About Giovedi
There is a particular joy in discovering that the city you thought you knew has been quietly growing something extraordinary in its oldest neighbourhood. Giovedi — the Italian word for Thursday, the day the restaurant first began as a pop-up — is the creation of Chef Bao Tran and his wife Jennifer Akiyoshi, and it occupies a space on Hotel Street in Honolulu's Chinatown that feels exactly right for a restaurant this characterful.
The cooking is Italian in structure and technique but Asian in soul: housemade pastas filled with flavours that draw from Vietnamese, Japanese, and broader pan-Asian pantries; sauces that carry the depth of long-simmered European traditions but the brightness of Southeast Asian aromatics; plating that combines the precision of Italian classical training with the aesthetic sensibility of a chef who grew up eating across cuisines. It is fusion cooking in the best sense of that term — not a novelty act but a genuine synthesis that emerges from who the cooks actually are.
Chinatown is Honolulu's most interesting restaurant neighbourhood, and Giovedi occupies it with confidence. The room is intimate, the energy is lively, and the courtyard patio — a rarity in this part of the city — offers the kind of outdoor dining that immediately makes a first date feel more generous. The natural light dies into candlelight as the evening deepens, and the kitchen keeps the momentum going with a menu that moves quickly enough to stay interesting but never so quickly that it feels rushed.
Bon Appetit named Giovedi one of the best new American restaurants of 2025. Honolulu Magazine's readers gave it the Gold Hale 'Aina Award for Best New Restaurant of the same year. Neither recognition surprised anyone who had eaten there during its pop-up days and watched it build towards the permanent room on Hotel Street.
The Occasion Fit
Giovedi is among the best first date restaurants in Honolulu, and it arrives at that distinction through pure cooking rather than atmospheric contrivance. The shared-plate format — order several small dishes, work through them together — generates conversation naturally. The room is busy enough to feel alive but not so loud that you need to raise your voice. The Chinatown location communicates local knowledge without the intimidation factor of Honolulu's most formal fine dining rooms. For a first date in the city, this is the most enjoyable room in Chinatown and one of the three best in Honolulu for the occasion, alongside Leila in Kaimuki and Solera in Waikiki.