Twelve plump shrimp sauteed in garlic butter with chunks of caramelized garlic, served over two scoops of rice. The canonical North Shore lunch wagon plate.
Garlic shrimp came out of the North Shore aquaculture boom in the 1990s. Kahuku's shrimp ponds (still operating today) gave nearby trucks the ingredient. Giovanni's Shrimp Truck started selling shrimp scampi from a mobile truck in 1993 and parked a permanent location in Kahuku in 1995. Romy's Kahuku Prawns runs its own pond next door to the lunch wagon. Jenny's Shrimp took over the Macky's spot in 2018 with the same butter-garlic recipe. The format: 12 shrimp, garlic butter, two scoops rice.
3 editor picks for North Shore garlic shrimp in Honolulu, ranked by editorial score. All Honolulu signature dishes · North Shore garlic shrimp across every city.
Giovanni's Shrimp Truck ★ 4.5
56-505 Kamehameha Highway, Kahuku, HI 96731
Giovanni's Shrimp Truck in Kahuku on Oahu's North Shore, an hour from Honolulu, has slung butter-garlic shrimp scampi since 1993 and parked its graffiti-tagged white truck in Kahuku in 1995.
Jenny's Shrimp ★ 4.5
66-532 Kamehameha Highway, Haleiwa, HI 96712
Jenny's Shrimp on Kamehameha Highway in Haleiwa, an hour from Honolulu, is the lunch wagon the former Macky's head chef opened after Macky's closed in 2018 with the same butterflied garlic shrimp.
Romy's Kahuku Prawns ★ 4.4
56-1030 Kamehameha Highway, Kahuku, HI 96731
Romy's Kahuku Prawns on the North Shore an hour from Honolulu farms its own shrimp and prawns on the property and serves them butterfly-cut from the lunch wagon out front.