hi @TheCookie,
great rundown, thanks for reporting back. now you have to visit the other islands to see which you like best 
mahalo.
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Mahalo @PorkyBelly! 
Definitely want to visit the other islands now! 
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Excellent chronicling! Hawai’i is delightful.
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piggybacking on to this thread if i may…
visited a bunch of the usuals, but got sick and didn’t end up making it around as much as planned.
takeout chirashi and futomaki from Sushi Sho. still a great deal.
quite literally a huge bite, can’t do this in one mouthful.
Liliha Bakery (original location on Kuakini St.) - bar seating only. everyone starts with a short stack to split then moves on to a 2 eggs breakfast. quintessential diner and better than the others imo. the Portuguese sausage is good, and the corned beef hash is the crisped diner style you want to wash down with a lot of coffee.
Inaba. yes, it’s related to the Torrance locations and Ichimi-Ann. they serve ichiju sansai breakfast on weekends and corkage is $1.50 per glass (or waived if you bring your own stemware).
batteira (pictured), some aburi shimesaba, and a yuzu oroshi zaru soba for an easy lunch or dinner. the tempura is alright, a little bit high temp and a touch greasy for me but perhaps better at the bar. i’d give it another shot especially with corkage.
poke - new shops tried: Fresh Catch (Kaneohe), Ohana Poke House (Ala Moana), Ali’i Fish Market (McCully), Off the Hook (Manoa).
Fresh Catch was my favorite. I was comparing shoyu ahi at each place. Ohana Poke House a close second. Ohana’s is made to order, not scooped, which is nice. Ali’i Fish Market is good, I just preferred the first two. Off the Hook’s shoyu was thinner than the others’ so I made a mistake getting this near the end of day, when it sat too salty in a soy bath. Off the Hook had the best service though, with complimentary ice packs to go.
So far, I think I’ve also been to Ahi Assassins (RIP), Tamashiro, Tamura’s, Tanioka’s, Ono Seafood, Foodland, Maguro Bros, Kahuku Superette, The Hibachi Kailua, Alicia’s Market…open to suggestions on other places to try.
shave ice
The Chillest (Kaimuki). pretty good! texture not quite as fine as Waiola’s, and syrups not quite as natural as those from the recently closed Uncle Clay’s House of Pure Aloha, but all in all, solid shave ice with consistent saturation (no puddle at the end).
Ululani’s Waimanalo. just opened, so i’ll give them a pass for the inconsistent texture. almost too much choice in flavors here. i’m glad they’re a convenient option on my usual drive - from Waikiki to Kahala, Waimanalo, up to Kailua, potential lunch at Waiahole Poi Factory, back down to town through Pali or Likelike highway in time for a sunset, first round of coctails, and dinner to make it all worth the journey.
malasadas
Penny’s
Leonard’s, still the king when they’re piping hot.
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Yama’s Fish Market, near the university…
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thanks, will check it out next time
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Noooooooooooo 
Try the weekend Singapore Laksa at Cafe Kopi in Kailua next time.
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Off the hook for ginger scallion that’s their best there by far. Off the hook is one of my favorites
Poke on the run poke nachos or spicy mayo poke pearl city
Ken’s fresh fish laie
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yes, I haven’t come across somewhere with syrups as good as those from Uncle Clay’s.
if i have time in Kailua, i’ll check out Cafe Kopi. but i’m usually rushing to fit in some beach time and the next destination and Agnes’ Portuguese Bake Shop closes early.
i’ll keep that in mind. ginger scallion isn’t my go to order (too reminiscent of pairing with cold chicken) but will give it a try next time. once had woefully bad sashimi with a weak ginger scallion at a Paris 3-star Michelin and I was so upset. I did try the ginger scallion at Ali’i Fish Market and that was better.
sounds like a tasty mess!
i’m always looking for spicy no mayo if possible, but thanks for the suggestion.
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They’re poke flavors are all good but I find the spicy mayo pairs best with the nachos
Ken’s fresh fish does a lot of fish dishes too but it’s pretty far out there, but they’re poke is super fresh because he buys/catches fish daily
Also sad to hear about uncle clays
The shave ice stand inwaikiki if from of the mall is really good they use real fruit syrups and fresh mochi
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good intel, thanks. maybe for next time I go to North Shore and pass through Kahuku, grab some fresh corn and papaya from Nozawa’s and have a good poke omparison with Kahuku Superette.
Island Vintage shave ice in front of Royal Hawaiian Center? i did see a line but I got the sugarcane juice next door instead. fresh mochi and real fruit syrups are always appreciated.
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Yes island vintage that’s the one
Don’t sleep on Ken’s cooked fish preparations
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Honolulu news:
Alan Wong’s reopening at the Kahala hotel later this month
Yakitori Torishin from NY open
formerly of Maru Sushi (a branch of Maru from Hokkaido with Sushi Zen connection), Atsushi Kumagai has opened “@Sushi” in a new space. he also worked at Wako in SF and did some private catering in the Bay Area, too. not sure if he’s still doing the chirashi and suehiro + nigiri takeout.
Yakitori Hachibei closed
Potama onigiri closed
Tamafuji tonkatsu going to expand, reopen around next month
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Back with our somewhat annual ish trip to Oahu photo dump got to try some new spots since we spent more time in town. Every time I go I want to move there but school system isn’t great unfortunately
Shiges saimin- they were named best burger on yelp or something but that’s not the reason why you come here. It’s the old style vibes and the homemade noodles apparently only one of two places on Oahu that still does homemade saimin everyone else just buys from sun noodle. Also good greasy spoon sandwiches like the aforementioned burger, tuna melt, and Teri beef
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Taniokas
A mainstay and an island favorite I always try to stop here if I can but it’s out of the wayish from town and north shore. The food is so good though. Great selection of pokes and okazuya takeout cooked items. Big lines on weekends we got lucky that the wait on a weekday was only about 15 min. Ahi roll is one of their popular items. We got a bunch of poke, chicken and ahi rolls for our drive up to north shore
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seven brothers a mini chain let on the island they make decent burgers and rgood onion rings. Not a ton of great options on north shore but this place is easy and scratches the itch. They also opened an ice cream store in kahuku which makes good ice cream.
Kahuku superette shoyu poke. They make their own shoyu mix it tasted of soy and possible some oyster sauce. It was ok, some ppl swear by this place tho.
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Ken’s fresh fish my new favorite restaurant on north shore always wanted to go but he’s on the windward side and closes very early. Everything is 
.
His fish is all fresh day of from local fisherman and Ken sells blocks of ahi/ono etc to ppl constantly while also cooking.
Highlights are anything in the poke case the ahi katsu and coconut shrimp. Cooked fish is also a sleeper hit. We ate here twice in two days
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went to haliewa and had some shaved ice from Matsumoto a tourist trap but still fun along with pizza from wicked hi pie. Pizza is ok decent sourdough flavor but I think their oven is under powered as the bottom was soft. Haleiwa generally is pretty light on good food options so can’t really complain too much
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Teds bakery is a fun stop. A tourist trap but they make decent pies. My favorite being the macnut cream pie, this is the pineapple cheesecake
Kahuku farms a great place to visit for a great. I learned that they grow their own acai here along with many other fruits and veg.
Pretty cool place to hang with the kids and eat a treat
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Cafe kalia consistently voted best breakfast/brunch in Oahu. I think their food is decent but imo title is unwarranted based solely on the food. Likely the accolades come from their outstanding hospitality everyone there is super nice, helpful, and friendly. Waits can be long. Both the wife and I actually thought we were going to sweet es which is around the corner but we got confused because we are tourists lol.
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