Easy Honolulu Food Tour

One of the best ways to get to the soul of Hawaii is with this easy Honolulu food tour.

There are several organized tours to choose from, or be adventurous and build your own.

I contacted Matthew Gray with Hawaii Food Tours.  Unfortunately, his tour was already booked for the day we needed, but he gave me some fantastic places to check out in Chinatown.

We took an Uber to the first location. Then everything was within walking distance.

We started mid-morning … and it turned out to be a perfect time!  These are the five recommendations on the list!

Royal Kitchen, 100 N Beretania St #175

Baked Manapua

Royal Kitchen opens the doors to it’s walk-up counter service early in the morning and serves until early afternoon.  Gray recommended starting with the baked manapua.  He’s right.  IT. IS. DELICIOUS. 

Manapua is a stuffed roll filled with hot, flavorful, roast pork.  The second I bit into the soft, flavorful dough filled with roast pork I was hooked!  

If you don’t like the manapua, don’t worry, Royal Kitchen has all kinds of other things for your to try too. You’ll have options like saimin and pork hash. 

Just be prepared to wait. Even mid-morning this place was packed.

We ate some fantastic food on Oahu’s North Shore too!  If you like shrimp, you’ve gotta check out Fumi’s!

Char Siu House, 1134 Maunakea St.

Char Siu and roasted pork

Char Siu House is just a three minute walk from Royal Kitchen.  The name says it all.  Matthew Gray suggested this place for the char siu and roasted pork.

If you’re wondering about Char siu, it’s a popular cantonese way to prepare pork.

At Char Siu House, all the food is laid out in front of you as soon as you walk into the restaurant.  You’ll order whatever you want by the pound at the counter.  

We decided to go with Gray’s recommendation and walked out with a few dollars worth of char siu and roasted pork to enjoy outside on the sunny afternoon.

Sing Cheong Bakery, 1027 Maunakea St.

Half-moon dumplings

Head west on Maunakea Street for two minutes after you leave Char Sui House and you’ll arrive at Sing Cheong Bakery. 

Prepare yourself before you walk inside.  There are shelves and shelves of sweets and pastries to try.  We ordered half-moon dumplings, but you don’t need to stop with that order.

Have them tuck anything else that looks good into your carry-out bag and enjoy a sweet treat!

Domo Cafe, 1016 Maunakea St.

Ahi Poke

Across the street from Sing Cheong Bakery is your next stop, Domo Cafe.

It’s the perfect place to go after the sweetness of the bakery. 

Domo Cafe is a poke, shushi and smoothie place.  Place your order and grab a booth to sit down and rest while you dive into a bowl of Ahi Poke.  Don’t like Ahi?  You have countless other options on the menu as well.  You can’t go wrong with any of it.

I loved Gray’s recommendation of the ahi poke.  It was sooo fresh and flavorful!

Maunakea Marketplace, 1120 Maunakea St #200

Banana Lumpia

If you’re at Domo Cafe, stay on Maunakea and walk east a minute.  The entrance to the marketplace is in the middle of the next block.  Once you’re inside the market, head to the Filipino cuisine section.  Walk up to the stand and order a banana lumpia. (Don’t worry if you ask for it at the wrong place, they will point you in the right direction!)  Along the way, check out the other food for sale, you may find something else you’ll enjoy!  We ended up loving the warm, fried, banana rolled in brown sugar!

We had no trouble finding the marketplace, but locating the actual booth turned out to be a little difficult for us.  I am so glad we stayed with the hunt and eventually found it!  You aren’t going to want to miss this stop either.

Want to wash down all that food with a cold beverage? Check out our DIY Honolulu Beer Tour.

This ended up being a fun, fast, and filling tour.

And we were able to explore an area of Honolulu we hadn’t visited. 

I’m sure Matthew Gray’s food tour of Honolulu would be amazing given the handful of recommendations he gave us to DIY our tour.

If you have time during your stay in Honolulu, you’ll also want to head to Fumi’s for garlic shrimp and dole whip.  It’s on the way to the North Shore, and totally worth the trip!