Best food on Oahu for vegetarian travelers

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Hawaii in not known for being cheap, and it’s also not really a place you think of as having good vegetarian food. It’s a bunch of islands in the middle of the Pacific where their most famous foods are pineapple, poke and spam. One of those three I can get on board with. The other two I wasn’t too excited about. I’m a vegetarian and my boyfriend doesn’t really like seafood. What were we going to eat? Well luckily Hawaii, and Oahu in particular, has some amazing food. I found some great vegetarian options in Hawaii, and we managed to find some pretty reasonably priced places to eat. After non-stop eating for 10 days I think we found some of the best food on Oahu, but read on to discover more about what we had.

Where did we eat?

Since neither of us had been to Hawaii before we weren’t really sure where was the best area. We were landing in Honolulu and realized that the most popular places were either the North Shore or Waikiki. Since we had plans to go to the Big Island during our trip, we wanted to be closer to the airport (click here for airport transfers from major Hawaii airports). So we ended up renting an Airbnb in Waikiki. We ate out in Waikiki quite a bit, but during our trip we also rented a car and spent a few days driving around the island of Oahu. Because of that we managed to find some other places to eat that were amazing and just a little bit more off the beaten track. Here are some of the places we found and the best food on Oahu we ate on our trip.

Vegetarian guide to the best food on Oahu

I don’t eat any meat at all including seafood. If you do eat seafood and are more of a pescatarian then you will have infinite options in Hawaii. I still managed to do pretty well though. We also managed to take good advantage of Happy Hour menus and found places with good deals. 10 days in Hawaii and eating out most days can get quite expensive so why not save where you can right?

Buho Cocina y Cantina

We found this amazing Mexican restaurant after searching online for cheap Happy Hour menus. It was in a mall that seemed to get more and more ghost like the further you went up, and this place was on the top floor. But the restaurant opened up onto a huge patio that was all outside, and with great views. As it turns out the Happy Hour is pretty specific. Sit at the tables, no Happy Hour. Sit at the bar…Happy Hour! We sat at the bar. A big long bar with plenty of seats. And plenty of food options. The menu was really big with so many vegetarian options.

Not satisfied with ordering just one thing I set out on my personal mission to order everything I’d ever wanted to try for my very own Mexican feast. At what point does Happy Hour stop making sense? Is it when you order more food because it’s cheaper but you end up spending more that if you’d just ordered the one thing you really wanted on the regular menu? That was me. I started with the Mexican corn. Had the goat cheese quesadilla (very gringa I know) and Jeff had a gargantuan burrito. We also got chips, salsa and guacamole to share.

Slice of Waikiki

So you’ve made your way around some of the bars of Waikiki, and you’re looking for a late night snack. Let me tell you that this is the place for you. The hole in the wall pizzeria has slices for sale or full pies. It’s about $5 a slice, but they are massive. Like as big as your head big. The wait was a little long for a slice place, but it was worth it, and this pizza hit the spot after a long day and a couple of beers by the beach. I swear it wasn’t just the beer that made it one of the most delicious pizzas I’ve had. Don’t believe me? Try it yourself. Great vegetarian options and meaty options too.

Taps & Apps Brewpub, Mililani

It just so happened that my dream Hawaii vacation coincided with the NBA playoffs. Lucky me. Because of that, I found that sports dictated an increasing amount of my trip schedule. We went out for the day in the car, but since we would need to find somewhere for the mid afternoon basketball game, we had to look for somewhere near where we were. This pub was really good. They had tons of beers on tap, lots of great local beers from around Hawaii. And the food was really good. There were a number of vegetarian options but I actually ended up going with what I thought would be a lighter appetizer, forgetting that despite the tropical climate I was still very much in America. And in America, everything’s always bigger. Enter my “appetizer”.

The candied macadamia crusted pineapple goat cheese with a balsamic reduction was a beast of a cheese that I am ashamed to say I struggled to get halfway through. Rich and creamy, filling and served with a boat load of bread and crackers, it was amazing and I felt like I had the cheese version of the meat sweats after it. A really good meal. If you’re staying in Hawaii and looking to get around the islands, check out these rental car deals.

Mahina and Suns

This place is more of an upscale restaurant, part of a hotel, the Surfjack Hotel. And as part of a hotel, it has hotel like prices. That said, a couple things on the menu caught my eye. It ended up less vegetarian friendly than I first realized but what they did, they did well. If you’re up for a light bite I highly recommend the Avocado tacos which are breaded slices of avocado with shishito peppers, red onion and yogurt. They were amazing. Their pizza was fantastic, very tasty, and if you like tofu they have a good looking tofu and grains dish.

