If you've come around Shaka Tours during lunchtime, you've seen me eating a pokebowl. I get one almost everyday I'm in Waikiki. Except on weekends, and not because they're not open (they're only closed on Tuesdays), but because the already bad free parking situation in Waikiki is even worse on weekends.
"So, Mike," you say, "does that mean that this 'Ono Seafood place is so far from Waikiki that I have to drive there?"
No. 'Ono Seafood is 1.1 miles from Shaka Tours at 747 Kapahulu Ave. Not so far that you couldn't hoof it, but just far enough that I become a sweaty mess during the endeavor, plus I need to make haste so I can get back to the office.
So what is it? It's a healthy helping of poke on a bed of rice for $7.00, and it comes with a drink.
For those uninitiated with poke (po-kay), think Hawaiian style sashimi. Cubes of raw fish - most typically 'ahi (yellow-fin tuna) but any seafood may do - are marinated in shoyu (soy sauce), ginger, limu koho (a crunchy seaweed), 'inamona (crushed roasted-candlenut), ginger, green onions, and a little red pepper flakes for kick. That is, of course, just one recipe, but it's more or less the recipe for the "shoyu poke" at 'Ono Seafood.
The real secret to good poke is the fish. Fresh is the best, and Aunty goes right to the source and gets her fish fresh from the fish auction at Pier 38. She's also generous with her scoops, sometimes there's half-a-pound of fish on my bowl.
It's one of the best deals around, and a delicious, authentic Hawaiian dish that locals devour. Plus, it's loaded with options: The flavors she has are shoyu, Hawaiian-style (less shoyu and more Hawaiian sea salt), Spicy (the pink one in the pictures), Miso, Wasabi, and you can get it in either 'ahi or tako (octopus), or get half/half any two for $0.50 more.
Just make sure you don't miss it! It's the little blue hole-in-the-wall, only the width of two parking stalls, in the corner of the American Savings Bank parking lot.
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