Rooftop pours without the rooftop pretension
· Honolulu · Rooftop Wine Bar · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · August 19, 2026
RagingWine reviewed Tchin Tchin Bar’s wine list and gave it The Reliable — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
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Wingman Metrics
The list at Tchin Tchin is compact and immediately legible — 22 labels, nearly all available by the glass, with a clear lean toward crowd-friendly bottles you'd recognize from a well-stocked grocery store. It's a wine bar built for the view-seekers and sunset-chasers, not the cellar-dwellers. That's fine, as long as you know what you're walking into.
The list covers the obvious bases — California reds, Italian whites, a port section, and some sparkling options — but doesn't venture very far off the beaten path. You've got Bonanza by Caymus for the cab drinker who wants a name they trust, Elouan for the Pinot crowd, and Louis Jadot Chablis as the lone French flex that earns its spot. The Emilio Moro Tempranillo is the most interesting pour on the list and easily the most underrepresented style here. A port section with both Dow's Ruby Red and Cockburn's Fine White is a genuinely nice touch for a wine bar in a warm-weather city — dessert pours that most rooftops would never bother with.
With 21 of 22 labels available by the glass, this is essentially a by-the-glass-only program — and that's the right call for a rooftop bar. Prices run from $10 for Josh Cellars N/A Prosecco up to $26 for Luc Belaire Brut and Cockburn's Fine White, with most reds landing in the $14–$23 range. The range is there; the value is inconsistent.
Alta Vista Malbec — $14/glass
Alta Vista is a solid, honest Mendoza Malbec — fruit-forward without being jammy, and $14 is the most reasonable ask on the red side of the list. In Honolulu, where everything costs more and the wine markup reflects it, this is the low-key win.
Emilio Moro Tempranillo
Most people at a rooftop bar are ordering Pinot or Cab. The Emilio Moro is a Ribera del Duero producer that punches well above its visibility here — structured, earthy, built for sipping slowly while the sun drops into the Pacific. Skip the Elouan and order this instead.
Luc Belaire Brut
At $26 a glass, you're paying for the bottle design and the Instagram moment, not the wine. G.H. Mumm Champagne exists on this list for $75 a bottle — actual Champagne, actual value by comparison. Belaire is a party brand dressed up as a wine bar choice.
Louis Jadot Chablis + Fresh oysters or light seafood bites
Chablis and shellfish is one of the great unbroken rules of wine, and on a rooftop in Hawaii with ocean air and fresh seafood in reach, the Jadot Chablis at $22 is the move. Crisp, mineral, and clean — it cuts through salt and fat without getting in the way.
The Bottom Line
Tchin Tchin is a perfectly pleasant place to drink wine with a view, and nearly everything being available by the glass means you can graze without committing to a bottle. Just don't come expecting discovery — come expecting a solid pour and a great sunset.
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Appetito is the Wild Card of Waikiki — a pizza and wine bar that quietly punches above its tourist-strip surroundings with fair pricing, a Brunello on the glass list, and enough Italian depth to make the wine worth ordering. Send a friend here and tell them to skip the Bonanza.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Kaimukī · Honolulu · Wine bar / small plates
Kaimukī Storeroom is doing the bare minimum in quantity and the maximum in quality — three bottles, all bangers, prices that won't make you do sad math on your phone. If you're a natural wine person stuck in Honolulu wondering why every list is the same, come here first.
Small but Thoughtful
Steal
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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Fête is quietly running one of the most interesting wine programs in the state of Hawaii, and most people eating there probably have no idea. If you care at all about what's in your glass, this is worth the trip.
Deep & Eclectic
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Honolulu · Contemporary tasting menu
Pai's wine list won't impress anyone counting bottles, but it will surprise anyone counting countries — seven wines, six regions, zero filler. If you trust the kitchen's tasting menu, trust whatever pairing the list is built around.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Honolulu · Honolulu · Wine Bar / New American Small Plates
Amuse Wine Bar is doing something genuinely unexpected in Honolulu: building a thoughtful, geographically diverse list with fair pricing in a city where most wine programs are an afterthought. If you're in Hawaii and care about what's in your glass, this is the room to be in.
Deep & Eclectic
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Occasional
Proper
Waikīkī · Honolulu · Modern Steakhouse
StripSteak Waikīkī pulls off something genuinely rare: a hotel steakhouse wine program worth paying attention to, built almost entirely around an extraordinary by-the-glass selection. The prices reflect the zip code, but if you're eating steak in Waikīkī anyway, this is the room to do it in.
Solid Range
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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