A little bit of history into Guam cuisine:

The native food of Guam is largely based on what early ancestors could gather, grow and hunt from the land, plus what they could catch and harvest from the ocean. The Tree of Life, the coconut, offered much in the way of copra, oil, coconut water and coconut milk, as did many other fruit and vegetables.

Fish and other seafood, and edible seaweed were bountiful, and later, colonial and occupational times allowed for more crops, better farming methods and a consistent harvest from Guam’s lush volcanic soils.

Following the end of World War II, Guam was inundated with foods from the U.S. mainland, notably canned processed foods which islanders embraced for their flavor and ease of preparation. Since then, Guam as the hub of the Pacific has also become a food capital, blending regional tastes, with dozens of cuisines to reflect the melting pot of its people.

Breakfast at King’s restaurant

Chalan Premier Outlets, Tamuning,, Chalan San Antonio, Tamuning, 96913

Conveniently located near the premier outlets, you can have a meal here before going for retail therapy. This was our first meal in Guam after landing at the airport around 5am. The local skillet is the perfect breakfast; a combination of crisp, hot veggies, gooey cheese, sizzling potatoes, spicy chorizo, and two eggs your way. Other favourites for breakfast include waffles, pancakes or fried rice a la Guam style. The Loco Moco is another local dish which combines rice and eggs, but it is too heavy for me to have it for breakfast. The restaurant is quite big and has nice, American style sofa chairs.

Lunch at Hibachi-san

1088 Marine Corps Dr, Dededo, 96929

I had the set lunch promo which includes chicken teppanyaki with rice, a small side dish of poke of my choice and a drink for $10. The other dish was beef and prawn teppanyaki ($12), which was tasty and the serving was generous. I enjoyed the poke side dish because it was something unique to Hawaii, with a fusion of American and Japanese style. This Japanese stall was located in the food court of the Micronesia Mall and you need to be patient with your food as they stir-fry it for some time.

Lunch at Pika’s cafe

888 N. Marine Corps Dr, Star Bldg,, Tamuning, 96913

It is one of the more popular restaurants in Guam, which had several ‘restaurant of the year’ awards. We waited at least half an hour before getting seats at this cafe. The food is inspired by Local Chamoru and California style cooking, with food sourced from many local farmers. 

The Loco Moco served with either rice or Texas toast, contains cracked peppercorn sauce, sunny side up egg, sautéed onions and mushrooms. The sauce is thick and tasty. It is a really filling dish and my friend usually orders the Loco Moco whenever he is here. As you can see, this is quite a popular local dish.

The Cali steak burrito was so good! It is a tortilla wrap panini, with marinated steak, provolone, avocado, chili aioli, romaine, red onions with a side salsa. The staff was kind enough to tell me about the red onion sauce when I said that I did not want onions inside the burrito. The portion of steak was generous and I love the taste of the marinade.

Lunch at Lemon Grass Restaurant

2, Agat

We were famished after our hike and was looking for a place to eat when we chanced upon this Thai restaurant in Agat. The food is quite authentically Thai. The tom yum soup was delicious, although the mussels added into the soup do not really belong. Nevertheless, the other seafood ingredients were fresh and the soup was good for sharing between two people. The other dish was phad Thai, which also came in a big plate. I enjoyed it but my partner did not because of the excess sour taste. The chef probably put too much lime juice and just as we were leaving the restaurant, a staff came back with a bag full of kaffir limes. This area in Guam is not so populated, yet it seemed popular with the locals who went there for lunch on a weekday.

Lunch / Dinner at Top Island Restaurant 

30, Tamuning, 96913

At first I was sceptical to have Chinese food in Guam because at home, I can easily taste Chinese food with my mum’s cooking. But this restaurant was recommended by our host and we decided to give it a try. For lunch, we ordered a fried rice and fried dumplings to share. Knowing that US portions are huge, we did not want to over-order. The combination fried rice that we ordered was just nice for us and it had ham, egg and lots of prawns. The dumplings were crispy and tasty, and served as a good companion to the fried rice. 

After our photoshoot, we went back to this restaurant again to have dinner and ordered other dishes. We had sweet and sour pork, clams soup and prawns with broccoli. The soup was not available on the English menu, but luckily I could read the Chinese menu which was meant for the frequent Chinese visitors, so we managed to try the heartwarming soup. It was not overly salty and there were too many clams added to the soup which gave it a rich broth. The other two dishes were also awesome, with the sweet and sour sauce of the pork dish complementing each other. 

Dinner at California Pizza Kitchen

881 Pale San Vitores Rd, Tumon, 96913

California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) is also available in Singapore, but with our Italian craving after the run, we decided to go for it. The carbonara is a standard Italian dish which can’t really go wrong. 

I had the steak pizza because I felt like having some real meat and not processed ones. The carne asada pizza feels like I am having a medium well steak, topped with a pizza crust. Marinated for over 24 hours, the steak topping on the Carne Asada Pizza is wonderfully tender with a pleasantly beefy savoriness and just the right amount of zing.

The other interesting pizza that we tried was the pepperoni pizza with cauliflower crust. It tastes really healthy and despite the use of cauliflower, the crust is still crisp and there was not much of an overpowering vegetable taste. The flavours are well-balanced.

Dinner at PROA restaurant

178 W Soledad Ave | Hagatna, 96910-5013

It was our last night in Guam and we had just visited the Chamorro Cultural Village. Seeing people standing around and eating or sitting by the sidewalk, we decided to go somewhere where we can have dinner in a more comfortable setting. PROA is a bistro, serving both food and alcoholic drinks. We ordered the “Big Feller Trio” which comes with short ribs, spare ribs and chicken, as recommended by the waitress. This dish is served with red rice, which is actually short-grained rice prepared with water coloured from soaking achote (annatto) seeds, to give its deep orange colour. Thankfully we shared as the portion was huge, otherwise we would not have been able to finish it.

Our friend had a salad with Panko-Crusted Eggplant, Fire-Roasted Red Onion, Green Zucchini and Red Bell Peppers with a Garlic-Chili Vinaigrette and Crumbled Feta Cheese. It looks quite wholesome and he enjoyed it a lot too. 

For desserts, check out one of these giant cookies on display at the front of the restaurant.

Drinks at Old Traditions

PLUMERIA, 800 Pale San Vitores Rd, Tamuning, 96913

Last but not least, we discovered this hip bar around Tumon area. They were selling craft beer imported from Oregon, going at $8 a bottle. Both the oatmeal stout and the hazelnut brown nectar beer were to our liking because of their unique flavour. The hazelnut beer was not too sweet as I had thought, but the tinge of hazelnut taste after sipping the beer made me want to drink more. The bar is quite laid-back, with a live band performing on certain days. There are also two foosball tables to keep you entertained while you are having your drinks.

These are the places that we have tried out during our 5 day stay in Guam. Hope you found it useful if you are planning to try various types of cuisine in Guam. Since this is like USA where burgers and fast food are like the local food, why not try other types of cuisine, such as Korean, Chinese, Japanese or Indian because most of the chefs here have flown in from their home country and been living in Guam for a couple of years, so they have perfected their culinary skills and adjusted the taste to suit the Guamanians.