🌺 Local Honolulu Meal Deals
We re-audited this page in August 2026 against each restaurant's own menu. Cards marked ✓ VERIFIED had their price read off an owner source (the restaurant's own site or its own ordering page). Cards marked ⚠ PRICE CHECK PENDING are places we believe belong here but whose owner menu posts no prices or was unreachable — the figures are our best read, so call before you count on them.
Rainbow Drive-In
Plate Lunch $10.25–12.95
The plate-lunch icon since 1961 — Food Network famous, even an Obama favorite. Loco moco is $11.25, the mix plate $12.95, the chili plate $10.25, all with two scoops of rice and mac salad. Portions are huge (one plate can feed two), so two eat for around $20. The lowest prices you'll find this close to Waikiki.
Ono Seafood
Classic Kapahulu Poke
A Kapahulu poke institution locals have lined up at for decades — shoyu ahi and spicy ahi over rice, cut fresh, with the tempura-flakes tip. Bowls run a touch smaller and pricier than some spots (figure low-to-mid teens each), so two bowls land right around $20. Tiny storefront, limited parking, worth it. Closed Sun–Mon.
Palace Saimin
Saimin · Beef Sticks
An old-school Kalihi saimin counter going strong since the 1940s — steaming bowls of saimin and wonton min in a delicate dashi broth, plus those famous teriyaki beef sticks. Wonton udon runs about $11.25 and beef sticks $4, so two share bowls and a stick or two for around $16–20. A genuine piece of old Hawai'i. Closed Sun–Mon.
Musubi Cafe IYASUME
Spam Musubi · Onigiri
The go-to for fresh-made musubi — spam, of course, but also tamago, unagi, shrimp-avocado, and onigiri, all made to order with Koshihikari rice. Musubi run a few dollars each, so two can load up on a handful of varieties plus drinks for well under $20. A perfect cheap beach or hike grab. Worlds better than the convenience-store version.
Leonard's Bakery
Famous Malasadas
The malasada institution since 1952 — the owner menu prices original malasadas at $2.25 each and filled (malasada puff) ones at $2.75. A half-dozen mixed plus coffees keeps two people around $15. Expect a line; it moves.
Pho Kapahulu
Pho · Banh Mi · Spring Rolls
A Kapahulu pho standby where bowls have climbed to the $15–20 range — two bowls now run past $30, so it's a share-one-bowl-plus-an-appetizer stop if you're holding the $20 line.
Lam's Kitchen
Chinatown Noodles · Cheung Fun
The Chinatown look funn specialist reopened bigger in December 2025 after doubling in size. Homemade chow funn plates run $8.75–9.75 and look funn soups $5.75–9.50 — two people eat for well under $20.
Sing Cheong Yuan
Manapua · Mochi · Char Siu Buns
A beloved old Hong Kong-style bakery in Chinatown famous for char-siu puffs, manapua, egg tarts, and a rainbow case of fresh mochi (peanut, black sesame, coconut). Everything's a couple of dollars, so two can graze across buns, dumplings and mochi for well under $20. Big taste, tiny prices, generations of regulars.
Nanding's Bakery
Filipino Spanish Rolls · Pandesal
A Kalihi Filipino bakery locals line up at before dawn for hot, buttery-sweet Spanish rolls — you cannot eat just one. Also pandesal, ube rolls, ensaymada and adobo rolls, all dirt cheap (one reviewer grabbed an ube roll, ensaymada and adobo roll for $9.15). Two leave with a loaded box for well under $20. Get there early; parking's tight.
South Shore Grill
Plate Lunch · Fish Tacos
A Diamond Head-side counter near the surf breaks. Fish and pork tacos run $4.50–5.75 — two tacos each keeps a pair under $20 — while the famous SSG Mix Plate is now $23, so save that for a bigger budget day.
Chains from one corner of the country that made it to Honolulu — priced from their own ordering menus, nearest store on the card.
