Restaurant in Honolulu, United States
Thu–Sat only. Book early or miss it.
PAI Honolulu is chef Kevin Lee's tightly focused New American restaurant in downtown Honolulu, ranked #252 on the Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in North America list for 2025. Open Thursday to Saturday only, it's the most credentialed serious-dining option in the city for its format. Book a week or two out — availability is limited by the three-night schedule, not by difficulty.
If you're weighing PAI Honolulu against Fête — the other name that comes up most often when serious diners ask about New American cooking in Honolulu — PAI is the tighter, more focused choice. Fête is excellent for a relaxed dinner with range; PAI runs a shorter, more deliberate menu and earns its place on the Opinionated About Dining Leading Restaurants in North America list two years running (ranked #268 in 2024, climbing to #252 in 2025). For anyone who has already been once and is asking what to return for, the answer is: go back when the menu has turned, and go on a Friday or Saturday when the kitchen is at its sharpest.
PAI Honolulu operates out of a suite at 55 Merchant St in downtown Honolulu , a commercial address that sets expectations correctly. This is not a beachside dining room or a hotel restaurant pitching sunset views. Chef Kevin Lee runs a New American kitchen where the cooking is the point, and the room exists to support that rather than compete with it. The downtown location means you're eating alongside Honolulu residents who chose to be here, not tourists who stumbled in.
The OAD recognition is a useful calibration tool. Highly Recommended in 2023, then ranked in the Top 300 in North America in both 2024 and 2025, PAI has a clear upward trajectory in the serious-dining community. That puts it in the same critical conversation as Smyth in Chicago or Lazy Bear in San Francisco in terms of how the OAD audience thinks about it , ambitious, chef-driven, worth a detour , though at a smaller scale. It holds a 4.5 across 230 Google reviews, which suggests the experience translates beyond the specialist dining crowd.
PAI is open Thursday through Saturday, 5–10 pm only, which tells you something about how the kitchen operates: this is not a volume restaurant. The tight weekly schedule means the team is cooking at full attention every service, and it also means the menu turns on a shorter cycle than a restaurant open six or seven nights. If you visited in a previous season, the menu you ate is likely gone. New American as a format at this level tends to move with what's available , Hawaii's agricultural seasons are distinct, with summer producing different ingredient sets than the cooler winter months , so a return visit in a different part of the year will read as a genuinely different meal. That's the core reason to come back. If you're planning a first visit, the Thursday service is the easiest booking; Friday and Saturday fill faster.
The aroma cue worth noting: a kitchen running a precise, produce-forward New American menu in an enclosed downtown space means the dining room carries the evening's cooking clearly from the moment you arrive. That's a feature, not a complaint , it signals an active kitchen rather than a reheating operation.
PAI is open Thursday to Saturday, 5–10 pm. Closed Sunday through Wednesday. The address is 55 Merchant St #110, Honolulu, HI 96813 , suite-level entry in a downtown commercial building. Booking is rated Easy, and the three-night weekly schedule means you should still move promptly if you have a specific date in mind. No dress code, hours, or price range data is confirmed in our records; check directly with the venue before visiting.
For broader context on where PAI fits in the city, see our full Honolulu restaurants guide. For where to stay nearby, our full Honolulu hotels guide covers the field. If you want a drink before or after, our full Honolulu bars guide has options close to the downtown corridor. You can also explore Honolulu wineries and Honolulu experiences to build out the visit.
Other strong New American options in the city include Podmore, Town, and Mariposa. If you want Italian alongside your Honolulu itinerary, Arancino at The Kahala is the reference point. For New American cooking at the highest level elsewhere in the US, The French Laundry in Napa, Single Thread Farm in Healdsburg, The Inn at Little Washington, Bayona in New Orleans, and Emeril's are the names worth knowing. Le Bernardin in New York City remains the standard for precision cooking on the East Coast if that's a useful comparison point for calibrating expectations.
Quick reference: Thu–Sat, 5–10 pm; 55 Merchant St #110 downtown Honolulu; booking is easy; closed Sun–Wed.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| PAI Honolulu | New American | Easy | |
| Fête | New American | Unknown | |
| Liliha Bakery | Bakery | Unknown | |
| Sushi Izakaya Gaku | Izakaya | Unknown | |
| Miro Kaimuki | French - Japanese | Unknown | |
| Zigu | Japanese | Unknown |
How PAI Honolulu stacks up against the competition.
Fête is the closest comparison for serious New American cooking in Honolulu and is worth considering if PAI's Thursday–Saturday schedule doesn't work for your trip. Miro Kaimuki offers a similarly chef-driven format in a different neighbourhood. Zigu is a stronger pick if you want Japanese-influenced cooking rather than New American. PAI's consecutive OAD Top 300 rankings in 2024 and 2025 give it a credibility edge over most local alternatives for diners who follow that list.
PAI's suite-level address at 55 Merchant St suggests an intimate room rather than a sprawling dining hall, which generally works in a solo diner's favour at chef-driven restaurants in this format. The Thursday–Saturday, 5–10 pm schedule means the kitchen is running at full focus every night it operates — a good sign for counter or bar seating that solo diners often rely on. check the venue's official channels to confirm solo seating availability before booking.
Book as early as possible. PAI operates just three nights a week — Thursday through Saturday — which means total weekly covers are limited by design. An OAD Top 300 ranking in both 2024 and 2025 has put the restaurant on the radar of travelling diners, adding pressure to an already tight availability window. Assume at least two to three weeks lead time on weekends; less on Thursdays, but don't count on it.
Yes, with conditions. PAI's OAD Top 300 North America ranking and its chef-driven New American format make it a credible choice for a milestone dinner in Honolulu. The downtown address at 55 Merchant St is a commercial setting rather than a scenic waterfront, so if backdrop matters for your occasion, set expectations accordingly. For a meal that prioritises kitchen quality over atmosphere theatrics, PAI is one of the stronger calls in the city.
No dress code is documented for PAI, but the restaurant's format — a chef-driven New American room ranked in OAD's Top 300 North America — points toward smart casual as a reasonable baseline. In Honolulu's dining culture, that typically means neat, presentable clothing without requiring a jacket. Avoid beachwear; beyond that, you're unlikely to be turned away for being underdressed at most Hawaii fine-dining venues.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
