Perfection. Magical. Life-altering. All-time high. Those are the four words (phrases?) I would use to describe my trip to Oahu. We went swimming with sharks (which was 10/10. Sharks are so cute up close), hiked a crater, went swimming in the crystal blue ocean, and drank cocktails in the most epic jacuzzi. It was the perfect break from the stress back in LA. Oahu is such a magical island, full of healing, tranquility, and, most importantly, food. Yes, you heard me right, food.

Oahu (and potentially Hawaii as a whole) is INCREDIBLY vegan friendly. So vegan-friendly that we were shook. Almost every place we went had a vegan option or at least knew what veganism entailed. We even accidentally stumbled upon a vegan bakery. THAT’S how vegan-friendly Oahu is. If you come to Hawaii and stay on Oahu, make sure to check out these vegan-friendly spots! Oh yeah, and take a deep breath and relax 🙂 You deserve it. (Or maybe you don’t. Idk. I don’t know your life!)

1. Island Vintage Coffee

If you come to Honolulu and DON’T go to Island Vintage Coffee, did you even go to Honolulu???? Going here, especially as a vegan, is like a right of passage. It’s so good that we went back more than 5 times I think (in the span of like 4 days). It’s not all vegan friendly but they have a TONNNN of 10/10 vegan options. The vibe of this place is really similar to Urth Cafe in Los Angeles except a million times better? It was so good, I even bought an Island Vintage Coffee mug so I could remember it forever.

To start, their matcha and coffee are amazing. We especially LOVE their vegan BLTs (actual heaven) which come with the crispiest fries ever and TWO choices of delicious vegan aiolis. For breakfast, we got a taro bagel with a sweet coconut cream spread on top (known as haupia spread). It was super unique and sweet and tasted like a dessert! The only thing we didn’t love from there was their vegan poke bowl which was basically just a beet salad with a side of papaya and wild rice. A little too healthy for my liking. BUT I’d still give this place a straight 10/10. One of the best vegan BLTs I’ve ever had in my life and so many vegan options!

2. Mother Bake Shop

OKAY. What are the odds that you go up to a bakery and ask if they sell any vegan options and they respond with “The entire bakery is vegan!” LIKE ARE YOU KIDDING ME. This only happens in my DREAMS. Well, we were shopping at Kailua Crystal Shop which is a couple of shops down (super cute if you love crystals like we do), when we spotted the bakery. We crossed our fingers hoping for at least one vegan option, and the rest was history!!!

This place was DIVINE. I got a matcha latte with a side of their “hummingbird nectar” and it made my matcha so divinely sweet and delicious that I could have downed like 10 more. We also got a pizza on focaccia, a hazelnut tart, a cardamom tart, and an elephant ear pastry. guys. Everything was EPIC. So soft, crispy, flavorful, and heartwarming. They even let you buy something for somebody else as a way to give back! You just buy an item and post the item’s name to a sticky note on the wall. If anybody is strapped for cash, they can take a sticky and get a free pastry or coffee on the house!

If you have a sweet tooth like me, Mother’s Bake Shop is a MUST. And if you also have mommy issues like me, well hey, mother is calling!

3. Sunrise Shack 

The Sunrise Shack is the cutest street-side shack that sells smoothies, lattes, and bowls. It looks like it’s straight out of Tumblr. The colors are so bright, there are wild roosters running around, and the fruit is as fresh as can be. We also met this girl who worked there who seemed really chill and cool, so we got her insta and then she ghosted us and never accepted the friend request. Let me set something straight. People from Hawaii are SO NICE. This girl had actually moved to Hawaii from LA. So moral of the story? Don’t trust people from LA. They’re all fake! But hey, we already knew that.

Anyway, back to the food! We got the vegan banana bread which may have been one of the best vegan banana bread I have ever tried. It was so moist (sry if you hate that word) and spongey. I’m craving it hardcore right now. We also got the papaya boat which was a papaya half with fruit, peanut butter, seeds, and cacao nibs. My sister really liked hers (and even shared some of it with a curious lizard who kept eyeing her bowl) but I didn’t love mine. It’s possible I don’t love papaya to begin with or that the cacao nibs were too bitter. Would I go out of my way to come here? For the cute pics? Yes. For the food…. eh. Only if it’s on the way.

4. Dole Plantation 

Unless you live under a rock (hi Patrick!), then you know Dole Whip is a CLASSIC Disneyland dessert. It’s dairy-free, creamy pineapple soft serve AKA orgasm central. Should I not make orgasm jokes when talking about Disney? Eh, whatever. Anyway, I only get dole whip whenever I go to Disney (which is MAYBE once a year), so when we found out that the actual Dole Plantation was in Oahu, we HAD to stop by after swimming with the sharks.

