Best lunch restaurants in Kona
 

Hello,

I will be going to Kona in three weeks and was wondering where should I eat lunch? I usuually like the Four Seasons,Ritz Carlton and other nice hotels. Any good places such as Allan Wongs? I will be staying in Kailua Kona so anywhere around that area is good.I want to taste Hawaiian food. I love Hawaiian food so I can eat some of the good dishes.

Thanks.

You should check out this site www.konaweb.com they have a very active visiting forum and a guide to restaurants with member reviews.

Does Waimea count? If so, without doubt, my favorite is Daniel Thiebaut. Great food, service. Very reasonable prices (1/3 of dinner prices). Yumm, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

You going to be with car? Without car, you will be extremely limited. The noodle place in town.

There are still very few upscale places to eat on the West side within 30 min of driving. The usually unmentioned places are the restaurants in the 5*lux hotels. We stayed at a place called the Orchid. Had a nice place to eat lunch. Nice place for dinner, also. Usually was totally empty(zero patrons), and the hotel was filled.

I'm not sure either of these count a strictly "Hawaiian" cuisine but I highly recommend both.

Royal Thai Cafe in the Keauhou shopping center on Alii Drive. Pineapple fried rice was very clever and service was delightful. Definitely my top choice on the island.

The Gallery Reestaurant at the Mauna Lani resort. It's basically the clubhouse for the resort's golf course. We had lunch there twice during a week's stay in March and found the food to be consistently delicious, the service very friendly and efficient, and the atmosphere (open air, overlooking course and ocean) very relaxing. We went there at first just as a convenience (we were staying at the resort) but were very pleasantly surprised and regretted each time we skipped it in favor of other "recommended" places. Definitely need a car to get there from Kona town.

Cafe Pesto in Kawaihae was highly recommended in various guidebooks but was a colossal disappointment. Very mediocre food and slow, sullen service.

FWIW, two other places on the Big Island I'd highly recommend, although both somewhat distant from Kona:

Restaurant at the Kilauea Lodge in Volcano. Wonderful dinner and service capped off a sunset lava viewing in the nearby Vocanoes National Park. The atmosphere was a bit more formal than most places on the island, and we were pretty grubby from our hiking, but were made to feel very welcome nonetheless.

Kuhio Grille 1 in Hilo. Non-descript storefront in a shopping center with a Sears and a Hilo Hattie's. Probably the closest thing to traditional "Hawaiian" food in this list. Again, very friendly service.

we live in kona, and are very, very picky.

i've seen places mentioned by other posters in other threads--not this one--that i think are horrible, but each to his own. (and we've all had awful experiences at places that seem fine to others.) also, i don't think people come to the big island for the cuisine, as a general rule.

with that as a disclamer, here's where we like to eat lunch (and based on the op's assertion that s/he likes places like the four seasons):

the four seasons alan wong's grill (also pa'uhia for breakfast, although they've been doing strange things with their dinner menu. it's still good, but the last time we went it was more euro-fusion than pacific rim, which makes no sense given the venue.) the grill is great. also, the restaurant by the pool does a lovely lunch.

the kona brew pub does good pizzas and if you like beer, they brew their own and it's good. also a really good spinach salad with strawberries (i substitute goat cheese for whatever it is they usually use.)

for really good sushi, the restaurant at the fairmont orchid, shiro's, is terrific. for just fine sushi, shiono's in the coconut grove shopping center--that's in kailua-kona. brown's beachouse at the orchid is nice for dinner, don't think they serve lunch. anyone?

big island grill is a fine place for local-style food and service, but we haven't been back since the fried chicken my hubby ordered was frozen in the middle.

if you want to be really, really local, and leave your four season's leanings behind, try kay's kitchen on mamalahoa hwy. there's not much seating, but it's fast, surprisingly cheap and friendly, and consistently good--it's truly hawaiian plate lunch, with mac salad and rice, bad for the waistline, yummy in the tummy.

if you're headed to waimea, i'd go to merriman's, if you want to be more local (and less expensive) try aioli's. i heard last night that they were sold, though, so not sure if that's changed things there yet.

have a wonderful time!

Karenkay beat me to it
 

I was going to suggest the Kona Brewing Company's brewpub, but since it's already been mentioned I'll just second the motion.

The place is not fancy but it's got excellent pizza and good beer brewed in the next room.

www.konabrewingco.com

Karenkay, have you been to the Kona Brewers' Festival the brewpub throws each March down at the King Kam to raise money for various charities? It's a really nice way to spend an afternoon.

(Disclaimer: The owners of the Kona Brewing Co. are friends of mine, and if you go to the Kona Brewing website and click on the "Kona Brewfest" link, those are my photographs of festival activities. But I'd still recommend the place without those connections.)

we're also local, though hawi hicks, not from kailua. but we're also picky.

while the big island alan wong's may not be as good as the one on oahu, it's still pretty darned good.

we have not found great japanese food on the island, but we're in japan every other month, so we're even more picky than most.

big island grill and kona mixed plate are our two standard local-style lunches. we also like bale in the kona coast shopping center for really good vietnamese sandwiches on as fresh and crusty mini-baguettes as you'll find on the pac rim.

we have not tried "kay's kitchen on mamalahoa," but thanks for the recommendation.

in waimea/kamuela, we find merriman's the kind of place one takes visiting parents, and much prefer aioli's next door; which can vary, but occasionally does something wonderful. but, for simple lunch, we just go to the thai place by the kta.

and, of course, we are fond of the local hawi joint, the bamboo, especially nights john keawe is playing and hope dancing.

and, as folk have said, konaweb has a diverse restaurant review system.