November 2023: Our Top 3 Most Popular Posts About the Local Food Scene
Holiday eats were at the top of readers' minds, along with our new restaurant update series.
No. 3: You Voted: Your Top 5 Places to Buy a Holiday Pie on O‘ahu
Photo: Thomas Obungen
Published Nov. 14, 2023
The pie alerts went out weeks before Thanksgiving. Not only were Kilani Bakery in Wahiawā and Epi-Ya Boulangerie in Makiki not taking any pre-orders this year, Lee’s Bakery in Chinatown was closing for the holiday and not making any pies at all. No pumpkin, no custard, no pumpkin-custard swirl pies. The pie-loving public needed to know its best options. For these, we turned to our foodie readers. Their Top 5 recommendations, compiled from our online poll, cover the island from North Shore to ‘Aiea and town.
No. 2: 5 New Eateries to Check Out on O‘ahu in November 2023
Photo: Thomas Obungen
Published Nov. 22, 2023
I got a call one afternoon from Thomas Obungen, who never calls. He texts. Was it bombshell breaking news? Or something terrible? “I was thinking,” Thomas said, driving back from lunch. “That was the third new restaurant I’ve been to this week. What if we did a post along those lines? ‘Three New Restaurants This Week.’”
Thus was born our newest series, 5 New Eateries in (insert month). It’s actually a revamp of our longstanding New & Coming Eateries series, last updated in January. Readers love these posts—they’re consistently among our most popular of the year—but researching and confirming or corroborating info for 10 or more places at a time (our record was 38) is a gargantuan effort. The sheer amount of time required keeps New & Coming posts few and far between, because during the intervals, the list grows to unmanageable proportions, which keeps it perennially on the back burner.
So I breathed a sigh of relief for more than one reason after Thomas’ call. 5 New Eateries, we can easily handle. Look for more of these updates—I promise they’ll be more frequent. And for the new eateries of November, click below.
No. 1: O‘ahu Restaurants’ Dine-In and Takeout Menus for Thanksgiving 2023
Published Nov. 6, 2023
How was your Thanksgiving? If you’re like readers who came back repeatedly to check out this roundup (which grew from 48 to 80-plus menus around the island), you either ate out or picked up your feast of thanks. We started compiling holiday offerings from restaurants, bakeries and food makers during the pandemic, when eaters were hungry for restaurant news and eateries, especially smaller local businesses with no money for marketing or promotions who were hungry for a way to reach them. We used our reach to put as many restaurant offerings as we could in front of a larger audience, creating a win-win for both groups—a tradition we continue today. Look for Holiday 2023 Dine-in and Takeout Menus coming up on this site soon.