California Pizza Kitchen
One Margherita Pizza Split Two Ways · $18.69
CPK — the chain that invented the BBQ chicken pizza in 1985 — prices like the sit-down restaurant it is: two people each ordering a main start at $35.58. The honest under-$20 route is to split. Every pizza is a 6-slice thin crust, and the cheapest, the Margherita, reads $18.69 at the 1450 Ala Moana Bl store, the cheapest of the 2 in the city on CPK's own online ordering, August 2026 — $9.35 a head when two people share one. The Traditional Cheese is $19.19 and the Mac 'N' Cheese, the cheapest main plate at $17.79, splits the same way. With actual kids along the math turns kind: every CPKids pizza and pasta entrée is $8.99. The traps are ordering like two separate customers and the specialty list — pizzas beyond the basic three start at $20.69, and drinks push even a split pizza to the line, so it's a water-and-share play. CPK runs exactly three price tiers nationally — $16.69 to $18.69 for the same Margherita — so confirm at yours; the dine-in menu can read slightly different from the ordering site.
💡 Pro tip: All deals are community-verified but prices and availability change. Always check the restaurant's website or app before making a special trip — and if something's expired, flag it on our main directory so we can update it.
🇺🇸 Also Valid Nationwide
These chain deals work anywhere in the country, including Honolulu.
Buffalo Wild Wings
Pick 6 — Meal for Two from $19.99
The Pick 6 lets two people build a shared meal — choose six items across wings, tenders, and sides — starting around $19.99. A reliable two-for-$20 play at any BWW. Dine-in or takeout; pricing varies slightly by market.
See all national chain deals →
📍 Hawaii Chains
Island plate-lunch chains — bigger than one storefront — with a real Honolulu address.
L&L Hawaiian Barbecue
Mini Plate + SPAM Saimin — $18.00 for Two
The Honolulu-born plate-lunch chain (Best Cheap Eats, Best Plate Lunch), now 200+ locations but still cheapest at home. Prices are per-store — read off the Ke‘eaumoku (inside Walmart) location's own menu: a Mini Plate Lunch (chicken katsu, loco moco, kalua pork, and more) is $10.75, a SPAM saimin $7.25, so one of each feeds two for $18.00. Cheaper still: two hamburgers $3.95 each, or a bowl ($10.25) plus a burger. Two mini plates ($21.50) tips over — pair a mini with saimin. Prices vary by location.
Zippy's
Hawaii's Saimin & Plate-Lunch Institution
The quintessential Hawaii chain — saimin, chili, plate lunches and Napple pies, with a dozen Honolulu locations (Vineyard, McCully, Kapahulu, Kaimuki, Kahala and more). Saimin and mini items are cheap enough that two comfortably clear $20, but Zippy's own online menu doesn't publish prices, so we couldn't confirm a figure from an owner source — check in-store.
Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii
Breakfast Sandwiches on King’s Hawaiian — Two + a Drip Under $20
The prodigal comes home: born at a Kona coffee-farm stand in 1989 and named for the donkeys that hauled coffee down the volcano slopes, the Hawaiian-coffee franchise grew to about 40 mainland stores — and in March 2026 it finally reopened on Oʻahu, taking a Kaimukī storefront on Waialae Ave (opened March 13, 5:30am weekdays). The food play is the breakfast-sandwich board, served all day on King's Hawaiian sweet bread: bacon or sausage egg-and-cheddar, the Aloha (ham, egg, swiss, grilled pineapple, BBQ drizzle) and the Spam-stacked Bad Ass One. Across the three store menus we price-checked (Tolleson AZ, West Jordan UT, McKinney TX — August 2026), sandwiches run $6.77–$7.93 and a small drip of the Hawaiian blend $3.69–$4.49, so two sandwiches plus a shared drip lands at $17.23–$19.89 — under the line in every market we checked. The $7–9 flavored lattes are where the math breaks; stick to drip and it holds. Prices vary by store, so check yours.
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Browse the full directory — 186 cities, national chains, updated August 2026.
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