Notable: Owner and head chef Cary Lee has been running this popular, busy spot for eight years. It’s known for value, large portions and familiar Chinese flavors.

Menu: The dishes that fly off the menu are steamed fish fillet, mui choy kau yuk, honey walnut shrimp and the fresh lobster and crab preparations. Regulars look for the nights when the chefs prepare fresh char siu and roast pork. A cold combination party platter is a favorite for larger groups; it features jellyfish, pig’s feet, char siu, roast duck and roast pork.

FYI: 4510 Salt Lake Blvd.; 487-6662. 10 a.m.-9 p.m. daily. No reservations required. VS, MC. No checks. $.

Elena’s Home of Finest Filipino Foods • Best Filipino Restaurant

Notable: Elena and Theo Butuyan founded this restaurant in 1974, serving Filipino Americans yearning for the flavors of Mom’s kitchen and other Islanders who have learned to love these dishes.

Menu: The “finest Filipino” foods here include the signature pork adobo omelet (a garlicky egg pancake wrapped around tangy adobo, which always generates a line at the ‘Ilima Awards event when it’s served), pork adobo fried rice, shrimp sarciado, roast pork Filipino-style and sari sari. Take-out and catering, too.

FYI: 94-300 Farrington Highway, Waipahu; 671-3279. 5 a.m.-8:45 p.m. daily. No reservations needed. VS, MC, AX, DC, DS. No checks. $.

La Mer • Best French Restaurant

Notable: This is one of the most beautiful rooms in the city: a shadowy yet airy space with low ceilings and a quiet elegance, its french windows folded back to the view of Diamond Head and Waikiki Beach. Jean-Yves Kevarrec is a charming host, welcoming you back by name, with an anecdote or menu suggestion and a smile. La Mer is the only AAA Five Diamond restaurant in the city, and virtually the only one that requires gentlemen to wear jackets.

Menu: Chef de cuisine Yves Garnier, formerly of Monte Carlo and the Ritz-Carlton chain and San Francisco’s Le Club, is a master of the exquisite. He calls his menu “Cuisine de Soleil” — Tartares of Hamachi, ‘Ahi and Salmon on Caviar with Three Coulis, Tart of Sauteed Duck Foie Gras, Mussel Soup with Saffron, Three Fresh Island Fish in a Rosemary Salt Crust, Crispy Skin Fillet of Onaga with Truffle Jus. New on the menu is Kobe-style Fillet of Beef Three Ways — carpaccio, tournedos with bone marrow and sliced fillet with truffle jus.

FYI: Halek¨lani Hotel, 2199 KÅlia Road; 923-2311. Dinner 6-10 p.m. daily. Reservations required. VS, MC, AX, DC, JCB. Checks accepted. Dress code: Gentlemen must wear jackets or long-sleeved, collared shirts. $$$.

Notable: A longtime ‘Ilima voter favorite for its affordability, familiar menu items, family atmosphere.

Menu: The classic Italian-American restaurant spread begins with a large pasta menu that allows you to match your preferred pasta to a variety of sauces, from pomodoro to bordelaise (there’s a helpful illustrated guide to pasta styles on the menu). Other dishes include parmigiana, alfredo, ravioli, cannelloni, lasagna, baked rigatoni. And there’s pizza, rotisserie chicken, steak and veal, sandwiches and salads, as well as a variety of seasonal specials, all reasonably priced and ample.

FYI: Pearlridge Uptown; 487-5544. 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Reservations required for large parties. VS, MC, AX, DC, DS, JCB. No checks. Lunch, $; Dinner, $$.

Notable: This small storefront at Market City Shopping Center doesn’t look like much, but inside is an exceptional example of that ubiquitous island favorite, the Korean barbecue restaurant. It’s the sort of friendly neighborhood spot where they remember the usual orders of regular customers and try to give you a good deal for not much money. They do a brisk business in take-out and large catering orders.

Menu: You’ll find the usual lineup here — kal bi, spicy barbecued beef, meat or fish jun, mandoo, katsu, bi bim bap. One item you won’t find everywhere — barbecued whole young ika (squid). We found their dipping sauce — based on spicy cho chu jang — very interesting, not as hot as most, and with more layers of flavor. Also a plus: You get four very generous servings of side dishes, plus two scoops of rice, with plates (some spots only offer three sides).

FYI: 2919 Kapi‘olani Blvd.; 735-7964. 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays, 10 a.m.-11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. No reservations. No credit cards. No checks. $.

Notable: This restaurant touches on all manner of Japanese food, from sushi to grill to tableside preparation, from light meals to elaborate kaiseki dinners.

