Hawaiian Food

Ono Hawaiian food and Leonard's malasadas. A perfect combination and literally within a few blocks of each other.

Ono Hawaiian Foods is a little hole-in-the-wall family restaurant just down the street from the touristy Waikiki beach in Honolulu. One couple we met while standing in line had been coming for over thirty years! Pictures of famous Hawaiian stars as well as snapshots local families cover the walls.

The elderly owners are also the waiters and well as the cooks, in addition to their small staff. Not knowing what to order we picked out a couple of sampler platters, only to be told -- "that's too much food" followed by an excellent suggestion of what to get instead (and they were right!). (You can see her serving dishes in the first photo).

Leonard's Bakery is just down the street and just serves pastries, what could be better? The sweet scent of friend dough can be sensed from at least a block away, so by the time you get inside you can only thing of one thing: malasadas (which are similar to jelly donuts).

We brought bought some malasadas with us to the airport. The security ran it through the X-ray scanner. The screener wasn't sure what he was looking at. "Don't worry, it's just malasadas" the guard shouted to the other and let it pass through.

Can't make it to Hawaii? check out the Kauai Family Restaurant in Seattle for some amazing and authentic Hawaiian food.