The Oceanarium

Great place for a buffet. Service was great and the atmosphere was nice. Food was great too. I highly recommend eating here.

Aquarium in a huge buffet? Noooo way! What a great way to enjoy your food! I really enjoyed the atmosphere and service. Wish there was a little more variety or else It would be more than a 3 star, they did have snow crabs which was yummy.

There used to be a nice sit-​down seafood restaurant here with live music. No more.
Now it’s a family-​style buffet with chafing dishes of once macadamia nut crusted fish gone soggy and oysters Rockefeller with congealed hollendaise drying out.
Parking was full when we went, so we had to park blocks away.
If you like steamed king crab legs, the servings are generous. Otherwise, I’d give it a miss.

I will rate after my dinner experience tomorrow night. So far, the hostess or whoever took my reservation was super condescending and even booked me for a time slot that was sold out. According to Danielle, (person whom I made the reservation thru) the mermaid is not a «mermaid» but in fact a «diver».oooh my bad. Im still gonna tell my son its a mermaid. Lol. Anywho, her attitude was so bad I almost didnt want to go but it’s my son’s birthday. I will finish my review tomorrow…

********************** 1480 *********************
I love the aquarium and the mermaid live feeding the fishes at 7 PM on certain night here. This popular restaurant has been attracting visitors and locals alike since 1979. At its center is a three-​story, 280,000-gallon, aquarium housing nearly 400 fish from more than 70 different species of Indo-​Pacific marine life. For extra money, a surprise from a mermaid or diver swim over to your table holding a board with a personalized message! Maximum of 26 spaces, not including «Welcome, Happy Birthday & Congratulations», just additional $ 27.
They have a good all you can eat buffet, certain night with Prime Rib or Crab special, it’s worth the money.
After three days straight running up the Diamond Head Monument from Waikiki Beach, instead of taking the cab on two miles each wait. I rewarded myself with a crab buffet night out. I earned it. Plus I was lazy to leave the hotel, The Oceanarium was exactly just what I needed.

We ate here Sunday night, January 17^th, 2016. Had a reservation at 5pm. Was our 1^st time there and I’m sorry to say our last. Good food experience though. Food was on point and tasty. Little disappointed no prime rib, but pork belly was an alternative. Kids loved the fish tank. And our server was great. But now on to the one star rating…
I would’ve gave it at least 4 stars bc the lack of prime rib but it dropped down to one because they kicked us out after only being there for an hour and a half (took time to de-​shell the crab legs). Normally people been there for at least 2 hours with dessert in tow, but because we sat near the tank and there was a party after us who were just so happen to be Japanese tourists, they sent the head host/​manager to get us out. Instead of relocating us to another table, he didn’t even do that. He said to us, «are you done because you told us you’d be done? We need this table for another party». I rushed my desserts intake, but was still hungry. So being a jackass to us, the head host/​manager (tall, thin asian) who didn’t leave his name for fear of getting reprimanded by his superiors I guess. You can pay our server his tip because we didn’t leave one. Server was on point but because the manager was being an idiot, I didn’t leave one. That tool catered to the tourists more than us. We were paying customers too. You can split your tip with our server.
To our server, my apologies. To all the abruptness I still should’ve left something for you. But your charismatic lead-​donkey could’ve shown more appreciation towards any and all customers. LOCAL AND FOREIGN!!!
******UPDATE*******
Wow, that was fast. Just posted this this morning and already a response. Just spoke with Kelly, one of the managers at The Oceanarium, and thank you to her, they would like us back and comp’ed us 2 dinners. Hopefully our next experience would be better.
Thank you again, Kelly!!!

Terrible food, terrible mermaid «show» don’t waste your time or money on this place! We came here for my daughters birthday and we were EXTREMELY disappointed. The wait staff was great but the food was cold and gross. Minimal effort went into the preparation and presentation of the food. I would have rather eaten at McDonald 100 times than eat here!

I didn’t set my expectations too high before I came here… so I wasn’t too disappointed.
First of all, KING CRAB night turned out to be SNOW CRAB night… nice try guys. False advertising aside, the crab was actually good and not too salty! However, the crab legs were piled on a small tray so you had to wait your turn grab some. It got a little competitive and stressful over there with only 2 sets of tongs and a mob of hangry tourists.
The service was very mediocre… took as a while just to get water and crab crackers. Tables are small and sooo cramped together. We were cracking our crab and trying not to splatter the ladies next to us with any debris! I think my boyfriend hit one of them pretty good (awkward). Felt like a cafeteria.
Hey, but the food was actually decent!
Other than crab, I kept refilling my plate with the mussels, sashimi, and SHRIMP. The shrimp was great (not too greasy!).
I came hungry and don’t regret it, but probably would not do this again.

