Food is a big expense. You don’t realize it because it’s $6 here, $20 there – $75 for a family meal of 4 if you go out to eat because your kids ordered drinks and you didn’t stop them. Why don’t they know the drill yet? Water for EVERYONE, dammit. I probably spend more money on food than anything else in my life which is highly disappointing to me because all you do is poop it out. Seems like a waste… literally.
I know there are foodies out there where food is their THING. Dropping hundreds of dollars on a meal is ok for them, because they value that. I don’t. I value feeling full in both my stomach AND my wallet. It’s really tough for me to justify spending more than $50 on a meal for my entire family.
But we do. Because I hate to cook. So food is a weekly wallet drain – eating away at my income.
Vacation eating
When we plan for vacations I have to plan on spending a decent amount of cash on food. I say “plan” very loosely. I don’t budget. When I use the word plan here, I just mean get my mental state in the right place to accept the fact that my wallet is going to leak for a week. Warm up that MasterCard, Kris. It’s getting abused for food.
When we went to Hawaii earlier this year, I mentally prepped myself for the fact that our typical vacation food expenses would probably be double. Thank goodness for those COVID relief checks…
I’m not a food critic
Frugal person that I am, I thought it might be helpful to give a quick review of the food places we ate at while in Oahu, Hawaii. In case you have plans to travel there….or just want to read about our experiences. Because I won’t sugar-coat it and I won’t blab on for ages giving you a review that takes longer to read than your food does to digest. We all have better things to do. and I’m not a food critic.
(By the way, did you know I created a food review website where you can track your fam’s reviews of what they ate? Can’t remember if your kid likes the chicken fingers or pizza at Applebees? Use my food review tool on www.forkitup.app. It’s free to use. I mainly created it for my own use, but wanted others to have access to it as well.)
Food website aside, this post will just be a quick review of the restaurants. Most of the places we chose were based on recommendations from online forums, and I was disappointed for the most part. I’m not picky about food…but when a place is recommended – I set a certain level of expectation. Food should be decent and I shouldn’t mind dropping cash on it. But alas, I was mostly disappointed.
Check out the list below, categorized by taste, and keep in mind should you travel to Oahu.
Ew
Zippy’s – this is a local chain in Hawaii and was recommended to get a flavor of where locals go to eat. It was gross. Like Denny’s but worse.
Leonard’s Malasadas – people rave about these donuts and I just don’t get it. Granted, I’m not a big sweet eater,but Scarlett wasn’t even a big fan and she’s a sugar fiend. Not worth it.
Decent
Paradise Cove Luau – I was warned ahead of time how lackluster the food is at the luau. You go for the show, not the grub. The food was not amazing, but it wasn’t inedible either. Buffets are what my family needs because you can pick a mixture of stuff, try things, toss what you don’t like, and go back for more. Yes the whole thing was pricey but you got a show with it and a ‘complimentary’ mai tai. I didn’t mind dropping the cash here. Probably wouldn’t do it again but I think everyone has to do a luau once if you are visiting Hawaii.
Mina’s Fish House – this was the one “fancy” place we went to. We sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful view of the lagoon. But taking kids to fancy places is just a waste. They are never satisfied with the food. It was OK but the portions were small and for the money you spend, it’s just not a good balance for me. We don’t do fancy at home so this was a splurge since we were on vacay. The girls love getting all dressed up but would have been happier eating pizza.
Cheesecake Factory – this wasn’t planned. We wanted to go to Duke’s in Waikiki but the wait time was ridiculous. Since we were starving after our hike up Diamond Head crater, we looked around for places to eat and settled on Cheesecake Factory. I had wanted to find something more local – a place we couldn’t eat at when at home, but this was nearby and no wait. Sold! Vince was getting hangry and I needed to feed the beast. The menu at CF is like a Stephen King novel but it’s fine. No one ever craves the food there, let’s be honest. You go for the cheesecake, obv.
Island Country Market by ABC Stores – this is all the rave in Hawaii. ABC Stores are convenience stores on crack. They have all kinds of souvenirs you can buy, alcohol, groceries/essentials, and made to order food. I’m marking this as decent because 1) it was convenient – we could walk across the street, 2) the food wasn’t bad and there were plenty of options for the kids and 3) the prices weren’t astronomical (comparatively).
Yum
Island Vintage Coffee – right across the street from our resort and some of the best coffee I’ve ever had. I am still thinking about their acai bowls. Priced comparatively to Starbucks but 100% better. There’s outside seating and if you’re lucky you can cozy up next to a rooster.
Aulani food – Aulani is the Disney resort we stayed at while in Hawaii. It’s a beautiful location and the food was pretty darn good. We did poolside/casual dining and were not disappointed. Poke bowls, salads, pizza, quesadillas – nothing schmancy but edible, reasonably priced, and convenient. The only thing I won’t recommend is the shaved ice. It looks really cool because it’s shaped like Mickey Mouse, but the taste isn’t worth the cost. If you have little kids, you will be forced into buying it. But if you have older kids or if it’s for yourself, save your money and buy the ice off property. There are tons of other places on the island.
Check out the food trucks on the North Shore. I hear they have some goodies. We didn’t go there because the lines were entirely too long for our plans.
Impressed?
That’s it, folks – my thorough and extremely helpful review of food in Oahu, Hawaii is complete. Clearly you can’t plan a trip based on the info I gave you. I recommend these Facebook Groups to help you plan. They were extremely helpful for me. Even if you aren’t staying at Aulani, it’s good stuff:
Happy to help anyone who is planning to go, or chat with anyone who’s been. Hawaii is an addicting place. Writing about it makes me get the urge to go back ASAP.
It truly is a slice of pricey paradise on earth.
