Awards in Hawaii - Big Island
Hover any badge for the full award name. Counts reflect venues holding each accolade in Hawaii - Big Island.
Hawaii - Big Island
Selected entries from the current guide for Hawaii - Big Island.
Kailua Kona, United States
Beach Tree fits the Kailua-Kona resort-dining pattern: open-air, beachside, and built around the island’s relationship with seafood, produce, and sunset timing rather than ceremony. Its value is context, with the coast doing part of the work and the kitchen sitting inside a broader Hawaiʻi conversation about sourcing, seasonality, and casual luxury.
Kailua Kona, United States
Broke Da Mouth Grindz on Luhia Street sits squarely in the local-plate tradition that defines everyday eating in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. The name signals intent before you walk through the door: this is food built for satisfaction, not ceremony. For visitors accustomed to resort dining, it represents the kind of address regulars return to on weekdays, not occasions.
Hilo, United States
On Kamehameha Avenue in downtown Hilo, Cafe Pesto occupies a corner of the historic S. Hata Building, one of the few surviving pre-war commercial structures on Hawaii Island's east side. The kitchen draws on Pacific Rim influences to produce wood-fired pizzas and locally sourced plates that sit comfortably between casual and considered. For a city with limited fine-dining infrastructure, it fills a recognizable gap.
Hilo, United States
"In a new(ish) location overlooking the bay, this perennial Big Island favorite weaves local, organic, and free-range produce into culinary alchemy. Deceptively simple dishes dance on the taste buds; the rich umami of the mushroom potpie and the spicy ahi poke do a particularly fabulous fandango, along with the jalapeño-hamachi-belly sushi roll. The peppered beef carpaccio has a dedicated following, pairing soft grass-fed beef with sea salt and fried capers, as does the half-pound burger that comes topped with Gorgonzola. Even vegetarians can choose here, starting with the cauliflower grilled with black-garlic aioli and moving onto a taro-quinoa veggie patty beside hand-cut fries. Make sure to save room for the well-known chocolate lava cake!"
Hilo, United States
Lehua is a 2025 James Beard Award semifinalist for Emerging Chef presented by S. Pellegrino® Sparkling Natural Mineral Water in Hilo, HI.
Kailua Kona, United States
Miller & Lux Hualalai pairs a modern American steakhouse menu with Hawaiian influences, an extensive wine list, craft cocktails, and leisurely, quiet dinner service.
Hilo, United States
Moon & Turtle has held a spot on Opinionated About Dining's North America Casual list for three consecutive years, a track record that places it well above Hilo's dining baseline. Operating out of a compact space on Kalakaua Street, it runs a seafood-forward program that draws serious eaters to the Big Island's east side. The kitchen operates under chef Mark Pomaski and keeps hours tight — closed Mondays, with afternoon openings Tuesday through Sunday.
Kailua Kona, United States
Set within the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai on the Kohala Coast, Ulu operates at the upper tier of Kailua-Kona's resort dining, where Pacific ingredients and open-air setting define the format rather than ornament it. The menu architecture reflects the broader shift in Hawaiian fine dining toward locally sourced produce and reef-to-table seafood, positioning Ulu within a competitive set that extends well beyond the island.
Kohala Coast, United States
Binchotan Bar & Grill fits the Kohala Coast’s resort-dining pattern: ingredient-led cooking shaped by island supply, Japanese grill language, and a traveler audience moving between beach, pool, and dinner. With no public awards or chef-led mythology to lean on, the useful read is contextual: judge it by sourcing, restraint, and how the grill format handles Hawaii’s distance from mainland supply chains.
Hilo, United States
Lava Rock Cafe: Hawaiian Fusion Cafe at 19-3972 Old Volcano Rd keeps pacing standard and serves beer alongside Loco Moco and Liliko'i Cheesecake.
Hilo, United States
Ponds Hilo occupies a waterfront position on Kalanianaole Street that separates it from Hilo's compact downtown dining cluster, placing it closer to the bay's edge than most of its peers. The setting shapes the experience as much as anything on the table, drawing visitors who want the quieter, residential east side of Hilo rather than the more trafficked corridor near Kamehameha Avenue. It sits in a mid-tier local dining scene that rewards visitors willing to explore beyond the obvious stops.