I had reservations for four to this restaurant to celebrate my birthday. It was a bit different than what I thought it was. When we first got there it was super busy, but I’m guessing that’s because it was a holiday. We were told that we would need to finish in two hours because they had a private event. We were okay with this because we weren’t planning on taking two hours to eat anyway.
The buffet had a large variety of food, especially seafood. There was sushi, poke, fish, oysters, etc. the seafood was my favorite and seem to be everyone else’s favorite too, probably because it was pretty fresh.
What makes this restaurant special is the mermaids that swim in the large fish tank. During our dinner we got to see one of the mermaids who stayed in the tank for a very long time.
This was a pretty cool experience but definitely overpriced.

The Oceanarium is A-​OK, nothing more or less. You’re basically paying to dine next to an enormous aquarium with a scuba diver feeding the fish and bringing out signs per request (must pay for this service, of course). You’ll see shoals of fish swimming freely in the aquarium, which is a nice sight. For $ 48 dollars per person, quality of the food was subpar and service was mehhh. There was a photographer going around for photo services, which was for $ 20 per photo with paper frames. It’d be different if they had a photo station with just the aquarium/​fish on the backdrop, but I wouldn’t want to keep a photo with dining tables and crowd of people chowing down in the backdrop. But that’s just me.

Growing up in Hawaii, I probably ate here couple times every year or two. My first comment would be there are too many people at the podium. I walked in as the hostess had just walked in to seat a guest. I was greeted by a second lady (another hostess? Floor manager?). I told her it was for one. She asked if I was ordering ala carte or if I wanted buffet. I asked if I could see what was being served.
I approached the same time as the first hostess but I had addressed the lady who greeted me that I’d like the buffet. She then hands the services to the returning hostess who seats me at a corner table. I proceeded to the buffet line, grabbed a plate and sat back at my assigned table.
When I sat down I noticed my reservation ticket stated party of 2 but thought nothing of it. The server came to take my drink order. As I ordered coffee, he asks if that would be 2 coffees but I said it’s only me. He looks at his ticket and points out that it states two. I then reiterated that it was just me.
When I worked as a hostess at a restaurant in California, my servers depended on cover counts and so I assume the same for other food service entities. As a hotel guest, I felt like a disappointment to the sever that it was ONLY a party of 1 and not 2.
I also believe with so many people standing at the hostess podium, it gets confusing for the main host or hostess with guest walking in. If there is no communication with whomever greeted the guests and the hostess they are left in the dark.
What the host or hostess should do is take control of their station and ask the guest again for how many and if it’s menu or buffet. They are in charge of the seating arrangements of the restaurant and should be the ones running it.
Please make the experience of your guests an excellent experience rather than something they feel they should write about. Everyone writes about the bad, hardly anyone writes about the good.

My friends and boyfriend were all craving a crabmageddon, so once we found a day we were all off we planned this crab fest. Parking is $ 5 with validation (we were there for two hours) and there are two entrances. We came in from Kuhio and parked on the second floor. Super easy!
The buffet itself is pretty standard. But we all just came for the crab legs! The Oceanarium offers kama’aina discount if you come before 5pm or after 8:30pm, but be sure to make a reservation because they get busy. Discount is 15% off with a Hawaii ID!
Instead of having the crab legs out for you to get yourself, you now have to go up to the prime rib cutting station (where they have the prime rib guy putting crab legs on a plate for you).
The service here is also so awesome! Our waiter was super attentive and kept up with fresh plates, wet napkins, drinks refilled, and lots of maitais!
The rest of the food is pretty good, but I mainly fixated on the crab. Going early was nice because there weren’t lines for the food and everything was pretty untouched.
Definitely coming back for dinner on a night with king crab legs. We came tonight (Tuesday) and it was snow crab.

