The Oahu Food Map387 Spots I've Eaten At

Two square miles, several hundred restaurants, and a reputation for tourist traps that is only half deserved. The good stuff is real — udon made in front of you for under $10, a barefoot bar on the sand, a Tokyo tonkatsu house that has been going since 1927 — it is just sitting between a lot of mediocre buffets.

Everything here is walkable from almost any hotel, which makes Waikiki the one region where you do not need a car, a bus pass or a plan. Start with the ranked guide, then pick by meal.

• Best Waikiki Restaurants
• The Waikiki Hub
• Breakfast
• Happy Hour
• Late Night
• Waikiki Without a Car

Ten minutes inland from the beach is where locals actually eat. Kakaʻako has the happy hours and the SALT block, Chinatown has the dim sum and the best bars on the island, and Ala Moana has the food halls and the shopping-day lunch spots.

This is the region with the most depth on the site — it is where I live and where most of my reviews come from. The city-wide ranking is the place to start if you only read one page.

• 15 Best Restaurants in Honolulu
• Kakaʻako
• Chinatown
• Ala Moana
• Happy Hours
• Japanese

The stretch from Kapahulu out past Diamond Head to Hawaii Kai is where you go when you want to eat the way people who live here eat — neighborhood sushi counters, plate lunch institutions, bakeries with a line of regulars at 7am and nothing open past 8pm.

Kapahulu is a ten-minute bus ride from Waikiki and worth the trip on its own. Kaimuki is the dinner destination. Hawaii Kai needs a car but rewards it.

• Kaimuki
• Kapahulu
• Hawaii Kai
• Moʻiliʻili
• Mānoa
• Browse Kaimuki

An hour from town and a completely different island. Haleiwa to Sunset Beach is shrimp trucks, garlic butter, shave ice with ice cream at the bottom, and acai bowls eaten standing up in a parking lot — almost none of it sit-down, almost all of it excellent.

Go on a weekday if you can, start early, and treat lunch as the point of the drive rather than a stop along the way.

• North Shore Restaurants
• North Shore in One Day
• Shave Ice
• Food Trucks
• North Shore Poke
• Browse North Shore

Over the Pali, the green side. Kailua is the one people plan a day around — beach in the morning, town for lunch, bakeries and coffee in between — and Kaneohe is the quieter, more local half that most visitors drive straight past.

It is a genuine day trip rather than a detour, so pair the food with the beaches and give it the whole afternoon.

• Kailua
• Kaneohe
• Windward Day Trip
• Kailua Breakfast
• Kailua Coffee
• Browse Kailua

The half of the island visitors almost never eat in, and the half with the least inflated prices. Kapolei is the growing second city with the newest restaurants, Waipahu and Aiea carry some of the best Filipino and local food anywhere on Oahu, and Waianae is worth the drive for the coastline alone.

You need a car out here and the guides are organised by town rather than by region, because the towns are genuinely different from each other.

• Kapolei
• Waipahu
• Aiea
• ʻEwa Beach
• Waianae
• Mililani