Chandavkl's Blog: What We Ate In Honolulu (2023)

For the third straight year, the kids curated a wonderful selection of meals in Honolulu. Previous write-ups cover our 2021 trip to Hawaii, our 2022 trip to Hawaii, with separate descriptions of our 2022 meal at Senia, and our 2022 meal at Yung Yee Kee.

Arriving in Honolulu Saturday afternoon, we checked into the newly renovated Outrigger Reef Hotel on Waikiki and shortly thereafter headed for dinner next door at the House Without A Key Restaurant in the Halekulani Hotel. Dinner had to be reserved weeks in advance and there were no reservations available when we called in, but it was suggested that perhaps there might be walk ins right when they opened at 5 pm, so we tried that route. After an initial negative push back, indeed we eventually got our table. Interestingly, the restaurant never did fill up completely during the two hours that we were there. The main attraction at the restaurant was the spectacular view from the terrace, particularly as sundown approached, as well as the live music which turned out to be nothing out of the ordinary.

Dinner started with the coconut ribs with charshu sauce, which I thought was the best dish of the night and probably the best thing I've eaten so far this year.

The signature steamed pomfret, fine but not worth the $48 charge.

Catch of the day was sea bass, again OK but not worth the $46.

The herb crust skirt steak was a winner.

Purple dinner rolls were actually excellent.

Double so for the purple mash.

And for dessert, the signature coconut cake.

The first meal on Sunday was in Waikiki Plaza, directly across from the Hyatt Centric where we stayed the previous two years. When we came here in 2021, signs pointed to an Asian food court in the basement, except that the entrance was chained off and the food hall was closed by the pandemic. Returning last year the basement area remained closed, and by now I had frankly forgotten about it. However lunch was scheduled for Lobster House, which happened to be in Waikiki Plaza, though not in the basement area, and when we walked in on the ground floor I saw that there was a stairway downstairs and the area was buzzing with activity. Indeed, Stix Food Hall was in full operation with 16 Asian restaurants, including a dedicated wing dubbed Noodle Street. Meanwhile, Lobster House had emerged as a highly popular purveyor of lobster rolls, $28 for a regular roll, with $12 for extra lobster.

Then I headed to take a look at the Stix Food Hall, where I picked up an order of curry fish balls.

Directly across Kalakaua Ave. from Waikiki Plaza is the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and shopping complex, and right in front is the Island Vintage shaved ice kiosk, I noticed that the line was relatively short, with about 10 people in line, so I jumped on it.

After waiting about 10 minutes we entered our order for a Heavenly Lilikoi .

A little too sweet this time, But still refreshing.

Dinner was at Basalt, downstairs from the Hyatt Centric, where we once had takeout breakfast, but a couple of planned dinners ended up not panning out. As such, it didn't seem like a terribly exciting choice at the time. However, it turned out to be a very nice meal starting out with black Filipino dinner rolls.

There were several fine entrees--Hawaiian salt and herb crusted prime rib.

Braised short rib loco moco.

Kurobota pork chop.

Miso pork belly.

Yuzu Carbonara fettuccine.

Desserts of Basque cheesecake.

And lillikoi and berry creme brulee. Both were tops.

Monday lunch was at Wagaya, where we reprised the prior year meal. The garlic tonkatsu ramen was as great as last year, duplicating the best bowl of ramen I've ever eaten.

The tempura corn was so awesome we did two orders. I don't understand why this dish isn't more common.

And an order of agedashi tofu.

This was such a great meal that we did it again for Friday's lunch.

Wagaya was followed by a trip for my four year old granddaughter Jemma to the Taiwanese based Ice Monster for a strawberry monster ice. Even two years ago, after tasting her first Ice Monster, she knew exactly where the shop was located, and she remembers every time we walk by.

Monday dinner was at Duke's, at the other Outrigger Hotel well past the Royal Hawaiian complex. Reservations have to be made three months in advance, and despite that we still had to wait a half hour after we arrived to be seated. The manager apologized for the wait and comped us drinks and appetizers. The setting near the patio was really nice, as was the Hawaiian music.

The ahi tacos were fabulous.

The panko calamari was also a winner.

For some reason, the main dishes didn't arrive until an hour after we were seated. Duke's $36 garlic with baked fish with lemon and sweet basil fish was not notable.

And the sauteed macadamia nut crusted fresh fish was not any better.

Somehow I missed photographing the Margarita flatbread, though there was nothing special about it. I did find it interesting that we had pizza twice on the trip, and both times it was on the menu as "flatbread."

The hula pie, a chocolate ice cream pie was good, though. But all in all, for such a tough table to get, Duke's was not cheap, the service was not good, and overall the food was ordinary.

Tuesday lunch was at Fun Station, in the Market Place Shopping Center on Kapiolani Blvd. Fun Station was known for their gimmicky beef brisket flying noodles, which when delivered to the table appeared to be suspended in mid air hanging from a pair of chopsticks. Besides the gimmick, though, the noodles were great. The owner explained that the noodles were knife cut rice noodles, a Cantonese take on knife cut noodles found in Northern China. Interestingly, when I got back to Los Angeles and posted this picture on the local message board, it created a furor as some commentators said it was impossible for these to be rice cut noodle, based either on the appearance of the noodles, or that it was impossible for rice noodles to be knife cut because of their density.

