Where to Eat and Drink in Honolulu for the Holidays

Start booking your dinner reservations now.

Make your reservations soon for Christmas and New Year’s Eve dinner.

Photo: Courtesy of 53 By the Sea

Just as Santa Claus gets treated to milk and cookies during the holidays, you, too, can get treated—but to more than just milk and cookies. Different restaurants in Honolulu are offering special menus and buffets for the holidays. Here’s our suggestions on where to dine, drink and be merry.

CHRISTMAS

Turtle Bay Resort

Start Christmas Day with an all-you-can-eat brunch while enjoying ocean views at Turtle Bay Resort’s Kuilima Ballroom. The lineup includes bowtie-pasta salad with pesto dressing, sashimi, cheese platters, garlic-rubbed prime rib, whole roast suckling pig and desserts such as gingerbread pudding. Santa will be there, too.

Dec. 25, 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., $69 for adults, $35 for children ages 4 to 11, Kuilima Ballroom at Turtle Bay Resort, 57-091 Kamehameha Highway, 447-6805.

Bernini Honolulu

Bernini Honolulu is opening its doors half an hour earlier than normal on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The six-course dinner menu includes your choice of the stewed Angus beef with Barolo and potato purée or the roasted quail and Italian porcini sauce for the main entrée. For dessert, the restaurant is serving up a chocolate mousse with homemade maraschino cherry.

Dec. 24 and 25, opens 5:30 p.m., $95 or $120, Bernini Honolulu, 1218 Waimanu St., 591-8400.

d.k Steak House

The two-day special menu offers several choices of appetizers and entrées. For appetizers, choose between a red wine-braised Kulana short-rib ravioli ($14) and the crispy Hood Canal oyster sliders ($14). When it comes to entrées, select from three offerings: seared boneless rib eye ($44), kiawe-smoked Hudson Valley duck breast ($33) or a prosciutto-wrapped fresh Island snapper ($32). (You can also ask about the New Year’s Eve menu.)

Dec. 24 and 25, d.k Steak House, 2552 Kalākaua Ave., 931-6280.

Sansei Seafood Restaurant & Sushi Bar Waikīkī

Enjoy Christmas Eve and Christmas Day specials at Sansei Seafood Restaurant & Sushi Bar. Special items include two different types of sushi from the sushi bar: a rainbow carpaccio (fresh ʻahi, salmon, snapper, Granny Smith apples, mint, Thai vinaigrette, cilantro pesto and chili oil) and a fresh salmon tartare (yukari, shichimi, yuzu kosho ponzu, Maui onions, Japanese cucumber and Ho Farms cherry tomatoes). The menu also features a caprese flatbread ($9.95), Asian-braised Shinsato Farm pork belly ($27.95) and a vongole fettucini ($26.95).

Dec. 24 and 25, Sansei Seafood Restaurant & Sushi Bar, 2552 Kalākaua Ave., 931-6286.

Tiki’s Grill & Bar

Tiki’s is offering a special four-course dinner menu for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Choose between a spiced butternut-squash bisque or a roasted Island-beet salad for the first course. That’s followed by a lobster and scallop ravioli, an herb-brined, slow-roasted game hen for the entrée and an eggnog cheesecake for dessert. (Tiki’s also offers a festive New Year’s Eve prix-fixe dinner menu.)

Dec. 24 and 25, 4 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., $49, Tiki’s Grill and Bar, 2570 Kalākaua Ave., 923-8454.

NEW YEAR’S EVE

53 By The Sea

Dress up in cocktail attire and head to the Kaka‘ako Waterfront for 53 By The Sea’s New Year’s Eve Countdown Party. Musical acts of the night include Jordan Segundo of American Idol fame. General admission is $100, bottle service starts at $750 (with admission for six guests) and private rooms start at $1,500, with personal service and gourmet appetizers. Champagne will be provided for the toast. And the seaside views of Waikīkī are spectacular, perfect for the fireworks show at midnight.

Dec. 31, doors open 9 p.m., 53 By The Sea, 53 Ahui St. Must be 21 or older, 783-3403.

Japengo

End the year with a four-course menu at Japengo’s, featuring fresh seafood, grass-fed beef and desserts. The meal starts with a Dungeness-crab salad and hibachi prawns. The next course is a steamed catch of the day with kukui-nut and black-truffle butter, limu, tomato and ginger scallion. For the entrée, the restaurant is serving a petite filet mignon and Kona lobster. Dinner ends with a dessert duo: a Waialua Estate flourless chocolate bar and a signature coconut crème brûlée. Japengo also has a vegetarian menu.

Dec. 31, 6 to 10 p.m., $145 per person, Japengo at the Hyatt Regency Waikīkī Beach Resort and Spa, 2424 Kalākaua Ave., 237-6180.

Halekūlani

The Hawai‘i Pops orchestra will be providing music for Halekūlani’s “Swing Under the Stars” New Year’s Eve Party, so get ready to dance the night away for an entertainment-filled evening on the Kawehewehe Lawn. The different restaurants at the posh Waikīkī hotel will have special dinner menus and cocktail service to ring in the New Year.

Dec. 31, concert runs from 9 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., Halekūlani, 2199 Kālia Road, 923-2311.

Hawaiʻi Prince Hotel Waikīkī

Feast on the last night of the year with buffet favorites at the Prince Court located in the Hawaiʻi Prince Hotel. The buffet menu includes crab legs, sushi, shrimp and scallop scampi, dim sum and prime rib.

Dec. 31, 5 to 9 p.m., $76 for adults, $38 for children 6 to 10, Prince Court at the Hawaiʻi Prince Hotel in Waikīkī, 100 Holomoana St., 944-4494.

The Kāhala Hotel & Resort

Count down to the New Year with a festive oceanfront party at The Kāhala Hotel & Resort’s Maile Ballroom and pool area. Stations include an oyster bar, maki sushi, a prime rib carving station and a special dessert bar. Beer, wine and Champagne will also be flowing throughout the evening. And you can get down on the dance floor with tunes provided by classic soul/funk/R&B local band HonGruv and a live DJ. And, when the clock strikes midnight, enjoy a fireworks show with synchronized music. If you’d prefer to have a more intimate gathering at dinnertime and then join the countdown party after, consider making reservations at the hotel’s two restaurants. Hoku’s is offering two seatings—5:30 and 8:30 p.m.—for a special five-course dinner. The first seating is $150 per person; the second is $250 per person, which includes access to The Kāhala’s countdown party. Courses include Maine lobster wtih a winter-yuzu jelly and a sous-vide Miyazaki beef striploin with roasted butternut squash. The Plumeria Beach House is serving a dinner buffet, too. The first seating, which starts at 5:30 p.m, is $90 for adults and $45 for children under 12. Second seating, which starts at 8:30 p.m., cost $190 per person, which includes access to the New Year’s Eve party. The buffet includes an array of salads, appetizers, carving stations and desserts. 

Dec. 31, Countdown Party 2016, 9 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., $100 hotel guests, $150 non-hotel guests, $80 children ages 4 to 9, The Kāhala Hotel & Resort, 739-8760.