Honolulu | Eat + Drink

This recap includes the downtown city area of Honolulu which we ventured to twice, once for dinner at Sushi ii and once for lunch at Lucky Belly, as well as the posh city streets of Waikiki Beach. We found downtown Honolulu to be relatively quiet where as Waikiki was always bustling! 

We had our best meals of the trip on this leg of our Hawaiian journey; nowhere else overall compared to the restaurant and bar scene here. 

Mahina & Son's at The Surfjack Hotel + Swim Club 

[412 Lewers Street]

Surfjack Hotel is wonderfully hip. A retro Wish You Were Here tiled pool immediately invites you into the well manicured space. Mahina and Son's is an open concept that abuts hotel lounge and sun deck. 

We started with addicting, super spicy pickled peanuts with jalapenos. If you've never had pickled peanuts they are an absolute treat. I don't remember exactly what we drank but the cocktails were on par.

We hadn't yet tried Poi (taro root) which is a major Hawaiian crop / right of passage. It worked well in the Pa'a'ai Salad with pickled Akule (big eye scad), pohile (Hawaiian fiddlehead fern) and tomato. The first main was Monchong (Sickle Pomfret) with 'ulu (breadfruit), green bean, cherry tomato and chervil. The second was Opah (Moonfish) with savoy cabbage, purplette, u'ala (sweet potato) and a mustard-bacon broth. Dessert was the Dark Chocolate Butter Mochi with black sesame gelato and mango jam.

Sushi ii

[655 Keeaumoku St] 

An omakase menu is offered (go for it!) in this unassuming strip mall nook. A parade of impossibly fresh nigiri delights from Chef Hiro: lango, kinmedai, shima aji, toro, uni, hokkiado scallop, ikura, ama ebi...with a grand finale of miso soup!

Bar Leather Apron
[745 Fort Street Mall #127]

We ubered from Sushi ii to Bar Leather Apron for a night cap. This intimate cocktail den is located on the mezzanine level of the Topa Financial Center in downtown Honolulu. It is definitely a random, hidden location and it was a little tricky to find; part of the charm for sure. They have four old Fashioneds on the menu, naturally we each got one. 

Appetito

[150 Ka‘iulani Ave]

Appetito is a chic craft pizza and wine bar, which we chose on a whim. I took just one photo of this phenomenal pizza: KING CRAB SHISHITO with avocado, shishito peppers and arugula on a cream sauce drizzled with wasabi mayo. We had a really great time here, much in part to our amazing, personable bartender, who in hindsight I recognized as professional surfer Keala Kennelly. She totally made our night.

Queen Street Cafe + Grill
[99 Kauhale St, Aiea]

Queen St Café + Grill is actually located in Aiea - the town that Pearl Harbor is in. We had lunch time to fill between our morning arrival and our late afternoon tour of the USS Arizona, so we opted to venture off campus instead of hitting up the hot dog cart with everyone else. I'm so glad we did! (Pearl Harbor has no entrance fees or parking fees so it's easy to leave and come back in one day.) The Poke Bowl Lunch at this no frills café is easily one of the best I had. You can mix and match so I had tuna and beef with pasta salad and white rice, Bob had chicken and beef with potato salad and brown rice.

Lucky Belly
[50 N Hotel St]

We stopped in Chinatown for lunch after we checked out of The Alohilani and before we headed for the North Shore. Lucky Belly was host to a decent lunch hour crowd. We sat at the bar and sipped ice cold Asahi Beers alongside delicious food. Bob had Tempura Shrimp Tacos topped with asian slaw and yuzu mayo. As for me, you know I can't pass up a good bowl of Ramen (I think this was my third so far in Hawaii!) The Lucky Bowl with bean sprouts, soft egg, wakame, sesame seeds, green onion and ginger was excellent.

