eaten here on the mainland. This is a must stop in Oahu. I did not try the famed Matsumoto’s so I can’t say it’s the best on Oahu but it sure was good!

I had the POG – passion fruit, orange, and guava

Boyrobot had the green tea with condensed milk which was also amazing

We tried a few other shave ice places like at the food court in the international market and the shave ice truck at the Diamondhead Crater and it’s safe to say that not all Hawaii shave ice are created equal. While these were decent, they tasted more like something you can get on the mainland. With the hot weather, I think this place was my favorite eating experience in Hawaii. Never knew shave ice could be so good!

The garlic and butter shrimp scampi plate at Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck
If you are headed to the North Shore, you’ll notice a lot of shrimp farms and shrimp trucks. I believe this is the most famous one and I initially read about this place because it is one of Josh Holloway’s (from Lost) favorite places to eat! I did not run into him there though :P The shrimp was really good and oh so garlic-y. I didn’t care much for the rice though. It was kind of dry and hard but some people in our group liked it so I guess it’s your own preference on how you like your rice cooked. It was topped with a bunch of garlic so that was good.

There is also a spicy shrimp plate that I hear is super spicy even if you like your spice. On the menu it says “No refunds” next to that item. I was curious to see how spicy it was but nobody in my group was brave enough to get it either.

Spider Poke at Tokkuri Tei
Tokkuri Tei is a japanese izakya. We went here because I wanted to try some poke and I had heard that the beef tongue skewers were to die for here. Unfortunately, we went kind of late in the evening and they were all out. I was SOOOOO SAD! But at least I got to try the poke!

This is the spider poke and it was the 2000 Sam Choy’s Poke Contest winner. It was very pricy at $16 but how many times am I going to eat poke in Hawaii? Might as well get the best right? :) My picture really does not do it justice though, it was beautifully presented.

We also tried the squid pancake which was also super tasty!

Dim Sum at Fook Lam
We were all craving dim sum so we decided to hit up chinatown at a restaurant called Fook Lam.

We ordered the usuals: chicken feet, pork spareribs, shu mai, sticky rice, fried taro, har gau, cheung fun, egg custard tart, etc.

Everything tasted so hot and fresh. It was actually yummier than when I eat dim sum in San Gabriel Valley! I especially liked the shu mai….which I’m usually whatevers about.

Banana macadamia nut pancakes at Boots & Kimo’s
Ok this has to be my worst picture of the lot which is ironic because I think this was everybody’s favorite meal. I think I was so anxious to try the pancakes that I just shot this picture very quickly so I could dig in! This picture makes it look like some white glob doesn’t it?

Well, in reality it was 3 banana pancakes covered in a white macadamia sauce with shaved macadamia nuts. I’m not sure what was in the sauce but it was SO DELISH.

And of course I had to order some hash browns with my pancakes:

Thanks to boyrobot’s friend Si for recommending this place to us!

I just googled to see if there was a copycat recipe out there and there is: Boot’s & Kimo’s secret macadamia nut sauce. Can’t wait to try this out.

Other places we ate at:
Ono’s – If you want straight up hawaiian food this is the place everyone recommends. The lau lau was pretty good here! They also serve poi here but I’m not a fan.
Paradise Cove – We went here for our hawaiian laua. I will talk about the luau more in pt 2 of my recap but the food here was pretty good. They served a variety of typical Hawaiian food and it was all very tasty for a buffet style meal.
Leonard’s – I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of the malasadas here. I think it was because I couldn’t stop to take a picture before scarfing these down. My favorite had to be the original white sugar malasadas. I say skip the custard filled ones. This is also a definite must eat in Hawaii!
Iyasume – I couldn’t go to Hawaii without having some spam musubi. Boyrobot also had a spicy fried chicken musubi which he thought was really good. I regret not taking a bite!
Kapiolani Community College Farmers Market – Omg! I wish all farmer’s markets were like this one. There were samples galore and everything was so yummy. If you love food, you have to go here!
Random ramen restaurant – For the life of me I can’t remember the name of this ramen place but that should show you how memorable the food was. The ramen was decent, nothing special.

Ok, I think that covers most of our meals in Hawaii. Next I’ll cover all of the things we did! That post might come a little later though since I want to post some non-personal girlrobot posts first