Urban Honolulu: Things to Do?

[SydneyHarbour]

I'm going to be traveling to Honolulu soon for the first time and I'm very curious about it as an urban destination. Most of the guidebooks talk about the usual Hawaii stuff but it's harder to find out much about more urban things to do. As someone who loves cities, I'd be appreciative if anyone could point me in the right direction in terms of restaurants serving innovative cuisine, boutique hotels, interesting book or record stores, cool stores, clubs, art galleries/museums and interesting things someone from elsewhere might not expect to find in Honolulu.

[urbanguy]

Hi, those are all great questions!

restaurants serving innovative cuisine: Well Hawaii has it's own cuisine (other than Hawaiian of course) the two main cuisines outside of the native cuisine would be Hawaii Regional Cuisine - the more fancy sit down and dine type which is a mixture of european, asian, pacific island, etc influences (Hawaii Regional Cuisine may include items such as herb-crusted onaga; green curry Keahole lobster; seared Hawaiian ahi with lilikoi shrimp butter; guava-smoked Kahua ranch lamb; blackened ahi summer rolls; Pahoa corn cakes; gourmet Waimanalo greens and vine-ripened tomatoes.) and Pacific Rim which is more casual but is a mixture too and more along the lines of plate lunches.

A few restaurants:

Alan Wong's (808) 949-2526

>Extremely popular serves up Hawaii Regional Cuisine

Chef Mavro (808) 944-4714

John Dominis (808) 523-0955

Roy's Restaurant (808) 396-7697

Indigo Eurasian Cuisine (808) 521-2900

Tudo de Bom (808) 942-0267

> Brazilian BBQ

Casablanca (808) 262-8196

>Moroccan

The Pyramids (808) 737-2900

>Egyptian

Marbella (808) 943-4353

>Spain/Spanish cuisine

Sansei

BTW what cuisine would you be interested in cause there are many: Puerto Rican, Filipino, Hawaiian, Indonesian, Malaysian, Indian, Portuguese, German, Swedish, French, Italian, Mexican, Okinawan, Japanese, Macanese, Singaporean, Thai, Vietnamese, Armenian, Polish, Cambodian, Greek, Korean, Cajun, Soul Food, etc Also, fusion types like Chinese/Italian, Japanese/Italian, Korean/Chinese, Filipino Chinese, etc

example: Chinese Italian Ciao Mein

Some boutique hotels:

The W Honolulu

Hawaii Polo Inn

Waikiki Parc Hotel

Outrigger Luana Waikiki

Aqua Bamboo

Pikake Suites

Ohana Reef Lanai

The Breakers

Some interesting book or record stores:

Jelly's

Rainbow

Geckos

Dragon Book Store

BookEnds

Hungry Ear

Too Groovz

The Beat

cool stores:

Well it depends on what you think is cool to you?

clubs:

It depends on your scene really cause there are many here are some:

Maharaja Ultra Lounge

The O Lounge

Zanzabar

Ocean Club

Pipeline Cafe

Reign

Venus

Feng Shui

Volcanoes

Wave Waikiki

Nicks Ultra Lounge

Blue Tropix

Mai Tai Bar

Mercury

Indigo

Velvet Lounge

Bar 35

Honolulu Club Life

Light Sleepers

Irish Pubs Hawaii - It excludes a fav: Murphys though

808 Shows

Girl Fest

There are many it depends on your scene or favorite music genre

Some art galleries/museums:

Chinatown has many little whole in the wall galleries/boutiques

Downtown Honolulu Arts & Culture District Gallery Map

Next Door

thirtyninehotel

Flor de Cardo Galleria Boutique

Hawaii Theatre

Pegge Hopper Gallery

Ramsay Chinatown Gallery

The ARTS at Marks Garage

Honolulu AfterDark

The Contemporary Museum

Honolulu Academy of Arts

Shangri La

Arts with Aloha

>Has links to some of these places

* Honolulu Academy of Arts

* The Contemporary Museum

* University of Hawai'i Art Gallery

* Diamond Head Theatre

* Hawai'i Opera Theatre

* Hawai'i Theatre Center

* Honolulu Symphony

* Bishop Museum

* Hawai'i Maritime Center

* Iolani Palace

* Mission Houses Museum

Cinema Paradise

Arts Link Hawaii

Some Local Clothing Fashion Stores:

Akane Clotyhing

Buti Groove

Hawaii Wearable Art

Koko Cabana

Hot Mama

Kicks/HI

Flipside

Shasa Emporium

MisFortune

Polyascko2

In4mation

Hawaii's Natural High

Prototype

etc etc etc

To see or learn more about what might be going on when you arrive or prior to here's a couple of cool sites worth checking out:

Hawaii Events Online

Honolulu Weekly

Hope that helps a little. Feel free to ask if you have more specific questions and i will try to help. I'll post more eventually.

[SydneyHarbour]

Wow, thanks for the comprehensive list. I'd read something (I think in an airline magazine a few months back) about how Honolulu was becoming a hip, urban destination and there were some raves about local restaurants. But I didn't save it and it's not coming up on Google though I did find a short NY Times piece. But your list is better than either.

Regarding restaurants, my impression -- and it may be incorrect -- is that, traditionally, they weren't great in Honolulu as they were geared toward indiscriminate tourists. But now local chefs, like their counterparts elsewhere, are doing interesting fusions of local ingredients and global cuisine. That's the kind of thing I'm interested in.

As for cool clubs, any of the dance clubs known for good DJs or a nice, eclectic crowd, or both. Also, any alt-rock, jazz, or hip-hop nights would be interesting to check out, too.

[urbanguy]

^"Regarding restaurants, my impression -- and it may be incorrect -- is that, traditionally, they weren't great in Honolulu as they were geared toward indiscriminate tourists."

I think thats how most of the restaurants were in Waikiki back in the day but outside of Waikiki the restaurants/eateries have always been a fusion of cuisines and good as far as i can remember.

BTW when are you planning on going?

Here are some other sites.

Next Door http://whoisnextdoor.com/

Local Underground Vibe http://localundergroundvibe.com/

Fashionista's Market http://fashionistasmarket.com/

The Lizard Loft http://www.lizardloft.org/

Gourmet Cooking Hawaii http://gourmetcookinghawaii.com/

Hawaii Food Tours http://www.hawaiifoodtours.com/

The Wine Stop http://thewinestophawaii.com/

Sick Dog Events http://sickdog.com/events.htm

[SydneyHarbour]

I'll be there Aug. 25-28

[SydneyHarbour]

Urbanguy,

I can't send you a message via this board's email system so I just wanted to thank you for all of your suggestions. I had a great time in Honolulu.

[urbanguy]

Awesome! Did you manage to take any pics or go to any of the places i posted? Take care.

[SydneyHarbour]

Awesome! Did you manage to take any pics or go to any of the places i posted? Take care.

I wrote a piece for the Travel section of the paper I work for, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas. I went to several of the places you listed. Thanks again.

[ZachariahDaMan]

It looks like there is a lot to do in Honolulu, I wouldn't mind going there someday. So you didn't take any pictures then SydneyHarbour?

[urbanguy]

^Yeah theres a lot to do there, there's always something going

[NCB]

I should be going to Honolulu next summer, I cant wait!

[SydneyHarbour]

I should be going to Honolulu next summer, I cant wait!

You should have a great time. And NCB and Urbanguy, if you're interested, send me your email address (I'm at [email protected]) and I'll send you an electronic version of the story I wrote for the paper.