52 Best Restaurants in Hawaii, USA

Built to resemble a dockside boathouse, this active semi-outdoor place fills up quickly for dinner thanks to a busy lounge and frequent live music. The day's fresh catch is available in various styles and sauces, and other favorites include coconut shrimp, seafood risotto, and roasted pork ribs that are cooked in a traditional Hawaiian imu (an underground oven). The bar area serves casual fare and a dozen mostly local draft beers. Hula pie, with chocolate cookie crust and macadamia nut ice cream, is meant to share. This is a good choice for a family celebration.

The meals at Kukui's feature Hawaiian, Asian, and contemporary American influences, and the open-air setting with a view of the ocean makes it a pleasant place to dine. It's spacious, making it well suited to families and those who want a relaxed setting. The short dinner menu includes rack of lamb, kalbi rib-eye steak, salads, flatbreads, burgers, fresh fish, pasta, and a few vegetarian options. Prime rib is served on Friday and Saturday nights.

Livestock Tavern scores big with its seasonal offerings of updated comfort foods and craft cocktails and its cowboy-minimalist decor. Although meat, including some of the best burgers in town, commands the menu, offerings like burrata, creative salads, sandwiches, and fish round out the possibilities. Note the seasonal drink specials with creative names. Weekend brunch is also served.

In a vintage building dating from 1965, Magics offers an exhilarating oceanfront location overlooking the famous Disappearing Sands Beach, also known as Magic Sands. From fried ulu (breadfruit) wedges in umami truffle oil aioli to firecracker fish tacos and mushroom pasta, the eclectic menu features intriguing choices using locally sourced ingredients with contemporary island flair. The same owners operate the Beach Shack right on-site, which has limited hours but serves drinks and local takeout favorites such as Spam musubi (Spam "sushi") and poke bowls. Come for cocktails at sunset: the setting simply does not get better.

Yes, the popovers and the wee cups of bouillon are available at lunch, but in every other regard, the menu at this Neiman Marcus restaurant departs from the classic model, incorporating a clear sense of Pacific place. The breezy, open-air veranda, with a view of Ala Moana Regional Park, the twirling ceiling fans, and the life-size hula-girl murals say "Hawaii." It's still a spot for ladies who lunch, but it also welcomes a more casual crowd.

The wooden surfboards hanging above the bar and surf videos playing in the background create a decidedly chill vibe at this buzzing restaurant, the creation of Hawaii celebrity-chef Peter Merriman. He offers a menu that highlights local bounty, with such standout dishes as poke tacos, lobster deviled eggs, and wood-fired pizzas.

This sophisticated, intimate restaurant in a bayfront building offers a classy selection of international fare with the focus on locally sourced meats, produce, and seafood. The menu changes daily (see their Facebook page), but mushroom pappardelle is a highlight, along with seafood chowder, spicy kajiki (marlin) tartare, and crispy whole-fried moi (Pacific threadfin).

The signature restaurant of the Westin Princeville Ocean Resort Villas has casual open-air seating that perfectly complements an island-style menu sure to please a wide range of diners. Grilled rib eye is served with bacon-and-sour cream mashed potatoes, while the chicken—smoked kalua style—is accompanied by Molokai sweet potatoes. Lunch options include a plate lunch. The food is well executed and service is friendly. 

Located in what was once Kauai's most expensive plantation estate, Gaylords pays tribute to the elegant dining rooms of 1930s high society: candlelit tables sit on a cobblestone courtyard that surrounds a fountain and overlooks a wide lawn. The menu is eclectic, offering Portuguese fish stew, shrimp pasta, scallops, steak, sake short ribs, chicken, and a few vegan and vegetarian options. Be sure to start with the fresh ahi poke stack. The banana cream pie with a coconut crust is a tasty twist on an old favorite. Lunch offers some hearty salads, soups, hot and cold sandwiches, and burgers. 

This plantation-cottage restaurant built in 1864 has a menu full of local seafood but also offers Wagyu beef, roasted rack of lamb, and other land-based options, with eclectic flavor profiles reflecting the chef's global travel experiences. Top menu picks include crispy leek salad with buckwheat noodles, catch of the day, and chèvre cheesecake with coconut crust and lilikoi (passion fruit) gel.

Perched in a shopping center in Waikoloa Village, this late-night destination also serves dinner from 5 until 9 pm: pueo means "owl" in Hawaiian, and refers to the restaurant's "night owl" concept. Renowned executive chef James Babian (Four Seasons Hualalai, Fairmont Orchid) serves multiregional Italian offerings that combine farm-fresh ingredients with fine imported Italian products like prosciutto from Parma. For something really unusual, try the Kona abalone with citrus garlic aioli and Kona dulce seaweed salad. Although they are in a shopping center, you can still watch the sunset from their expansive lanai. 

Chef David Abrahams serves upscale café fare with a twist and a side of aloha. Although it opens fairly early (at 2 pm Tuesday–Friday, noon on Saturday), there's only a single, all-day menu, and this place is busy, so reserve ahead. Sushi is an option; the Fuji roll is prepared tempura style, and sashimi is served with organic greens. The rack of ribs is a sure bet, as is the shrimp seafood cocktail. This café is popular among locals and is a nice spot for the whole family—Abrahams's young daughter developed the kids' menu. 

