Amalina Ariffin

This place is the kind of fancy restaurants you'd go for special occasions in the heart of Waikiki. The menu is relatively limited but you can't go wrong with any of the items. If you are a big eater the portion might not be able to fill you. I made a reservation in advance and we got seated upstairs with a view of Waikiki on the big window perfect for sunset. Our waiter was attentive and thoughtful. The bill was higher than many other restaurants considering the food, ambience and service so I would probably come here this one time.

You can get your parking validated at a nearby hotel, I parked at Embassy Suites (you can also validate at Wyndham hotel) but you would still need to pay $6 for 4 hours parking after validation which is not too bad so I got to walk around Waikiki after without feeling like I had to rush back to my car.

The observatory is a beautiful park which has an amazing view of LA sunset. However, the crowd felt really overwhelming and took out a lot of the enjoyment for me. The parking lot gets filled so fast we decided to take the parking lot further than the one by the observatory, the walk wasn't too bad. Perhaps the influence of La La Land is too strong but I'm glad I got to go at least once.

A very chill Korean restaurant that provides comfort Korean dishes. There were not a lot of people when we came so it's nice to not have to wait too long for service but I can imagine it might get overwhelming because there's only one wait staff. The price is reasonable and the portion is ginormous so if you are a small eater you can consider bringing some leftovers home. For parking they provide valet parking that charges $3.

I want to like this place, especially since we order a lot of catering from them for my work. When I visited them for the first time, my friend who was a regular find the food not as good as usual so their regular chef might be on leave. Being from Southeast Asia I hold Thai food to a high standard so it might still be nice to others. It was Friday evening so it was pretty packed so as soon as we finished eating we felt rushed to leave because the staff approached us apologetically and told us that there are people waiting for our table. I don't know if that's common in the US but I've never experienced that before. The timing was also difficult because my friend was crying and sharing her story at the time when we were told to leave. I know it wasn't personal but it wasn't the best feeling.

I could see that it must have been beautiful with a koi pond but since the water was drained it does not look as beautiful. However, all the landscape was well maintained and the trees were lush and beautiful. There's a tea house in the park but it was closed too. I am sure if these facilities were open the park would have been beautiful but now it seems like a ghost of a glorified past. The park is a good size with reasonable incline if people would like to go for a run or bring their kids to explore.