Ask ten people in Hawaiʻi what to eat and you'll get ten different answers — and they'll all be right. Hawaiian food is a mashup of Polynesian, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, and Filipino influences that plantation-era immigrants brought together on the islands, and the result is a food culture unlike anywhere else on earth. If you're planning a trip, here are the dishes worth building a meal (or three) around.
Poke
Poke (POH-keh) starts with raw, cubed fish — usually ahi tuna — tossed with soy sauce, sesame oil, green onion, and seaweed, then served over rice. Every poke shop and grocery store deli on the islands has its own version, from classic shoyu to spicy mayo to something dreamed up that morning. It's the dish most visitors fall for first, and for good reason.
The Plate Lunch
No introduction to island food is complete without the plate lunch: two scoops of white rice, a scoop of macaroni salad, and a protein like kalua pork, teriyaki chicken, or beef short ribs. It's a direct descendant of the multicultural lunch wagons that fed plantation workers a century ago, and it's still the most honest meal you can eat in Hawaiʻi.
Kalua Pork
Traditionally cooked whole in an underground oven called an imu, kalua pork is smoky, tender, and falls apart at the touch of a fork. You'll find it shredded onto plate lunches, tucked into musubi, or served at a luau alongside poi and lomi salmon.
Loco Moco
A hamburger patty, a scoop of rice, brown gravy, and a fried egg on top — loco moco is comfort food, plain and simple, and it was invented right on the Big Island in Hilo.
Malasadas and Shave Ice
For something sweet, seek out a warm malasada (a Portuguese doughnut with no hole, rolled in sugar) or a towering cup of shave ice, piled with tropical syrups and often a scoop of ice cream or sweet azuki beans hidden at the bottom.
A few more to keep an eye out for:
- Spam musubi — grilled Spam and rice wrapped in nori, sold at nearly every corner store
- Poi — pounded taro root, a staple that predates every other item on this list
- Saimin — a local noodle soup born from Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino broths
Hungry for more than a meal? Our Hawaiian Food & Drink collection turns these island favorites into wearable art — shirts made for the foodies, wine lovers, and grindz-obsessed ʻohana in your life.
Bring the islands home: Explore our Hawaiian Food & Drink collection — original designs from our Native Hawaiian–owned studio in Kailua-Kona, Hawaiʻi. Here are a few of the newest additions:
Hawaii Foodie Life Tee — a love letter to plate lunch, poke bowls, and everything ono.
Aloha Wine O'Clock Tee — for sunset happy hour, lanai-side.
Craft Beer Hawaii Tee — for the local-brew, taproom-hopping crowd.