23 Must Try Foods in Hawaii

Hawaiian food is heavy in fresh fish and barbecue. The cuisine has also been heavily influenced by Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese, and Korean food! From the moment I landed in Honolulu, I was ready to eat everything in sight!

Lilikoi is the Hawaiian word for passion fruit and is a very popular flavor on the islands. I’m a huge fan of passion fruit, so when I saw it available as a coffee syrup, I was ecstatic! I got mine from Bizia Surf and Coffee Bar, which is a cute coffee shop in a business yard that also sells surf boards. Very on brand Hawaiian if you ask me. Since passion fruit is subtle, it made the creamy coffee lightly sweet with the hint of its flavor. It was absolutely delicious, and I wish this was more common on the mainland!

Ok. So yes, this is sold on the mainland at Disney Parks and I did have it in Disneyland in California. However, there’s something different about getting it at the Dole Plantation in Hawaii! If you’ve never had one, it’s a creamy pineapple soft serve, and you can also get fresh pineapple on top! The nice thing is you can actually park, just get the dole whip and leave. You don’t have to pay a special fee to enter, unless you want to do any of the other activities they have.

This was my very first meal in Hawaii and set my expectations high for the remainder of my week. I got this at Egghead Café for breakfast, and it was a bed of white rice with sweet pork belly cubes, a fried egg, pickled carrots and cucumbers, green onions, and fried garlic. Asian breakfasts are my favorite way to go, so this was a perfect meal for me! The whole thing was bursting with the sweet and savoriness of the pork, a nice bite from the pickled veggies, and the egg yolk made a perfect sauce to coat everything. This spot can be pretty popular, so be prepared to wait outside!

This is Hawaiian steamed pork cooked in the ground! It can be made above ground as well, but where’s the fun in that? This is common in Hawaiian plate lunches and is usually the star at luaus. I had mine at Germaine’s Luau, which does still cook it in the traditional way. They will pull it out of the ground while you’re there, which is cool to see! I found it soft and earthy, which was great with the rest of the traditional dishes.

If you’re not already familiar with Ube, it’s a Filipino purple yam and is often used in sweets. Personally, it’s one of my favorite flavors! I’m not normally a sweet breakfast person, but shared this with my sister and my word it was incredible! Haupia is Hawaiian coconut pudding, but in this case was just referring to coconut flavoring.

The french toast was a dark purple covered in powdered sugar, berries, toasted coconut, and whipped cream with a side of ube and haupia syrups. It was also decorated with flowers, just for that extra *chef’s kiss*. This is probably the best french toast I’ve ever eaten in my entire life, and I would fly back to Oahu just for this. I found this dish at Guieb Café! Not technically Hawaiian food, but it’s amazing!

More Filipino food! This was the other half of my breakfast at Guieb Café. It had sweet longanisa (a type of Portuguese sausage), eggs, tomatoes, and garlic fried rice. It was a deliciously savory plate and once again decorated with a flower. A great option for my savory breakfast people!

Spam tends to get a bad rep because it’s in a can and doesn’t actually resemble what it’s made of. However, I think it’s a wonderful, quick and flavorful protein that could use a lot more love. This is a hand held snack with a slice of fried spam and rice wrapped in seaweed. The spam can also be coated in sauce, giving it a sweetness. I had mine at the food court at Ala Moana, but you can find these pretty easily anywhere. It’s a great quick meal if you just want to try it or hold yourself off until your dinner reservation. This is one of the first things I think of when I hear Hawaiian food!

Tell me something more perfect on this planet than raw fish. Even if you came up with an answer, too bad, because in my world there’s nothing! I was also very wrong about what poke is supposed to be from all the poke shops I’ve been to on the mainland. We get this idea that it’s like a sushi bowl, but Hawaiian poke is very specific. The fish is always marinated and toppings are little to none. Poke bowls are marinated raw fish, shrimp, squid, or octopus, over warm white rice and maybe some furikake or seaweed salad.

It’s actually beautiful how simple it is. Of course, you can also have poke completely on its own, just the protein! I did a small poke sampling at Umekes Fish Market Bar and Grill with their Hawaiian style tuna poke and spicy salmon. In this case, I preferred the tuna, but both were soft, fresh, and popping with their natural flavors. The dressing didn’t overpower the fish at all! They will let you sample before purchasing as well.

I also had a “deconstructed sushi bowl” from Poke Stop which featured four different kinds of poke and was divine! You can also find entire poke departments at grocery stores and get a bowl there. I had one for about $6.99 on Oahu which was very filling, and the quality was amazing. If you try no other Hawaiian food, don’t skip poke!

Slices of plain raw fish! This dish is also well known in Japanese cuisine, but what was special about my experience is I got to try it right off the fish! Most raw fish is frozen before being thawed to kill potential parasites, but the risk of this does vary based on the fish. I got to try fresh Eye Tuna (yes, Eye not Ahi) at the Polynesian Cultural Center as part of their buffet after visiting all the different island presentations. I definitely took advantage of this and went back up multiple times for more!

