Take Advantage of World-class Cuisine at Big Island Restaurants
The dining scene at Big Island restaurants has been heating up with a handful of star chefs and quality produce from new farms and ranches creating inventive cooking. These cutting edge chefs have opened their own small bistros and turned the culinary spotlight onto the Big Island.
With the rise of artsy communities in Hawi and Hilo, tropical-chic restaurants have cropped up to enliven the scene. Additionally, the Big Island is the stage to world-renowned food festivals such as the Kona Coffee Festival and the Aloha Festival’s Poke Recipe Contest.
You can find Big Island restaurants for all appetites and pocketbooks in Kailua-Kona. There are always crowds of locals and visitors at the island’s first microbrewery- the Kona Brewing Company.
Known for its handcrafted specialty ales and beers, it throws in local ingredients into house specials such as the Big Wave Golden, a blend of pale and honey malts and lilikoi wheat. Combine this with salads or thin-crust pizza on a tiki torch-lit patio.
World-class Cuisine
One of the biggest names in Big Island restaurants is Kenichis which offers world-class sushi and Pacific Rim fusion cuisine. In low-key, understated surroundings, its appetizer menu inspires grazing with temptations such as ginger-marinated squid, blackened tuna and fresh lobster rolls.
Main dishes of seafood and meat come with a variety of sauces such as cranberry miso and curry with mint-spiced yoghurt. Exotic servings include lemon grass ahi, taro risotto and lamb and pan-seared mahimahi in a miso-butter sauce. If you have a sweet tooth, you must leave room for a slice of the flourless molten cake served with generous helpings of Kona coffee-chip ice cream.
With a hip, eclectic vibe, Fujimamas is an exciting addition to Big Island restaurants in Waimea.
Having moved from its original premises in Kailua Kona, its Japanese-influenced menu includes fusion dishes such as seared salmon on curry corn pancakes or shiitake sirloin with wasabi mashed potatoes.
The saketinis are a must!
Smoothies and Scenery
Delivering the best smoothies on the island, "What’s Shaking" produces fresh-fruit smoothies such as Groovy Guava and Papaya Paradise, a blend of pineapples, coconuts, papayas an smoothies.
It is a good stop for visitors to the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden – keep your eyes peeled for a bright plantation style house painted in yellow and white. Many of the fruits used in the smoothies are grown on this 20-acre farm.
If you are hankering for something more substantial, visitors have waxed lyrical about the Avocado wrap, the blue-corm tamale or the chili-cheese Volcano Dog. You can sit outdoors in the lush tropical garden and soak in the panoramic ocean view.
Lunch and Shop
For an unusual and sensuous experience, try the four course Vanilla luncheon at the Hawaiian Vanilla Mill.
It is a treat for the senses as you are greeted by the warm scents of vanilla from the vines even before you set foot on the premises.
You will be treated to a talk and video presentation on how vanilla is grown, how it is used in your food and just about anything you may want to know about the blossoms.
After lunch, you get to wander around the mill and of course shop for vanilla extracts, teas and lotions.
This tour is a bit like the tour at the Big Island Candies Factory in Hilo, which if you have a sweet tooth you must NOT miss, but different in the same time.
With such unique experiences, it is no surprise that Big Island restaurants are capturing the imagination and appreciation of the local residents and tourists alike.
