We first had the garlic shrimp at Giovanni Pastrami a long time ago, and in May 2025 we went back for a weekday happy hour. The plate was $12 that afternoon, beer was $2 off, and it held up. Before telling anyone else to go, we checked the restaurant’s own website again this month. The site does list a happy hour, but it is a beer and wine happy hour, Monday to Friday, 4:30 to 6 pm, with no food listed under it. So this is two snapshots side by side: what we ordered and paid in 2025, and what the menu says in October 2026.
This is Giovanni Pastrami on Lewers Street, a sports bar and deli with a lot of screens, not Giovanni’s shrimp truck on the North Shore. The address is 227 Lewers St, Suite 118, by Waikiki Beach Walk, a short walk from where we stay.
What we ordered in May 2025
The happy hour menu we were handed that day was a printed sheet. We took a photo of it, and that photo is the source for every 2025 price below. The header said Monday–Friday, 3 pm–6 pm.
We started with draft IPAs. The drinks box at the bottom of that sheet listed draft and bottled beer at $2 off, wine at $2 off, tropical drinks and seltzers at $2 off, and well drinks at $5. We stick to beer, so the beer line was the one that mattered.
Then the food:
- HH Garlic Shrimp, $12. Shell-on shrimp in a garlic and wine sauce, with macaroni salad and a scoop of white rice. Peeling shrimp with garlicky fingers between sips of cold beer is, for us, the whole point of this dish.
- 1 lb chicken wings, $15. We picked the spicy buffalo sauce. They came with a blue cheese dip.
- Mini sliders with fries, $10 for the cheeseburger. The same line offered BBQ kalua pig at $10, and pastrami or corned beef at $12. The fries alone were a decent portion.
Other things on that 2025 sheet we did not order: GP Fries (fries with garlic, pastrami and cheddar sauce) at $12, nachos at $10, beer-battered calamari at $14, Korean fried cauliflower at $12, and 7-inch personal pizzas from $6 for cheese up to $10 for the specialty pies.
Three plates and a few cold IPAs between two people, at a weekday afternoon price. That is the afternoon we want out of a happy hour.
What the website shows in October 2026
We read the restaurant’s menu page and its cocktail and beer menu in early October 2026. Here is what is on them:
- A section titled “Beer & Wine - Happy Hour” with the line “Monday - Friday 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm.” The section has no items under it, so the site does not say what the discount is.
- No happy hour section on the all-day food menu.
- In the menu data we could read, draft beer is listed by name without prices. The tap list includes Aloha Brewing Hop Lei IPA and Kona Gold Cliff Pineapple IPA. Bottled IPAs carry prices: Lagunitas IPA $8, Deschutes Fresh Squeezed $9, Elysian Space Dust $10.
- The site’s listing data gives hours of 7 am to 10 pm daily. A banner says breakfast is served daily from 7 am, and the pizza section says it is available from 11 am.
So, if the food on that printed sheet is not offered when you visit, these are the regular prices for the same dishes. Our 2025 happy hour price is on the left. Different year, and possibly different portions and sides, so read this as “what the plate costs at full price now”, not as a precise markup:
| Dish | 2025 happy hour sheet | 2026 regular menu online |
|---|---|---|
| Garlic shrimp | $12 | $26 (Local Favorites) |
| Cheeseburger sliders | $10 (with fries) | $21 |
| BBQ kalua pig sliders | $10 (with fries) | $21 |
| GP Fries | $12 | $19 |
| Fried calamari | $14 | $19 |
| Korean fried cauliflower | $12 | $17 |
| Bacon-wrapped mushrooms | $12 | $18 |
| Eggplant parm bites | $10 | $14 |
| Chicken wings | $15 (1 lb) | listed, no price shown |
Our three plates from 2025 came to $12 + $15 + $10 = $37 before beer, tax and tip. At the 2026 regular prices we could read, the shrimp and sliders alone are $26 + $21 = $47.
What we would do now
The 4:30 start is later than our habit. We have usually started by then, so on a day we want Giovanni Pastrami, we would move the afternoon around it: coffee and fruit as always, errands in the morning, and a walk over to Lewers Street to sit down by 4:30 on a weekday. Ninety minutes is enough time for a couple of beers and a plate.
The first thing we would do at the table is ask whether there is a happy hour food menu. Our 2025 discounts came from a printed sheet, and a website does not always match what servers hand you. If the server brings one, great: order the garlic shrimp and pick the beer to match. If not, we would order one regular garlic shrimp plate at $26 to share, with happy hour beer, instead of three full-price starters. It is a full plate with rice and mac salad, and splitting it is how we would keep the afternoon under control.
Weekend visitors should note that both the 2025 sheet and the 2026 website say Monday to Friday. If your only free afternoon is a Saturday, plan on regular prices.
If 4:30 is too late for you too, our Waikiki garlic shrimp guide compares six places against their own menus, including ones that start earlier in the afternoon. We have also written up the happy hours at Yard House Waikiki and Appetito.
Next time we are on Lewers Street at 4:30, we might finally try one of those personal pizzas.
Before you walk over
- Everything dated 2025 comes from our own visit and our photo of the printed menu in May 2025. Everything dated 2026 comes from the restaurant’s own website, read October 2026.
- The website does not list what the beer and wine happy hour discount is, and we have not been back since May 2025, so we cannot tell you the current price of a happy hour pint.
- We did not find a food happy hour on the website. That is not the same as there being none at the table. Ask.
- Prices, hours and the happy hour window can change without notice. Check the official menu on the day you go, or call the number on the restaurant’s site.
We also publish a Japanese-language version of this visit on our Japanese edition.
