Big Island Grinds

My wife and I visited Seattle for the past New Years. It’s such a lovely city. Amazing fresh food. Friendly locals. So much happening! What a culture shock from Hilo Town. We have so much food adventures to share from there! I figured I’ll post one place at a time or else I won’t ever get anything up.

So, I’ll start with one of Tom Douglas’ wonderful restaurants which is also attached to a bakery.

I started with a tomato soup.

This was simply the best tomato soup I’ve ever had by far. It was thick, fresh, bright and very rich. It went so good with the buttery croutons and bread served. I won’t look at tomato soup the same again.

Next, an order of Tom Douglas’ famous crab cakes.

Man, these crab cakes rock. The crab meat is so sweet with huge chunks of leg meat. While it’s mostly crab, it still has a nicely seasoned breading with green onions. Served with grilled romaine and crispy potatoes.

Desert time! Coconut cream pie.

So deliciously light and not too sweet. The crust was great texture.

Fresh Pear Tart

Outstanding! Seattle has the best pears I’ve had, and combining that with a fresh flaky tart pastry, this was just delicious.

I’m so spoiled now. Seattle I will return!

It wasn’t sleepy Hilo Town this past Saturday.

The rain was on schedule…

John Cruz…

Donna’s Smokin BBQ Shack…

Baby Back Ribs, 5-Meat Chili, Mac Salad, Rice ($10)

Juicy juicy, tasty and slightly tangy. Great ribs! Chili was really good too — very thick and hearty with a slight kick. I need to check Donna’s Smokin BBQ Shack later. It is located in the Keaau Village Market.

What? This place is one of the most popular restaurants in Hilo and I never even covered it yet! I have a backlog of photos of various places so I better start posting more.

Cafe Pesto has always had good food and has a great location in the Historic S. Hata building near the Farmer’s Market in Downtown Hilo. I love how it’s casual yet still fancy… good for a nice dinner date, party or a quick lunch. Ambiance is warm, open, and comfortable. Sounds fill the room with kitchen noises and neighboring conversations.

My three favorite things here are (and they do them very well): Beer, Pizza, and Salad. Yes, I’m a simple guy.

There’s a nice variety of beers on tap from local breweries and this is a Pipeline Porter from Kona Brewing Company which has 100% Kona Coffee in it. You really can taste the sweet coffee flavor. I loved it! Very smooth, dark and frothy.

Chicken Lolla Rosa ($10.95) - Grilled free-range chicken tossed with organic baby greens, local sweet onions, vine-ripened organic tomatoes, dressed with a cilantro-caesar dressing. Wonderful combination of flavors. The chicken was flavorful and perfectly grilled. The cilantro-caesar dressing was the highlight of this dish and had a really refreshing dominant cilantro kick.

Ahhh, the pizzas… the first one is the basic Pizza Margherite with just cheese (12″ for $10.95) and it is a great to have with a salad. The second one is the Pizza Luau, which has kalua pork, local sweet onions and pineapples (9″ for $10.95). Both are excellent. The crust is what makes the pizzas here so good; very bubbly, crusty and chewy. One of my favorite pizzas in Hilo.

Reid from Ono Kine Grindz also went here recently. Service has generally been good the past times I’ve been here, but unfortunately he had a different experience.

Café Pesto
S Hata Building
308 Kamehameha Avenue
Hilo, Hawaii
Telephone: 808.969.6640
www.cafepesto.com

Bev and I went camping recently at Volcano National park to celebrate her birthday. At 4000′ elevation, campground Namakanipaio is so beautiful and peaceful, not to mention super duper cold! There are tall eucalyptus and ohi’a trees on this large, grassy campground.

One night of camping is pretty much the max we can do, and afterwards, all we want is a good shower and a nice hot sit-down meal. We went to check out the Volcano House, where they had a lunch buffet which looked and smelled yummy. They also have a regular sit-down and order menu for dinner time.

Here’s their menu for the day:

Generally, I try to stay away from buffets since quality usually suffers (like the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel Buffet), and there was a huge line of tourists getting into the restaurant. Make sure not to go right after a tour bus arrives. We both felt like we were the only “locals”, and I think we were. No matters, anything hot sounds great right now, and their menu didn’t look too bad.

After paying, you split into two lines and go directly to the food.

We were sandwiched by two groups: Japanese and Canadians. It was easy to tell which group their from just by looking at their plates… the Canadians didn’t have rice. Both groups seem to pick up a lot of pineapple from their fresh fruit platter.

