Fun Veggie Foods in (Oahu) Hawaii

Kids love a day at the beach and adore being in Hawaii. Although the food in Hawaii is heavily influenced from Polynesian, Asian and Western choices rich in meats, there are a lot of great dishes for kids to enjoy when in Da Aina.

The main city on Oahu (Honolulu) has a variety of options to choose from, many of which are listed in the Happy Cow, VegGuide among other online city guides. The Well Bento on Beretania st (Honolulu)

Well Bento Vegan Plate Lunch

offers rare treats of meat-free traditional plate lunches using tempeh, tofu and other non-meat ingredients instead.

If you find yourself in Pearl Ridge (not far from Pearl Harbor) for the Sunday swap meet at the Stadium or the Kam drive-in, you can pop in for a tasty & healthy lunch at the Down to Earth cafe & grocers. There are also branches of Down to Earth in other parts of the island.

The most popular spots with the locals are the plate-lunch eateries: Graces, Diners, L&L, Zippy's and other local style plate lunch places around the island offer 2 scoops of rice, macaroni salad (green salad or coleslaw choice too) with a main dish. Most offer fish options alongside the usual meat fare and Zippy's also offers tasty vegetarian chili & rice, veggie tofu burger and meat-free saimin noodles.

Banzai Sushi Bar- Vegan sushi

If out surfing and enjoying other active fun- the North Shore of Oahu in summer is relatively flat and a great time to enjoy the most famous white sand beaches. If you are driving out to the North shore, stop in and run around the Dole maze, enjoy some tasty chilled pineapple (shipped from the Phillippines unfortunately) and then head on toward the North shore. Choose to divert through the small town of Haleiwa and stop in at the local vegetarian and organic grocer and cafe just past McDonalds, Celestial Health Food Store and Beet Box Cafe. The veggie burgers, tex-mex, Asian foods, shakes and sandwiches are unbelievably delicious.
The Banzai Sushi bar also in Haleiwa also gets a thumbs up for its many options without meat or fish. Don't miss the melt-in-your-moth shaved-ice (try azuki bean and vanilla ice cream in the bottom) from Aoki's or Matsumoto's before leaving Haleiwa.

If you head to the fine, white sand beaches of Kailua where the wind always blows- great for sailboarding, kite surfing and kayaking with the turtles- find great veggie options at Down to Earth, the Pali Gardens, Lanikai Juice, or the middle eastern foods at Pita Pocket Cafe are also great.