Eating House 1849 is a Roy property. I’m glad I went, even if it’s part of a chain and inside a mall.
I am more likely to revisit Kauai and check out the Big Island before returning to Honolulu, but I’m glad I visited Honolulu.
I didn’t have time to visit the Ala Moana Center. Here is an Eating Guide https://onolicioushawaii.com/ala-moana-center/
I’ve visited 4 or 5 Roys. The prices are quite something. Typically you won’t get an entree for less than $30. And the execution is often a 5-6/10, but they are ever popular because of their namesake’s reputation, and the fact that many tourists are both one-timers and also don’t have sophisticated tastes. So it always sounds good on the menu (and I’m sure in the cookbook), but the taste doesn’t rise to the occasion.
As for Duke’s, totally fun atmosphere, but not the atmosphere I’m looking for during covid. And I just don’t find anything there that justifies the typically 90-120 min waits.
Thanks appreciate your help 
Thanks I too hate waiting & crowds but being from NYC I am used to paying high prices for food & drinks but in these times crowds are turn off.
NYC is such a great eating city, from low to high end, that if you know good places there, you’ll be disappointed by a lot in HI restaurants. If you haven’t been to HI, go for the location, go for the scenery, the beaches, the mountains. Don’t go for the food. It’s an eat to live place.
I truly enjoyed the food during my stay. I wouldn’t describe it as an eat to live place at all.
The farmers’ markets, the fish, the fruit, the Hawaiian dishes, the coffee, the macadamia nuts. Most of my meals were at least an 8/10. I did have recommendations from several Chowhounds who spend a lot of time in Hawaii, including one who grew up on Maui, and my 6 nights on Maui I dined with some foodie relatives who planned the restaurant meals ( Lineage and Star Noodle, and a few lower key spots for local specialties).
I spent around 30 minutes on one beach during my entire 14 day stay. Lol.
I’m not quibbling with you about the foodstuffs that they grow or their fish which are high quality. My remark is on their restaurants. OP is coming from NYC, arguably one of the top 10 global eating cities. Honolulu isn’t going to impress him. We’ve been to 4 islands in HI, and a total of about 10 trips. Literally none of the meals were memorable beyond a few months. And there were times we did plenty of research and consulted lots of Chowhounds etc. It’s ok that we have different opinions. OP will go and form his own opinions too and probably disagree with us both to some extent.
I am not convinced living in Manhattan gives someone more credibility or gives them some sort of experience that makes them appreciate Honolulu restaurants differently than someone who lives in Boise, Tampa or Albany. For what it’s worth, I lived in Manhattan for a year, and visit once a year.
While there aren’t as many good restaurants in Honolulu, and it’s a much smaller city, in a state with a different cost of living, my tasting menu at Alan Wong’s (now closed) was easily as good as my last tasting menu at Tocqueville (prepandemic, before it merged with 15 East).
I’m sorry you haven’t enjoyed your restaurant meals in Honolulu or elsewhere on Oahu.
Agree that everyone is entitled to their opinion.
Hey I really appreciate your passion.
I don’t expect to get nyc “quality “ anyplace other than nyc.
That being said my travels from Asia, Central America & Europe I have experienced some amazing meals.
Couldn’t compare my meals in Florence to Italian food in NYC.
Every region has a great experience waiting to be discovered.
A question for those who are experienced, Is Kona ‘s coffee comparable to the coffee in Cartagena?
Thanks for all your passion and suggestions. I am looking forward to seeing how this all shakes out.
Re Luaus on Oahu, please avoid the Polynesian Cultural Center luau at all costs. It was the worst food experience I have had in the past decade. The food is slop. Low quality salmon in the Hawaiian salmon dishes. It tastes like mediocre cruise food. The desserts were lower than grocery store cake level.
The atmopshere is a Mormon Polynesian theme park.
The Polynesian Cultural Center is owned by the Mormon church, so the Luau is also dry. $10 USD for virgin piña coladas.
There is a college campus nearby, and many of the teen and 20something staff members at the Polynesian Cultural Center are students on scholarship from various Polynesian islands, as well as from various States . The school is connected to Brigham Young somehow. I hadn’t appreciated the role the Mormon church and other missionaries had played in Hawaii’s history. Which is interesting. Hawaii’s muumuus (dresses) have a lot to do with the Missionary past, encouraging locals to dress more conservatively than they would have before the Missionaries arrived.