Kailua Kona, United States
Walua Social is worth booking for a polished Kailua-Kona dinner when the group wants Italian trattoria cooking with local sourcing and an easygoing, upscale-casual room. It is strongest for date nights, casual celebrations, and group dinners, especially if pasta, wine, and conversation matter more than a tasting-menu format or resort-style spectacle.
Kailua Kona, United States
808 Grindz Cafe on Kopiko Street brings the plate lunch tradition to Kailua-Kona's working-side streets, where local comfort food outweighs ocean views every time. The format is direct: generous portions, familiar Hawaiian-American combinations, and a clientele that skews heavily residential rather than tourist. For visitors who want to eat the way Kona locals actually eat, this is the reference point.
Hilo, United States
Cafe 100 on Kilauea Avenue is one of Hilo's most enduring lunch counters, credited with popularising the loco moco across Hawaii's Big Island. The format is direct: plate-lunch tradition served fast, priced for locals, and rooted in the kind of everyday Hawaiian comfort food that predates the island's current farm-to-table moment by several decades.
Hilo, United States
Don's Grill at 485 Hinano St sits within Hilo's working-class dining corridor, where plate lunch traditions and local comfort food define the register. The venue operates in a category where regulars set the rhythm and the room reflects the neighbourhood rather than the tourist circuit. A grounded option for anyone exploring Hilo's everyday dining culture beyond the waterfront strip.
Hilo, United States
Hawaiian Style Cafe on Manono Street sits squarely in Hilo's tradition of no-frills local dining, where plate lunch culture and Hawaiian comfort food hold more cultural weight than any tasting menu. The cafe draws a steady local crowd for generous portions rooted in the islands' mixed-plate heritage. For visitors looking beyond resort dining, it represents the everyday food life of Hawaii's east side.
Kailua Kona, United States
Huggo's sits on the waterfront in Kailua-Kona, occupying a position that places it squarely within the town's open-air dining tradition. For visitors planning around the Big Island's west coast, it represents one of the more established options in a dining scene that runs from plate-lunch counters to upscale resort dining. Booking ahead is advisable, particularly during peak visitor periods.
Kailua Kona, United States
A traditional Hawaiian luau experience on the Kailua-Kona coast, Island Breeze Luau brings together the ceremonial imu pit roast, hula performance, and communal feasting that define the genre on the Big Island. Located at 75-5660 Palani Rd, it sits within reach of Kona's main resort corridor, making it a practical anchor for visitors building an evening around authentic Polynesian cultural programming.
Hilo, United States
Ken's House of Pancakes on Kamehameha Avenue is one of Hilo's most recognizable all-day breakfast spots, drawing locals and visitors alike with a menu built around Hawaiian-style plate breakfasts and stacked pancake variations. It sits in a city where diner culture and local food traditions overlap, making it a useful reference point for understanding how Hilo eats outside of fine dining. For the Neighbor Islands, it represents the kind of institution that shapes a town's culinary baseline.
Kailua Kona, United States
Kenichi Pacific brings pan-Asian cooking to Kailua-Kona's Ali'i Drive dining corridor, occupying a space where Japanese technique meets Pacific ingredient availability. The address places it within reach of the Kona waterfront's broader restaurant scene, where coastal casual and more considered dinner formats compete for the same evening audience. For visitors working through the options on Ali'i Drive, Kenichi represents the more composed end of that spectrum.
Hilo, United States
King's Vietnamese Cuisine on Piilani Street operates in a Hilo dining scene where Southeast Asian kitchens have quietly built loyal followings among locals who treat pho and bánh mì as weekly staples rather than novelties. The restaurant sits in a part of town that serves the community more than it chases visitors, making it a useful reference point for understanding how Vietnamese cooking has embedded itself in Hawaii's everyday food culture.
Kailua Kona, United States
Kona Canoe Club sits along Ali'i Drive in Kailua-Kona, where the town's waterfront dining strip runs parallel to the Pacific. The venue takes its name from a paddling tradition that has shaped Hawaiian coastal culture for centuries, placing it within a neighborhood scene defined by open-air settings, local seafood, and the unhurried pace of the Kona Coast.
Kailua Kona, United States
La Bourgogne brings French culinary tradition to the lava-field edge of Kailua-Kona, occupying a position in the Big Island dining scene that has few direct peers. The name signals a classical European orientation in a market otherwise defined by Pacific-rim plates and open-air seafood. For visitors moving between Hawaii's casual beachside options and the fine-dining tier, it sits at a distinct remove from both.
