This place squeaked by try-outs, but didn't make it to the A-Team. A major player was the gnomish bald man with vocal chords worthy of operatic success, seated about 16 inches away from our little 2-person table. Our neighbor's decibel level doubled the noise factor of th entire restaurant. There was a waitlist (you can call ahead to put yourself in line!) and his table was finishing up their dinners when we got there, so we didn't complain. It was almost entertaining trying to shout over a man about a foot away from us who was shouting across the table at the top of his lungs. Almost. Many raised eyebrows and Mr. Yeller's entire Tuscan family history later, he finally left. At this point we had already had an expensive and not very savory tasting appetizer and two orders of wonderfully soft rosemary foccacia with oil and vinegar. He and his other white-guy friend had quiet Japanese girlfriends trying and failing to have their own conversation in Japanese. I just wanted to shoot a "Yakamashii!" at him! $15 for the papaya prosciutto (small and all right, how could you mess up a sliver of papaya with a sliver of ham on top?), shrimp avocado salad (one shrimp and one sliver of avocado with grapefruit and house-made grapefruit vinagrette. Very sour), and mozzerella tomato basil stacks. Everything small and all right tasting, but you know how you expect a WOW in your mouth at a decently expensive restaurant (albeit with red and white checkered vinyl tablecloths)? Yeah, there was no wow. Just a "meh, that tasted all right." Our friendly and attentive waiter (I think we counted 7 waiters and 2 hosts for about a dozen tables!) checked in on us about everything he put down on our table. He suggested the entrees were enough to share family style, so being hungry, we naturally ordered 2 entrees for 2 people. We got the staff favorite pizza (Capriciosa? Yeah I don't speak Italian!), and the Ravioli di Fruitti di Mare (seafood ravioli topped with shrimp scampi in cream sauce). Ravioli proved itself to be a million times better than the Costco version. With garlicky cream on top. And one shrimp. One shrimp seemed to be the theme of the evening. One succulent, savory, buttery shrimp. Just slightly overcooked, but very good seafood pasta and sauce. Five or six raviolis for $22. Also $20 or $24 was the pizza....which...was not so grand. It sounded good with all those ingredients on the menu, but in reality, a hard boiled egg is a better topping for a burger than a pizza. Other stray toppings were chopped bell peppers, cheese, onions, and nonmemorable othernesses. Another minus was the extremely thin crust. After marvelling at the soft and tasty focaccia, we were hoping the pizza would boast the same crust, to no avail. It was like a tortilla. The tiramisu left that wow feeling in my mouth with its homemade whipped cream taste, lack of alcoholic twinge (a good thing!), moist coffee taste, and cute orange-flavored block of arancino decoration. But for some reason the wow factor didn't continue onto subsequent bites. Don't get me wrong, I ate the entire thing anyway! I am just not sure it was marscapone cheese...tasted more like whipped cream, which is delicious by itself straight out of the bowl and fine by me in any dessert. $9 Plantation Pineapple Iced Tea had a strange grainy texture, but I won't judge too harshly. $100 for dinner for 2. Nice server, pleasant host, extremely shoutingly loud because of Mr. Yeller, and all right food. Go for the seafood ravioli! $1 validated parking next door (don't drive around the block 4x like we did!) read more

absolutely wonderful little gem of a restaurant the food is worth waiting for always busy but the wait isnt bad very friendly staff comfortable and welcoming delicious and creative pizza my favorite dish was the penne arrabiata - simple perfection read more

Great service. Out waitress, bebba, was fantastic. She was both attentive and customer focused. The food was disappointing. Prosciutto with papaya was good. Grapefruit and avocado salad was very unappetizing. The vinaigrette accented how bitter the greens were. When I commented on how it wasn't to my liking the waitress insisted on bringing us a menu to try something else. We chose an arugula and prosciutto salad with Italian dressing. Solid, standard choice you can't go wrong with. It was fine. For the main course we ordered the special which was essentially a linguine with clams and garlic. The garlic lacked fragrance and rendered the dish just average. Couldn't be disappointed further so we decided to skip dessert. Tipped the waitress well despite the lackluster food. read more