One of celebrity chef Roy Yamaguchi's Hawaii restaurants, this reliable, albeit pricey, place overlooks the lake at the Kings' Shops. Despite the restaurant's boxy interior, the food is good; the three-course, prix-fixe meal is a sure bet, as is blackened ahi. The macadamia nut–crusted Hawaiian fish with Kona lobster cream sauce is a melt-in-your-mouth encounter. If you are in the mood for something lighter, sit at the bar and choose from the enormous selection of great appetizers, discounted cocktails, and happy hour pricing. For families, the kids' menu goes above and beyond standard keiki (children's) menus.

If the perfect sunset happy hour means cocktails, bite-size shareable plates, tropical breezes, ocean sounds, and flaming oversize torches, then make it a point to dine at RumFire, situated beachfront in the Sheraton Waikiki. Enjoy such dishes as lemon-herb mahimahi, island fish tacos, and "local style" sesame-ahi poke; sip signature concoctions like the RumFire Mai Tai or the Fire Runner, made with spiced rum and tropical juices. At night, RumFire is a club–lounge that promises an edgy and exciting experience amid fashionable people and exquisite views.

Honolulu has its share of Italian restaurants, and Taormina, taking its culinary cues from Sicily, is considered one of the best by foodies, locals, and visitors alike. In a sleek, elegant room (there is outdoor seating, but this is one place it's best to dine indoors), you can dine on well-executed classics, such as porcini risotto with sautéed foie gras and a breaded veal chop "alla Taormina" (the restaurant's take on veal Parmesan). Pastas include spaghetti vongole (with clams), sarde e finochetti (sautéed sardines with fennel, anchovies, olives, and capers), and the trademark uni (sea urchin) with tagliatelle. Don't miss the artfully presented antipasti misti (mixed appetizers). For dessert, go traditional with cannoli or tiramisu. The wine list is extensive, and prix-fixe menus are offered for lunch and dinner.

Acclaimed chef Roger Stettler leans on his Italian heritage to create this rustic, open-air restaurant's award-winning menu. Lunch features hearty soups, salads, and sandwiches, and the house-made pastas are the highlight of the more upscale dinner service. Belly up to the lively bar or request an outdoor table to enjoy sweeping ocean and mountain views.

Perched on the second story of a building in Ching Young Village, The Terrace offers sweeping mountain views along with stellar sushi and fresh-fish dishes in a lively environment that attracts the local post-work crowd. There's a sushi menu (try anything with the special beet-cured kampachi), plus a main menu with small plates, appetizers, and daily special entrées.

The name of the restaurant comes from the three young chefs who each have a distinctive culinary style (Hawaiian, Southwestern, and Pacific Rim), but somehow it all works. The space is as big as the menu—there are salads, burgers, steaks, and fresh fish, as well as a raw bar with sushi and hand rolls—with three separate dining areas, plus an outdoor patio. The daily happy hour from 3 to 6 pm features discounts on popular menu items, sushi, and cocktails.

The playful atmosphere at this local favorite belies the food quality, originally created by its late founding chef Hideaki "Santa" Miyoshi. Best to just say "omakase, kudasai" ("chef's choice, please"), as Tokkuri Tea delivers creative options that can intimidate at first glance. Just be aware that some of the more rare seafood dishes can cost up to $45 (each). Although other izakaya joints come and go, this one has stood the test of time—and for good reason.

Upstairs at the Shops at Mauna Lani, this breezy, open-air restaurant offers an excellent roster of appetizers, including seared-scallop sliders and coconut-crusted crab cakes, as well as meat and fish mains and decadent desserts. The chef here has freedom to cook up his own daily specials, and the seared ahi is a standout. There's live music every evening, and happy hour is from 4 to 6. After eating, hit the Tommy Bahama clothing store located directly below the restaurant for some tropical togs. 

The reins have been handed over to the next generation at this family-run restaurant, where meats are grilled over kiawe wood for a smokey flavor. Steaks and burgers are made from from Rancher's Daughter's Reserve grass-fed Kauai beef, lettuce is grown nearby at Iwikua Farms, and there's usually a locally caught fish special. Denim-covered seating, decorative saddles, and a stagecoach in a loft transformed the old Ako General Store in Waimea into a comfortable Western-look steak house where you can eat on the front porch, on a deck out back, or in the old-fashioned wood-panel dining room. Live music is lined up nightly, and The Saddle Room saloon stays busy until 10 pm, thanks to a dozen appetizers, a decent selection of beers, and "fancy kine" cocktails. Time things right and you can enjoy a bite before a movie at the Waimea Theater across the street.

The spot's the thing—the view is amazing—at this casual eatery just steps from the beach on the grounds of the Honua Kai Resort & Spa. The food is reliable—fresh fish is a good bet—the style all surfer-dudes and little grass shacks, and the signature cocktails big and pineapple-garnished.