Perhaps because of the focus on the family in the Mormon culture, the staff at the Luau treated single people terribly while I was there. They made me wait by myself while they seated dozens of couples and families ahead of me, even though I had been lined up for half an hour like everyone else. One staff member gave me a hard time because I didn’t pose for a photo with the teenage staff dressed like Polynesians. Eventually the staff seated me with a grandmother, mother and teen, and 2 single ladies travelling together, at a table further back from where the couples and families were being seated .
After the luau, there was a little show, and the Host invited anyone celebrating a honeymoon on stage. Then invited everyone celebrating an anniversary on stage. Then invited any families celebrating together to stand up.
It was the most hostile hospitality I experienced in Hawaii. I almost didn’t go to Hawaii because I was single, and not in a relationship. It took courage to do it on my own, and it’s a shitty thing to do, to make someone feel excluded or more alone when they are going to socials alone.
I wish I went to a smaller luau on Kauai.
On the way back to the hotel, the bus driver, who I’d been friendly with all day, on the Circle tour of Oahu included with my package, which visited the Dole plantation, deluxe VIP tour of the Polynesian Center ($$$) and Luau, asked if I could move back to the seat above the rear axel. The bumpy seat on the bus with no shocks, for the hour long drive back to Waikiki. I asked why I couldn’t sit on the seat where I had been seated all day, first row, behind him. I had been the first pickup of the day, my hotel was the first pickup. It turns out, he was saving what had been my seat for a couple from Akron who had been seated further back. They weren’t even back at the bus yet. Most of other seats were full except the first 2 rows and the uncomfortable seat above the axel.
I waited for the couple from Akron to get on the bus, which they eventually did, and the driver then proceeded to place this Akron couple’s case of pineapple they purchased on the other pair of front seats.
As a single 46 yo woman, I had less status on that tour bus than a case of pineapple. The couple from Akron were not part of this scheme, and were nice people. I asked them if I could rotate the pineapple so it took up one seat, and sit next to the pineapple in the front row. They said, “of course.”
I usually tip tour guides and bus drivers when I take tours, and that guy got nothing. When I got off the bus, the bus driver asked me if everything was alright. 
He was still fishing for a tip, after treating me like that.
Hopefully another luau exists on Oahu. The Polynesian Cultural Center luau is the one that’s easiest to find on the internet.
Wow, that’s some story.
Overall, I found most restaurants very hospitable. Apart from the luau, and one hotel restaurant in Princeville that seated me and other 3 other single people , separately, at 4 person tables, all facing a fake waterfall in the dark, I didn’t have any restaurants treat me as a lesser person because I was dining alone . I was alone for 4 days on Oahu and 4 days on Kauai, and with 3 other people for 6 days on Maui.
A couple taxi drivers and one hotel reception were a little nosy, asking me if my husband or someone special would be joining me on my visit.
I chose to sit at the bar if restaurants had a lot of couples or families, or if the restaurant had a romantic vibe. I find it nicer to talk to people at the bar, if I want to meet people or socialize a little over dinner. The bartenders and servers often make sitting at the bar a good experience.
When I traveled as a single man everyone assumed I was on business so I was never “ discriminated” against.
This trip I am going as a couple so not expecting anything unusual.strong text
What an awful story. It is so demoralizing and rage-inducing to be treated as less than as a single woman. BTDT. Perhaps that is why Hawaii has never been very high on my list, no matter how spectacular.
I do encourage you to go, some day.
It is beautiful. I’ve never seen scenery like that. I had some beautiful meals, experienced a beautiful sunset with a piña colada in Hanalei. Life is short.
I developed some more strategies for my single girl travelling toolbox. I would go back to Maui and Kauai, and I want to go to the Big Island.
I almost didn’t go to Santorini and Mykonos for the same kind of reason. I have only been to the Caribbean as a bridesmaid ( 
twice) and with family. I am so glad I went.
