Fine-grain ice scraped from a block, drowned in housemade syrups and served over a scoop of vanilla ice cream with sweet azuki beans. Hawaii's canonical hot-day dessert, perfected on the North Shore.
Shave ice (kakigori in Japanese) came to Hawaii with Japanese plantation workers in the 1880s. Matsumoto Shave Ice in Haleiwa opened 1951 and became the canonical North Shore version with custom-cut ice and house fruit syrups; the family still runs it 75 years later. Waiola Shave Ice in Kapahulu Honolulu opened in 1940 with even finer ice grain and a deeper roster of syrups. The signature local order: rainbow shave ice over vanilla ice cream with azuki beans and condensed-milk drizzle.
2 editor picks for Shave ice in Honolulu, ranked by editorial score. All Honolulu signature dishes · Shave ice across every city.
Matsumoto Shave Ice ★ 4.5
66-111 Kamehameha Highway, Haleiwa, HI 96712
Matsumoto Shave Ice in Haleiwa on Oahu's North Shore, an hour from Honolulu, has scraped fine-grain shave ice since the Matsumoto family opened the Kamehameha Highway shop in 1951.
Waiola Shave Ice ★ 4.5
3113 Mokihana Street, Honolulu, HI 96816
Waiola Shave Ice in Kapahulu Honolulu has scraped the finest shave ice in the city since 1940, now on Mokihana Street after the original Kapahulu Avenue lease ran out in 2013.