Honolulu, Hawaii

HONOLULU

Could not mbe more different from the other islands, Maui and hilo are more rural, no tall buildings, nature all around, small streets, and such, while Honolulu, being the capital of Hawaii, has a whole lot more: downtown, financial center, a lot of tall buildings, beautiful beaches, and more. I really loved this island because it does have everything to offer, from a fun day at the beach, with beautiful sand and clear blue water, shopping the most amazing stores, to skydiving in paradise.

For me this is an island you cannot miss when visiting Hawaii.

The restaurant scene is one of a big city, you can find a lot of different types of cuisines, primarily asian because of the influence.

Momosan

I was excited to try this ramen place because it’s Chef Morimoto’s new ramen restaurant, and the menu was amazing, I literally wanted to order one of each. We decided on the pan fried pork gyozas that were deliciously pan fried with a ginger scallion sauce, and the peking duck taco was amazing. For the ramen bae ordered a Tonkotsu ramen that the broth was so rich and delicious, and I ordered a chicken broth ramen with fried pork belly that was a different and surprising twist. The restaurant in itself is also beautiful, the terrace is great for lunch time, the breeze and view make you want to stay for hours eating and enjoying.

Arancino

I love italian food, and we were craving some pizza and pasta one night and found this amazing little italian restaurant, which is very popular so had to wait for a while for dinner, but so worth it. We decided to order 2 pastas and 1 pizza: rigatoni all’ amatriciana, 5 mushroom risotto and the owners favorite pizza (shrimp, onions, fresh mozzarella, garlic chips, and parmesan). Everything was delicious and did not disappoint.

Heavenly Island Style

For breakfast Bae and I usually just grab something to go, not always do we sit and have breakfast, only when we really crave it, so one morning we got up really early and decided to go grab breakfast. This spot is the perfect hawaiian breakfast because they only use locally grown ingredients, so everything is fresh, organic and delicious. We ordered a breakfast burrito and island honey french toast with berries. The fresh local ingredients used make the dishes make them go from good to great.

Sansei

It had been a long while since I had excellent sushi. This is a famous sushi restaurant in Honolulu, they have 2 locations, we visited the one in Waikiki since it was the closest to our hotel. It is located in the Marriot hotel along the beach walk, we had a great table in the terrace with a look of the ocean. We asked our waiter for recommendations because the menu is so extensive, and are we glad we did, we had the most amazing dishes, I told Bae we had to go back, the sushi was out of this world. The first dish was an ahi tuna roll with spinach, arugula, panko pan fried with a soy wasabi butter sauce that was amazing, Lobster and blue crab ravioli was our second dish and oh so heavenly, and a 12 piece (you may think 12 is a lot, but when it is this good you always need more) moonlight roll tuna and kajiki sashimi on top of a spicy crab roll topped with tobiko, truffle oil and a sweet ponzu reduction. I cannot stop saying amazing about this place because it would be an understatement, to start off the seafood is top grade, the plates are innovative and work perfectly, so it is definitely a must visit when in Honolulu, I would go back everyday.

Agu Ramen

Honolulu is a city that has a lot of japanese influence, with pearl harbor and being close to japan, a lot of japenese tourists, so it was only reasonable to find good ramen, and boy did we! This ramen place was too good that we came back 2 times, the ramen noddles are fresh and thin, the tonkotsu broth was rich and the gyozas heavenly pan fried. This ramen place really reminded me of a traditional amazing japanese ramen shop.

Duke’s Waikiki

We stayed at the Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort which has a beach front restaurant where they serve the most amazing dessert, perfect for a sunny beach day to refresh and get back to enjoying the sun. The Hula Pie is legendary, anyone who has visited Waikiki tells you is a must, so we decided to share a pie (which is a generous piece) and we devoured it whole. The Hule Pie is made up of macadamia nut ice cream, chocolate cookie crust, chocolate fudge and macadamia nuts.