North Shore food trucks

On one of our drives around Oahu, we ended up on the North Shore. We had stopped at a number of places on the way, some nice smaller towns, and spent some time sitting on Laniakea Beach looking out for sea turtles. Known as Turtle Beach it seemed our best chance. We succeeded. But after all that turtle spotting and on our way to Kualoa Ranch for our movie tour (read more about our tour of the real Jurassic Park here because it was AWESOME!), we needed to find food quickly. Driving along the coast road with hundreds of our closest friends (yes, it really can get that busy) we pulled in at a parking lot filled with food trucks in Haleiwa, Shark’s Cove.

Boy am I glad we did. There were dozens of options but you know when you just want comfort food despite the almost 35 degree heat? Well I wanted pizza. Enter Jerry’s Pizza. Jerry did a good job. This pizza was amazing. There were a bunch of choices on the menu, and more than one vegetarian one as well as other items like sandwiches, jalapeno poppers and more. Sitting outside eating pizza I was pretty damn happy.

Aloha Burrito Shop

In downtown Waikiki is a small burrito shop that is just amazing. Cheap, less than $10 and for a HUGE burrito filled with whatever you want. It’s like Subway for burritos. Choose your wrap, choose your protein and choose your extras. The vegetarian option was basic but delicious, and customizable which is the key. Fajita vegetables, choice of beans and veggies. Sour cream, guacamole, the whole nine yards. Plus they have a number of delicious salsas. Try the pineapple one, because you’re in Hawaii after all.

Basalt, Waikiki

We originally hunted out Basalt for their Happy Hour menu because it looked like they did some really nice things for a decent price, considering it’s a little more of a contemporary dining place. Happy hour is 3pm-5pm. Their beers are $4 and there are a lot of appetizers for $5-10. Basalt is within a little mall area that has a number of other eating places. But this one has a big bar, outside dining and some fancy food to keep you happy. I went straight for the cheese platter which had about 3 different types of cheeses, dried and fresh fruit, nuts and spreads with bread crackers. It was so good.

Koa Pancake House

On one of our days out driving around the island we decided to stop for breakfast on the way. We found out about a little pancake house that was meant to have great food. There’s a location on the outer edges of Honolulu and another closer to the middle of the island in Wahiawa which is where we went.

It’s a simple diner where you order at the counter and find a seat. Little booths and dated tables and chairs, friendly service and great food for a really good price served on paper plates. I ended up with the red velvet pancakes and they defeated me. They were a little more cakey than pancakey but had a great flavor. I think next time I would go for a more traditional pancake because Jeff had the blueberry pancakes and they were delicious.

Dole plantation

Although this isn’t really a meal, I can’t write about the best food on Oahu and not mention the pineapple Dole whip deliciousness that I would quite happily walk back to (or swim to) Hawaii for. I looked up the Dole plantation and this was part of the reason why we ended up getting a rental car for a couple days. Getting to the plantation by public transit did not look fun. It sounded like hours of work and with less air conditioning than the car. The Dole Plantation is in the middle of nowhere, but packed with people that you’ll be fighting over parking spaces. It’s a Mecca for tourists on the ultimate ice cream hunt. There are tours like this one that go to the Dole Plantation along with other places around Oahu.

There’s a maze, a garden, a train and all sorts of fun activities to suck your wallets dry and wear out the kids. Or you can choose the cheap route of walking around the free areas, getting an ice cream and perusing the gift shop. OK the gift shop ain’t cheap, but you have to buy everything pineapple flavored you never knew you wanted. I got the classic Dole whip with crushed pineapple on it. Worth. Every. Penny. Oh my gosh was it delicious. I love pineapple so this was a dream treat right here. I almost considered making a detour on one of our other day trips driving around Oahu so I could get another. Still regretting that decision.

Finding the best food on Oahu

It’s not an easy task. I spent my vacation trying to find the best food I could, and I think I found some good ones. Great restaurants, food trucks, diners and cafes. While vegetarian food is still not as dominant on the menu as it can be in other places, I found I usually had enough choice in Hawaii. Whether or not I really found the best food on Oahu I guess I’ll just have to wait until I’ve visited more to make that call. But I was so happy with what I found, and I can’t wait for my next trip back to Hawaii to find more. To find more things to do on Oahu, check out these tours and activities on Viator.

If you’ve enjoyed this post leave a comment or share using the social media buttons below. Where have you found some of the best food on Oahu? Bonus points if you can point me to some more fun vegetarian options.