The look funn with pork belly wasn't quite as good. Look funn is like chow fun and cheung fun, but is the thinner Hawaiian version.

The extra bonus was that there were two other Chinese restaurants in the same shopping center as Fun Station where I could buy myself some breakfast and snack food. At Duck Lee, I was able to snag some manapua, similar to but not exactly the same as large bao we're used to seeing, and something I had been unable to do the previous visits to Chinatown in 2021 and 2022 since by the time we got there at lunchtime, the bakeries and restaurants were sold out. Nothing was particularly great about these baked and steamed buns. I did notice that the manapua differed from regular charsiu bao in that the bread in the bun was like traditional white bread, even in the baked version, though sweeter.

And at Yi Xiang Cafe, I got an order of on choy for only $13, the only thing I saw in Hawaii that was cheaper than back home.

After lunch we headed to Kamakee Street to pick up goodies at Lin's Hawaiian Snacks and It's Tea. We found Lin's Hawaiian Snacks two years ago when looking for mui, particularly those seasoned with Li Hing, a plum skin, licorice type powdered seasoning closely associated with Hawaii. Also all sorts of gummies and other snacks, with and without Li Hing. (Li Hing has been banned from sale in California in the past few years, so this is a chance to stock up.)

Coincidentally, previously we found a boba shop on the same block as Lin's Hawaiian Snacks, It’s Tea, which has such different drinks not found in Los Angeles, such as this lilikoi Earl Grey drink, that it's become a destination for us.

Tuesday dinner was a real highlight, at the oddly located M W Restaurant, located on the second floor of a luxury car dealership that sold most every high end car around, including Mercedes, Land Rover, Lamborghini, Jaguar and more.

This was a real highlight of the trip, starting from the appetizers like the unagi butterfish arancini.

The fried pressed jidori chicken was a real surprise.

And the equally fabulous ahi tacos.

To the main dishes, like mochi crusted kanpachi.

Miso honey glazed butterfish,

Truffle short ribs.

And seafood paella.

The excellence extended to dessert, like the lilikoi brulee.

Mango ice.

And their "candy bar" dessert. What a meal.

Wednesday lunch was a return visit to last year's Pig and the Lady venue. The Pig and the Lady might be the most popular restaurant in Honolulu Chinatown, serving sort of a Vietnamese fusion. I didn't like their signature pho last time, so I had their signature French dip instead, which I had eaten two years ago at the sister Piggy Smalls restaurant. Bread and meat were fine, but I didn't particularly like the hoisin sauce or the spiciness.

The Burmese salad was interesting, like a papaya salad but a little sour and a little crunch.

And the restroom is a must see.

A quick trip to Chinatown provided an opportunity to buy more snacks.. At Jacky's Macau Cafe they had steamed manapua that was fresh and warm. It was so good, with a great ratio of filling to bread, particularly compared to Duck Lee. So great to finally have a legit manapua.

At Hannah Bakery I got what looked like a baked manapua, but which was a taro bun instead.

Wednesday was back to the Stix Asian Food Hall to get ramen at Akatsuki Ramen. We had both the shoyu ramen and the salt ramen.

Thursday lunch was at Sweet, a breakfast and brunch specialty restaurant. Breakfast is the main attraction while lunch is an afterthought. We had the tuna melt.

Also the chicken bacon pesto flatbread pizza, both being large servings and modestly priced.

Thursday dinner was at Sushi Izakaya Gaku on King St., where we had a great meal in 2021. First came the seared toro.

Then the kanpachi.

Our favorite dish from our prior visit, miso butterfish.

But something was wrong. There seemed to be something missing from this year's visit. The misfires continued with the nigiri plate, another overwhelmingly good dish last time.

One real winner was the fish cake. We had two orders.

My only true breakfast was a last minute decision on Friday to walk to Kapiolani Seafood for dim sum, since the only curated meals on the trip were early lunches and dinners and I was tired of only having leftovers or snacks in the morning. Also, Kapiolani Seafood opened at 9am, and this also enabled us to have a repeat lunch at Wagaya. The dim sum was pretty good and the har gow was steaming hot.

The crispy baked bbq pork buns were excellent. Strangely this dish, a personal favorite of mine, is easier to find in Honolulu than Los Angeles.

Most of us recognize this as beef cheung fun. As noted, in Hawaii, it's called beef look funn, with a thinner rice noodle wrapper, and look funn is also used to describe what we call chow fun, again a thinner version that what we're used to.

Final meal was a return to Senia, and it was another great meal. As I wrote after last year's visit, if Honolulu were a Michelin rated city, Senia would be a top contender for Michelin Stars. The 007 cocktail (gin, chili vodka, yuzu and egg white) was highly visual.