my partner and i found ourselves visiting basalt almost every day of our weeklong trip on oahu…read morebecause every item we ordered off their menu was spectacular! they balanced flavors beautifully with super fresh ingredients and focused on the texture as much as the taste. we honestly never would have expected some of our favorite meals on the island to come from a restaurant tucked away in the back of an unassuming food court on kuhio ave! PICTURED 01. citrus-cured salmon toast: country bread, lemon-cream cheese, scrambled eggs, capers, red onions, chives, waipoli mixed greens ($22) if i could eat this for breakfast every day, i could envision becoming a morning person. i loved how the citrus and capers brightened every savory bite. the bread was perfectly toasted and the vegetables were wonderfully crisp. 02. crab cake benedict: english muffin, kale, two poached waialua eggs, hollandaise, yuzu kosho honey mustard, sidewinder potatoes ($28) this was a refreshing take on a classic breakfast item. the crab cake and potatoes were salted just right! 03. charcoal buttermilk pancakes: guava strawberry sauce, ash whipped cream, berries ($20) these pancakes were a DREAM: fluffy and accompanied by sauce that was not too sweet!

Basalt got a new chef and it shows. The restaurant continues to be nice and clean and the service…read moreis very good. Our sever was very friendly and efficient. She gave us great recommendations. I'm glad we took her advice. The pork loin with butternut squash special was delicious. Every bite was tender and had a wonderful balance of flavors. The pear salad has amazing fresh pear slices with a wonderful complement of greens, cheese and salad dressing. I'll definitely go back during my next trip.

Took my aunt here, she loved it!…read more Pros- the food, always delicious! Service, always great too! The biscuit with honey butter... after my aunt took a bite, she said, "wow!" It was quite tasty! Another fun and tasty meal! Cons- parking if you drive, but if you take a Lyft or an Uber, you'll be fine!

Second time dining at Fête and had another amazing experience. The staff are quick, knowledgeable,…read moreand friendly. The food is outstanding and there are a ton of unique cocktail options. We started with a shrimp elote special and the chicken liver mousse. The shrimp elote was unique and flavorful. The mousse was my favorite thing of the night. So rich and creamy and the cherry marmalade paired so well with it. Love that they provided ample bread to go with it. I had to try the la chancla cocktail - the mayo washed mezcal caught my eye. It sounds a little strange but it was very good and was quite strong. For entrees we got the carbonara and zucchini lemon risotto. The carbonara was really rich and the Portuguese sausage added a nice touch. Looking at pictures of it beforehand I was worried the portion size would be small but it's served on a large bowl making the portion look smaller than it is. The risotto had a refreshing tangy sweetness from the lemon. Both have the option of adding on crispy prosciutto for $4. We didn't but saw some that other people ordered and it looked amazing - next time! One of the servers there provided a great recommendation with a wine pairing for the carbonara and let me try a rose before committing. It wasn't something I would normally have chosen but it worked well and I'm grateful for his helpfulness.

This is another hidden gem for Filipino Breakfast. If you're craving tapsilog and all the classic…read moreFilipino silog plates, this spot delivers. The place is small inside and can get crowded, but the wait was totally reasonable. I loved my fried fish Filipino breakfast, especially with vinegar on the side, simple, comforting, and so good. Even the little flower garnish was a cute touch. If you're looking for a home-style Filipino breakfast, Guieb Cafe is definitely worth checking out. Just come a little early or be prepared for a short wait!

One of my favorite restaurants to eat at on Oahu! The location is hard to find in a small run down…read morelooking strip mall and parking is crowded AH and there's usually a line to get a table BUT IT'S WORTH IT! The servers are all super friendly and attentive and the orders are accurate and come out quickly. My faves are the Adobo fried rice omelet with lechon kewali and Ube pancakes but everything we've ever had is ono!!

Service was amazing. We brought our 8 year son to celebrate mom's birthday. Although he would have…read moreeaten his on entree, they offered to cook him a plain buttermilk chicken and rice which he loved! We enjoyed ourselves and savored every dish. We had the prie fixed menu. The scallop dish was my favorite, and the "baked potato" was my wife's. The dessert brought a smile to all of us and they were nice enough to include a serving for our son. Definitely would recommend eating here!

The 7 course meal was disappointing. How does bacon baked potatoes and sour cream belong on a…read morecourse meal dinner?! The entire menu was so basic, pork buns? Fried chicken? The meal was heavy salty and greasy. We gave it a chance but soon realize we should've just done ala carte. Maybe ala carte would have been less disappointing. The yellowtail crudo was very good, other than that, I do not recommend. We even added a foie gras to elevate but it was just not it. Service and ambiance was great. This was suppose to be our anniversary dinner! We should've known when it was so empty!

