HB 025: Top 5 Best Places to Eat on Oahu, Hawaii

Hawaii's Best 0:13 
Aloha, welcome to Hawaii best podcast. Learn the stories behind Hawaii's best experiences, influencers and businesses. Discover everything that makes Hawaii the Aloha state. And now your host Brian Murphy.

Bryan 0:30 
Aloha and welcome to another episode of Hawaii's best. And I just want to say thank you so much for joining me today on this episode. If you're checking this out for the first time, I just want to encourage you to hit that subscribe button and drop a rating below. That would mean the world to me just that helps other people be able to find this podcast and this conversation all about Hawaii. We share some of the best experiences in Hawaii, some of the best restaurants and places to stay and we also interview people behind some of these businesses and experiences, so it's a cool inside look at what Hawaii is all about. And it's really about the people about the culture. And that's why we do what we do. Well, like I mentioned on today's episode, we're talking about the top five places to eat on the island of Oahu. And this was a very hard list to put together. So much so that I first started with 10. And I put I put a guide together, top 10 places to eat on Oahu. So you can find the remaining five by simply going to live Hawaii's best comm slash Food Guide, and you'll be able to download the top 10 places, at least in our opinion and our experience on the island of Oahu. Now narrowing down these five and I know that this is subjective, and I know that this is subject especially when you're talking about food, everyone's palate is so different. And in selecting these specific five, I wanted to take into account quality of food, how these restaurants source locally and also the The atmosphere and the vibe of the place, and how it encompasses what Hawaii is all about. I know that there's many more places to be added to this list. You'll notice on this list that there's no chain restaurants, on Oahu specifically, you can find a lot of chain restaurants that you can find on the mainland. And no matter what culture you go to, you want to be able to not just taste her food and and experience that but you want to know, okay, what are the places that are unique to this area, we wanted to bring those to you in this episode. And the guide that goes along with this episode, live Hawaii's best calm slash Food Guide. So in our opinion, we wanted to give you the five essential places to definitely check out on your next trip to Oahu. I wanted to cover all the different sides of the island. So we're going to be talking about places on the North Shore on the west side, East Side, and even some places in Honolulu as well. And the reason why we wanted to bring up this conversation is because whenever you think about a place that you've traveled Are you hear about someone who's traveled to a certain destination quickly, the conversation turns to food. And just like the Hawaiian Islands themselves, food is meant to be explored and enjoyed with those you love. And each one of these places, I think will deliver on that. And in this conversation, I really want to just open up dialogue and I want to hear from you. I want to hear what are some of your favorite places on a wahoo? And what are some places that we can feature on Hawaii's best, you can drop a comment below rating, let us know or you can email us at contact at live Hawaii's best.com I read every single email I would love to hear from you. And that'll just help this conversation and helping to support local restaurants on the island of Oahu and all the islands. So with that, let's go ahead and let's talk story about the top five places to eat on the island of Oahu.