This is the Hawaiian version of ramen with a clear broth, noodles, char siu pork, and green onion. I found it to be a simple but flavorful dish and actually had it for breakfast! I tried mine at Zippy’s which is a local chain. It came in two sizes, of which I ordered the small. Noodles for breakfast was a lovely thing.

The main brand for this I tried was Maika`i, and it reminded me of a healthy soda alternative! It comes in a bunch of different flavors such as Hawaii’s famous pog (Passion Fruit, Orange, and Guava).

This is a popular style of meal, but is heavy on the carbs! Hawaiian food loves its carbs! It features a protein, two scoops of white rice, and mac salad. In Hawaii, mac salad is not sweet like one might be used to on the mainland, and I honestly prefer the Hawaiian version. My first plate lunch was at Pine Tree Cafe with boneless short ribs, which are like the Korean version and sweet. My second was at L&L Hawaiian BBQ with Ono, a type of fish. You can also find light plate lunches which has one scoop of rice, salad, and protein.

A subtly sweet, purple yam flavored ice cream? Yes, please! You can find ube flavored ice cream in many places, but I had mine at Nector Café.

This traditional Hawaiian food has white rice, a beef patty, an egg, and gravy. That’s the simple version, but you can find all kinds of different loco mocos on menus. It’s overall a simple and indulgent dish. The original version is quite brown, so if you need more green in your meals, here’s your warning to order a side of veggies! I tried mine from Café Pesto.

A great twist on your classic steak and eggs, this version features Hawaiian style steak, sweet chili butter shrimp, eggs and your choice of base. Of course, I went with rice! It also came with toast, but I wasn’t interested in the bread. The sweet chili and savory flavors are a wonderful start to your morning, while the egg yolk on the rice is a perfect combination. I highly recommend trying this at 808 Grindz Café.

Did you know Hawaii is the only place in the United States that has the right climate to grow coffee? Yes, it’s five hours by plane off of the mainland and it’s in Polynesia, let’s be honest. This makes it a unique place to grow coffee, though, as it’s grown in volcanic soil! In all honesty, I’m not a huge coffee drinker, but I’m not skipping Kona coffee if I’m in Kona. That would be crazy!

Kona coffee is actually pretty expensive and a lot of coffee bags I saw sold would have a percentage of Kona coffee, but want you want is 100%. I tried my very first one at HiCO as an iced coffee with an Ube cream top. The coffee itself had a unique earthy flavor almost of dirt, which I assume came from how it’s grown. The ube cream was absolutely lovely! I would have had a cup of that with a spoon!

This sausage is found frequently on breakfast menus, and I like it much better than regular breakfast sausage! It’s a red, fatty sausage, and often comes sliced. I had mine as a side at Egghead Café.

These are essentially Korean LA style galbi, but I want to highlight the one from Poke Stop because it had a less sweet and more savory flavor. I realize I’m recommending beef at a place that specializes in raw fish, but I do think they’re worth it! Their version comes in a light plate lunch.

Yes! I am telling you to go to a convenience store! Why? Because the 7-Elevens in Hawaii are run by the same company that runs them in Japan. If you’ve ever been to a 7-Eleven in Asia, you know they’re on a different caliber from the mainland US locations. There are so many unique snacks in their grab and go section including bentos, manapua, teriyaki chicken sandos, and my favorite the spicy ahi dynamite sushi roll! I recommend just going in and trying a bunch of different things! It’s a fun experience. You’ll find a good mix of Hawaiian food, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, and even Vietnamese here!

This one isn’t always a winner with people, but it’s a very traditional Hawaiian food. Poi is taro mashed into a soft paste and doesn’t actually have much flavor. I tried this at the Polynesian Cultural Center in the Hawaii section and again at Germaine’s Luau. Interestingly both versions I had tasted different!

You might know char siu pork as a Chinese barbecue item and you would absolutely be correct! Hawaii has their own version which you can find as ribs, sliced into saimin, and more. This won’t be hard to find! If you haven’t had it before it’s a sweet, five spice, red marinade. You can actually buy powedered versions to bring home.

A Hawaiian twist on Japanese mochi made with coconut milk, glutinous rice flour, sugar, butter, and eggs! It has a much softer texture than it’s Japanese counterpart and comes in a ton of different flavors. I tried a coconut one that I picked up from a grocery store and could have easily eaten the whole package in one sitting.

Passion, Orange, and Guava! This is a mixed fruit juice and is very popular on the islands. You can find a lot of things that are pog flavored, such as my sparkling coconut water! You can even ask for this on Hawaiian Airlines, which I did on my flight to Kona, back from Hilo, and then back to NYC. It definitely puts you in the tropical mood! Maybe also not Hawaiian food, but the drinks in Hawaii are star stoppers on their own!