Restaurants

You won't go hungry on Oahu. The full range of choices here includes chef-owned glamour restaurants, neighborhood eateries, fast-food joints, ethnic spots, and restaurants and food courts in shopping malls.

Our recommendations are organized by location, beginning with Waikiki, proceeding to neighborhoods west and east of Waikiki, and ending with the Windward Coast and the North Shore.

The culinary scene seems to change each year, and the current trends in Hawaii center on emphasizing organic and locally grown produce (with some restaurants actually naming the farms that grew the lettuce), small plates, sample tastings and even bite-size desserts, interesting and unusual specialty sandwiches on a variety of breads (from spelt to wraps), and exotic salt (in a range of colors and flavors). Hawaii regional cuisine and Pacific regional cuisine still reign supreme in Hawaii, as well as Pan-Asian and Mediterranean.

Whatever you have a hankering for, you'll find it on Oahu. My advice is to be adventurous, try new and different cuisine, and sample foods you've never heard of. It's moments like these that create great memories.

Waikiki

Dining in Waikiki 24-7 -- If your flight to Honolulu arrives late and you're starving, your knight in shining armor in Waikiki is the newly opened MAC 24-7 (which stands for Modern American Cooking, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week), at the Hilton Waikiki Prince Kuhio Hotel, 2500 Kuhio Ave. (at Liliuokalani Ave.; tel. 808/921-5564). All day, every day, the kitchen offers everything from breakfast, lunch, and dinner to snacks and desserts, and the bar pours drinks all day, except between 4 and 6am. It's not just for late-night dining (although it comes in handy, as Waikiki eateries shut down by 10-11pm), it's also a great place to get picnic lunches during the day.

The cuisine is coffee shop/diner "comfort" food, reasonably priced for Waikiki ($4-$28, with most entrees in the $15-$28 range), and plenty of it. Portions can feed two and, in some cases, three people. My pick for best meal of the day is breakfast, where the six-pack of buttery cinnamon rolls ($6) will feed three and the yummy wild blueberry pancakes ($15) are supersized (three pancakes, each one 14 in. in diameter), plenty for two hungry people. Another must-try from the menu: the delicious meatloaf with garlic mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy ($18). The view from the floor-to-ceiling windows is of the landscaped gardens in the lobby. The decor is sophisticated but sparse with splashes of bright color, and the waitstaff is friendly and helpful.

Downtown

Downtowners love the informal walk-in cafes lining one side of attractive Bishop Square, at 1001 Bishop St. (at King St.), in the middle of the business district, where free entertainment is offered every Friday during lunch hour. The popular Che Pasta is a stalwart here, chic enough for business meetings but not too formal (or expensive) for a spontaneous rendezvous over pasta and minestrone. Some places in Bishop Square open for breakfast and lunch, others just for lunch, but most close when business offices empty.

Note: Keep in mind that Restaurant Row (Ala Moana Blvd., btw. Punchbowl and South St.), which features several hot new establishments, offers free validated parking in the evening.

The North Shore

The Shrimp Trucks -- The best, sweetest, juiciest shrimp you are ever going to eat will be from a shrimp truck on Oahu's North Shore. Several trucks line up around the entry to Haleiwa, just off the Kamehameha Highway, but here are my two favorites:

Giovanni's Original White Shrimp Truck (tel. 808/293-1839), which usually parks across the street from the Haleiwa Senior Housing (or McDonald's), claims to be the first shrimp truck to serve the delicious aquaculture shrimp farmed in the surrounding area. The menu is simple: spicy, garlic, or lemon-and-butter shrimp. Skip the lemon-and-butter (boring), and go for the garlic (my fave) or the spicy (but beware -- it really packs a punch.) The battered white truck has picnic tables under its awning, so you can munch away right there.

Holy Smokes: Hawaiian Meats and Seafood, the other truck parked in the same area, has a bit more extensive menu; in addition to the famous shrimp, it offers pork spare ribs ($10), smoked chicken ($9), and a steak plate ($12).

The trucks are usually in place before noon and stay until about sunset. Depending on how much shrimp you can down, expect to spend no more than $12 per person.

