8 Classic Honolulu Dishes That Just Won’t Quit

These dishes never seem to get old.

It’s easy to get caught up in the flash and dazzle of a new dish. But, often, nothing hits the spot like a familiar classic, a dish we eat over and over. We find reliable comfort in these dishes that never seem to get old.

‘AHI TATAKI 

Ethel’s Grill

Photo: Steve Czerniak

Seared ‘ahi sashimi with fresh cabbage, kaiware sprouts and crunchy bean sprouts: If Ethel’s signature dish sounds like something a mom wants you to eat, that’s because it is. When owner Ryoko Ishii’s son Ban was little, tataki-style (lightly seared outside, raw inside) was the only way he would eat sashimi, so that’s how Ishii made it. Regulars who remarked on the dish found side orders brought to their tables gratis. Those side orders became full-order menu items, shoyu-pickled garlic chips were added as a garnish, and today, ‘ahi tataki ranks up there with mochiko chicken as Ethel’s most requested dish. 

232 Kalihi St., 847-6467, $7 side order, $11.50 full-order meal

Onaga baked in Hawaiian salt crust

Chef Mavro

Photo: Elyse Butler Mallams 

Chef Mavro opened in the 1990s, years after George Mavrothalassitis came up with the recipe for his salt-crusted onaga: a fillet of fresh snapper baked in a fish-shaped crust of heavily salted dough that’s cut open with dramatic flourish tableside, the steaming fish revealed and served with a sauce of tomatoes and ogo seaweed. Mavro jokes that customer requests for the onaga make him feel like Mick Jagger getting asked to sing “Satisfaction”—again. But those requests mean the dish returns for a few weeks each year. If it’s not there, you can order it a few days in advance. 

1969 S. King St., 944-4714, part of a $95 four-course prix fixe dinner

Lemon Crunch Cake

Diamond Head Market

Three layers of fluffy sponge cake alternate with layers of pastry cream, lemon curd and a curd whipped-cream mix, all topped with a crunch of toffee bits: It’s a taste as iconic to Kelvin Ro’s plate lunch and takeout spot as it is to downtown Honolulu’s old Alexander Young Hotel, where it came from. “We’re not inventing new cuisine, we’re going back to the basics,” says Ro. “People tell me, nobody makes this nowadays. I get tickled when I can do that for them.” You can taste something similar, though not quite the same, at the Alley at ‘Aiea Bowl, and that’s because pastry chef Shane Masutani once worked for Ro. 

3158 Monsarrat Ave., 732-0077, $4.25 a slice, $38 whole 9-inch cake

Melting hot dark-chocolate soufflé

​Roy’s

Photo: Steve Czerniak

Twenty-five years after he put it on his menu, customers still come up to Roy Yamaguchi to gush about his chocolate soufflé. “They remember where they’ve had it, they bring their kids to try it. It’s pretty cool stuff,” he says. “I don’t even attempt to take it off the menu.” The flourless cake with a dark-chocolate center that oozes forth when you cut in is Roy’s best-selling dessert by far. At Roy’s Waikīkī, the busiest in the chain of more than two dozen restaurants, molten chocolate soufflés fly out of the kitchen at the rate of 100 to 150 a night. 

Multiple locations, $9.50

Hawaiian-Style Curry 

The Willows

Photo: Steve Czerniak 

The peanuts, the shredded coconut, the mango chutney—and the raisins, hard-boiled egg, green onion, bacon and sweet pickles … are we forgetting something? Oh yes, the curry! Seven decades after its debut at the Mō‘ili‘ili eatery, Willows’ Hawaiian curry is still as famous for its array of condiments as for the buttery, gingery, coconutty main dish. Over the years, the curry has survived a six-year closure, a change in ownership and a switch to an all-buffet format. There are three fewer condiments now, chicken’s been added to the original shrimp, and you’ll detect a slight heat, to accommodate changing tastes. But the curry survives. 

901 Hausten St., 952-9200, included in buffets ranging from $23.95 for weekday lunch to $40.95 at dinner

Pipikaula Short Ribs

Helena‘s Hawaiian Food

Photo: Odeelo Dayondon

The story of Helena’s famed pipikaula can be written in two chapters: Before Man vs. Food and after the Travel Channel show came to visit. Before, local customers had long accorded iconic status to the 64-year-old eatery’s toothsome, salty-meaty, half-inch-thick ribs that fall somewhere between a dry kalbi and a thick, soft jerky. Then in 2009 Man host Adam Richman arrived in the kitchen. Since then, the 150 pounds of marinated ribs hung over the stove to dry every night doubled to 300 pounds—all of it taken down for frying, one order at a time, until it sells out nearly every day. 

1240 N. School St., 845-8044, $15 large, $7.50 small

Ginger-Crusted Onaga

Alan Wong’s

Photo: Steve Czerniak

You think about the guy on the ginger-crusted onaga station,” Alan Wong says. “In one year, he makes that dish more than 10,000 times.” Multiply that by the $39 price of the top-selling entrée, and you can see why Wong keeps it on his classics menu, available any day. The dish, inspired by cold ginger chicken, has been on the menu since Alan Wong’s opened 20 years ago. He’s tried to take it off, but gave up in the face of repeated requests from customers. “It makes me proud and happy,” Wong says, “that we can be so consistent that people will come back for it.” 

1857 S. King St., 949-2526, $39

Blarney Burger

Murphy’s Bar & Grill 

Photo: Steve Czerniak

The irony of the Blarney burger, a bestseller on Murphy’s down-home menu of shepherd’s pie, corned beef and cabbage and other pub fare, is that it was inspired at a Neiman Marcus gala. It was Marion Murphy who discovered the $14-a-pound Irish white cheddar infused with Irish porter from Cahill’s Farm in County Limerick. Set atop thick, juicy beef patties, the beery slices, in striking mosaics of dark chestnut and pale gold, add just enough porter flavor at lunch that you won’t need to order a pint. 

2 Merchant St., 531-0422, $13.25