We had such a wonderful experience at the Oceanarium. Although they were busy the service was perfect and all the delicious food was constantly replenished. Based on my previous review, every single one of the negatives have been taken care of and it was a perfect buffet feast.
Prime rib was moist and paired with perfect horse radish. My husband is still raving about it. The oysters were huge and flavorful. Salmon had a yummy sweet and spicy sauce and cooked very nicely. There were a bunch of sushi but I stuck with the delicious poke. The crab legs were awesome, especially dipped in the drawn buttah. There were other items that were very tasty but I think the crab and prime rib is where it matters and I’m too full and satisfied to go into much more detail.
They had a very good selection of dessert; soft serve ice cream with all the toppings, crème brûlée, pies, cakes, croissants, fresh fruit, and cookies.
Frank, the general manager was so nice and accommodating. He even brought out their new breakfast menu item, crab eggs Benedict to try. Omigoodness it was so good. Even after finishing two plates at the buffet I still had room to devour it. It wasn’t imitation crab. It was 100% juicy and buttery crab meat on top of toasty bread with creamed spinach and a golden poached egg on top. Better than any version of eggs Benedict I’ve ever had.
Food, service, ambiance was impeccable and delightful. I highly recommend the Oceanarium.

Only thing that gave this 2 stars is the crab legs (not every night btw) and the aquarium.
It’s expensive, over crowded, million kids with terrible parents and most of the food was old and nasty. The seating is so packed in I had to literally climb over people as they leaned forward to just get out from my seat to go to the food. The sushi was really bad for Hawaii standards. People taking photos by the aquarium was annoying, and by the buffet (really you need to have a photo of you standing next to chaffing dishes of food!!!)
This is basically a golden coral with an underwater theme. Actually there are more choices at Golden coral. The buffet is just a small circle.
Was expecting so much more…

It’s a bit pricey, but definitely something worth doing, at least once. The prime rib was tender and juicy. The crab legs were a good size. Lots of cold fresh shrimp, clams, and mussels. The coconut shrimp was one of my favorites along with the Saimin station. The desserts were verse tasty and light. All of them were semi-​sweet and not too rich. I especially liked the Peach Panna Cotta.
The sea animals and mermaid were cool. I bet kids absolutely love it. Although, if you’re at a table right next to the aquarium it can be a bit annoying because many shameless folks will just crowd your table to take pix of the fish. It’s the price you pay for that seat though.

The main reason to go there is obviously the beautiful aquarium… errrr or was it the great food. You can decide on your own.
The aquarium is a great reason to bring the kids as all the children are glued to the aquarium.
They have a wide selection of food for Sunday brunch with the likes of breakfast meats, omelet station, pork belly, crab, sushi, tempura, hot dishes, cold dishes, and desserts.
We went on a day in which there was a good crowd which resulted in fresh entrees being provided. We sat at the bar and the server was very attentive and added to our overall awesome experience.

I’ve always had mixed feelings around Oceanarium. To the extent my aunties & uncles seem to LOVE coming here for holiday dinners – and I’m happy to oblige, since they always pick up the tab! – this place is indeed «A-​OK.» The staff does a good job, considering it’s such a large restaurant (and a buffet): refilling drinks in a timely manner, whisking away our «empty shells plate» before it topples over, and generally being all-​around pleasant & professional. We’ve never had a problem with the service here!
I also get a kick out of watching the fish swim around in the gi-​normous 2-​story aquarium, especially that kooky sunfish, gotta love him. And I must admit, I still wave to the divers as they pass by, feeding the fish with trails of food, leaving entire heads of romaine lettuce right next to the glass… yes, I am a little kid trapped in a big kid body, hehe.
Really, the biggest «eh» for me here has always been the quality of the buffet, in relation to the price. (KEEP IN MIND: I only come here once or twice a year, and it’s always on some major holiday… so maybe that makes a difference!!) But for such a big-​ticket buffet, I’ve come to expect: (a) a huge selection of dishes with pretty good food, or (b) a decent selection with exceptional food; and I can’t really say they have either here. The highlights for most people are the seafood:
* sashimi — mostly maguro (not my fave), & sometimes a white fish (not sure it’s hamachi); ok quality, nothing to write home about… and if they run out of the white fish, it’ll just be maguro the rest of the evening;
* poke — looked like more than day-​old fish, never tried it
* cocktail shrimp — ok size, not the most beautiful (black marks on some of the shells?) but tasted fine;
* oysters on the half shell — quality seems to go up and down, but always edible;
* hot snow crab — often salty /​overcooked, hard to remove from the shells; sometimes dried out or water-​logged in salt water
The carving station is decent, typically serving ham (not my thing) and lamb or prime rib (always ok; never «omg»). And there’s a nice selection of fruits & desserts, along with some cold salads (green salad, imitation crab w/​broccoli, etc), and maybe 3 or 4 hot entrees in warmers (usually some kind of so-​so chicken, fish & beef dishes). Aside from the lamb/​prime rib, I wouldn’t give bonus points for the rest of this stuff.
All in all, I’m totally happy coming here, if it makes my aunties & uncles happy… but given a choice, I’d probably save my money for other buffets instead.