LUAU! -- The sun is setting, the Tiki torches are lit, the pig is taken from the imu (an oven in the earth), the drums begin pounding -- it's luau time! And now there is a luau on the North Shore, the Turtle Bay Resort presents its Voyages of Polynesia Luau on the lawn overlooking the ocean. It includes a "Taste of the Islands" luau buffet and a Polynesian revue featuring the songs and dances of the Tuamotu Islands, Samoa, Tahiti, Fiji, and Hawaii. Tickets for the Friday-night dinner and show are $95 for adults and $65 for children ages 4 to 11. To book, call tel. 808/293-6000.

Hey, No Smoking in Hawaii

Well, not totally no smoking, but Hawaii has one of the toughest laws against smoking in the U.S. It's against the law to smoke in public buildings, including airports, shopping malls, grocery stores, retail shops, buses, movie theaters, banks, convention facilities, and all government buildings and facilities. There is no smoking in restaurants, bars, and nightclubs. Most bed-and-breakfasts prohibit smoking indoors; more and more hotels and resorts are becoming nonsmoking, even in public areas. Also, there is no smoking within 20 feet of a doorway, window, or ventilation intake (no hanging around outside a bar to smoke, you must go 20 ft. away). Even some beaches have no-smoking policies (and on those that allow smoking, you'd better pick up your butts and not use the sand as your own private ashtray -- or face stiff fines). In Hawaii, breathing fresh clean air is "in" and smoking is "out."

Room Service from 50 Different Restaurants

You are not limited to the room service menu in your hotel room; Room Service in Paradise (tel. 808/941-DINE [3463]; www.941-dine.com) delivers almost a dozen different cuisines (from American/Pacific Rim to Italian to sandwiches and burgers) from oodles of restaurants to your hotel room. All you do is select a restaurant and order what you want (peruse the online menus or pick up one of the magazines in various Waikiki locations). You are charged for the food, a $7.25 to $8.25 delivery charge in Waikiki (more in outlying areas), and a tip for the driver. Both lunch and dinner are available; call in advance, and your food will be delivered whenever you want. Best of all, you can pay with your credit card.

Tasty Tours for the Hungry Traveler

See Honolulu -- one restaurant at a time. Former Honolulu newspaper food critic and chef Matthew Gray has put together "Hawaii Food Tours" to show you a side of Hawaii that you would not discover on your own. He offers three different types of tours, all with transportation from your Waikiki hotel in an air-conditioned van and all with running commentary on Hawaii's history, culture, and architecture. Our favorite was the "Hole-in-the-Wall Tour," a lunch tour from 10am to 2pm for $99 per person, where you visit at least four different ethnic restaurants (Vietnamese, Indian, local food, and dessert). Mathew has already preordered the best dishes from their menus. He also offers the "Hawaiian Feast in Paradise," a three-course feast in contemporary Hawaiian foods for $149, and a "Gourmet Trilogy Tour" of three different restaurants with everything from champagne to a decadent dessert for $199 per person. For information and booking, call tel. 800/715-2468 or 808/926-FOOD [3663], or go to www.hawaiifoodtours.com.

Attention Condo Dwellers: Fix, Freeze & Feed Dinners

If you are staying in a condo or other accommodations with kitchen facilities, there is an alternative to eating out every night or slaving over a stove during your vacation, and its name is Dream Dinners. Dream Dinners, Niu Valley Shopping Center, 549 Halemaumau St. (tel. 808/373-1221; www.dreamdinners.com), is a "meal assembly kitchen," where you gather all the ingredients for your own heat-and-serve meals, using the recipes and prepared ingredients they provide. After signing up online and booking an appointment, you go through an assembly line choosing various fixings for your entrees. You can freeze or just refrigerate the meals and serve a gourmet dinner for a fraction of the cost of eating out. When this guide was published, entrees (which included chicken with honey, garlic, and orange; lemon fish filets; arroz con pollo; lasagna; steakhouse sirloin; and risotto primavera) ranged in price from $4 to $6 per serving. The downsides of this great money-saver are that it's only best for groups or families (you choose 3-6 servings per dinner), it's located in Niu Valley (away from most visitor accommodations), and you need at least 1 to 2 hours to do your "shopping."