The Beach Bar @ Moana Surfrider Hotel
[2365 Kalakaua Ave]

Moana Surfrider is a Westin Resort & Spa right on Waikiki Beach. This was our favorite place for cocktails - the nicest bartenders, live music, hula dancing, and you are literally steps from the sand. 

We absolutely loved the food scene in Honolulu and would give all these spots our vote of approval. 

Avana Sushi

I am excited about having Chinatown restaurants on the blogs radar lately. There are spots I have been frequenting for years that are finally getting their due. A couple weeks ago we took a look at Hei La Moon, then last week we talked Pho. Now, Avana Sushi. This hole-in-the-wall four seat counter is surrounded by about five tables in a mini-food court off of Beach Street. I typically grab takeout and bring it back to the office, but dining-in is also a treat! A waitress ensures you will always be well taken care of here despite the haphazard ambiance. 

You can't go wrong with the luncheon special - for $7 you get a choice of 1 maki, 2 sides, a miso soup and a green tea. Pictured above are a couple different combos: spicy salmon avocado roll + seaweed salad + tuna nigri. Then a salmon mango roll + edamame + avocado salad. My favorite rolls to order on their own (not part of the lunch special) include the Spicy Caterpillar Maki ($8.95) - unagi, cucumber, avocado + spicy mayo topped with avocado, eel sauce + tobiko, and the Black Pearl Maki ($8.95) spicy salmon, tempura flakes, scallions, avocado + black tobiko.

Super fresh sushi, creative maki rolls and perfect little lunch specials all at a great value, Avana is the best!

Avana Sushi

42 Beach St

Boston, MA 02111

Restaurant Muramoto

I found the sushi at Restaurant Muramoto to be lacking. I guess that's my own fault for having higher expectations of sushi in the Midwest? The maki roll I ordered called viper ($15) was rather unappetizing from the browning avocado to the poorly sliced Hamachi, even the white rice lacked that firm stickiness needed to keep everything together. The Tako Nigiri ($4) was just ok.

The rest of the meal fared much better - I had a miso soup ($3), a perfect bite of a hoisin glazed pork belly shao bing ($3), and a fantastic sashimi oyster ($6) in ponzu sauce with a quail egg. A local told me (after the fact) not to expect much from the sushi around here, all things considered. If you're coming from the coast, Restaurant Muramoto probably shouldn't make the cut, save exception for small bites and sake.

Restaurant Muramoto

 106 King Street 

Madison, WI

The Liberty Bar | Beacon Hill

Out and about in the lovely Beacon Hill neighborhood on a Friday night!
My sister took me out for sushi at Ma Soba. Everything here was just okay! We have high sushi standards. Oh well. Afterwards, we made our way down the street to The Liberty Bar. We stayed at The Liberty Hotel back in December. You can read all about the hotel, the bars, and our stay here. Besides a local overnight indulgence, it has become quite the energetic nightlife scene to mingle over cocktails. We were carded at the door of the hotel and planted ourselves on an empty couch to sip expensive cocktails (all $15) and take in the scene surrounding us in this spectacular hotel lobby rotunda.Quite the people watching experience it is. And apparently a good spot if you're playing the field aka single and ready to mingle. Which we are not. But just throwing it out there, in case you are. The cocktail menu is from CLINK. We thoroughly enjoyed our corner of the lobby and our first round. A Sapphire Darling with Bombay Sapphire, Patron Citronage, Vanilla Bean Syrup & Lime for me and a French Kiss with Grey Goose La Poire, Cassis, Pineapple & Champagne for Leah. Drink envy prompted a second round, this time with Leah ordering the Sapphire Darling. It was quite a tasty drink. I was content to move on and the Winter Sangria with Calvados Brandy, Local Apple Cider & Red Wine at the waitresses recommend was lovely. By the way she was very attentive and super nice.This was after our "we can only afford one drink here" statement. Seems we've made ourselves right at home.It was a slow start to my Saturday but I managed to be productive and a post on the days adventures is sure to come!

The Liberty Bar

215 Charles St

Boston, MA 02114