Travel Fun: Food

Travel Fun: Restaurant Review for Food on the windward side of Oahu, (the other side of the island from Waikiki)

When in Kailua or on the windward side, the best restaurants are:

Steak restaurants:

1) Buzz's Steak House: 413 Kawailoa Rd. Directly across the street from World famous Kailua Beach. There are other Buzz's on this island, but this one is the best of them. Expensive-ish but reliably good food, excellent salad bar, great view from the deck (lanai), Buzz's is sometimes overcrowded but hey, if that's the worst you can say about a restaurant that says a lot.

2) Haleiwa Joe's: 46-336 Haiku Rd. On the uphill (mauka) side of Kaneohe and overlooking Haiku Gardens. Great food, especially the prime rib which it is well known for and frequently runs out of EARLY, so if that's what you are looking for, GO EARLY! Expensive-ish @ about $20.00 and up for a plate but very good and gorgeous location.

3) Oneawa market, 49 Oneawa, Kailua; a tiny little corner market in Kailua town that has a "plate lunch" counter in the front corner that sells a variety of plates but the steak or steak combos are great food and great deals at about $7.00 - $10.00.

Misc. other:

Big City Diner: 108 Hekili, Kailua; pretty good all kinds of normal mainland type fare; pretty inexpensive, pretty fast, my family always likes it.

Breakfast: Cinnamons, Kailua, 315 Uluniu; better than the other breakfast options by a country mile. If in Kaneohe, Koa House.

Burgers: The Shack; 1051 Keolu Dr. Kailua - Enchanted Lakes; bar type food with a lot of deep fried options, but they're good at it.

Chinese: Kin Wah Chop Suey, 45-588 Kamehameha Hwy. Good to very good chinese food, not expensive. WooHoo!

Moroccan: Casablanca; 19 Hoolai St., Kailua Very good, not very expensive, take your PATIENCE hat, pretty slow. Plan on at least two or more hours for dinner.

Italian: Assagio, Kailua Very good Italian

Pizza: For my buck Pizza Hut is where it stops around here, but Boston Pizza, Dominos and others have followers too.

Sushi: LOTS of good sushi and sashimi around here; from bento plate places like KOZO to cafe's like TOKONAME, even the local Foodland Market has good bento boxes.

Thai: Saeng's; 315 Hahani; mostly good, not too expensive. Best for this side of the island.

Veggie: Down to Earth; 201 Hamakua, Kailua; more of a store and deli but small outdoor cafe and what they serve is very tasty.

What inspired this little Kailua restaurant guide was, being over in Kailua, hungry and looking for something tasty, not too expensive, not too slow and trying out a Japanese/ sushi restaurant called Tokoname that several friends had recommended. The food was good, but not great and the Shrimp Tempura Combo plate had exactly 2 shrimp on it for $19.95. Not exactly a great deal. Hence, this column, just correcting the record folks.

So: That's my thoughts on restaurants for today

Enjoy eating on the Windward side of paradise.

Travel Fun In Hawaii

Aloha,

There are tons of Hawaii travel guides and tourist info brochures in every hotel and on pretty much every corner in Waikiki. The best travel guide, bar none, is the Revealed Series, ie. Oahu Revealed by Andrew Doughty & Harriett Friedman from Wizard Publications. These guys get it.

Many "guides" are just promo or puff pieces for businesses or activities promoted in the guide. These folks actually have a clue what they're talking about and give you the straight up story about every business, restaurant, tour, or activity that I have personally experienced, and I've lived here for 24 years.

So, that's the tip for today.

Happy Trails.

Aloha visitor,

Staying in Honolulu over memorial day weekend? Two terrific options,

1) Early morning at Punchbowl Memorial Cemetary of the Pacific, beautiful location, beautiful climate, beautiful ceremony.

2) Pearl Harbor, always eerie, impressive, reverential, moreso on memorial day weekend.

Redundant to mention these, but there's a reason they're famous and must see locations.

Happy Memorial Day.

Travel is not fun in an oil spill

Uggghhh! Aren't we supposed to be doing better than this?

5,000 barrels per/day; 80,000 barrels per/day?

Unforeseeable? Really? If one pokes a hole in a huge underground reservoir that is under enormous pressure is it unforeseeable that the contents of that reservoir if not handled
extremely carefully may, possibly, leak out into the surrounding environment?

WAKE UP!!!

April is a great fun in the sun month

Welcome,
well if you are interested in having fun in Hawaii on your vacation, some of the most fun and least expensive things you can do around here are, swim and snorkel of course, visit one or several of the many great hiking trails, stop for a plate lunch or shave ice, and watch sunset on the beach.
My top three favorite hiking trails are Maunawili Falls hike, Manoa Falls, and one of many that start up at Round Top (Tantalus). These are all good for almost anyone healthy enough to hike at all but the Maunawili hike has almost a hundred stairs because it goes uphill, then down for awhile, then back up quite a ways, then down again before the trail starts running along the side of the stream and up to the falls. This used to be just a rough dirt and rock trail but the State has put boards to make the steep parts of the trail into steps so its not as slippery and more accessible to more people but still a LOT of stairs. The other two are not nearly as steep. The photo on this site is of me about half way up toward Maunawili Falls.
Hope you are all having a great vacation!

fun in the sun

Aloha,
Since I live in beautiful downtown Honolulu, finding opportunities for fun in the sun is pretty easy to come by, but finding time for it, not so much. When we do have guests and take some time off to visit and recreate we try to pick the best bang for your buck experiences.
On this side of North America very few places are comparable to Hawaii, as anyone who has traveled here once or many times can tell you. Recently when showing some guests around (from NY) our basic must visits were, of course a few of our well known beaches, and a couple of less familiar stops, like Lanikai, Kailua, and Makapu'u. The photo is taken at Kailua just a couple hundred yards from the public beach, although our guests chose to rent a house on the Kailua side, so we just walked there from the house they stayed at. Skim boarding is a close to shore activity and one of many fun ocean activities folks may choose. Kailua beach is on the windward side so is home to many kite surfers and windsurfers, as well as kayakers and boogie boarders.
Beyond time hanging out at the rental house which was pretty much a private resort, we drove around the north shore, stopped at Haleiwa and Sharks Cove, went up to Pali Lookout, had a shave ice at the Island Snow and a quick visit to the Honolulu Zoo.
If I could've dragged my mostly sedentary guest crew away from lazing around the pool or beach a little more often my other highly recommended activities for vacationers are diving, since the year round average ocean temperature is ~ 74 degrees it is certainly a lot more comfortable to cruise around in our under water world than anywhere north of here, snorkeling, or kayaking.
Whatever your interests or hobbies are, hope YOU find lots of fun in the sun!
MAR