Great service, atmosphere and food!! The drinks hit the spot too!!…read more Add this as spot when coming to Waikiki!!

...and I mean WOW…read more WOW. My friend and I walked past this place so many times, and every time I said " I'll never go in there. Probably fake, cardboard food. People paying for the name." Boy was I wrong. My GOODNESS. That food was some of the best I've had on the island. Including Signature. Including Asian spots with someone's grandmother and auntie in the back cooking. I was blown away. We tried the bar first - a mojito and an IPA. Mojito didnt taste like much but it carried me the rest of the evening. The bartender told us about their happy hour and invited us back. We decided to come back the very next day for the scallop sliders and lobster spring rolls, along with a salad. The scallop sliders was some of the best food I've ever had. My goodness. The salad, not on the summer menu, but one of their standard salads...phenomenal. The mango salsa from the salad was quite helpful to the lobster spring rolls, which didnt really have a strong leg to stand on. They were just ok. But the other items more than made up for it. Add friendly, prompt service and we'll be making that run again and again. So glad my friend convinced me to stop talking smack about it and give it a try. I'm a believer!!!

We'd like to say thank you for all the wonderful memories. We stopped by Mariposa one last time and…read moreenjoyed their chicken broth and popovers with all of my children. Everyone will truly miss this restaurant. Mahalo.

First off I had to mention that this spot has a great view of Ala Moana beach park. Just for that…read moreit makes this place worth visiting. The appetizers they bring you hit the spot, I really enjoyed the chicken consume. Don't know what will happen to this place once Neiman Marcus closes, but I hope they will stick around somehow!

I had such a wonderful time at Maze. Made reservations a few weeks ahead. There seems to be…read moreconflicting reports about parking, but there is a limited designated parking spots on the side of the building that is shared with dry bar. The interior feels very nature inspired and felt like the menu followed the theme with Korean cuisine influences. The pairing menu was so good and highlighted each dish. Each dish was so impressive and well thought out. My favorite was the beef with banchan, low key felt like eating Korean bbq but in the most elevated way. It's been a few weeks since my visit but I'm still dreaming of the corn and black sesame shaved ice dish! Thanks for such an incredible time team members at Maze!

Have had Māze on the to try list for quite some time as a few people I follow on IG post pics when…read morethey head to HNL. An old friend knew we were heading back and sent me an IG post where Māze x Bar Leather Apron were doing a collab on Mon and Tues. Sjnce we didn't have dinner plans, we showed up at around 4:40 only to see 1 other person waiting in line as we were searching for parking. To our surprise, there were 7 people in front of us by the time we lined up! Sadly we were seated at a high top table off in the corner as a lady took the last open seat. For this collab, they didn't have a ton of food items so ordering was fairly straight forward, ordered 1 of everything. First cocktail I had was the pepper-tonic which was quite tasty! Otsumami - consisted of 3 snacks (seasoned cashews, pickled cabbage and warm olives). Thought the pickled cabbage was quite tasty and the cashews were just so so. Skipped the olives since I'm not a fan but the wifey enjoyed them. Salmon - it was mentioned that this was the chef's signature dish but sadly was mediocre for me. The salmon had a very distinct flavor which I wasn't a fan of. Wagyu - tartare on potato paves which was sadly just ordinary for me. thought the tartare lacked flavor. Cheese - unique twist of what i was expecting. the flavor of the dish was good but wished there was more of a crunch to it. this wasn't hot when it was brought out so perhaps it was sitting a bit before it was served to us. Fries - likely my favorite dish for the night but sadly our order seemed like 1/2 everyone else's portion as our bowl was half filled while other customers were filled to the top. ended up ordering another order just to snack on while I enjoyed the imperial cocktail. Enjoyed the casual ambience of this collab but sadly not sure we'd come back for a regular set meal in the future. This week's menu seems to be more thought out and wished they had their "baked potato" last week. Will definitely head back to Bar Leather Apron as their drinks were fantastic!

Food and atmosphere was great as usual. Came in for lunch with group of coworkers, and timing was…read moreperfect (beat the crowd). Hostess& Wait staff very friendly and personable. Shout out to Shanice (sp?). Having your "local" card doesn't hurt.

We had such a great experience at Restaurant 604 today! Kalei was absolutely wonderful. She was so…read morefriendly, attentive, and genuinely made our time there even more enjoyable. Everything came out perfectly, the food was great, and we never felt rushed even though we were sitting there enjoying ourselves for a while. Great service can really make an experience, and Kalei definitely did that for us. We'll absolutely be back and would love to have her as our server again!

