One of my favorite things about visiting Hawaii is the endless shave ice options. This past trip to Oahu, I made it my mission to find some of the best shave ice places on the island. The following are some of the best shave ice on Oahu. I cannot wait until the next visit to add to this list.
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Frost City
Grade: A-
Cost: $5.25 and up
Texture: Very soft and smooth
Flavor: Unique flavors
Value: Okay
I would consider Frost City a boogie shave ice place. Although a bit on the more expensive side, you get a lot of unique things in your shaved ice and Frost City offers some unique flavors. Visitors can choose from a single flavor, fancy, or combo shaved ice. We opted to get a “fancy” shave ice. The fancy shaved ice included quite a few toppings such as mochi and fresh fruit to go along with the coconut-pinnapple-thai basil flavor we chose.
The texture of the ice was very soft and smooth. It pretty much melted in your mouth! I liked that Frost City had unique flavors and included a lot of things in the shade ice, thus making it one of the best shave ice on Oahu.
Island Vintage Shave Ice
Grade: C-
Cost:
Texture: Slightly icey
Flavor: Not super flavorful
Value: Bad
Overall, I was not super impressed with Island Vintage Shave Ice. There was not a lot of variety in the flavors you could choose from, and it was pricey for what you get. I think it was so pricey because it was located in the Royal Hawaiian Center in Waikiki which is a main tourist area. They had a few preset combos you could get, but none of them excited me very much. I would pass on Island Vintage, unless you are in desperate need of a shave ice when wandering around the area.
Matsumoto Shave Ice
Grade: A
Cost: $3
Texture: Soft
Flavor: Flavorful and lots of variety
Value: Excellent
Located on the North Shore, Matsumoto Shave Ice might be one of the most well known and best shave ice on Oahu. It is considered to be the first shave ice on the island and offers over 30 flavors to choose from. Also, the price is SO cheap compared to how large the shaved ices are! They have a few preset combinations as well as some unique flavors such as Yuzu (Japanese Citrus) and Ume (Japanese Plum). The shaved ice is HUGE for the price and you could easily share a small. Matsumoto was definitely my favorite shave ice stop.
Aoki Shave Ice
Grade: A
Cost: $3
Texture: Soft
Flavor: Very tasty
Value: Excellent
Aoki Shave Ice is another popular stop on the North Shore. What I really liked about Aoki was that they had a ton of preset combos as well as over 30 flavors. I liked the combos because it proved a good mix of flavors together and helped narrow down some of your choices. It can be overwhelming to choose your flavors! Like Mosumoto, the price is a great value for the size you get. The shave ice itself was super tasty and the flavors were delicious thus making it one of the best shave ice on Oahu.
Shimazu Store
Grade: B
Cost: $5
Texture: A bit icey
Flavor: Good
Value: Okay
Shimazu Store offered tasty and gigantic shave ice. It had a decent variety of flavors. Not as many as Matsumoto and Aoki, but still at least 20 different options. The shaved ice was also huge! I disliked that they charged you extra for a tray to hold the shave ice. I would have preferred them just to include it with the initial price. Also, I thought the shave ice was a little crunchy and too syrupy. They put a lot of syrup on it. Nevertheless, I still though it was one of the top contenders for the best shave ice on Oahu.
Fenua Shave Ice
Grade: C+
Cost: $3
Texture: Soft with a little crunch
Flavor: Okay
Value: Okay
Fenua Shave Ice was just another okay option. There was not a ton of variety in the flavors (they had about 5 choices). The price was decent but it was a smaller size. The flavor itself was also okay and not the most flavorful compared to other shave ices. The location also felt super sketchy, so I would not recommend stopping here.
Baldwin’s Sweet Shop
Grade: C+
Cost: $3
Texture: Smooth but a little icy
Flavor: Decent
Value: Okay
At Baldwin’s Sweet Shop, you can grab an assortment of shave ice. It is the perfect stop after visiting Shiro’s Saimin Haven. The flavors were tasty and flavorful. I also liked that they had a good assortment of flavors and a few add-ons. However, the value was lacking when a small was $3 and you do not get much for that.
Monsarrat Shave Ice
Grade: B
Cost: $5
Texture: Soft and slushy
Flavor: Very juice-like
Value: Okay
Monsarrat Shave Ice is a unique shave ice place as it uses all organic syrups. They use natural fruits and sugars. Thus, all of the flavors taste exactly like that fruit’s juice. The ice is very soft and the syrups almost make it slushy-like. It was not what I was expecting for a shave ice but it was definitely very flavorful. Keep that in mind when you get one.
Uncle Clay’s House of Pure Aloha
Grade: B
Cost: $2.75
Texture: Hard
Flavor: Good
Value: Good
Uncle Clay’s House of Pure Aloha is another one of the best shave ice on Oahu. Although it is a bit out of the way, I enjoyed how flavorful the shave ice was. Make sure to get a snowcap on top as it goes really well with all of its flavors. I did feel the ice here was a bit icier and not as smooth as other places. However, I felt the shave ice was a great value for what you got.
Waiola Shave Ice
Grade: A
Cost: $2.50
Texture: Very Smooth
Flavor: Good
Value: Okay
Waiola was another fantastic and one of the best shave ice on Oahu. This place has a large assortment of places and is popular for having “Obama’s Rainbow” -lemon-lime, cherry, and passion fruit. The ice was very smooth and the flavors were very flavorful. Although the sizes were a bit smaller than some of the others for the price, it was still a pretty good value.
Island Snow
Grade: B
Cost: $5.25
Texture: Smooth
Flavor: Good
Value: Not good
The Island Snow shave ice was very delicious. The flavors were tasty and the ice was one of the smoothest shave ices I have had. However, for the price, the shave ice was a bit small. I liked that they had a variety of fun flavors, but disliked it was a lot more for any add ons. It seemed like you were already paying a lot to have to pay more for add ons.
Papalua Shave Ice (Aulani Resort)
Grade: D+
Cost: $4.25 (add $1 for Mickey ears)
Texture: Very icy and hard
Flavor: Not great
Value: Okay
Leave it to Disney to make shave ice cute looking! At the Aulani Resort, you can visit Papalua Shave Ice. They have a variety of flavors and various options as to what you can add on. Although this was not the best shave ice on Oahu, it was definitely the cutest looking one. For crazy Disney lovers (like me), you could add Mickey ears to your shave ice for an extra dollar. The ice was a bit icy and the flavors were not super flavorful, but it was worth it for the cute pictures.
There are many options on where to find the best shave ice on Oahu. Some other options that I did not get the chance to try this time include Monsarrat Shave Ice, Waiola Shave Ice, and Lahaina Shave Ice. Looking for cheap things to do on Oahu? Make sure to check out this post. You can also opt to head over to the Big Island to sample some of the shave ice there or take one of these awesome Hawaii road trips.
6 thoughts on “The Best Shave Ice on Oahu: 12 Tasty Options”
Some of these servings are massive! Matsumoto Shave Ice almost looks like ice cream.
All the shaved ice looks delicious and some are really large servings.
Thank you for sharing this! I am so excited to try real Hawaiian shaved ice. I am definitely keeping this handy for when I go soon. I also loved how you graded it. 🙂
I would give so much right now to be able to walk on the beach with barefoot and have a cup of shave ice! I haven’t been to Hawaii before, but I can almost taste the coconut shave ice in my mouth. Virtual travelling at its best. Thank you for sharing your stories from Hawaii!
Matsumoto! Yes, please!
THE BEST.