The back story
Hawaiʻi at the table: from the poi bowl to the tasting menu
Helena’s Hawaiian food since 1946, La Mer and Michel’s on the sand, the kitchens of Kaimukī, Roy Yamaguchi’s cooking since 1988 and Mama’s Fish House on Maui: how Hawaiʻi eats.
Hawaiʻi cooks with the Pacific in the pot. Its table brings together the Native Hawaiian dishes of kalo (taro), fish and the imu, the plantation kitchens of Japan, China, Portugal, Korea and the Philippines, and, since the 1980s and 1990s, chefs who wrote all of it into one cuisine. You can eat it at a counter in Kalihi, in Waikīkī’s great dining rooms, or on Maui’s shore.
Hawaiian food
Helena’s Hawaiian Food has served traditional local Hawaiian food since 1946, a family business in its own words: this is where to try pipikaula, kalua pig, lau lau and poi.
The grand rooms
Halekulani’s La Mer and Orchids, and Michel’s at the Colony Surf, the definition of fine dining in Honolulu since 1962 in its own words, set dinner beside the sea.
The new cooking
Roy Yamaguchi founded Roy’s in 1988, combining Asian flavours with French technique; Peter Merriman, in his restaurant’s words, has been a culinary pioneer in Hawaiʻi for more than 35 years. In Kaimukī, Mud Hen Water, the Pig & the Lady and Senia carry it on.
Eat one Hawaiian plate, one tasting menu and one shave ice; then you have tasted the islands.
Maui
At Mama’s Fish House on Maui’s north shore, executive chef Perry Bateman, a fifth-generation chef born and raised on Maui, cooks the fish of the families who supply it.
Our advice: book the dining rooms weeks ahead, and go to the counters early; the best of them sell out.
Why it's on our list
- Hawaiian food
- The grand rooms
- The new cooking
- Maui
Location
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More in depth
The back storyHawaiian FoodKalua pig, lau lau and poi at Helena’s, malasadas at Leonard’s, shave ice at Matsumoto’s, Kona coffee and the poke counter: what to eat in Hawaiʻi.
The back storyWhere Hawaiʻi sleeps: the grand hotels of Waikīkī and the resorts of the islandsThe Royal Hawaiian of 1927 and Halekulani on Waikīkī Beach, the Kahala beneath Diamond Head, the North Shore’s Ritz-Carlton and the resorts of Maui, Kauaʻi and Hawaiʻi Island: where to stay in Hawaiʻi.
The back storyReading Oʻahu: a palace, a crater and a harbour of memoryʻIolani Palace, the only official royal residence in the United States, Diamond Head’s crater, the memorials of Pearl Harbor, the Bishop Museum and Hanauma Bay: how to read Oʻahu’s great sights.