The Liliha Bakery at Waikiki’s International Marketplace

Generally speaking, Martine and i do not agree when it comes to food. She likes rich pastries and American food with meat, potatoes, and vegetables all neatly separated on the plate. I, on the other hand, go in for ethnic dining experiences, with or without meat.

One rare point of agreement was the Liliha Bakery chain in Honolulu. Most mornings (the weekends were always too crowded), we would walk the three blocks from our hotel to the International Marketplace and eat breakfast at the Liliha Bakery on the mall’s third level.

It is a uniquely Hawaiian experience. Martine was drawn mainly by the extensive selection of yummy baked goods, while I liked the Hawaiian touches to their meals. For instance, you wouldn’t catch me drinking iced tea on the mainland if it had been flavored with raspberry or passion fruit; but Liliha’s Plantation Iced Tea with pineapple or guava is delicious and uniquely thirst-quenching.

There are five locations of the bakery/restaurant around the Honolulu area, with the original one located at Kuakini and Liliha Streets about three blocks north of the H1 freeway. Curiously, the bakery is most famous for their coco puffs, which don’t do anything for me. But just about everything else of theirs that I’ve had in our last two trips to Hawaii were strictly top notch.