OVERALL EXPERIENCE: very whatever... definitely wouldn't reco it to anyone. after a week of fish, hawaiian, and asian style food we needed something out of hawaiian vacay norm and went for italian. we chose this place since it got really good yelp reviews. but gotta go against the norm on this one. no bueno... FOOD: i'm not sure what the price points were at arancino, but i know it's too much for what it was. the food is awful. so bad that we only stayed for wine/apps/salads. the scallops weren't fresh and really fishy. the shrimp salad was just basic greens with dinky little unappetizing shrimps. AMBIANCE: pretty standard. not kitschy or too over the top with italian references. smaller place with an intimate feel. SERVICE: service was great. there was a 45 minute wait so we went to a bar across the street to drink the wait away. they called us when the table was ready and held it for us til we got there about 5 minutes later. friendly hostesses and attentive servers BATHROOM: bathroom is really nice and is also connected with the japanese restaurant next door. the ladies was a single stall so sharing with another establishment = longer wait time. great thing about the ladies is that they had a fancy toilet seat complete with bidet read more

Good pasta - uni cream and spaghetti pescatore - both tasty. The Branzino however, was the star of the night. The shrimp and avocado salad - also a hit. Good vino options - Italiano mainly -but the Valpolicella was a delight. Service was swift and atmosphere was lovely. I personally think that Honu dining is best when you go Japanese but Italiano here is molto bene! Right in the heart of all the beach action - nice location to walk off the pasta! Grazie Arancino! read more

Yum! Need I say more!!! All time favorite is spaghetti with tobiko. Tony and his lunch crew are awesome! Allison was very attentive. Already dreaming about my next spaghetti with tobiko. read more

Host were very friendly. Wait time was well worth it. Let's start with the service.. Lisa was a great server. She was was very friendly and accommodating. Food was amazing me and my friends were very happy with our choice. The bread was so good and the Bolognese was delicious. We will definately be back!!! read more

It's a cute little restaurant Food is average. I guess if the cooks are Asian and you have no idea what real Italian food is suppose to taste like, it's fabulous. read more

Best Italian food in Waikiki. Unpretentious, and good food! I hope this place stays around once developments on both ends of Beachwalk are finished - otherwise would be a big shame. The guy working there is kinda funny. read more

Our experience was exceptional last night. Our server Sophie was able to answer all of our questions and the manager Stacey came by to check on us and was as sweet as can be. We will definitely be back soon for more delicious food! read more

Had dinner there our last night in hawaii. Couldn't find reasonable sushi at all in Waikiki. So have some Italian. Waited 45 mins but well worth the wait. The wife had the blue crab pasta and I had the pestcitorie. Amazing service and food too. read more

Would have loved to give 4 stars but the wine pours(likely dictated by management) were just too pitiful. We are talking like barely 1/5 of a glass. Uni pasta was good, but at 35 dollars an order probably a bit overpriced. Risotto funghi again was not bad, but at 25 dollars a plate probably a bit highly marked up even in Waikiki. Portions are mediocre. Overall overpriced but decent. Maybe if you stick to beer, don't have a huge appetite and avoid the bad pours then this might be a reasonable place to have dinner. read more

Good dinner, Extremely interesting. Had the uni pasta, not sure how non-Asians would take to the uni flavor but I enjoyed it. read more

Italian fused with Japanese elements. Got 2 of their lunch specials. I am so envious that locals get a fantastic discount if they show their Hawaii ID! The $11 panna cotta was by far the best thing we ate & we enjoyed the squid ink pasta w/ tomato basil bisque. read more

The food here was excellent as well as the service! We got the mushroom risotto, which was awesome! Susan H. Helped us as well as Keri and Casey. We hope to come here again! Thank you! read more

Excellent food ! Had the risotto and was very impressed with the preparation. Service was superb as well.

Had the greatest special linguine vongole. Chester and Bebba were very attentive and helpful with our needs. The sausage and pepperoni pizza was out of this world. Great place to go if staying at the Embassy Suites. read more

Every time I come here, I always have a great experience. This time we had to wait longer than usual , even though we had a reservation but our server Gabe and the management made sure we were well taken care of. The food is authentic, exactly what I expect when I want to eat Italian food. Celebrating my birthday here was definitely a great choice. Despite the wait, the whole experience was just incredible. read more

Life-changing Carbonara. Cute spot feels like an off the beaten path restaurant in Italy. A little too stereotypical decor and music, but food, drinks, and service are off the charts good. A favorite spot for the family. read more

Went on a junk day it was windy and raining and we had the lucky seats of sitting outside..(burrrr) was way to cold but it was the weather, I can imagine during the day on a nice sunny day outdoor seating will be perfect. Anyways ordered UNI PASTA and it was very delicious! Perfect proportions my fave I'll def go back for some uni pasta and hopefully go on a nicer day or sit inside definitely will try again! Btw I forgot who our server was but he was very helpful and on it read more

Arancino - Italian Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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Hands down one of the best pizza's I have had in 20 years. The sauce and thin crust was amazing!