Menu: This restaurant specializes in that island favorite, the buffet, including weekday, weekend brunch and weekend dinner versions. The dinner menu includes two types of kaiseki (multicourse, small tastes) menus, teishoku (entree combos) and nabemono (broth-simmered preparations of seafood or beef prepared at the table).

FYI: Pacific Beach Hotel, 2490 Kalakaua Ave.; 921-6113. Breakfast 5:30-10 a.m., lunch 11.a.m.-2 p.m., dinner 5:30-10 p.m. daily. Reservations recommended. VS, MC, AX, DC, DS, JCB. Checks accepted. $$$.

Notable: Not much bigger than an SUV and frequently as busy as the nearby Pi‘ikoi/Kapi‘iolani intersection, this down-home spot, long favored but kept quiet by afficionados who didn’t want to lose their tables, serves the kind of authentic Mexican food you don’t often find in Honolulu.

Menu: There are the usual combos but also lamb and vegetable options (instead of just beef and chicken), tamales, menudo, posole, chili verde, chile colorado burritos, carnitas. The food is prepared from scratch here, not defrosted and warmed up as in some spots. Try the “Mele” al Pastor dishes — chopped pork and onions in a spicy, slightly sour red chili sauce, available in several forms.

FYI: 550 Piikoi; 596-8225. 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, closed Sundays. No reservations. No credit cards. No checks. $.

Pyramids • Best Mediterranean Restaurant

Notable: People like this Middle Eastern spot for its economical lunch buffet, its evening belly-dance entertainment, and the opportunity to experience dishes that aren’t widely available in the Islands.

Menu: All the usual suspects — hummus with pita, baba ganoush (eggplant “caviar”), moussaka and an exceptional marinated and charbroiled rack of lamb.

FYI: 758 Kapahulu Ave.; 737-2900. Lunch 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays. Dinner 5:30-10 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays, 5-9 p.m. Sundays. Reservations recommended. VS, MC, AX, DC, DS, JCB. No checks. Lunch: $. Dinner: $$$.

Notable: Champa Thai owner Somphanh Phanphengdy said the original restaurant in Pearl Kai Shopping Center was opened 12 years ago for her brother-in-law, French-trained chef Abe Phanphengdy. She was then working at Michel’s at the Colony Surf hotel. Abe since moved on to open his own Champa Thai on Wai‘alae in 1998 after having trained his successors at the original restaurant. Another brother, Keo Phanphengdy, owns Champa Thai in Kailua.

Menu: This is a naturally healthful way of eating: light salads of fresh herbs and vegetables without the heavy oils of the West; spicy soups made with vegetables and seafood; quickly stir-fried noodle dishes. Champa Thai offers 10 varieties of curry for those who crave those flavors. A quite extensive vegetarian menu includes appetizers, salads and entrees. Popular dishes: spring rolls, tom yum soup, lemongrass chicken.

FYI: Pearl Kai Shopping Center, 98-199 Kamehameha Highway; 488-2881. Lunch 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays (closed for lunch Sundays), dinner 5:30-9:30 daily. No reservations needed. VS, MC, AX, DS. No checks. $.

Cuu Long Nine Dragons River Restaurant • Best Vietnamese Restaurant

Notable: Cuu Long, the Nine Dragons River Restaurant, is a modest operation that sees its first customers for mid-morning phô and says goodnight to them with the same dish. Phô — rice noodles in a clear and subtly flavored beef broth — is the national dish of Vietnam; it is to Vietnamese what saimin is to locals, a filling eat-anytime dish that offers the comforting taste of home.

Menu: In addition to 10 kinds of phô and the usual noodle and stir-fry dishes, Cuu Long serves a couple of versions of the complex Vietnamese feast dish bo nhung dam, also known as Vietnamese fondue, a cousin of shabu shabu. In a fondue pot at the table, a simmering broth of rice vinegar, lemon grass and spices is used to cook thin slices of beef; diners wrap the beef, fresh herbs and vegetables and then tip into a special anchovy sauce, or chili or fish sauces.

FYI: Pearl Kai Shopping Center; 488-6041. 10 a.m.-10 p.m. daily. No reservations required. VS, MC, AX, DS. No checks. $.

'Ono Hawaiian Foods • Best Hawaiian Restaurant

Notable: The line; there’s always a line. Enjoy it; talk story, get in a local frame of mind.

Menu: Whatever you like in the way of authentic Hawaiian and adopted Hawaiian food, from the typical l¨‘au plate of laulau, kalua pork, lomi salmon and poi, to squid l¨‘au (coconut-milk stew made with taro leaves) and chicken long rice. Ample portions.

FYI: 726 Kapahulu Ave.; 737-2275. 11 a.m.-7:45 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays, closed Sundays. No reservations. No credit cards. No checks. $.