They have a whole Dole Whip bar where they serve dole whip in cups/cones and with toppings like fruit or a fruit sauce. I should clarify that we saw dole whip being sold all over Oahu, but there is nothing like getting Dole Whip straight from the source. We got the dole whip in a cup with pineapple pieces and strawberry sauce and it was DIVINE. A perfect cool treat for a hot Hawaii day!

5. Sushiya 

Okay, this place isn’t all vegan, but I did UberEats from it and got inari, a seaweed salad roll, and a veggie hand roll and straight-up everything was 10/10. The inari was actually the best inari I’ve ever had in my life. The seaweed roll was perfect. And the hand roll was literally amazing. They even wrap the seaweed separately so that it can stay crunchy when you eat it. Genius! (Excuse the terrible photos lol. I was hungry)

6. Diamond Head Crater Hike 

If you hike Diamond Head Crater Hike as we did, make sure to stop at the fruit cart parked right outside the entrance! They have fresh pineapple smoothies (IN PINEAPPLES), fresh coconut water (IN COCONUTS), shaved ice, dole whip, and pineapple spears with a chile powder, and much more!!! #infomerccial.

My sister got the fresh coconut water #hydration, I got the pineapple smoothie #refreshing, and we got the pineapple and powder to share and it tasted amazing! My sister said it tasted like candy. That’s how you know! Make sure to check out this beautiful hike and then treat yourself after with a refreshing fruity treat.

7. Banan

For all of you suckers who hate bananas, just (stop being a pussy) skip to number 8. For those of you who LURRRVE bananas, like moi, this place is for you. Banan is an all-vegan (minus the honey) soft serve place that makes ice cream out of, you guessed it, bananas! It’s basically like fancy “nice cream” but 10x better. They have a bunch of different flavors of the banana soft serve like acai, chocolate, peanut butter, regular banana, plus a bunch of different concoctions you can try.

We ended up getting the “Dark Fantasy” sundae to split. This one was made with the chocolate banana base, with strawberries, granola, shaved coconut, dark chocolate pieces, and a honey drizzle (which they modified to agave) on top. It was really good! Super light and refreshing and the topping were baller. Not going to lie, the service was really slow, so was it worth the 30 min wait? No? But would I get it again? Absolutely. Oh yeah, and they also had waffles. If I ever go back, I’m getting those. In the wise words of Donkey, “tomorrow, I’m making waffles!” 

8. Lahaina Shaved Ice (Waikiki) 

Hawaii is literally the queen of shaved ice. I think it’s Italian’s equivalent of gelato. Like, on every street, you will find shaved ice. Am I mad about it though? F no! I’m such a hoe for shaved ice, are you kidding!? And when I say shaved ice, I don’t mean that American snow cone crap. I mean soft, premium, snowflake shaved ice. So, disclaimer, although we’re only reviewing this place, there are plenty of options all over the island (and the state of Hawaii) for you to try some. 

This place just happened to be down the street from our hotel, so it was super convenient. While not everything was vegan, the owners were super knowledgeable about veganism and were able to modify any and all of the custom creations to fit our dietary needs. For example, certain menu items had condensed milk, so they just swapped it with coconut condensed milk. I ended up getting the “Starburst.” The flavors for that one were watermelon + guava + lychee + coconut condensed milk and I topped it with boba, mochi, and the base of the bowl was filled with adzuki red beans. IT WAS SO BOMB OMGEEE!!!!!!! The toppings were elite and the watermelon flavor was chef’s kiss. We all agreed the lychee was ok (milder in flavor), but Bella and Rebecca got cherry on theirs and loved that flavor too. So my recommendation, just get watermelon and cherry and all the toppings. It was snowy heaven in my mouth. 

9. The Ala Moana Center Makai Food Court

So there was a mall (The Ala Moana Center) ten minutes from our hotel, which happened to be the first stop in Oahu after we landed. Here we found the good, the bad, and the ugly. Let me start with the good. In the Makai Food Court within the mall, there was the cutest little handroll kiosk that we just had to try. We got a few avocado hand rolls and a few veggie handrolls. I’m not lying when I saw these were some of the most DELICIOUS things I’ve ever put in my mouth. The rice was made to perfection. The veggies were so interesting and unique. And this is coming from a fricken kiosk at a mall food court!! Like I forgot how fresh and delicious simple Island food is. Makes LA food seem like trash. 

