I love going new places and eating at local spots. I feel like I can eat at a chain restaurant anytime & want to eat where the locals eat.
Sean has family in Hawaii & has spent a lot of time there so he shared. A few of his fav spots & we also found a few new places on our own too.
We had the opportunity to eat at a bunch of really awesome spots this trip. I’m excited to share them with you all.
O’ahu, Hawaii
The first place we went, literally right after we landed was Lanikai Juice. I had a Kailua Monkey which is Soy milk, Banana, Peanut Butter, Honey, Whey Protein. OMG! Super yum!
They had a number of different smoothies, acai bowls, other types of bowls & now have a new line of cold press juices. We saw a number of locations around the island so you can always find a place to get an amazing juice or smoothie.
Shave ice is a staple in Hawaii & we definitely enjoyed quite a few.
We went out to the North Shore specifically to check out Matsumoto Shave Ice. We got massive shave ices with vanilla ice cream & azuki beans on the bottom.
The next place we checked out was my favorite, Island Snow in Kailua. They have a clothing shop & shave ice in the same spot. I’m not sure what it was about this one that made it better but it was by far my fav. Even President Obama has visited…
Lastly we hit up Waiola Shave Ice, literally on our way to the airport to go to Maui. They apparently have 2 locations, this one was a little tricky to find parking at. They are a little more specific in how you are supposed to order, with signs up and everything.
Breakfast
The most important meal of the day and it didn’t disappoint. First stop Moke’s Bread & Breakfast for their famous Lilikoi pancakes & an amazing fresh veggie frittata. We came here twice & it was so worth it!
On Sunday after the Hurt 100, we went to Koa Pancake House. Yummy but much different than Moke’s.
Last stop was the breakfast buffet at the Marriott Waikiki Resort. I’m not normally a fan of buffets outside of breakfast. This one had made to order omelets, fresh Belgian waffles, lots of fresh fruit and a lot of other things including a saimin station.
We had breakfast so late that we skipped lunch everyday or just had shave ice instead. Lol
Dinner
Night 1 at Sean’s brothers house
Night 2 – Spaghetti Factory – We had dinner with Sean’s brothers & sister and their families – Sean & I both had the lasagna which is one of my favorite Italian dishes
Night 3 – I scarfed down a turkey sub from subway because I thought I was going to run with Sean that night.
Night 4 – OMG!!! Boston Pizza!!! The best pizza I’ve ever had outside of Italy!! It seriously tasted just like what you get in Italy. If you love pizza and are on O’ahu, this is totally worth the drive.
Night 5 – This was our last night on O’ahu and we were staying at the Marriott and had just finished our run so we decided to just go to the sushi restaurant on the property. Sansei Seafood & Sushi which is an award winning sushi restaurant. Here’s what we had… so yummy.
First off…Sansei’s Mango Crab Salad Roll
Sansei’s Asian crab salad, ripe mango, Kula greens and crunchy peanuts wrapped in a mamenori handroll and served with sweet Thai chili vinaigrette
We ended up eating 2 orders of this it was so good.
Next up…Panko Crusted Ahi Sashimi Sushi Roll
Sashimi grade Hawaiian ahi, arugula and spinach wrapped into a sushi roll, panko-crusted, flash-fried and served with Sansei’s mild soy wasabi butter sauce
YUM! Again we had 2 orders of this…
A seared tuna salad which was so so. The dressing was really salty and it detracted from overall experience but with the other 2 options being so amazing, it didn’t even really matter.
We finished up with dessert of course, a nice tempura fried ice cream.
Now, on to Maui 🙂
First stop…Tasaka Guri-Guri (it’s pronounced like Goody-Goody) an amazing Hawaiian ice cream – we would have gone multiple times, but there was a death in the family and they were closed for the funeral and rightfully so, especially since it’s a family run place. We had a 5 scoop cup of mixed guri-guri which was strawberry & pineapple. Both were good, but I think I preferred the pineapple.
We headed over to Wailea Beach to go see the sun set & run, after which we headed over to the Four Seasons to have dinner. There used to be a bar type restaurant by the pools, but it’s now an Italian restaurant called Ferraro’s Bar e Ristorante. We weren’t expecting that, but were hungry and so we sat outside, we were still in our running clothes, oops, but they weren’t that busy and it was dark so it’s was fine.
They had amazing rustic style bread that was reminiscent of Italy and we had absolutely amazing lasagna and a bucatini amatriciana, which was also yummy, but I have to say for the first time, and I’ve eaten a LOT of lasagna, I have found a place that makes it almost as good as my zia Wanda that lives in Pistoia, Italy.
No dessert this time, because we were heading to Sean’s dad’s house and were going to have dessert with them.
Day 2: We went to the west side of the island to check out the beaches, the weather wasn’t great great so we ended up having lunch at Cheeseburger in Paradise in Lahaina right on the beach. I had the California burger, which has pineapple & avocado on it (I skipped out on the dressing, I’m picky sometimes :)) and Sean tried the January burger of the month, with I believe had brie & bacon on it.
Day 3: We took the road to Hana, which I’ll discuss in a separate post, but we started out with a stop at Komodo Bakery in Makawao. Here we had to get a lot of treats to share, their famous cream puffs, yum yum, donuts on a stick, apple donut, and a few other things.
We stopped for lunch in Hana at a Thai restaurant that was across from the resort. I haven’t eaten at a Thai restaurant before so this was definitely a treat. We had the most amazing salad with Crispy Opaka (a red snapper) with a green mango salad. OMG! This has to have been one of the best salads I’ve eaten ever. We also had one of their specials, a panang curry with fresh caught seared ahi. This along with a glass of Thai Iced Tea and we had an amazing lunch.
That night we stayed at the Travassa Resort, which I am going to review in another post. But we had dinner at the resort after our run and it was good, not quite as good as the Thai crispy opaka but it was good. I had a pasta primavera and Sean had the fresh caught mahi-mahi special. For dessert, lilikoi creme brulee… I liked it but I’m a purist when it comes to creme brulee and I prefer the traditional vanilla.
The next day, we really didn’t eat much, since we were driving back from Hana and it was really windy, I have issues with motion sickness so I didn’t want to eat much. Sean’s step-mom made us the best traditional Japanese meal when we returned. I really wish I had photos, but it was incredible!!
We reached our last day, and we finished up at Market Fresh Bistro, a cute little restaurant that uses local and organic food. We went for breakfast and I had a great fresh catch eggs benedict, with hollandaise on the side. The catch was a blackened local swordfish.
And of course, we tried to go back to Guri-Guri, but they were closed, so we headed to Ululani’s Shave Ice for a final shave ice before heading back to the mainland. This was good shave ice, but it was the most expensive of the bunch! It was $15 for 2 when we were only spending about $7 at the other places for the about the same thing.
We had a great time and the opportunity to try a lot of yummy, local eats. I’m looking forward to my next trip and more food treats.