Best Italian Restaurants in Hawaii

The food and service were great, but beware that the restaurant is service animal unfriendly.

Taormina is a great Sicilian restaurant in the middle of Waikiki. The place is clean and modern, and the service is welcoming and efficient. At lunch they provide free focaccia with olive oil/balsamic vinegar and a passion fruit sorbet after the meal. The Siciliana pasta was excellent. Great spicy flavor with a unique sweet/spicy beef ragu sauce. It's not a huge portion but it's very good. The chicken alla Griglia was excellent. It's a huge piece of chicken, perfectly roasted and seasoned. It's very tender and flavorful. Really it's better than the pasta IMO. I'll definitely go back next time I'm in Hawaii. Make a reservation because you probably won't get in without it.

The service is so-so - 1 is friendly, 1 is brusk/curt - they are quite slow with the food - the food is good but not amazing - basically the decor/setup is really good, so is the Ferrari parked in the middle - that's what you come for

The entire experience was wonderful, starting with a very warm and welcoming Hostess who checked us in for our reservation and explained some of the menu to us. After being seated, we were readily greeted by our server, who was very personable and attentive to our questions and needs throughout the dinner service. He patiently explained the differences in our wine choices, suggested various dishes, and explained some of the local sourcing for our dishes, which we really appreciated. Our appetizer and dinner dishes were delicious, fresh, and hot! There was a nice pacing between our appetizer and dinner and we savored every morsel. And our server made sure our water glasses were filled and asked how our meals were throughout. We will definitely come back!