I had even asked where single people stay, on TA, when researching Hawaii and Santorini when I was in my mid 30s, and a little less confident about travelling solo. (Of course single people stay at the same hotels as couples and families in Hawaii and Santorini- the trick is finding out which hotels are the most welcoming and inclusive to solo travellers)
Truth is, because so much tourism is so focused on making the money as quickly as possible, a lot of people and businesses in the industry focus on the newlyweds and families, on celebrations involving groups, on conventions. They’re shortsighted.
A good business makes everyone feel welcome.
I let the Westin in Princeville know they could do better. I also complimented the hotels and restaurants that got it right. I might start a thread for single girl travelling hacks not to hijack this thread!
I have been lucky enough to have traveled extensively and, like you, have a toolbox that has served me well. Avoiding the typical honeymoon places is one strategy. My sister and her family want me to go to Hawaii with them so I may get there one day.
Sushi Sho - one of the best (if not the best) sushi bars in the US at the moment
Waiahole Poi Factory
The Curb Kaimuki for coffee to pair with your malasada from Leonards (I highly recommend the Haupia filled malasadas)
Senia
Miro Kaimuki
Canoe House (Big Island)
Thanks for adding to my expanding lists
Much appreciated.
Aloha Steve,
Get a plumeria Lei asap to set the mood. There are stands at HNL or in Waikiki
On Oahu, I would suggest 3660 On The Rise in Kaimuki, Town, Side Street Inn, Happy Family for casual Chinese food, Da Ono on Kapahulu for authentic Hawaiian. Eggs and things for breakfast. Try the spam spinach and pepper jack omelet. Liliha Bakery for coco puffs, trust me. Leonard’s for Malasadas. Nobu and Roy’s (miso glazed seabass and ribs. Chef’s Table for French towards Hawaii Kai. Don Quixote for interesting Hawaiian fruits, specialties and supermarket foods. Go to Kailua Beach Park. Visit Hanuma Bay. Hy’s for old school steaks
On the way to North Shore, get a Huli-Huli Chicken from Rays. Don’t come back without having one. Get a slipper lobster if at all possible. You will probably not be able to. Chef Mavro for excellent tasting menu. Show stopper! Visit John Martin for authentic Koa wood rockers and various furniture and small items (we have used his coffee measure cup daily for thirty years). He did our entire dining room. They have shops in Malls.
FYI there’s a Costco on the way to North Shore off H2
Get to Ted’s on North Shore for Hula pie. Stop at Black Pearl Source for exquisite Tatian Black pearls in unusual settings. Haleiwa Cafe for breakfast, local surfers’ spot
Sit at Waimea Bay. Watch the waves. Don’t let your feet touch the wet sand. Only pro surfers venture into the water this time of year. Go into the water in Kailua Beach Park, the Winward side of the island, which is tranquil and spectacular.
Alas, the beloved Alan Wong fell victim to Covid.
On Big Island, Greenwell Farms for Kona coffee and Kettle Cook’d chips for locally produced crispy potato chips. Mac Nuts for Macadamia nuts and farm tour. Merriman’s in Kamuela is a must stop and Kuleana Rum Works. Go to the Kamuela Farmers’ Market. Visit with Alvin at Kamuela Liquors for an extraordinarily informed wine and liquor connoisseur. You’ll be shocked. Tell him you were referred by a friend of Bruce and Randdee, the " Italians" Walk thru Mauna Lani and stay at the beach. See the petroglyphs. Eat on the water at Canoe House at sunset.
Drive west from Kona to Havi. Try to get local gardenias the size of your hand. See a number of quaint shops then turn east off 19 towards Kamuela (Waimea). The route through Parker Ranch is one of the most spectacular rides I have ever experienced; assuming the VOG is not permeating the air and blocking the shore view on Big Island and Maui depending on wind direction, looks like LA) from Kilauea Volcano. Kona Chips is also excellent. . If you’d like to go sport fishing, call Steve Kaiser on the Medusa, Kealakekua Harbor. He’s the best
Arrive at let the Aloha Spirit be with you throughout your stay on the islands; and stay with you wherever you go forever!
Safe Travels!
Thanks this was like reading a tour guidebook appreciate the effort hopefully can do half the things you suggested. Sounds pretty complete.
