A restaurant week is coming to Waikiki in October, and the first thing we did with the list was ignore the prices and look at the clock. Most of what is on offer is a dinner course. We start drinking at 2 or 3 in the afternoon and are asleep well before anything interesting happens at 9, so for us the real question is which of these deals you can order while the sun is still high. It turned out to be a short list.
What happened
Aloha State Daily reported on Sept. 23 (story by Kelli Shiroma Braiotta) that the first-ever Flavors of Waikīkī Restaurant Week runs Oct. 1 through Oct. 11 — a Thursday through a Sunday. The article says fourteen Waikīkī restaurants will offer “limited-time specials, prix fixe menus and specialty cocktails,” ranging from a $16 cocktail to four-course tasting menus.
Barbara Campbell, Outrigger’s vice president of retail leasing and property management, is quoted saying the offers “make October an especially rewarding time to dine in Waikīkī.”
The event page on outrigger.com says the week is presented by Outrigger Resorts & Hotels and Waikiki Beach Walk, and it lists fourteen offers, each labeled with when it’s served (checked Sept. 26, 2026). The article’s list has one more name, Blue Note Hawaiʻi, which the event page doesn’t show. Where the two differ, we say so below. Where we could check a restaurant’s own site for hours, we did, and we say that too.
What it changes for a Waikiki stay
Almost nothing if you are here for dinner anyway — you get a fixed menu option at a place you might have gone to regardless. What it does change is the choice at a few spots that also serve these specials in the afternoon. Here is the list sorted by when you can order, going by the event page’s labels:
| Restaurant | Special | Price | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maui Brewing Co. Waikīkī | Double-cooked mochiko chicken; optional 16-oz Bikini Blonde | $18; beer $7 | Lunch and dinner |
| Appetito Craft Pizza and Wine Bar | Whole roasted branzino | $43 | Lunch, happy hour, dinner |
| Cajun Crab Waikīkī | Seafood combos; king crab legs à la carte | $130 to $350 | Lunch, happy hour, dinner |
| Ruth’s Chris Steak House | Four-course menu | $75 or $85 | Happy hour and dinner |
| Liliha Bakery | Four-course tasting menu | $77 | Lunch and dinner |
| Hula Grill Waikīkī | Four-course early dinner | $46 | 4:45–6 p.m. |
| Pakini Bar | Pumpkin piña colada | $18 ($12 without alcohol) | Noon–8 p.m. Mon–Thu; 11 a.m.–8 p.m. Fri–Sun (per the article) |
| Giovanni Pastrami | Three-course meal | $55 | Dinner, per the event page (the article says lunch, happy hour and dinner) |
| Duke’s Waikīkī | Prime rib buffet; a free Hula pie with two buffets | $64 adult, $24 child | Dinner |
| Taormina Sicilian Cuisine | Four-course menu | $68 | Dinner |
| Roy’s Waikīkī | Three-course dinner | $72 | Dinner |
| Tanaka of Tokyo | Surf and turf dinner | $75 | Dinner |
| Kani Ka Pila Grille | Five-course tasting menu; optional cocktail pairing | $79; pairing $45 (per the article) | Dinner per the article, plus separate lunch specials |
| Monkeypod Kitchen Waikīkī | Crab cake Benedict breakfast special | $26 | Breakfast, 7–11 a.m. |
| Monkeypod Kitchen Waikīkī | Road to Hana cocktail | $16 | Not stated |
| Blue Note Hawaiʻi | Four shrimp spring rolls | Not listed | In the article only, not on the event page |
What the article does not say, for any restaurant: whether you need a reservation, whether any special comes as takeout, and whether tax and tip are included. Assume the usual (tax and tip on top) until someone tells you otherwise.
What we would do
Maui Brewing is the one we’d walk to. Fried chicken and a cold beer is the whole idea of our afternoon, and years ago we liked this brewpub enough to go back a second time in the same stay — we started with a Big Swell IPA and worked through chicken wings and ahi poke tacos. The special is $18 for the chicken and $7 for a 16-ounce Bikini Blonde, so $25 for one person’s plate and pint. The brewery’s own page lists it as open daily 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. (checked Sept. 24). The listing says “lunch and dinner” without saying where lunch ends, so if you show up at 2:30 like we would, ask before you order. We are IPA people and Bikini Blonde is a lighter pour, but $7 for 16 ounces is not something we would argue with.