Kailua Kona, United States
On Ali'i Drive, the main artery of Kailua-Kona's waterfront strip, Laverne's Big Island Alehouse & Restaurant occupies a position that puts it squarely in the casual, communal dining tradition that defines this part of the island. An alehouse format in a town built around fishing, surf culture, and post-activity appetite signals a particular kind of meal: unhurried, sociable, and grounded in local habit rather than tourist spectacle.
Hawaii - Big Island
Selected entries from the current guide for Hawaii - Big Island.
Kailua Kona, United States
Four Seasons Resort Hualalai is the North Kona Coast resort for travelers who want Hawaii Island's black-lava terrain, oceanfront bungalows, serious golf, and a dining program in one controlled resort setting. Its low-rise design, 249-room scale, La Liste 98-point hotel score, and long-running luxury recognition place it in Kailua Kona's high-end resort tier rather than the island's more conventional beach-hotel category.
Kailua Kona, United States
Kona Village, A Rosewood Resort brings the Big Island resort idea back to its elemental parts: free-standing hale, black-lava ground, Kahuwai Bay, and design that treats open air as architecture rather than decoration. The revived 1965 property now reads as a high-design Hawaiian resort with serious cultural programming, solar-powered infrastructure, and a scale large enough for families without losing its sense of place.
Kohala Coast, United States
On the Kohala Coast of Hawaii's Big Island, Mauna Lani earned a Michelin Key in 2024 and sits within the Auberge Resorts Collection. The property's 341 rooms occupy an arrow-shaped building flanked by twin beaches, with five beachfront bungalows, two 18-hole golf courses, and CanoeHouse restaurant anchoring a food programme rooted in island ingredients. Rates begin at $900 per night.
Hilo, United States
Hilo Seaside Hotel occupies a position in Hilo's lodging market that rewards travellers who prioritise proximity to the city's working waterfront over resort-style amenity stacks. Set on Hawaii Island's rain-rich east side, the property offers a grounded alternative to the polished corridor of Kohala Coast resorts, placing guests within reach of Hilo's farmers markets, lava fields, and bay-front parks.
Hawaii - Big Island
Selected entries from the current guide for Hawaii - Big Island.
Hilo, United States
"In a new(ish) location overlooking the bay, this perennial Big Island favorite weaves local, organic, and free-range produce into culinary alchemy. Deceptively simple dishes dance on the taste buds; the rich umami of the mushroom potpie and the spicy ahi poke do a particularly fabulous fandango, along with the jalapeño-hamachi-belly sushi roll. The peppered beef carpaccio has a dedicated following, pairing soft grass-fed beef with sea salt and fried capers, as does the half-pound burger that comes topped with Gorgonzola. Even vegetarians can choose here, starting with the cauliflower grilled with black-garlic aioli and moving onto a taro-quinoa veggie patty beside hand-cut fries. Make sure to save room for the well-known chocolate lava cake!"
Hilo, United States
Moon & Turtle has held a spot on Opinionated About Dining's North America Casual list for three consecutive years, a track record that places it well above Hilo's dining baseline. Operating out of a compact space on Kalakaua Street, it runs a seafood-forward program that draws serious eaters to the Big Island's east side. The kitchen operates under chef Mark Pomaski and keeps hours tight — closed Mondays, with afternoon openings Tuesday through Sunday.
Kailua Kona, United States
A poolside bar and grille in Kailua-Kona, Billfish Poolside Bar & Grille sits at 75-5660 Palani Rd, where the format follows a familiar West Hawaii pattern: open-air drinking against a backdrop of Pacific light, with grille food anchoring longer sessions. The address puts it within reach of Kona's main waterfront corridor, making it a natural stop alongside spots like Kona Brewing Co. and Kona Canoe Club.
Kailua Kona, United States
Kona Brewing Co. on Pawai Place sits at the intersection of Hawaiian craft beer culture and open-air waterfront dining, drawing locals and visitors who want something more grounded than the resort strip. The brewery format means what's on draft changes with the season and the batch, rewarding repeat visits. It's a working production facility with a taproom attached, which puts it in a different register from the island's hotel bars.
Kailua Kona, United States
This venue is no longer listed as an active En Primeur Club venue. Public source checks on 2026-06-22 found the original listing closed or replaced; live contact, rating, FAQ and schema details have been removed.
Hawaii - Big Island
Selected entries from the current guide for Hawaii - Big Island.
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