While not one of the most popular tourist destinations, this is one of my favorite spots to eat in Hawaii. Chinatown is only about 10 square blocks, but it has most of the charm of the major Chinatowns in the US. There are several open-air markets with a wide range of seafood, meats, and one of my favorite dishes, fully cooked ducks. There are all sorts of other great Asian street food options all over Honolulu, but this one has a little more of an authentic feel to it. There isn’t much as far as trinkets or other souvenir shopping that you might find in other US Chinatowns.
Chinatown Fancy Restaurants
There are two of them that I would consider “Fancy Pants”, with a few more that might take offense if they didn’t make the cut of this list. The first one was slammed, I could not even get a seat at the bar, so I went to the second one down the street, “Pig”, it was very good. I prefer a more diner hole in the wall experience in a typical Chinetown, but most of these places don’t have bars, or adult drinks, so fancy pants won out today.
Chinatown cafes
There is an abundance of small cafes serving up Dim Sum and other traditional Chinese food. Most of them are small shops with just a handful of tables. There are a few nicer establishments, but these smaller ones give this area of town a real local charm.
Vietnamese Pho in Honolulu’s Chinatown
I did not have a chance to visit one of the many Pho restaurants in Honolulu’s Chinatown, but they all look authentic, and while not Chinese, they are prevalent in the area. More so than Korean BBQ, and there is very little Japanese food in this part of town. You can find these options in abundance in Waikiki.
History of Honolulu’s Chinatown
While building any fun blog, one must assemble a set of fun facts. Since I’m banned from using AI for this particular fun blog, I get to hunt around for fun facts the hard way. While this has some obvious disadvantages, I do get to deep dive into historical stories that I might miss by AI cheating. Honolulu Chinatown has experienced 2 major fires. The first one in that late 1800’s, while devastating, was not that interesting. The fire of 1900 on the other hand, was set on purpose in an attempt to control the bubonic plague. That is not something that you run into very often this late in modern history. Cue up movie quote reference from the natural please.
Honolulu’s Arts District
On the eastern edge of Chinatown you will find the Hawai’i Theatre and the area known as the Arts District. From my walkabout it seems just a part of Chinatown. The first Friday of each month they galleries and other businesses put on a street fair like event. “Chinatown Art Walk” It’s on our to do list.