Olili

My wife and I stayed a week in Waikiki recently and Olili was hands-down our favorite meal of the trip. Our service was provided by the bartender, Bryan, and it was excellent. Great recommendations, personable conversation. He was constantly busy building drink orders or doing prep work but was always there if we needed anything. Everything we ordered was outstanding. Just a ton of flavor. The Baby Gem salad is a riff on a Caesar and I (whom does not generally like Caesar salads) loved it. Adding the fish for protein makes it a great entree. The Grilled Shrimp Forbidden Rice was also great, though the shrimp may be a bit warm if spice isn't your thing. Don't pass on dessert - the Haupia "Mud" bar, specifically!The restaurant is upstairs at the Waikiki Market. There's another restaurant downstairs and signage isn't great, so keep looking until you're sure you're in the right place!

We walked in on a Monday night at 6 and were surprised to see no other customers. The place is really cute and the food is good so I dunno why there aren't more people. We got:Crispy kanpachi with bean soup - 5/5. So good! How do they get the skin so crispy? Like the soup, bean, fish combo.Root vegetables with burrata - my friend enjoyed itCrab noodles - my friend said it was good and the few noodles I tried was tasty, but I didn't see much crab in it.More people came later, but I think this is a hidden jewel.

Located on the second floor, near the market. Reminds me of the Asian version of Eatly restaurant in LA/ Las Vegas you can practically see the grocery market right across.I would recommend grabbing a table sitting at the far right end of the restaurant cause it tends to gets noisy towards the host stand.Garlic Shrimp Forbidden Rice: Get this dish if you love juicy shrimp and fried rice. Dish is made with black grain so it's tougher to chew compared to white rice. I loved how the fried rice had sliced Chinese sausage and sliced beef bits. Kinda worked because there's a playful texture difference between the shrimp and rice.Fresh Catch (D): Made with fresh fish of the day. This time chef cooked up swordfish paired with many sliced bits of macadamia nuts and sliced of Chinese broccoli and fresh roe. Swordfish was soft, but didn't have much flavor as I would hoped. I'm not a big fan of 45% of the dish being really nutty, kinda overpowered the flavor of the dish.Liquid Haupia: Great coconut fruity and sweet drink. Rimmed with some flamed Li Hing Mui powder (sweet and sour plum). Black Sesame, Old Fashioned: Paired with a slice of lemon for scent. Heavy whisky flavor and bit more smokey side. Didn't notice much of the black sesame flavor.

The yelp page caught my eye with "creative dishes" and really great reviews, had to give it a try after a long day of my conference. It did not disappoint! Interestingly placed right next to, connected to the market, the restaurant has a sleek, modern, well lit interior with beautiful hanging lamps, lights and subtle island decor. The service was impeccable! Our hostess who seated us was so charming. Our amazing waitress Bethany, I felt like more than just a patron, but more like I embarked on a culinary journey and she was our tour guide- not only was she knowledgable about every dish, but she knew how to sell it and was one of the sweetest servers I've had in a while - we really felt appreciated. I shared the smoked fish dip, and then I ordered the crab noodles. Everything was savory, well seasoned and very delicious. I also ordered the Hawaiian cup which is possibly one of the best cocktails I've ever had. You can tell the staff had passion for food and was so happy to serve their customers!

A friend and I were going for happy hour and for a new place to try, I chose Olili. We love trying new places in Waikiki within walking distance and Olili was pretty perfect because it's just a couple blocks from our condos and that night we were venturing out during a storm.We arrived dripping wet and our waitress let us sit in a nice booth by the window where we could watch the storm go by and roomy enough so we could hang our wet stuff without bothering anyone. The table was big and the bench seats were quite comfy.We lingered for a couple hours, had a couple drinks, and enjoyed a couple dishes each. During that time, we received tons of service and in addition to our main server and runner, 2 additional staff came by to greet us and offer to help. Afterwards, outside the shop, we ran into one server and he said hi to us.My friend had the liliko martini, duck croquette, and bone marrow. She loved the drink, thought the croquette had too much potato and not enough duck, and she loved the bone marrow dish. I had a draft beer, kanpachi crudo, and bowl of mushroom soup. The beer was nice and cold and served in an interestingly shaped glass, the crudo was beautiful and delicious, but there was not very much actual food. The soup with baguette was a good serving size, tasty and well prepared. The chunks of breadfruit and mushrooms added extra texture. I would've liked at least a few slices of a higher-end mushroom like shitake or oyster to make the dish feel more luxurious, rather than just the standard grocery store variety white and cremini.We'll be back. Tip. It's easy to make reservations online and it seems like they don't block-out preferred time slots.

