Ratings are on a scale of 0 to 24.  The scale used to be 0 to 10, so restaurants written about before 2012 may have only had their ratings adjusted by formula and not by hand (hence all the 2s, 5s, 8s, etc.)  The scale works as follows:

An asymmetrical 0 to 24 scale may not be intuitive, I realize.  But as a rule of thumb: a double-digit score means I liked it, while a single-digit score… less so.  Also, as you might expect, scores from many years ago may not be very reliable, so do check the dates.

Hawaii

“…Spam, sausage, Spam, Spam, bacon, Spam, tomato, and Spam…”

Click on the column titles to sort the entries!

Name	Cuisine	Address	Last update	Score
Cafe Pesto	Italian fusion	Kamehameha near Furneaux, Hilo	2011-01-10	8
Elizabeth liked this place a lot more than I did. I got a pizza with mediocre toppings and a sub-mediocre crust, while she really enjoyed her goat cheese focaccia and huge salad topped with very good onion rings, and the coconut tart we got that I thought was okay-to-good had her sighing with pleasure.
Chef Mavro	Upscale	King & McCully, Honolulu	2011-01-08	5
Another vegetarian prix fixe for our last night in Honolulu, and this time it was the full upscale dealio: huge, huge prices for tiny, tiny portions of food that's generally more "interesting" than good. Some things actually were really good: the thin potato mousse infused with truffle oil that accompanied Lizzie's poached egg, and the tomatoes that accompanied my sea asparagus tempura. But Lizzie didn't like her brie mousse thing or her spongy, bitter chocolate dessert, and a lot of the other courses were decent but laughably small (we're basically talking $20 for four marble-sized falafel balls here). Also, the waiters describe the food as they bring it, and our waitress kept getting ingredients wrong, describing my tomatoes as salmon and Lizzie's onion as ham. Whut?
Coco Deck	Eclectic	Front & Kapunakea, Lahaina	2025-02-02	11
Here I got a bowl with all sorts of things in it⁠—sweet potatoes, cauliflower, coconut rice, cole slaw, chimichurri⁠—that was probably the best thing I ate in Maui.  The experience was improved after I had them relocate us outside the roaring gale they had initially sat us in the middle of.
Downtown	American	Hotel & Richards (in the art museum), Honolulu	2011-01-07	8
This is a compromise score, because the food was great — I had a top-notch polenta tart with tiny local tomatoes, and Lizzie had an eggplant panino that she thought was delicious — but the service was terrible. We were ignored for long stretches, were told that seemingly half the food was gone (long before closing time, even), and were brought the wrong things. I'd definitely come back if I were in Honolulu again, but I'd stick to takeout.
Honolulu Cookie Company	Cookies	local chain	2011-01-06	8
After coming in and sampling so many of these cookies I felt duty-bound to buy a few. They were all right... it's just dipped shortbread, nothing special.
Island Cream Co.	Dessert (ice cream)	Keawe & HI-30, Lahaina	2025-02-02	10
Here I got a macadamia brownie sundae with two scoops of a type of ice cream that the place describes as halfway to gelato.  As Ellie pointed out, when we had our tasting spoons of the ice cream, we were impressed, but in the context of the whole sundae, the ice cream might as well have just been vanilla⁠—the flavor was kind of overwhelmed by the other elements.
Island Lava Java	Cafe	Alii btw Hualalai/Kahakai, Kailua-Kona	2011-01-09	2
A lot of people apparently love this place but my experience was quite bad. We were ignored (maybe because we sat inside?), the waitress scoffed at me for thinking that I could order a popular menu item more than a few minutes after the place opened (Hawaiian places seem to consider it no big deal to run out of food), and the sandwich I eventually got was fair at best.
Kihei Caffe	Breakfast/lunch	Kihei & Alahele, Kihei	2025-02-01	9
Here I got a waffle with bananas and macadamias; the texture was great, but flavors were mild.  Ellie tried the Spam and eggs, to try a Hawaiian specialty, but was taken aback by Spam’s sensory overlap with cat food.  She was a big fan of her coffee shake, however.
Leoda’s	Dessert (pies)	HI-30 near Olowalu Village, Olowalu	2025-02-01	8
Here I got a couple of pies: one banana cream, one chocolate macadamia.  When I worked in Los Angeles there was a spot I went to a few times called Simplethings that purported to serve pie, but the pie was just dollops of goop on a bed of graham cracker crumbs.  These two pies were a bit larger, but were still big dollops of goop on a crust.  The banana cream crust was not for me, but the chocolate macadamia’s crust was the highlight of the entire dessert order.
Oao Sushi Go	Japanese	Ho‘okele btw HI-311/Pakuala, Kahului	2025-02-01	5
I came here to try the sweet potato tempura sushi I saw online but upon arrival was told it had been discontinued.  So, another avocado roll it was!  Basically fine, but a bit too seaweed-forward for my taste.
Patz Pies	Pizza	HI-11 near Halekii, Kealakekua	2011-01-11	11
Very friendly service and solidly good pizza — they even serve slices, which is always appreciated. Some of the locals seemed surprised that a tourist had found their secret hole in the wall — i.e., who would go all the way to the big island of Hawaii and then eat pizza? — but I'd stop by this place from time to time even if it were in Berkeley.
Roy's Waikiki Beach	Hawaiian	Lewers & Kalia, Honolulu	2011-01-06	8
I took Elizabeth here for her birthday dinner because random people on the Internet said that it was the best place in Honolulu, especially for vegetarians; however, I cautioned her that I was going on hearsay (or readsay) and that for all I knew it'd just be another place whose idea of vegetarian food was "replace meat with portabello." The main course on the vegetarian prix fixe? Portabello in portabello "steak" sauce. Sigh. Anyway, the soup was good, the edamame was good, some of the sides were good, and I'm not consumed with regret or anything, but yeah, not exactly too inventive.
SixtyTwo MarcKet	Breakfast/lunch	Market btw Vineyard/Main, Wailuku	2025-02-02	6
I wanted to try the granola-topped papaya, but it was disappointing compared to my previous experience with the dish.  It was kind of cool to have POG juice for, so far as I can recall, the first time since I got most of my meals at the Unit 3 Dining Commons.
Umi	Japanese	Lower Main btw Ainahou/Puaala, Wailuku	2025-01-31	5
This place didn’t have much for me: an avocado roll (fine) and truffle edamame with no discernible truffle flavor.
V Lounge	Pizza	Kona near Kona Iki, Honolulu	2011-01-07	14
This would be good pizza anywhere, and for an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, it's great. I couldn't really taste the macadamia on my macadamia pizza, but just as high-end pizza, it was aces, and the truffle oil on our second pizza was generously applied. (Lizzie and I also found ourselves remarking upon how amazingly cute our Hawaiian waitress was for days afterward.)
Wilson's By the Bay	Shave ice	Kamehameha near Haili, Hilo	2011-01-11	5
I've read all sorts of posts and articles from Hawaiians insisting that "shave ice" is far more than a mere snow cone, that if we mainlanders could go to one of the top shave ice places like Wilson's By the Bay we'd have our minds blown, etc. So I waited around in Hilo just to try the shave ice before continuing on our road trip. And... it's a snow cone.

Return to the Gastronomy page!