At Appetito, timing is everything. The restaurant’s site lists lunch 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., happy hour 3 to 6 p.m. and dinner from 3 p.m., daily. So the $43 branzino is on the table at 3, not at 2. Appetito’s regular happy hour menu, which says its prices are dine-in only, has $6 drafts including Kona Bay IPA and pizzas from $15 (as of Sept. 24; those prices can change). We have been to that happy hour twice, for wood-fired pizza and a glass of wine, and that is still what we’d go for. The whole fish is a dinner-sized commitment for a 3 p.m. snack.
At Giovanni Pastrami, we’d skip the course. The $55 menu is Caesar salad, potato skins or pastrami flatbread, then eggplant parmesan or chicken puttanesca. The event page labels it a dinner prix fixe, while the article also lists lunch and happy hour, so ask before counting on it in the afternoon. On our visit in May 2025, weekday happy hour ran 3 to 6 p.m., the garlic shrimp was $12, and beer was $2 off. Garlic shrimp and a couple of discounted beers is our whole afternoon there, and we do not need three courses to get to it.
Ruth’s Chris is the one to read twice. The restaurant-week menu is a starter (steakhouse salad, Caesar or Louisiana seafood gumbo), a 6-ounce filet with shrimp for $75 or with lobster for $85, a side (creamed spinach, garlic mashed potatoes or rice), and a personal-size dessert. That is almost exactly the Ruth’s Classic set we ordered in May 2025 — same starters, same filet pairings, same sides — which was $68 with shrimp and $78 with lobster then. The Waikiki menu on OpenTable (last updated July 27, 2025) now lists that set as Ruth’s Classics at $70 and $80, with a personal-size “Chef’s Selection” dessert. If that is still the regular price in October, the restaurant-week version costs $5 more, not less. We’d ask whether the regular set is still being served before ordering either one. The new wrinkle in its favor: the listing puts this menu at happy hour too. Ruth’s own happy hour page says happy hour food is served only at the bar, so whether the course menu reaches the bar is another thing to ask.
Hula Grill is the only sit-down course we’d consider. It starts at 4:45 and ends at 6, which is dinner on our clock. $46 gets a starter, a salad, an entrée (five choices, from a crab-topped macadamia nut fresh catch to spinach-mushroom ravioli) and dessert. We have not eaten at Hula Grill, so that’s the menu, not a review. The restaurant takes reservations by phone and online, per its site. For a 75-minute window during a busy week, this is the one deal on the list we’d actually book.
Everything else is dinner-only, breakfast, or a sweet cocktail, and not for us this trip. Families will like the plain math at Duke’s: $64 an adult, $24 a child, and a Hula pie if you buy two buffets. Liliha Bakery’s $77 course ends with the original Coco Puff; we have had one at the Ala Moana counter, but we have not eaten at the new Beach Walk location.
Before you plan around this
- The offers and prices in the table come from Aloha State Daily’s list and Outrigger’s event page (checked Sept. 26, 2026); the “When” column follows the event page’s labels. The Hula Grill, Maui Brewing and Ruth’s Chris pages we opened on Sept. 24 did not mention the event yet.
- Restaurant hours in “What we would do” are from each restaurant’s own site, checked Sept. 24. Our Giovanni Pastrami happy hour prices are from May 2025 and have probably moved; the regular Ruth’s Classics prices are from the OpenTable menu (last updated July 27, 2025), checked Sept. 26, 2026.
- Nothing we read says whether you need a reservation or can take a special to go. We are takeout people, and we’d ask before assuming the mochiko chicken travels.
- Oct. 10–11 is the closing weekend. If you want a dinner course on those days, call the restaurant rather than walking in at 7.
If your October trip overlaps, the useful move is to pick the one or two places whose hours match your day and ignore the rest. Ours is fried chicken at 2:30.