The waitstaff went above and beyond for the service I received! They were able to accommodate a…read moretable change to watch the fireworks better, as well as recommend what dishes were popular on their menu. The kind worker also took photos of me with the beautiful view! They have a live piano player playing live music, and they dim the lights when the fireworks show goes on. It was a wonderful time and I definitely would come back again with friends to enjoy a nice time together, or even just on my own. The backdrop of Waikīkī is beautiful! The Kanpachi and Miso butterfish was excellent. The Kanpachi was crispy yet tender as you bit into it and I loved the kabocha puree that gave it some sweetness. The Miso Butterfish was also excellent. It came with rice that had fish eggs on it as well as some seaweed. I really enjoyed the pairing of the miso butterfish with the rice, since the Kanpachi did not come with rice. I really enjoyed my time at this establishment and would definitely want to come back for another special evening! They have outdoor/indoor seating so do keep that in mind if outside elements may influence your experience depending where you sit.

Solera, previously known as The Terrace, previously known as La Vie... Whatever name this…read morerestaurant is calling itself doesn't really matter as the food and service has always been consistent. Solera is located in the Ritz Carlton hotel with free valet and a beautiful view. This is an open air restaurant but despite the humidity it was actually really cool, temperature wise. My husband and I dined here last minute after a failed attempt at trying omakase (another story for another day) and we were happily surprised with how great of a time we had. The receptionist was super kind and took a few pictures without complaint of my husband and I, and our server was very nice as well. No complaints on the service. Now, onto the food. We ordered: - Ku'uipo (Sweetheart) Seafood Platter: Super fresh and tasty! It came with two shrimps, two oysters, lump crab, and ahi poke. The lump crab was surprisingly really good and there was a LOT. I only wish that there was some type of cracker or toast to eat with it. Otherwise you're pretty much eating lump crab by itself- not that that's a bad thing, but something to compliment it would have been ideal. - A5 Wagyu Deviled Eggs: I've never tried these before but they were actually really delicious! Super cute and perfect as a one bite appetizer. Definitely get the caviar on top if you can as well. - Miso Butterfish: This was pretty good but honestly it was HUGE. I couldn't eat the whole thing but I appreciated that it wasn't tiny. I think it came with way too much of the rice, but everything was pretty tasty together. - Butcher's Special Steak Cut: Really, really good. The steak was perfectly cooked. How can you go wrong? - Complimentary Birthday Dessert: I don't know exactly what it was, but it was so cute and really good! Overall, Solera is a pretty solid place for a nice date night or a special occasion. The only thing that knocks it from a 5 star to a 4 is that it is on the expensive side especially for an ala-carte menu. They do have a chef's pre-fixe menu at $100 per person which is much more reasonable, but we didn't care for the pre-fixe menu items at the time of visiting. Regardless, I'll definitely be back when I want to splurge on a dinner!

The first breakfast we had on our vacation was at Deck. located at the Queen Kapi'olani Hotel in…read moreWaikiki. We were seated immediately at a table that afforded us an excellent view of Diamond Head. The unhindered breeze gave the place a relaxed island vibe. Service was top notch with friendly and mindful servers who made sure we were comfortable and answered any questions we had concerning the menu items. We decided on the Diamond Head breakfast with the Portuguese sausage and the Tokyo style pancakes. The Diamond Head Breakfast was the standard two eggs, meat and potatoes. But the Tokyo style pancakes were excellent! They were fluffy with ricotta cheese incorporated in the pancakes. This is our first experience with this type of pancake and it was delish! It was well worth the visit!

We visited Deck for brunch around 10:30 AM with a party of 8 and had a reservation. Our server was…read morefriendly, although they were pretty busy with other tables, so we didn't get checked on as often throughout the meal. It wasn't a huge deal for us, though. The food was good! We tried the truffle fries, calamari, haupia French toast, kim chee fried rice, and braised short rib loco moco. Everything was tasty, but if I had to pick one dish to order again, it would definitely be the kim chee fried rice, as the portion was huge & tasted yummy. We also shared a few bottles of mimosas, and the iced mocha was delicious and perfectly chocolatey. One thing to keep in mind is that it can get pretty warm, especially during the summer. They have a large covered area and can cover portions of the restaurant that are getting direct sun, but if you're visiting during the daytime, I'd definitely recommend bringing a portable fan. You could also call ahead and request a table that isn't directly in the sun. Overall, we had a great brunch experience and would definitely come back again!