The 6 Best Ways to Celebrate Cinco de Mayo in Honolulu
Celebrate the fifth of May with a bar crawl through Chinatown, a salsa-dancing contest in Waikīkī and yummy Mexican food everywhere.
Photos: Steve Czerniak
Cinco De Mayo in Honolulu offers a good excuse to eat and drink, so we tracked down some of the most interesting options, since it’s so early in the week this year.
As a holiday, Cinco de Mayo is second only to St. Patrick’s Day in terms of inaccurate and likely offensive racial stereotyping in the name of celebrating. But the partiers mean well, right? It’s fun, the food’s good and it’s way less depressing than Memorial Day.
In the local tradition of cultural mash-ups, celebrate a Mexican holiday by drinking at Irish bars in Chinatown. There will be a “Cantina Crawl” damaniac808.com from 5 to 11 p.m. downtown. Participants pick up a “Lucky Loteria” card from Eleven44, and get it stamped at bars. There’ll be plenty of live music, as well as Mexican food at Maria Bonita’s, and a pop-up restaurant by the taco maestros at Cocina. There will also be a “sexy sombrero” contest.
In Waikīkī, Buho Cocina y Cantina plans to party from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. with Eddie Ortiz and Son Caribe, holding a salsa-dancing contest, as well as a taco-eating contest and a chili-pepper-eating contest. For sticklers, salsa music is Puerto Rican and Cuban, not Mexican. Mexican music has more tuba.
For more traditional Mexican music, check out El Mariachi Loco at Cactus Bistro in Kailua, from 6 to 8 p.m. The Latin restaurant will also be serving chef specials, and cocktails made with a deep menu of tequilas.
Back in town, Honolulu Beerworks will be debuting two new beers: El Jefe and El Guapo. In a perfect world there would be a telenovela called El Jefe y El Guapo, two detectives investigating the supernatural, but we don’t live in that world.
Wahoo’s on Ward Avenue has $3 tacos, and all-day drink specials. Hula’s in Waikīkī has $2 tacos and all-day drink specials. And there’s a brand-new burrito spot opening on South King Street: O‘ahu Mexican Grill—more on that later. omg.menu.
No matter what you decide to do, keep it safe, keep it fun and don’t stress authenticity too much. No one else is.
