You can’t go wrong with any of Zetton’s restaurants, which include Aloha Table, Heavenly, Aloha Steak House, izakaya Zigu, and Paris.Hawaii (another restaurant on this list). But Goofy Cafe + Dine, tucked away on the top floor of a two-story building on the edge of Waikīkī, is a favorite for its stylish surf shack vibe and all-day breakfast. Try one of the island’s best acai bowls or the stellar loco moco. [$$]

There are only two Dean & DeLucas left in the country, and they’re both in Hawai‘i. Head to the one at the Ritz-Carlton, which offers bento boxes made to order by Sushi Sho, the 10-seat restaurant a few floors up, where sushi master Keiji Nakazawa presides. An omakase there starts at $300, but you can taste a bit of the chef’s exquisite precision with the bento box ($16), which includes oversized but meticulously crafted maki rolls. The exact contents rotate, but you might find rolls stuffed with unagi, shrimp, and tamago as fluffy as sponge cake, accompanied by hearts of palm grown in Hawai‘i. [$$]

Even when it’s warm out, locals say bring it on to hot pot. Just look at the consistently packed Sweet Home Cafe, which feels like a sauna with all the roiling pots. Compose your pot in three steps, beginning with a choice of broths that range from sour cabbage, tinged with tamarind, to healthy herbs, reminiscent of Chinese medicine but actually delicious. Serve yourself from the fridge, where a plethora of ingredients include spinach-tofu and roe-filled fish balls, then face excruciating decisions at the sauce bar (you can only carry so many tiny dishes at once). Finally, dive in — but eat quickly. After an hour, a bowl of free shave ice, packed as joyfully as an unbridled hot pot, is plunked in front of you. It’s the sweetest way for the servers to tell guests to chill out and move on. [$$]

Tokyo meets the tropics at Pau Hana Base. Follow paper lanterns down a seafoam alleyway to find this izakaya reminiscent of those in Tokyo’s yokochos. A specials menu is pinned to wooden beer caddies plunked down in front of guests, advertising morsels like soft, simmered beef tendon; chewy, almost candied ray; and squid served from beak to forehead (likely the only time you’ll see “forehead” on a menu). The regular menu offers more familiar items, from ramen to tonkatsu, as well as imo mochi (potato-based cakes, crisp on the outside and chewy inside), a must for mochi lovers. Approach the “Russian” takoyaki with caution — one ball in each order is loaded with a spicy surprise — but you’ll forgive the servers for any trickery when they hand you a tiny cup of sugar to spin your own cotton candy on your way out. [$$]

In the spectrum of Italian-American cuisine, there’s restrained California-Italian, red-sauced New York-Italian, and then there’s Hawai‘i-Italian, which at Arancino means a lot of seafood pastas. The sea urchin spaghetti is a must, but the menu also includes spaghetti with tobiko and calamari, squid ink pasta, and penne with shrimp in a spicy tomato sauce. There are two other Arancino locations — a high-end version at Kahala and a casual cafe-style restaurant on the other side of Waikīkī — but the Beachwalk location falls perfectly in the middle of the two extremes. [$$]

During the day, Junichiro and Ryojiro Tsuchiya, who used to buy fish at Tokyo’s Tsukiji Fish Market, serve food out of a stall in Chinatown. At night they operate this tiny takeout counter, where you’ll find impeccably fresh fish in poke and donburi, with most items under $15. Feeling flush? Add a topping of uni for the most decadent poke you’ve ever had. [$]

This barebones counter, located next to a grungy night club, specializes in soft serve and drinks made with matcha from Kyoto. You can order matcha soft serve literally draped in gold leaf, but the real golden item is the matcha parfait, which consists of mochi, azuki beans, chestnuts, matcha chiffon cake, cornflakes, and matcha soft serve all jammed into a plastic cup. [$]

It’s hard to find a more maximalist shave ice than halo halo from Magnolia, a chain from California known for its Filipino flavors. Here, the icy treat includes eight different ingredients, including banana, sweet red bean, jackfruit, and coconut, all topped with a vibrant purple scoop of ube ice cream. [$]

Splurging on steak dinner for two at Hy’s approaches the price of a flight to the West Coast, but it’s worth it for one of Honolulu’s best blowout meals. The bowtied servers have been keeping the flambee flame alive for more than four decades. Steaks are grilled over kiawe wood, and after all these years, the cherries are still having their jubilee. [$$$$]

Many of the Japanese restaurants in Waikīkī are new outposts of chains from Japan, but Yoshitsune is an old-school, independent holdout tucked into the back of Park Shore hotel. In the early mornings, the restaurant serves a traditional Japanese breakfast teishoku (set meal) of broiled fish, rice, pickles, and natto. At lunch and dinner, many tables order kamameshi, iron pots of rice simmered with seafood such as crab or abalone (and in the fall, matsutake mushrooms). Also stunning is the two-tier chirashi, presented like a box of jewels. [$$$]