Here’s my plate:

Yes, we just spent one night freezing in a tent and skipped breakfast, so anything may have tasted good, but this food was delicious! The pot roast beef was amazingly tender, juicy, perfectly seasoned and had nice pieces of fat. The fried chicken had a great crunchy crust with really juicy tasty meat. The mahi was not bad at all and was not overcooked. Mac salad was winnas, and the green salad was fresh. This really didn’t taste like mass produced buffet food — I was truly impressed.

I went for seconds and totally got my $16.50 worth. Even comes with drinks, coffee, and dessert (tasted like haupia cake - was just ok).

This was a great deal if you already payed park admission (10 bucks), and what makes it even better is the view you get, overlooking the Kilauea Caldera. After eating, we went for a very slow walk along one of the crater trails.

Volcano House
Crater Rim Drive
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
Hawaii, HI 96718

We stayed over for a night in Kona for the long Labor Day weekend, and it was so nice! The beach, sunsets, and all the people… it reminds me of Waikiki a little bit, but less crowded.

There were also canoe races at Kailua Bay, which my friend told me is the biggest canoe race in the world. Even Japan was there representing with their flag hanging from the back of their canoe!

We wanted to watch the race and we were hungry too, so we chose to have burgers and beer at Splasher’s Grill. They had a perfect view of the race. The burgers also looked very good and juicy.

We ordered two Big Splash Burgers and I had a Fire Rock Pale Ale (so yummy!).

The Big Splash Burger has a thick 1/2lb beef patty, sesame seed bun, 2 slices of cheddar, lettuce, tomato, onions, pickle, and a choice of fries, onion rings or green salad. Our neighbor had onion rings, and they were HUGE — would like to try those next time. This burger was so good! The patty was especially very juicy and flavorful. The toppings were all fresh, and the cheese was a nice rich cheddar. The bun was also nice and toasty. Bev loved the fries — they “stayed crispy from start to finish”.

Splasher’s Grill was a great choice if you want a good burger and fries, plus the view can’t be beat!

Check out what else we saw in Kona!

Reid, I didn’t know you had your own restaurant!!

I really wanted to go here, but never had the chance to.

On the way back to Hilo in Waimea, someone noticed me from my blog. I never expected that to happen! Whoever that was, I’m sorry I wasn’t able to talk more… my hands were full (of rice and poke from Foodland) and we were just about to leave, but it was nice meeting you… have you left a comment here before? Thanks for saying hi!

And lastly, we don’t get these in Hilo…

Splashers Grill
75 Alii Dr
Kailua Kona, HI 96740
(808) 329-9694

One wouldn’t expect to find a place such as Hilo Bay Cafe in Hilo. Just take a look at this place.

Where are we? It looks like some chic jazz cafe in San Fransisco or something. Well, I’ve actually never been to one, but it feels like this would be something like it. A full bar, warm lighting, and light jazz music are some of the first things you’ll notice as you walk in. The staff is very warm, friendly, and professional.

Sometimes it’s nice to “get out of Hilo”.

I started with one of my favorite beers (and they have it on tap!), a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I got so excited to drink it that I almost forgot to take a photo.

We were served a plate of bread and butter.

This baguette was one of the best I’ve ever had. The crust was very rich, hard and crusty. Inside was moist with a very dense crumb — chewy and tasty. So good. Anybody know where they get their bread from?

The French Onion Soup ($5) was good and came with a generous amount of stretchy cheese. I only wish that the toast in the soup was more toasty, since it was more soggy than anything.

Warm bacon spinach salad with blue cheese and apples ($8). This was really good. The bacon was really hearty, and the cheese was rich. The spinach was fresh with a nice tangy sweet dressing. Apples were a nice touch too.

Blue Bay Burger with Gorgonzola Cheese and Garlic Fries ($8) — half portion shown since I shared it. This was great. The burger tasted very fresh and was nice and thick… it went great with the gorgonzola cheese. The tomato and lettuce were really fresh too. Fries were crisp with a subtle garlic flavor — very good.

Also ordered was a Blackened Ahi Caesar with Organic Baby Romaine ($9). This one was said to be really good. I got to try the Ahi and it was very flavorful and fresh. The romaine looked nice and crisp too.

I’ve already been here a few times, and Hilo Bay Cafe never fails to impress with their fresh organic ingredients, relaxing ambience, and great drinks. Their prices are also very reasonable. Highly recommended!

Hilo Bay Cafe
315 Makaala Street, Hilo, HI 96720
Phone: (808) 935-4939