The bad was from a little Asian delicacy shop (so sorry I forgot the name) that wasn’t in the food court but was nearby in the mall. They had all these delicious-looking items that were unfortunately not vegan, so we were left with the only vegan options, which were a bit obscure. I don’t want to be disrespectful to anyone’s culture, but the treats we got really weren’t for our taste. We got a dried persimmon filled with white bean paste and a red bean rice cake wrapped in a cherry plumb leaf. As a lover of Asian flavors and treats, I was surprised about how much I didn’t like them. I’m sure, though, that their non-vegan treats were much yummier! They also had vegan peach rice cake, which we didn’t get, but I’ll include the photo in case you’re interested. 

Now to the ugly. The ugly was from a poke place in the food court called Poke & Box. Don’t get me wrong, the food we had there was DELICIOUS but… we later found out the person didn’t understand what “vegan” meant and served us non-vegan food. So that’s fun.

We accidentally got the un-modified poke which had sushi rice with furikake, sesame tofu, greens, and purple sweet potato with a sesame sauce. Please don’t kill me @vegans, but it was honestly delicious (esp when I thought it was vegan). I felt super guilty, though, when we went back for seconds a few days later and realized the employee forgot to mention that sesame sauce on the tofu and sweet potatoes had FUCKING MAYO in it. Hellman’s mayo to be exact. So #welp. We were not vegan for a day. You win some, you lose some. 

That being said, if you’re vegetarian, def check this place out! If you’re vegan, you can order it with ponzu sauce instead of creamy sesame. It’s still good but, sadly, not as good as the non-vegan version. 

10. Kailua Farmer’s Market 

If you thought the farmer’s markets in LA were lit… you got another thing coming. The farmer’s markets in Oahu (and probably Hawaii as a whole) are LIT AS FUCKKKK. Excuse my French, but I’m just so excited about it. Hawaiin flavors are generally Asian inspired (specifically Japanese), so there were soooo many fun things to try. Not to mention, so many vegan things.

The best thing we got – by far- were these vegan mochi balls. I SHIT YOU NOT, these mochi balls were some of the top ten things I’ve ever put into my mouth (*wink wink*). No foreal though, this is the type of food that you watch characters in animes eat and wish you could have a bite. It was a white beach mochi, dusted with matcha powder, and filled with the sweetest freshest strawberry ever. Like I would pay $100 just to have another one of those right now. If you go, you MUST stop for one. Not sure if all the flavors are vegan, but the kiosk people knew which ones were, so just ask! 

Bella also got brown sugar boba milk tea (vegan of course) at the Mon Cha Cha Milk Tea stand. She loved it and I loved the sip of it I got to try. If you’re a boba fan, you must stop by!!

There was also one stand that was a 100% vegan cheese shop!!! Like how cool! We didn’t try any of the cheeses, but we did get a macadamia nut rice crispy treat because you can’t go to Hawaii and not eat one macadamia nut dessert. It was amazing!! It was super sweet with a bit of saltiness and fattiness from the nuts (should I be on food network?). I’m craving it and wish I could eat it right now. If you love macadamia nuts or rice crispy treats, it’s a must try! 

The next place we went to was Pu’uwai Aloha Bakery. Not everything was vegan, but they had soooo many delicious vegan options like cinnamon rolls, savory rolls, and more. I ended up getting the Elvis scone, which was layered with guava jam, fresh peanut butter, and banana. OMGEE. So creative and so fricken scrumptious. Elvis would be proud. Bella also got a spinach and cheese role thing and loved that too. If you have a sweet tooth (or a savory one) you must check it out! Also, I believe the whole place is Gluten-free for all you celiac queens and kings and theys out there! (Pictured below is the last Elvis scone – sorry it’s a sketchy pic. I was too excited about it to care). 

In classic Hawaii fashion, there was also a place to get a fresh coconut with a complimentary bamboo straw. The coconut water in Hawaii is bonkers good, so, of course, we had to get one on that hot day. I will say, though, the lady cracking open the coconuts was sassy AF. Like chill, dude, it’s not that deep. They’re just nuts *wink wink* 

ALSO, we got some fresh lychee. The place only took cash and we didn’t have any, so some incredibly kind strangers bought them for us. Like, Hawaiin people are next level kind. 

The rest of these places we didn’t get to stop at, but they also had vegan options, so feel free to peruse. Not pictured, but honorable mentions, were the plenty of fresh fruit and vegetable stands, plus the coffee stand that had dairy-free milk and syrup options! 

So there you have it, folks! The longest blog post you’ll ever read. Longer than your dad’s chest hair. Don’t say we never did anything for you and please go to Hawaii and enjoy the yumminess. K thanks bye!!