Honestly the best Italian place on Oahu! I've spent months all over Italy and Sicily and this place makes it feel like I'm back there. From the environment, service and the food. Definitely a place I will be coming back to!! Only thing is it's not $$ out of yelps $$$$ range. It's easily a $$$ place. 30 dollar plates and 150 dollar bottle of wine is normal price. But great! read more

If you ar looking for good Italian restaurant this is the place!!! Our appetizers, main dishes and dessert was excellent!!! The customer service was good as well. We will be back before we leave Honolulu. read more

Went there for dinner last night. Got there around dinner time and there is no reservations after 6 so we just showed up. There was couple parties in front of us but the wait was minimal. When we got in the place is very intimate and homely. It has a good vibe and just feels comfortable. We started with a Peroni which is always a good start. I had the antipasto sampler for apps. It was a shrimp avocado salad, proscuitto papaya salad and caperese. All three salads were good. The Shrimp was cooked perfectly and paired with salad, avocado and a grapefruit vinaigrette. The proscitto salad was also good. You can never go wrong with proscuitto and fruits. The caprese was also very good, it had a cherry tomato topped with mozzarella, basil and olive oil. The salad was big and filling and definitely a good buy. After salad I had the lobster bisque and that was also excellent. It was creamy but not too rich and topped with a little dill. It was also a decent size and was enough to share with my wife. We then got the chef special which was a Linguine Vongole. The vongole was really good, The noodles were cooked perfectly el dente. The olive oil based sauce was flavored well. It cam with a lot of clams which is sometimes hard to find at italian restaurants. They usually cheap out on the amount of clams they give, but not here. And the added touch that made this vongole excellent was the tomato chunks that was in this dish. The last thing that we got was the pizza. I dont remember the name but it was the servers favorite. The pizza was ok. The crust was a little soggy and that was the one thing i didnt like about it. The toppings were generous and good. The only thing was the proscuitto on top was very hard to cut. It would be better if they cut the proscuitto when the cut the pizza. Instead of cutting the pizza then topping with the proscuitto. The service was excellent. They were all very friendly and constantly made sure we had water and bread. The thing I liked about the service was how everyone was good. It wasn't only our server and buser checking on us, As other servers walked by they would ask if everything was good, how we like the food, and if there was anything else we needed. I really liked this place, price was a little pricey for italian food as the pizza was $20 something and the pasta were in the range. The pizza was a little soggy and for those two reasons I gave it a 4. Other wise it would have been a 5. read more

Amazing pasta ... can't keep my husband out of my plate :) Sherene is so sweet and a wonderful waitress! The food and service is soooo worth the wait!! read more

over hyped. Waited 1hr and was treated to very salty pasta....all japanese ramen or japanese targeted foods have been salty real salty. Hawaiian restaurants needs more honest reviews not by one time goers. That's why I'm posting read more

Horrible antipasti mixer with prosciutto on papaya and caprese salad and shrimp......not good!! The margherita pizza had one circle of cheese and the rest was sauce so u just got one piece of cheese per slice. The poached egg pizza was also disgusting. Its not for american italians more like a japanese style italian place.. if you've ever been in japan you might know what I mean read more

You don't feel like you're in Waikiki anymore when you're in this restaurant (other than for the Japanese on the menu and the Japanese tourists in the seats next to you). It's a small little place that's actually kinda romantic. I ordered the fettuccine with shrimp and arugula in a homemade tomato sauce - it was very good, with a generous amount of shrimp. My husband ordered the gorgonzola and asparagus pizza, which he also enjoyed (the gorgonzola was a bit strong for me, but my hubby's a big cheese fan). For dessert, we had the tiramisu, which was good, but really pricey ($9) for the small square you get. Overall, it's a great place for date night. Oh, and do call ahead to get on the waitlist - it was so nice to get there and be seated right away. (Thanks for the tip fellow yelpers!) read more

