Colleen Reyes, director of sales for MCA Hawaii, a destination management company, says the job of providing Honolulu-based groups with great dining, activities and venues just keeps getting easier all the time.
“In particular, Waikiki has changed dramatically over the past eight years,” she says. “If you haven’t been here for 10 or 20 years, you definitely need to come back. You won’t believe what’s happened. There are new walkways, waterfalls, shopping areas and a plethora of great restaurants.”
Reyes says the choices for dine-around restaurants are endless, citing such favorites as Ciao Mein, a fusion restaurant in Waikiki that combines Chinese and Italian cuisines, and Sansei Seafood & Sushi, which overlooks the water at the Waikiki Beach Marriott. Another recommendation is the new RumFire restaurant at the Sheraton Waikiki.
“It’s on the waterfront and has fire pits on the beach,” she says. “There’s live entertainment most every night and tapas-style dining.”
She also likes to make use of Aloha Tower Marketplace, a complex of shops and restaurants that offers event space and such group-friendly restaurants as Gordon Biersch, a popular microbrewery.
Reyes is enthusiastic about the Royal Hawaiian Center, which emerged from a top-to-bottom makeover and expansion last summer, and Waikiki Beach Walk, a $585 million redeveloped area along Lewers Street offering restaurants, specialty shops, hotels and entertainment venues.
“Shopping in Waikiki is fabulous—there’s everything from high-end luxury boutiques to places where you can find indigenous goods from Hawaii,” she says.
In downtown Honolulu, Chinatown is emerging as a popular area for dining and exploring, according to Reyes.
“Chinatown is to Honolulu what SoHo is to New York,” she says. “It’s our arts district, with place like the Hawaiian Theater. And, like Waikiki, it has great restaurants, including the Green Door and Vino’s. Plus there are a lot of good nightspots, like Bar 35.”
Among the most popular and group-friendly restaurants in Chinatown is Indigo, an Asian fusion restaurant where the chef will lead tours of the neighborhood, stopping at local produce and meat markets to buy ingredients.
“Then he’ll take the group back to the restaurant for a cooking demonstration, followed by lunch,” Reyes says.
There is no shortage of expansive places for theme parties and receptions, including Fort DeRussy Park adjacent to the Hilton Hawaiian Village, and the rooftop of the Hawaii Convention Center.
“The convention center roof is where you can really showcase the best that Honolulu has to offer,” Reyes says. “We’ve brought in local chefs for an on-site dine-around as well as local entertainers and artists.”
