The Best Things We Ate in Hawai‘i in 2024

From a standout banh mi to a dry-aged pork chop and a beef noodle soup that transports us to Taiwan, here’s what made 2024 memorably delicious.

December 26, 2024

Frolic Hawai‘i,

Pork chop at Cino

Photo: Mari Taketa

Pork has been a revelation for me this year, how it can arrive at the table nicely seared but still gratifyingly pink and juicy in the middle. Cino’s dry-aged pork chop is the best example and one I crave. Bare naked on the platter, with only a sprinkle of coarse salt crystals and a clear, singing sauce of apple reduction with Amaro Averna, it’s a pre-sliced medley of yielding flesh and crisped fat with a bonus meaty bone you’ll pick up with your fingers and gnaw, Cino’s dress-up vibes notwithstanding.—Mari Taketa

987 Queen St., cinohawaii.com, @cinohawaii

Saigon Special at Le’s Banh Mi

Photo: Martha Cheng

Le’s Banh Mi made the list in 2022, and this shop at 808 Center still makes my favorite banh mi—perfectly proportioned with pâté, headcheese and char siu, encased in the housemade, soft and fluffy yet delicately crackly bread. It’s probably what I eat the most when I’m not cooking, and I always try to get one for the plane when I’m traveling.—Martha Cheng

808 Sheridan St. Suite 306B, (808) 227-3066, @les_banhmi

Patê Sô at Anh Chị Em Bakery

Photo: Andrea Lee

Buttery. Flaky. Savory. I got lost in the layers of Diana Hai Hoa Pham’s patê sô, a French-inspired Vietnamese puff pastry with a savory pork filling after HONOLULU’s Andrea Lee wrote about Anh Chị Em Bakery. The first bite led to flakes of pastry in my lap, then time stood still as I revisited one of my favorite discoveries while living in Southern California’s Little Saigon. On Saturdays, there’s not much else I want to eat at 10 a.m. —Thomas Obungen

@anhchiembakery

Prosciutto San Daniele at Giovedì

Photo: Katrina Valcourt

Although I’m still working my way through Giovedì’s menu (that’s how much I enjoyed my first few visits), and crave the ‘ahi carpaccio, it’s the bánh tiêu that I can’t stop thinking about. Giovedì’s marriage of Vietnamese and Italian flavors shines in an offering of hollow sesame doughnuts filled with delicate prosciutto and giardiniera, an assortment of pickled vegetables. When Encore moved out of this space, it left a hole in my heart, but Giovedì has filled it deftly. —Katrina Valcourt

10 N. Hotel St., giovedihawaii.com, @giovedirestaurant

The Seven Salads at Leila

Photo: Melissa Chang

The first course of Leila’s prix fixe menu is a dazzling sight as it’s carefully arranged on each table at Leila, a new Moroccan restaurant in Kaimukī launched by chefs Chris Kajioka and Mourad Lahlou. But it’s the intricate, diverse flavors that make these seven Mediterranean “salads” show-stopping and exquisite. Smoky, sweet, tangy, earthy, minty, nutty—you get all of that from the citrusy olives, eggplant with pine nuts and herbs, piquillo peppers, trout roe with dill, white bean hummus, tomato jam with ginger and smoky hearts of palm. Served with warm za‘atar flatbread and vegetables, I could have eaten just this course and come away raving.—Diane Seo

1108 12th Ave., leilahnl.com, @leila_kaimuki

Beef noodle soup at Seasons Taiwanese Eatery

Photo: Gregg Hoshida

Since I started visiting my in-laws in Taipei, Taiwanese cuisine—like oyster omelets served in seconds at a night market, pan-fried pork bao for 30 cents from a street vendor and the huge hunks of fried chicken at Hot Star—slowly has become part of my food DNA. But nothing says Taiwan to me more than a soulful bowl of beef noodle soup. The version at Seasons Taiwanese Eatery in Chinatown’s Chinese Cultural Plaza, with its rich broth, chewy noodles and pillowy cubes of beef and tendon, takes me straight to Taipei. This is the noodle soup you didn’t know you needed until now. —Gregg Hoshida

100 N. Beretania St., Suite 109, @seasons_taiwan_eatery

Cold Skin Noodles at Over Easy

Photo: Robbie Dingeman

A dish from China’s Shaanxi province, this little bowl of clams served with chilled springy liangpi (cold skin noodles), topped with peanuts, spicy, housemade chile crunch, cucumbers and cilantro looked so simple but brought so much flavor. This was the second course of a noodle tasting menu that chef Nik Lobendahn and the Over Easy kitchen crew created in November as an homage to the Chef’s Table Netflix season focused on noodles across the globe. Here’s to more noodle nights in 2025.—Robbie Dingeman

418 Ku‘ulei Road, #103, Kailua, (808) 260-1732, overeasyhi.com, @overeasyhi

Smoked turkey pho at Kapa Hale

Photo: Andrea Lee

The turkey is brined, smoked and braised, while bones are added to infuse even more flavor into the pho broth. Pickled cranberries and a squeeze of lime bring the zest. Smoky and citrusy, it’s a one-two punch of flavor that led me to devour the whole bowl, which unfortunately was part of a special holiday pop-up and isn’t on the regular menu. You’ll have one more opportunity to try it this year though—chef Keaka Lee says Kapa Hale will hold another holiday noodle bar around Christmas.—Andrea Lee

Kapa Hale, 4614 Kilauea Ave. Suite #102, (808) 888-2060, kapahale.com, @4614kapahale

French Dover Sole at Miller & Lux Hualālai

Photo: Maria Burke

Even when a Food Network chef like Tyler Florence is involved, I never expect much of hotel restaurants. Which is why I was surprised to be wooed by this Four Seasons Resort steakhouse. But it wasn’t the meat that beguiled me—it was the French dover sole prepared a la meunière. A beautifully plump, roasted fillet is carefully deboned tableside, then draped in a velvety concoction of browned butter, meyer lemon and capers. The whole thing is then topped with fistfuls of fresh parsley, watercress and frisée. Delicately sweet and vivid, as well as rich and bright—and oh so simple—it’s truly sublime.—Maria Burke

72-100 Ka‘upulehu Drive, (808) 325-8000, fourseasons.com, @millerandlux

Garlic Malungay Noodles at Balai Pata

Photo: Melissa Chang

I still think about this dish at Balai Pata, Joey Macadangdang’s restaurant in Kahului. He tosses chewy noodles in a garlic soy butter, which hits all the comfort notes for me in terms of taste and texture. Don’t believe me? Just ask Koko Head Café chef Lee Anne Wong, who got three orders for her birthday and refers all of her visiting celebrity chef friends there.—Melissa Chang

425 Koloa St., Kahului, (808) 727-2230, balaipatahi.com, @balaipata