My Kat Life

It has been a little over a month since I visited Oahu, but I’ve been a bit delayed with editing photos and writing these blog posts. We traveled all around the island during the five and a half days we were there, and I’m so excited to share some of my recommendations! This was my very first trip to the island, and I’m already dying to plan another trip.

In this post, I’m going to review the three shrimp stands/trucks that we visited in Kahuku — feel free to chime in the comments section on your favorite of the three!

My friends and I spent our second full day on the island in North Shore and Kahuku. We started off our morning early to grab some manapua to-go from Char Hung Sut in Chinatown, then we made the one-hour drive to Haleiwa for our first acai bowl of the trip. Haleiwa Bowls, a rustic food stand that serves up acai bowls, smoothies, kombocha, and coffee, is located on the edge of Haleiwa Town Center. The four of us shared a Mana Bowl: acai puree topped with organic hemp granola, fresh bananas, raw coconut flakes, and drizzled with honey; we added blueberries, papaya, and peanut butter. The bowl was delicious and refreshing — it was quintessentially Hawaiian.

As we finished off the bowl, we walked a block down the street to grab some coffee from Island Vintage Coffee, nestled among the surf and clothing shops and restaurants. I ordered an Island Latte that had coconut and macadamia nut flavors. I fell in love with macadamia nut lattes while on the island; I wish we had the flavor here! One of the employees at another coffee shop mentioned that some shops get the flavor from using macadamia nut milk! I’m definitely going to keep this in mind on my next trip so I can ask which ones use the nut milk. After taking a small break to digest our food, we headed towards Sharks Cove for some snorkeling.

North Shore Surf Shop is located across the street from Sharks Cove, making it easy to rent equipment (boards, snorkel gear, even bikes) or book an excursion with them. None of us were advanced swimmers, so we opted to snorkel in the tide pools next to the cove. The equipment rental was around $15 for the fins, goggles, and snorkel. It took a bit of clamoring around rocks to get into the tide pools from the beach, but the experience was pretty amazing. There were so many beautiful fish in the tide pools! We ventured to one of the pools by the entrance to the cove and the waves were quite rough, slamming into the rocks. If you’re a beginner or want to snorkel with the little ones, I definitely recommend sticking to the tide pools.

The weather wasn’t quite as warm as we had hoped, so after about an hour or so, we decided to get out of the water since it was getting too cold. We washed off and headed to Kahuku for…SHRIMP! If you love shrimp, you’re in luck, because there are three shrimp stands/trucks within a mile and a half of each other, making it possible to hit them up in one afternoon. The four of us split 2 plates at each of the three spots.

Battle of the Shrimp Winner: Fumi’s Kahuku Shrimp

Fumi’s was the first shrimp spot we visited and they took the cake for me in terms of price, taste, and wait. If you like a bit of spice, the spicy garlic shrimp is a must! That sauce was AMAZING and it had us practically licking the plate. Their butter garlic shrimp was also amazing and really garlicy — perfection!
Price: $13/plate.

Close Runner Up: Romy’s Kahuku Shrimp

Romy’s flavor slightly edges out Fumi’s for me; however, the wait and the price are what brought it down to #2. They give you estimated wait times on the posted menu based on whether you’re standing in a line to order; it was pretty accurate. We waited in a short line to order and got our food in 45 minutes. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t return; I would definitely make it a point to visit both again on a future trip. I would visit Fumi’s first and then Romy’s so I’m not starving while waiting for my order. Both of them also have shrimp/prawn farms behind their building, so you know the food is fresh! We got both their shrimp and prawn combo plates; the prawns were sightly sweet and delicious!
Price: Butter Garlic Shrimp combo – $20.75. Butter Garlic Prawn combo – $25.95.

Why is everyone crazy over this? Giovanni’s Aloha Shrimp

All four of us were in consensus after trying Giovanni’s Shrimp truck: why is everyone so crazy over their shrimp? The line to order was long, the wait to get the food was mildly long, the shrimp isn’t fresh, and it was a dollar more than Fumi’s. The shrimp was nice and garlicy, but the flavor profile wasn’t as exciting as Fumi’s and Romy’s; the rice was also mushy (too much water!). I can understand why people visit the area where Giovanni’s is parked — it’s a food truck park with other food options and some vendors selling souvenirs.

After finishing our lunch, we headed back to Haleiwa Town Center to go get the famous Matsumoto’s Shave Ice! There was a bit of a wait, but the shop is full of souvenirs to look through…and you can take your time pondering what to order. We shared an order of the Tropical: lilikoi, guava, and pineapple. The flavors were delicious and the ice was soft! It was the perfect way to top off lunch. We walked it all off afterwards as we shopped some of the stores.

Our final activity as we left North Shore was a quick stop at the Dole Plantation — it’s one of those things you have to do if you’ve never been. It can actually be a pretty cheap stop on your trip since you can do a self-guided tour around the garden. Attractions like the train ride costs you extra, but you can have a good time just walking around the gardens. A dollar in quarters will get you a handful of fish food to feed the koi in the pond as well. The store is pretty extensive, but don’t be duped into buying things that you can buy at the local grocery store (i.e. Safeway or Foodland, which I HIGHLY recommend). We bought a Dole whip cone to share and that was already almost $7, ouch. When we got outside, we were enticed into buying some of the BBQ corns…we definitely paid too much for them (they were quite small), but the flavor options they had got us.