Honolulu, Hawaii - Day 1

Our first official full day in Honolulu, Hawaii!!!! This was the view from our hotel room and it was phenomenal!! We overlooked Kuhio beach park and the vast expansiveness of the Pacific Ocean. It was awesome!

McDonald’s

2476 Kalakaua Avenue, Honolulu


For our first breakfast, we decided to head to the McDonald's across the street from our hotel to try the "famous" breakfast only available in Hawaii. This particular McD's was open 24 hours a day so that was pretty convenient for us hungry travelers when we arrived really late the previous night due to a delayed flight.

Back to breakfast. When people think of a local food specialty of Hawaii, what do people think? Loco moco? Pineapple? How about Spam? Yup! One of the well-known items of Hawaii is the ubiquitous Spam and rice. At McD's, you can find it on their deluxe local big breakfast platter. 

Deluxe local big breakfast – Spam, Portuguese sausage, scrambled eggs with rice, packet of soy sauce for seasoning, orange juice

It also came with a couple slices of Portuguese sausages. W and I shared this for breakfast and it was just enough for the two of us. That's a pretty hefty portion of rice you know. Aside from the eggs not being the fluffy scrambled eggs that I wanted (what else do you expect from McD's?), everything else was the way you'd expect it to be: salty, meaty goodness paired with plain, tummy filling starch.

Marukame Udon

2310 Kuhio Avenue, Honolulu

After breakfast and a breathtaking (literally and figuratively) hike up Diamond Head, we headed back down to the city for lunch. A couple of our friends recommended Marukame Udon for their fresh, handmade, authentic udon noodles.

Marukame is famous for their Sanuki style udon noodles. Sanuki is a region of the Kagawa prefecture in Japan known for producing their signature chewy, toothsome, al dente noodles. I think, on any given day, the line-up to eat here goes out the door. There's also a window at the front to let you see the noodle-making and cooking process.

The restaurant actually employs a cafeteria-style ordering system in which you walk along a counter and go through the following:

Step 1: order your choice of udon (employees will take your order and cook it on the spot)

Step 2: add your choice of tempura or musubi (each type is differed by price; self-serve style)

Step 3: add your own sauces and condiments to your liking; also self-serve style (tempura sauces, chili flakes, wasabi, tempura crumbs, green onions)

Zaru Udon – cold udon served with a side of cold dipping sauce

It seemed pretty logical to eat something cool on a hot sunny day so that is why I chose the Zaru udon. For my sides, I had tempura prawn, asparagus, Kabocha squash, and a piece of deep fried chicken.

Ontama Bukkake Udon – bukkake sauce topped with a soft poached egg

W had the Ontama Bukkake udon which was a bowl of noodles bathed in a savoury and sweet-ish sauce and topped with an incredibly silky soft poached egg. Breaking the egg yolk into the sauce added extra depth and helped the sauce adhere to the smooth noodles. YUM! For his sides, he selected a tempura prawn, Kabocha squash, and mushrooms on a skewer.

Waiting in the line up was definitely worth it as the noodles were everything I expected. The sides were actually a bit of a let down but the fresh, toothsome udon, the Ontama egg, and sauces more than made up for it.

Cheesecake Factory

2301 Kalakaua Avenue, Honolulu

For dinner that day, we decided to get take-out from The Cheesecake Factory. There was no way we were going to wait 2 hours for a table inside. That's crazy!! From ordering to cooking to retrieving our food, it only took 30 minutes. I felt so smug when we walked away with our dinner passing through the huge crowd of hungry, waiting patrons HAH!

I forgot to take pictures of our meal that night but this was what we ordered.

Garlic Noodles ($15.50) – spaghettini, fresh asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, oven roasted tomatoes and parmesan in a delicious garlic sauce

Seared Tuna Tataki Salad ($18.50) – fresh ahi tuna lightly seared rare with avocado, wasabi pesto, tomato and mixed greens, tossed with shallot vinaigrette 

From taking in the view up the top of Diamond Head to taking a dip in the crisp blue waters at Kuhio beach, while filling up with tasty, satisfying food along the way, I'd say our first day in Honolulu was a blast!