Duke’s Waikiki: Barefoot Bar in Honolulu

Yes I still have not finished writing all of my recaps from Hawaii… please “bare” with me as I now try to remember my experience from back in October 2022.

My friends and I had dinner at Duke’s Waikiki right after my proposal so needless to say, we came here for a celebration. Duke’s Waikiki was recommended to us by a friend who goes to Hawaii often, so this place is definitely a favourite to come back to. In total, we were a table of 10 adults and were seated in the dining room.

Now Duke’s Waikiki is known for having a beautiful beachfront patio, but since our reservation time was after sunset, things were mostly black out there. If you are coming here for lunch or breakfast, you will probably have a much better view.

Note: all prices in this post are listed in USD.

Drinks

Mango cocktail ($16), Endless summer ($14), Vintage 44′ mai tai ($18)

These were just some of the drinks we ordered from our table. All of them have generous portions and there are a lot of fruity options for my fellow “girly” cocktail fans. Out of the 3, I really liked the Endless summer because it is so pretty and it really made me feel like I was in a tropical place. It is a blend of mango & citrus vodka with guava, coconut, and passion fruit juice.

The mai tai is also another classic that we’ve been drinking a lot of in Hawaii. We found this one to taste strong so make sure you mix it!

Food

Here is everything me and Kelvin had for dinner at Duke’s Waikiki.

Panko crusted calamari ($20)

For our starter, we shared the calamari, one of our favourite appetizers. It is served with a guava cocktail sauce (very interesting!) and meyer lemon remoulade. The calmari was fried well and had a nice texture on the outside, and the sauce was slightly sweet and sour to pair with it.

Sautéed mac nut & herb crusted fresh fish ($39)

I wasn’t sure what to order for my main so I asked what the most popular dish was at Duke’s Waikiki. This was among some of our server’s recommendations. The fish of the day was the mahi mahi, so depending on when you go, it may be a different fish but it will still be cooked in the same way.

The mahi mahi is dusted with panko and parmesan, and sautéed with mac nut and herbs. There’s a dab of lemon caper butter and the side is paired with herbed jasmine farro rice. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the rice (it just tasted average to me), but I did enjoy the fish. I found it to be very moist inside and I’ve actually never had fish cooked this way before with mac nuts and herbs. It was refreshing and light, it wasn’t an entree that was overly rich or fatty to me.

Squid ink pasta ($50)

This pasta was one of the specials of the day so I actually don’t remember the price, but it was around $45 (I just rounded it to $50 just in case). The squid ink pasta is served with large prawns, tomatoes, cabbage and a white cream sauce.

Kelvin and I have tasted squid ink pasta many times in Vancouver so the novelty of the black pasta noodles has worn off on us, but it was still a very yummy pasta. Love the sauce and the prawns. I just think for the price tag compare to Vancouver, it’s too expensive.

Recommended: This place in Kerrisdale is closed now 😔 but it had our favourite squid ink pasta in Vancouver! Read about my review on The Rise Eatery (now closed).

Kimo’s original hula pie ($14)

Our server actually sent us this dessert for free as the newly engaged couple, but I’ve included in the price in the heading just so you know how much it is.

The original hula pie is a huge slab of ice cream cake with a chocolate cookie crust, macadamia nut ice cream (yum!), hot fudge, toasted macadamia nuts and whipped cream. I love all the macadamia this dessert has because Hawaii tourists are all over macadamia treats and souvenirs. This dessert is a lot to share between 2 people so a lot of our friends got to taste them as well.

Final thoughts

Loewe’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

We had a super fun and memorable dinner at Duke’s Waikiki. This is largely in part due to my friends and that I just got engaged (say goodbye to Kelvin everyone).

Duke’s Waikiki has this really fun and casual surfer vibe and it has a prime location right on the beach on the Waikiki strip. They are a more expensive dining option with entrees being at least $30 and some specialty items like lobster or prime rib going up to $70-80. I recommend coming here for a special occasion or a romantic date night to watch the sunset so you can see the view.

Service was excellent – not just because they gave us free dessert lol. We were quite a rowdy table since we were all really hyped up after the proposal and we were being very loud. We were notified of a noise complaint from a nearby table but the server was super nice about it and I felt sorry that he probably had to deal with it. Our one server took everyone’s orders as well and allowed us to split the bill in pairs, which some restaurants in the US do not allow.

Duke’s Waikiki will always be a memorable place for me and I will be sure to return the next time I am in Hawaii and (hopefully) married lol!

Sincerely, Loewe