Wow this place is good! beef carpaccio very simple in taste but good! Lasagna da bomb.5 stars on food .but the downfall is no Parking,must make reservations or your gonna wait a while! and even though I dont go there to eat bread,there bread is really salty!otherwise wow a great Italian resturant read more

Just a very fine little Italian restaurant with an excellent choice of foods. Italian entrees are done very well and the pizzas are outstanding. read more

Started the meal with the Island Ginger cooler, refreshing! This is a restaurant we wanted to try couple days ago but they were fully booked. Today again is fully booked right at 5! Portion was on a small side but the sauce of the pasta was rich enough, no need for large portion. I had an uni pasta with cream wine sauce, excellent! Never had uni in my pasta. Pasta was el dente, perfectly executed! Hubby had pizza with garlic, kids had pasta. Everyone loved the food! Tiramisu was good. read more

There seems to be some confusion about the location of this place, this review is for the arancino that is right next to mariot hotel. The food is simply amazing. Had blue crab zuchini pasta and shrimp pizza, both were so good. It was a bit pricey: $22 and $23, but still worth it. Excellent service too and a nice location near the beach. read more

I really enjoyed the food here. After 8 days eating Asian in Waikiki, it was delightful to eat at this place. I ordered a salad and the sea bass. The salad did not come as described on the menu but it was still delicious. The sea bass was very tasty. Our server Madi was prompt and pleasant. . The place is small, go later in the evening to avoid the wait. Definitely order their tiramisu! read more

We had a very delicious and intimate valentine's dinner here. Loved the food, the ambience, the feeling of being in busy waikiki but also nice and cozy to be in a smaller restaurant with excellent service and friendly waitstaff. also nice to have free validated parking for 3hrs, so we took our time and walked around to the shops. Yup, I'm a fan, I recommended it to my mom. I agree with the others, make reservations. read more

Great pizza and pasta although pricey. Get the "owner's favorite" pizza, it's loaded with shrimp, garlic, cheese and other great ingredients. Their pasta is also wonderful as their sauces are un-conventional and you can tell a lot of trial and error went into creating the recipes. read more

Service was good the manager came out to ask how the meal was. We ate outside which was comfortable but the street noise was over bearing. No carbonara, no draft beer, the bread was not Italian, it was a spongy...i don't know what. I had morrarella and basil, the tomato sause tasted like campbell soup I kid you not. As an Italian American I was disappointed. I would like to try some of their other dishes and would be willing to give them another chance. read more

My wife and I had two excellent dinners here and, thanks to someone's last minute cancellation, were able to be seated immediately. The restaurant is small and cozy, and most pastas are in the $22-$25 range (the entire range goes from $15 for penne arrabiata to $37 for a pasta with lobster). Pizzas are 10" and are mostly $20 and up. The tirimasu is excellent as well. read more

Where is the cheese?? This place is quintessential tourist trap in Waikiki. We were at the food trucks across the street and decided here as we saw crowd (mostly Japanese tourists if that gives you a hint). Service is typical snotty slow italian attitude. We ordered pizza and its the biggest joke. Pizza had no cheese pizza had no sauce. Don't get fooled by the wait outside and keep walking.... read more

Arancino - Italian Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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Great pasta and pizza place. The uni spaghetti was awesome. I'm from LA so I know quality. This was by far the tastiest restaurant I've been too on Waikiki and I've been here 4x in last 3 years. The pizza was good also. Great bread. Place gets super busy and packed. read more

After eating rice plates, burgers, and ahi poke for a few days my family and I were just craving for some Italian cuisine. Trusting the reviews from Yelp, we decided to try Arancino. Though they do not take reservations, they do put your name down on their waiting list if you call 30 minutes before you show up to ensure a "shorter" wait. They DO have a long waiting list as the evening goes on. So an earlier dinner (5:30-6:30 PM) is encouraged if you want to avoid the long wait. The service was excellent! Michelle, our waitress, was so attentive as she constantly made sure that our glasses were filled and continued to bring more Foccacia bread when our basket nearly got empty. The food was so refined and exquisite. One of the best comments I've heard from my father during the evening, as he savored his "Fettucine a la crema" was: "This dish tastes even better than all the pasta dishes I've had in Italy." And he's a hard one to please, when it comes to his palate! read more