The only reason why I wanted to come to this restaurant was for the huge aquarium inside the restaurant. My BF (at the time) let me pick this place, even though he really didn’t want to go here). How cool is that to be able to watch the scuba divers swim with the fishes inside the aquarium while you were dining?! The buffet items had your typical Hawaiian foods like poke, leaf wrapped Kalua pork, as well as other items. I didn’t care for the food, it wasn’t anything special. They did have a chocolate fountain along with assortment of desserts. Oceanarium is definitely a one time dining experience, at least for me. Been there, done that…

It was pops burfday today, so I got da ohana together for a buffet meal at The Oceanarium Restaurant at the Pacific Beach Hotel.
The Oceanarium… what a neat place! I was mesmerized by the enormous fish tank that was several stories high sitting in the center of the restaurant.
Man, I gotta tell you folks I can sit here for hours just looking at the fish… I kinda felt like a little kid… you know, when my parents use to take me to the Waikiki Aquarium to look at the fish when I was — «small kid time» .
Now I’m — «BIG Kid Time»…and I still like looking at the fish… what’s wrong with me? Nothing! Lol!
Well, the Oceanarium had a very large buffet spread (see pics)…lots of different types of seafood, as well as desserts, salads & fruit, and of course prime rib! All of this for just under $ 46.00 per person… not bad at all, considering they offer soooooooooo much different types of food.
There were so many choices… and one can only eat so much, so it’s sad to say, I couldn’t sample and eat everything that was there on the buffet spread… but on the bright side, I did eat the most important thing on the menu while I was there…
What’s that did I eat? PRIME RIB & CRAB my friends!!! Yes… I did eat other things, but I must tell you… I totally put on an eating exhibition tonight, and ate the hell out of the crab & prime rib!
Of course as much as I liked the crab & prime rib… you gotta remember to balance, so I threw down some ono Coconut Shrimp, Mahi Mahi, Turkey Katsu, a plate of salad, and a plate of fruit & desserts to top off my meal.
Maaaaaaaaan! I was so stuffed! Good thing I had my elastic shorts on… no need worry about unbuckling my belt! Lol!
A trip to the park with Makana, & 24 Hour Fitness followed after doing this eating exhibition! Lol!
Service was outstanding tonight! Plates were constantly taken away when we got up to get more food. They also left two large bowls in the middle of our table for the crab shells, and these bowls were replaced quickly when the bowls filled up.
As our dinner was coming to an end… the nice staff of the Oceanarium gave a piece of Chocolate Mousse cake to my pops and sang «Happeeeeeeeeeeeee Burfday» to him. And may I point out… the dudes sang pretty good too! Loud, & in tune too! 10+ stars for their singing skills! Lol!

If you’re a seafood lover, then this place hits the spot. I’ve been to the oceanarium many times with family and friends for many years now usually for special occasions. It is a bit pricey but there is a huge variety of seafood from the buffet to choose from. King crab and snow crab is a must when you’re there. There’s a salad bar, poke, fruits, seafood main dishes, prime rib carving station, make your own pasta, dessert table, etc. You’ll wonder where to begin first with the many choices to choose from.
I suggest to call the restaurant first rather than making reservations online because online seating won’t give you the best seats especially if you want to sit closer to the Aquarium and the times online aren’t really accurate for sooner availability.
The aquarium is probably the most anticipated attraction filled with different variety of fishes and during certain time frames there’ll be a swimmer that will greet you by your table along with a mermaid that will be swimming around the tank with the fishes. You may request for a sign prior to the event during your reservation. Most common greetings would be a Happy Birthday or Happy Anniversary. But I believe you may put anything of a greeting on the sign. It’s such a great family place to bring kids as well to enjoy the little aquarium entertainment.
The service is overall pretty good. Servers were attentive and friendly. They were constantly filling up our drinks and made sure to take our used plates off the table. The ambiance is casual and laid back since it is a tourist attraction but it may seem crowded and loud because the tables are close to each other.
One of the best place for buffets to bring out of town people. I just didn’t like waiting past our reservation times. Always had to wait at least 30 minutes for our tables to be ready. Possibly because this restaurant is always busy.