trekker

Keep these coming, please; my husband, two friends and I will be in Kapoho for 5 nights and Volcano for 2 in January

cblaisd

Luquins in Pahoa.

Best Mexican food on the island. ^

MsEverywhere

Aha!

I'm supposed to meet friends in Pahoa tomorrow night. I think we have a room reserved (above? behind?) the pizzeria. But I'll see if I can drag them over to the mexican place while I'm there.

cblaisd

Ask if they have any of the Lillikoi pie. One of the waitresses makes it and it is to die for.

CO FF

Hilo Bay Cafe, in the Wal-Mart Shopping Center off Highway 11 (I forget the street name there).

Nicely decorated space. Interesting and innovative menu. Less fish (proportionately) than many other BI restaurants. Kids menu, too. Ahi Poke is terrific; ahi carpaccio not worth it by comparison. Nice soup, salad, etc. Good desserts too. Reasonably priced, also.

cblaisd

Well, I have to sadly recommend one not to try: the Lava Rock Cafe in Volcano village.

Ate there for the third time yesterday (we keep wanting to try the Thai restaurant but it is never open when we're there).

Every time we have been there, the food has been very good -- but service ranges from indifferent to surly, the food is very over-priced, and the wait staff brings each person's dish as it is ready (the first person in our party got her food 10 minutes before the last person.)

cblaisd

While looking for something else, found this restaurant review site of Hilo restaurants. Looks fairly up-to-date:

http://www.miraclesalad.com/eats/

Ripper3785

Cronie's Sports bar in Hilo was a pretty decent place, with a typical sports bar atmosphere. Decent burgers and food.

Glad we didn't go to Lava Rock Cafe. The books review of it was very similar to cblaisds.

Totally missed the reviews here of the Pahoa mexican place. That would have been our best option.

cblaisd

Restaurant Kaikodo now pau for good

http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/...ws/local01.txt

(use flyertalk/flyteralk for username/password)

kaukau

Oh well. Back to Ocean Sushi Deli and Tsunami Grill and Tempura on Keawe St. ^ ^

cblaisd

Agree that those are excellent, but have -- as with 98% of the restaurants in Hilo -- great food and zero atmosphere. Every once in awhile, atmosphere is nice too.

kaukau

Looks like Cafe Pesto has the lock on fine dining and atmosphere, Hilo side, now, yeah? http://www.cafepesto.com/

cblaisd

Yes, that and Hilo Bay Cafe.

I have to say, though, that I am MUCH less impressed with the latter's food that many other folks. Nice atmosphere, but I thought the food was at best mediocre.

cblaisd

Two to heartily recommend:

The Back to the '50s Diner in Laupahoehoe is a fun place, with some fascinating '50s memorabilia. I had an excellent hand-formed, very fresh hamburger. Typical diner food (with good milk shakes, if a bit pricey), including the "comfort foods you loved as a child -- like saimin and chicken katsu."

Speaking of milkshakes, the relatively newly opened Just Crusin' Coffee has a chocolate milkshake (hand-dipped, quality ice cream) that is easily in the top five of all the milkshakes I've ever had.

FlyinHawaiian

This thread came in handy for my recent trip last week.

In Honoka`a, we had lunch at Tex Drive Inn. The service was slow and food pretty average by my standards. The malasadas were fresh, but I prefer Leonard's Bakery in Honolulu.

In Hilo, we had lunch at Cafe 100, home of the loco moco. Food here was much better and still quite cheap. We also made two trips to the Two Ladies' Kitchen to order strawberry mochi, which was as good as remembered.

We stopped at the new Safeway (near the KTA) and picked up some provisions there; it's quite a nice and modern store with a good variety of options.

In Pahoa, we did stop at Luquin's on our way to see the lava flow and I found the food to be right on par with any of the better Mexican places here in SoCal - the carnitas were very tasty.

In Volcano, we had dinner at Thai Thai and had green curry and pad thai. We ordered the temperatures on the low side and they were still quite spicy. The food was terrific, but a little pricey.