Need your recommendations for restaurants & whale watching near Aulani

[ciao_gina]

The Disney excursions at Aulani seem really expensive. I am looking at Tom Barefoot (don't mind driving to the N. Shore to save money) and others for whale watching. Any suggestions based on your experience or research are appreciated.

Meals-based on the posts here I am pretty convinced that we are going to eat elsewhere or in the room as much as possible. Suggestions for good local restaurants would be appreciated. We love Roys and have heard about the shrimp trucks, Tanioko's, Ailana for shaved ice. Any other suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks

Gina

 

[lilpooh108]

We did a lot of research on Yelp before we left.

Just FYI, Taniokas is a deli so you have to buy it for take out. There are some restaurants in Kapolei near Aulani which are ranked well on Yelp. We ate at Thai Lao in Kapolei and it was really good. We also liked Sushi Bay in Kapolei.

Roy's had a fire so it's been closed...

 

[ciao_gina]

Thanks!

Roys should be open by February

 

[Jack's dad]

We just got back from a trip to Aulani and used TomBarefoot.com to book our whale watching trip on the Navatek 1. It was great, and we saw a pod of whales almost before we got out of the port!

The lunch on board was fairly nice - better than I expected based on the reviews I had read beforehand. We would have rather opted for the breakfast cruise instead in order to save the money for food, but it was too early in the season. Now in retrospect, I'm happy we took the lunch one, even if the breakfast cruise was available.

Enjoy your trip!