Moku Kitchen

Moku Kitchen occupies Suite 145 at 660 Ala Moana Boulevard, inside SALT at Our Kakaʻako — the block of converted warehouses that became the centre of gravity for independent food and drink in the district. The restaurant works a farm-to-table brief with Hawaiian producers, runs live music, and keeps notably long hours for the area, 11am to 11pm every day, which makes it one of the more dependable places to end up in Kakaʻako when other kitchens have closed.

The non-alcoholic offer is narrower than the venues higher up this guide, which is why it sits at a three rather than a four, but the one drink that is consistently documented is worth knowing about because it does something nothing else in Honolulu does. The So Figgin' Awesome combines cinnamon, fig and vanilla in soda — a warm, autumnal, dessert-leaning profile in a city where the non-alcoholic default is overwhelmingly tropical fruit. Pineapple, passionfruit, lychee and hibiscus dominate almost every list in this guide, for good reason, since they are local and they carry acidity. But that consistency means a visitor working through Honolulu's zero-proof drinks encounters a lot of the same register, and a fig-and-cinnamon build is a genuine change of direction. It also happens to be one of the cheaper composed non-alcoholic drinks in the city. Beyond it, the bar keeps a standard soft list rather than a developed zero-proof programme, so this is a venue to visit for the room, the hours and the food, with one good drink rather than a menu of them. Its position at SALT puts it a few minutes from Aloha Beer Company on Queen Street and a short distance from Merriman's at Ward Village.