Cutting food costs can help keep your Hawaiian vacation within your travel budget. Say “Aloha” to all those island delicacies with these cheap eats in Honolulu.
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Rainbow Drive-In
For the best local food at cheap prices, don’t miss the no-frills diner known as Rainbow Drive-In. This brightly coloured local institution will fill you up for less than $10 with some of the island’s best flavours. Mingle among the surf crowd that dines here daily as you wait for a heaping plate of barbecue, fish or spam, and for a real local delight, dig into the loco moco plate.
Bogart’s Cafe
Start your day off right without breaking the bank with a stop at Bogart’s Cafe. Here, locals come for two things: the hot breakfast bagels piled with egg, cheese, spinach, tomato and your choice of meat for less than $8, and the $9 acai bowl, considered one of the best on the island. The location is perfect for a pit stop before or after a hike up nearby Diamond Head, too.
Ono Hawaiian Foods
You won’t find a trendy dining room at this beloved Honolulu hole in the wall, and after just one bite, you won’t really care, anyway. This award-winning restaurant offers up local plates of kalua pig, chicken long rice and laulau. For the best deal, opt for the $22 combination plate that comes with enough kalua pig, laulau and sides to easily feed two. Bring cash, too, as credit cards aren’t accepted.
Highway Inn
Highway Inn has been serving island favourites to locals for more than half a century, and they’re clearly doing something right. Traditional loco moco, fried rice with meat or kimchi and the beef stew plate are favourites here, where you’ll eat for less than $15.
Nico’s Pier 38
“Gourmet” and “seafood” rarely go hand in hand with words like “affordable” or “budget friendly”, but at Nico’s Pier 38 on the Honolulu shore, you’ll feast on just that: cheap, gourmet seafood. It doesn’t get much fresher than Nico’s, where the seafood comes straight from the fishermen’s boats — and you won’t pay extra for that luxury, either. Pan-seared ahi, fried ahi belly, poke bowls and grilled fish sandwiches will all please your palate for less than $15.
Helena’s Hawaiian Foods
Over the decades, Helen Chock’s 68-year old eatery has attracted the attention of “Man vs. Food” and even earned itself a James Beard Foundation’s Regional Classics Restaurant Award — and yet you can still fill up here for between $10 and $15. All the local dishes are well represented, including long rice chicken, poi, short ribs, poke, lomi salmon and kalua pig.
The Old Saimin House
It might look like ramen on the surface, but with toppings like spam, there’s no doubt that saimin is a uniquely Hawaiian take on the dish. Dig into the local noodle scene for less than $10 with a lunch date at The Old Saimin House, where you can indulge in an extra-large order of saimin for a whopping $6. Udon and a variety of fried noodles round out the experience at The Old Saimin House.
Kua’aina Sandwich
Surfboards fittingly adorn the walls of this Honolulu institution, where some of the island’s best burgers and sandwiches are served up daily. Go truly Hawaiian with Kua’Aina’s pineapple burger, which will set you back between $7.50 and $7.90, depending on if you want a one-third- or half-pound patty. The avocado burger (which is topped with an entire avocado) is another favourite.
(Main image: eekim)
