Honolulu and Waikiki offer so many food possibilities that recommendations are inevitably highly personal. For fine dining, all the larger Waikiki hotels have good restaurants, and Restaurant Row mall near the harbor in Honolulu is a good bet. There are excellent fast-food malls in the Ala Moana Center , and the much cheaper and more exotic Maunakea Marketplace on Maunakea Street in Chinatown, while Waikiki's Kuhio Avenue is lined with snack outlets and fast-food franchises.

Arancino 255 Beach Walk, Waikiki phone 808/923-5557. Good Italian trattoria in the heart of Waikiki, with plenty of moderately priced pasta, pizza and seafood specialties.

Bali by the Sea   Hilton Hawaiian Village , 2005 Kalia Rd, Waikiki phone 808/941-2254. Highly refined gourmet restaurant, with irresistible views of the full length of Waikiki and very tasteful (and expensive) "Pacific Rim" cuisine.

Ezogiku 2546 Lemon Rd phone808/923-2013. Plain and very inexpensive Japanese diner, with three branches in Waikiki - the others are at 2420 Koa Ave and 2146 Kalakaua Ave. Ramen soups plus rice and curry dishes, all at $6-7, to eat in or take out.

Sam Choy's Breakfast, Lunch and Crab 580 N Nimitz Hwy phone 808/545-7979. Copious quantities of modern Hawaiian cuisine, plus a microbrewery, a mile or two west of downtown Honolulu.

Maxime 1134 Maunakea St phone 808/545-4188. Bright, clean, pastel-pink Chinatown restaurant serving very inexpensive Vietnamese food, especially pho (noodle soups).

Oceanarium   Pacific Beach Hotel , 2490 Kalakaua Ave, Waikiki phone808/922-6111. Simply furnished restaurant with a big gimmick: you gorge yourself beneath the goggling eyes of 400 live fish, plus the occasional scuba diver. Open for all meals, with noodles, burgers and sandwiches, and full surf'n'turf dinners - all moderately priced.

Perry's Smorgy 2380 Kuhio Ave, Waikiki phone 808/926-0184. All-you-can-eat buffets, indoors and alfresco (with hordes of scavenging birds). Bargain prices - $5 breakfast (7-11am), $6 lunch (11.30am-2.30pm), $9 dinner (5-9pm) - but the food is bland in the extreme. A second location is at the Ohana Coral Seas , 250 Lewers St.

Shore Bird Beach Broiler Outrigger Reef on the Beach , 2169 Kalia Rd, Waikiki phone 808/922-2887. Open-air oceanfront restaurant that serves an $8 breakfast buffet, and dinner with an open salad bar for $13-19, depending on choice of entree. Guests cook their own meat or fish on a communal grill.

Texas Rock 'n' Roll Sushi Bar   Hyatt Regency Hotel , 2424 Kalakaua Ave, Waikiki phone 808/923-7655. A high-concept, postmodern restaurant/bar, with a bizarre menu that combines traditional sushi at reasonable prices with duck, barbecued beef and chicken.

Yakiniku Canellia 2494 S Beretania St phone 1-800/331-9698. Korean buffet restaurant a mile north of Waikiki, where you select slices of marinated beef, chicken or pork and grill it yourself at the gas-fired burners set into each table. Open daily for lunch ($10) and dinner ($16).