What to Eat in Waikiki

The popular tourist area in Honolulu is Waikiki and its tempting to take the easy way when it comes to dining. The main street, Kalakaua Ave is lined with hotels all with their own restaurants and most recently a Cheesecake Factory was built across from the famous International Marketplace. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Chicken Bellagio dish but I can get that on the mainland.

It can be tricky to find local fare especially when most of the good eateries are outside the tourist area and not having a car limited my friends and me to places within walking distance. With the help of Yelp, we managed to find some great things right in the heart of Waikiki.

Eggs ‘n Things is a quaint brunch place. You check in downstairs and then go upstairs to eat. The upstairs is open and if you eat along the balcony you can people watch at those waiting down below Go early because it gets extremely busy.

A whopping 3″ high mound of banana whip cream on fluffy buttermilk pancakes. While impressive in presentation, it’s a bit disappointing that there isn’t any actual banana in the pancakes so its not worth it. Instead, you can make use of the yummy trio of syrups shown in the back. There is maple, guava, and coconut. I doused my plain buttermilk pancakes (shown below) in coconut.

In front is my omelet with bacon, potatoes and cheddar cheese. They really like to do things in gigantic proportions. The omelet was a good 8″ in diameter. The potatoes were done perfectly, slightly crisp. It was like having a baked potato inside a egg blanket. The best part is for a side dish you can pick potatoes or pancakes. I didn’t want to repeat with more potatoes so I opted for pancakes. It was like having two meals.

Mmm gooey cheesy bacon, potato, and egg omelet. Paula Deen would be proud.

I had my first afternoon tea at Halekulani Hotel which is down a side street off the main strip so it is rather peaceful and calming. The tea above is a tropical tea with pineapple and papaya I believe. Very tasty. We each got our own pot and tea cup.

The service was in the style of a restaurant with a 3-course menu. I expected we’d receive a tiered tray in the middle to pick from but I liked that we each received our own plate. Much more personal.

Tea sandwiches (from top going clockwise): thinly sliced duck on sundried tomato bread, my favorite. The duck was nice and tender and loved the tangyness from the bread. To the right was grilled squash and eggplant on a crisp baguette, my second favorite. Good flavor. Next was spinach and cucumber on poppyseed bread. This was the most typical of an afternoon tea sandwich so a bit boring. Lastly smoked salmon on rye bread with roe garnish.

Second course of two miniature scones. The best scones I have ever had. They were so fluffy and moist, almost biscuit-like in the middle but then crisp on the outside like a traditional scone. What I would give for that recipe.

The spreads for the scones: Devonshire cream from England, lemon curd and raspberry jam

I slathered on as much lemon curd as I could. Didn’t want to waste a drop it was so good. On the right I did half raspberry jam and half honey that was really meant for the tea.

For dessert, our server wheeled out a dessert tray with rows of little pastries to choose 3 of. The bittersweet chocolate tart was nice. Really good shortbread-like crust. The tiramisu cake in front was fantastic. The cake layer had just enough rum soaked in it but remained cake-like and not soggy at all. The marscapone topping piped on was light and creamy. The fruit tart was the only disappointing one. There was hardly any pastry cream in the middle so it was a bit dry and nothing balanced the tartness from the fruit.

Honolulu Cookie Company had three stores all along the main street and of course I went to every one of them so I could keep eating samples. The best deal is to build your own box of cookies. I picked 20 for about $12. My favorites include the Kona Coffee dipped in White Chocolate, Lilikoi dipped in Dark Chocolate and Mango Lilikoi Shortbread.

Ah the Dole Whip, a soft serve style pineapple ice cream. The strong pineapple flavor is so refreshing on a hot day. It is originally at the Dole Pineapple Plantation, a major tourist attraction where you can tour and see how pineapples grow. There is a giant maze and train ride for kids. Unfortunately the plantation is an hour drive out of Waikiki, so to get your fix in town, it is at the International Marketplace food court. Its supposedly the same as the one in Disneyland but I’ve never tasted to compare.

Rainbow Drive-In is a little ways off the main street so I would take the bus. They have great inexpensive lunch plates.

Whenever I’m in Hawaii I eat as much mahi mahi fish as I can so I got the mahi plate with rice and slaw. I could eat it every day.

The ever popular, Waiola Shave Ice. Apparently President Obama went there but I’m not sure how accurate that is. I went to both locations. One of them is near Rainbow Drive-In if you want to get lunch and dessert.

Above is the Azuki Bowl. It’s hard to see the proportion in the photo but it is massive at about 6″ tall. The base is shave ice covered in red beans with mochi balls on the sides. Then you can add on extras. I got condensed milk, green tea flavoring for the shave ice and a scoop of vanilla ice cream at the bottom.

You can see the green tea shave ice better here. The reason for all the hype is the ice is shaved so finely that it melts in your mouth. You can’t even taste any ice texture. It’s amazingly smooth.

Here is my shave ice from the second location. It is shave ice flavored with guava and lilikoi syrup with a scoop of vanilla ice cream at the bottom. I enjoyed this one a lot more than the Azuki because its a lot simpler. You can enjoy the flavor more. When you get to the bottom and eat the shave ice with the ice cream its like having a Creamsicle popsicle.