Unknown Speaker 4:01 
Alright, well I kind of wanted to set the mood and this is something I wanted to try just having some music playing in the background. I don't know if it'll work but we're going to do it for this episode. Any place you go to on the island, you go and eat. Typically you'll be surrounded by amazing local artists playing during lunchtime during dinner and happy hour. So I kind of just wanted to set the mood. So in full disclaimer, these restaurants are not in order of what we feel is like top one, top two, top three. But I will say this first one is probably a biased opinion. This is one of our favorite places to get away to on the west side of Oahu and colina colinas simply means place of joy. The restaurant we're going to kick this list off with is monkeypod Kitchen by Mary men's and colina monkeypod is located in the middle of colina. It features two stories of incredible dining two full bars. It's located directly across from this Alani and the Four Seasons resort a wahoo colina so it is a bit of a touristy place but it's not like the tourists vibe in like Waikiki. It's always pretty busy, you can catch monkeypod not as busy around little before lunch and around like two 3pm is probably a good time to to also go and hit up some of their drinks and whatnot. During that time, he's usually a local artist playing and so you can take in some music there. What I love about this place is that they do feature some local musicians who play kind of throughout the afternoon and into the evening. But monkeypod there's also two locations on Maui kind of Holly and in Kenya. But this one Colin is the first one that that we've been to, and they have the most amazing mind ties in the entire world. Their mind ties are what they're known for stars like their their drink menu, so make sure if you've never ever been to monkeypod you've got to try their muy Thai. Also a personal favorite of ours is there a pork tacos? I don't know what they do to these pork tacos but it is amazing like I can eat those every day forever and I'd be just fine. So I'm occupied kitchen colina. It is definitely a solid choice the checkout. Next up is eggs and things eggs and things features four locations across the island. They have one in colina happens to be they they recently opened up that one a couple years ago. On the other side, from monkeypod. They have two located in Honolulu. One is in Waikiki and the other one is office Saratoga road. I would definitely encourage you if you've never been to try to get to the Saratoga location. But again, if you're on the west side, the new location out there is is beautiful as well. We also have another one in Honolulu at the Alamo Ana, so any one of those locations will be a great spot to catch. Amazing breakfast. They're known for their pancakes and their pancakes are so amazing. They even sell their pancake mix. So you can take home and make pancakes just like exit bangs when you get back from your trip. What's surprising about eggs and things is that their menu is so vast. Yeah, they're known for their breakfast, but they also have a great lunch menu and dinner menu. And especially if you're traveling with kids, with family, they are great kid friendly place and after 2pm on Sunday and Tuesday evenings, you can get a free kids meal with a purchase of a regular priced entree, eggs and things has been a local favorite since 1974. And we got to hear the whole story about how aids and things started. You can go to live Hawaii's best comm slash Episode 004 and you'll find our interview there with Michael Skidelsky, their director of operations and how exit things started in their vision and What they do and where they're going, how they're expanding, even in Japan, going to Waikiki Island vintage wine bar. In our opinion Island vintage wine bar is currently a hidden gem and not so hidden location. They recently opened up and right next door is Island vintage coffee, you probably have heard of them, which is always busy. They share the same kitchen, it's the same menu but at the wine bar. There's more sitting and you know, it's a wine bar. So there's literally wine bottles on tap. Something I've never seen before. Part of the view is you're overlooking the Royal Hawaiian which is an iconic place in Waikiki and you can kind of see the courtyard of Royal Hawaiian from your seat and Island vintage wine bar. A few of our recommendations are there mimosas their little Koi Mimosa is amazing and anything polka You can find here Island vintage there. wagyu burger is phenomenal. It's got a little bit of kick to it, some wasabi on it. But it is amazing beef. It's amazing burger. As a bonus, like I mentioned they share a kitchen with Island vintage coffee, you can order anything from the coffee shop at your table two. So I would definitely encourage you to check out Island vintage wine bar. Many by the time of this recording, the word has gotten out and they're going to be a little bit more busy. But this is a great place to check out in the heart of Waikiki. And it's kind of tucked back a little bit. So you're on the strip of Waikiki, but you're kind of tucked back a little bit as a little little bit more quiet. Where this location is at. Next up is the sunrise shack and these guys were our very first interview of the highest best podcast we interview Travis Smith, who was the operating founder. And these guys are all about having a good time. They're all about vibe. They're all about sourcing organic and delivering on a great product. So if you're in the good vibes, great food and energy, this is the spot. If you have the chance to experience their location on the North Shore, you got to do it. They have two locations currently on the island of Oahu. They have one like I mentioned and the North Shore at Sunset Beach, and they have a storefront and the outrigger hotel and Waikiki. Both locations serve up an amazing menu that features their bullet coffee, smoothies and sandwiches. Some of our favorites include their magnet bullet which is amazing. It's it's like a typical bullet coffee but there's some macadamia nut, magical happening infused into this coffee drink that is so good. Their Blue Dream bowl is also a great photogenic bowl, but it's also equally amazing. And they're avocado toast. They're loaded avocado toast. I was if I could just be real I was reluctant to like Jump on the avocado toast bandwagon. I was like what's so what's so cool about just putting avocado on toast? I wasn't a believer until I've had sunrise shacks. Loaded avocado toast and this thing is so good. Alright so last but certainly not least is Margarita is from Honolulu. Now being from Southern California we survive on great Mexican food however, it is pretty hard to find in Hawaii and we've tried a bunch of different places. But we found nothing compares to Margarita is in Honolulu. So from their traditional like Tex Mex dishes to even play with some Asian infused plates, which is pretty cool like poke a and and what they do with that with their tostadas it's really great. So if you're just looking for a good taco or a good enchilada, this is the place to go Margarita is but more than that. Obviously the The name Margarita is is they have really great drinks too. So if I could just be like real with you finding a decent drink on the Waikiki strip is really tough unless you want something that tastes like water down Kool Aid with like a little splash around. It's really hard to find a good drink. When I say good drink. I'm talking about something that is not just a bunch of sugar, but something that is locally sourced and they use ingredients that are available to them on Island and Margarita is does that in their creativity and how well how they create their dishes but also how they create their drinks is just equally amazing. And in full disclaimer has a self proclaimed Margarita connoisseur. Whatever that is, I've never had a better Margarita than at Margarita. So if you're looking for a good drink, but also some great food and good environment. This place is a little bit off the strip, but it's still The heart of Honolulu, and you're definitely gonna want to check out margaritas. So that's our list of top five. And like I mentioned before, we have a top 10 guide that we want to give to you for free and all you gotta do is go to live Hawaii's best comm slash Food Guide. And you can download our guide right there. And I've also included these places websites, a little review and a picture on what you can expect when visiting that place. But I also included a link to their location so yeah, I gotta do is click on that link and I'll open up Google Maps and you'll be able to find these locations so go to live Hawaii's best comm slash Food Guide and you can download it there. Well again, thanks so much for hanging out with me today on Hawaii's best are truly appreciate your time. If you found any value at all in this, I just would ask you to share this with somebody or drop a review below or hit subscribe. Surely that means the world to me and also our team. So I just want to say thank you in advance for your time and what you're doing and And as we both dive into this conversation all about Hawaii, I just want to say Aloha. truly appreciate you. And until next time be well, Aloha.

Unknown Speaker 14:13 
Thanks for listening to Hawaii's best podcast. Stay up to date on future episodes, be sure to hit the subscribe button and find us at livehawaiisbest.com