We're scouting spots to bring friends visiting and this is a nice spot for happy hour. We were provided great service and kama'aina on items outside the happy hour menu. Trendy ambiance and they provide validated parking for their garage with entrance on Walina St. It's a small park area so may things be in your favor. Park discount was 50% off.

'Olili is the restaurant located in the back of the Waikīkī market. It's pretty small, and the menu is small as well. The dishes are Hawaiian inspired, but the portions were kinda small. We ordered several dishes to share family style. + garlic shrimp forbidden rice - this was one of our favorite dishes of the night. The shrimps were seasoned well but slightly overcooked. The rice was kinda crunchy and mixed with Chinese sausage. + chili crab noodles - the noodles were like ramen noodle. It was not too spicy. Good flavor but noodles were a bit clumpy. + stuffed won bok - this was rice and veggies stuffed in cabbage leaves. + fresh catch - fresh white fish served with gai lan, and macadamia nut tabbouleh. This was another favorite. Overall, there's nothing really special about this place, like no great view nor music, and I'm not really sure how Hawaiian the food was. But the staff was accommodating, and I enjoyed the dishes.

We're looking for a great place for dinner to celebrate my birthday. Read the reviews and decided to check it out. Restaurant is inside a grocery store but don't let that stop you. The food is great! We tried lots of things in the menu. Prices were reasonable for the area. Kaffir butter broiled shrimp was my favorite. I should have ordered two of those! The duck was as okay, just a little dry for my liking. My husband had the half chicken and it was tasty. It was a good portion size. Service was great. He came around to check in but not too much to interrupt our dinner. The view is great, able to see the street below and all those passing by. Will go back the next time we are in town.

Olili is a little tumor restaurant attached to a grocery store. It's upstairs overlooking the relatively rough Kuhio Avenue. We were seated quickly in a mostly empty restaurant (glad I had a reservation). The table was devoid of anything resembling plates, napkins, utensils or glasses. Clearly they weren't expecting us in spite of the OpenTable reservation. Anyway, our server (Angelina) was friendly enough when she was around but was basically MIA until 20 minutes after the food showed up. The guy (I assume the boss) was rude and condescending especially when problems arose. I'll talk about the good. The bone marrow was amazing though it was served with sliced sourdough that was tough as a quilt. The rice and salad mix that came with the chicken was actually good. Everything else was downhill. The rest of the food took a while. The half chicken was dry and pretty tasteless without the gobs of bright red pseudo-siracha sauce. I'm glad they gave us sharp steak knives for the chicken; nothing else would cut through that jerky. The crab noodle dish was nasty. Noodles were globbed together with this weird soupy sauce that had tasted like a toxic blend of fishy lighter fluid. The 1/2 oz of crab (literally one bite) was chewy and fishy. We looked at this plate for 20 minutes until Angelina came by and we sent it back. She had to ask if we knew about the garlic. We live 20 miles from Gilroy, the garlic capital or the world. We know what garlic is supposed to taste like. Do they know in Oahu?Nobody came by to refill water. For 20 minutes nobody asked about the food. We had to flag the boss down to get extra plates. Anyway, boss man had to give us grief for gnawing on the 1 square inch of crab before sending the food back. They took it off the bill, but really service here is trash. They get 2 stars for the bone marrow.Never going back. I'd recommend the same for my readers.

I have been to the Hawaiian islands 4 times and my dad 10. We both agree that this restaurant is the best one we have been too throughout multiple visits to the Big Island, Maui, and Oahu. The service was incredible and the food impeccable. We both ordered the local fish but honestly you can't go wrong. The location is in unassuming and unexpected but even the market that Olili is situated in is a gem.