Ask our Hawaii Specialist about these special restaurants on the 'Big Island'!
Favorite
"Big Island" Restaurants
Bamboo Restaurant & Gallery
Daniel Thiebaut
Hawaii Restaurant Update - Meet the chefs who are
making it happen!
Hawaii Restaurant Update
from Bon Appetit magazine
Island-hopping just keeps getting more delicious
Meet the chefs who are making it happen!
FEAR NOT, travelers to Hawaii who weary of macadamia-crusted fish and passion fruit reductions - the dining scene is getting a makeover. On Hawaii, (Mauai and Oahu), chefs are using the exceptional local ingredients in bright new ways and opening a collection of bright new restaurants. Okay, it's the Big Island's Kohala Coast, not Capri, but who says you shouldn't have a cold Italian beer with your clams and chorizo in the middle of the day? Not Peter Merriman.
Merriman's
Market Cafe
250 Waikoloa Beach Dr.
Kings' Shops
Waikoloa, Big Island
808 951-1666
At MERRIMAN'S MARKET CAFE in a trendy shopping center, this pioneer of Hawaii Regional Cuisine has created a hearty Mediterranean menu. The patio's surprisingly comfy metal rocking chairs set the scene for languid afternoons full of dishes like ricotta-studded baby beets and fennel-spiked sausage.
The
Hualalai Grille
by Alan Wong
Four Seasons Resort
Hualalai
100 Kaupulehu Dr.
Kaupuleihu, Big Island
808 325-8524
Alan Wong, the grand master of Hawaii Regional Cuisine, has returned to the Big Island. (Don't worry. His eponymous Honolulu spot is still going strong.) THE HUALALAI GRILLE, in the Four Seasons Resort on the Kohala Coast, is an open-air, Frank-Lloyd-Wright-meets-Asia dining room. Wong's signatures are here: thee delicate ginger-crusted onaga with the miso vinaigrette that tastes like a beurre blanc (who else could make vinegar act like butter?), the deconstructed gazpacho Wong calls Red and Yellow Tomato Soup and the limper shooter laced with shiso and fennel. Where the shrimp is raised just steps from the kitchen and none of the other ingredients travel much farther, both chef and cuisine seem returned to their roots.
Restaurant
Kaikodo
60 Keawe St.
Hilo, Big Island
808 961-2558
The mainland's award-winning Mike Fennelly (of Santacafe in Santa Fe and Mecca in San Francisco) has ever so softly breathed the word cosmopolitan into sleepy rainy Hilo. He's reinventing his East-meet-Southwest cuisine at RESTAURANT KAIKODO. The bistro, with its high ceiling, carnival-colored Murano glass chandeliers and antique Chinese bedchamber-turned-booth, offers the perfect venue for Fennelly. Innovations like his sampler of locally grown mushroom - gorgeous shitakes, oyster and hon-shimejis stuffed with seitan into airy crepes - and a subtly smoked ahi sashimi that arrives on ice as blue as the Hawaiian sea show how well he's settled into the islands. Those lovely southwestern chiles still make themselves known, even in the bread pudding, but it's mainly about Hawaii's ingredients. "It's like I've found my home," Fennelly says.
Bamboo Restaurant & Gallery
Junction of Highway 270 and Highway 250 in Hawi, 889-5555
In 2000, local people polled by Hawaii Island Journal voted Bamboo Restaurant as the Big Island's best. "It was quite a surprise", says owner Joan Channon. Considering the Big Island's surplus of superb resort restaurants. Bamboo may have won because of its affordable menu and its fresh, imaginative food made with island ingredients. The country eatery started as a hotel in 1911 and became Old Takata Store (dry goods and grocery) in 1926. Channon renovated it in 1991 because, she says, "Hawaii needed a restaurant!" She kept old advertising signs and added rain forest bamboo print wallpaper, live orchids and other foliage, '50s art reproductions and comfy wicker chairs. Chef Maya Chrestensen turns out winners that include kalua pork quesadillas, fresh fish and an herb-marinated pork tenderloin with black tiger shrimp, nestled on a green papaya salad. In her little woven hat, Auntie Mary Cabrilera makes the potstickers, steamed bundles of delicious dough filled with Thai-seasoned chicken, served with a sweet chili sauce. Bamboo features Hawaiian entertainment on Friday and Saturday nights, which is a great time to drop by and sip a passionfruit margarita or two. During regular hours, you can carry that margarita into the connected gallery and shop for gifts of - crafts and jewelry by local artists.
Daniel Thiebaut
65 -1250 Kawaihae Road, Kamuela, 887-2200
Chef/owner Daniel Thibaut restored the old Chock Inn plantation store to meet historic guidelines before opening this eatery. The Store includes original display cases that hold antiques from the area. Diners can choose from four areas - the Yellow Room, the Green Room, the Lehua Room and the Chef's Kitchen Table. The menu features the freshest produce from the surrounding Upcountry farms prepared with French/Asian flair and flavors. A sample entree might include bamboo skewer sea scallops on Asian-style risotto with a warm coconut crab dressing. From the three-course $30 prix fixe menu, try sweet potato soup, crispy Pacific salmon with lemongrass risotto and warm apple tart with vanilla sauce and caramel ice cream.
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