Miller & Lux Hualalai and Ulu in Kaupulehu and Beach Tree Restaurant & Bar in Hualālai Resort hold Wine Spectator Awards of Excellence. Mauna Lani, Auberge Resorts Collection has Star Wine List recognition on the Kohala Coast.
Tyler Florence’s steakhouse in Kaupulehu serves steaks, a raw bar, sustainable seafood and vegetables sourced directly from farms. Miller & Lux Hualalai has an extensive wine list and holds a 2026 Wine Spectator Award of Excellence.
An ocean grill and sushi lounge in Kaupulehu with locally sourced Big Island seafood, sushi, and pan-Asian techniques. Ulu carries a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence from 2026 and a wine list inside Four Seasons Resort Hualalai.
Beach Tree Restaurant & Bar serves coastal Italian cooking beside the beach in Hualālai Resort, with tropical cocktails and live entertainment each night. Its exceptional wine programme includes an extensive wine list, and it holds a 2026 Wine Spectator Award of Excellence.
A beachfront resort on the Kohala Coast with a Michelin Key from 2024 and Star Wine List recognition from 2026. CanoeHouse anchors its food programme, which centres on island ingredients within the Auberge Resorts Collection property.
Walua Social, Kona Brewing Co. and Laverne's Big Island Alehouse & Restaurant in Kailua-Kona serve Italian cooking, beers brewed on site and American gastropub food. Huggo's in Kailua Village serves Hawaiian seafood with a wine list.
An Italian trattoria in Kailua-Kona that blends Big Island ingredients with modern and classic Italian cooking. The polished, easygoing dining room serves pasta alongside a standard wine programme, craft cocktails and beer.
An oceanfront Hawaiian seafood restaurant in Kailua Village with an open-air waterfront setting. Huggo's serves an à la carte menu of fresh Big Island seafood, with a wine list and craft cocktails.
A Kailua-Kona bar and working brewery with craft beer and a minimal wine programme. Its attached taproom serves island-inspired beers brewed on site, with draught selections changing with the season and batch.
An oceanfront American gastropub and seafood restaurant in Kailua-Kona with a beer programme and over 36 draught beers. The sports bar and alehouse format combines casual, communal dining with live music.
Moon & Turtle in Downtown Hilo serves seafood-forward small plates, while Hilo Bay Cafe in Hilo serves contemporary Hawaiian fusion and sushi, both with wine lists. Cafe Pesto in Hilo Bay serves wood-fired pizza, and Ken's House of Pancakes in Hilo serves Hawaiian-style plate breakfasts.
A Downtown Hilo seafood-forward restaurant with small plates, family style service, and a wine list. It has held a place on Opinionated About Dining’s North America Casual list across multiple years.
A Hilo restaurant with contemporary Hawaiian fusion, sushi, a wine list, and craft cocktails. Its bay-facing setting accompanies cooking that uses fresh local ingredients, including organic and free-range produce.
A Hilo Bay restaurant in the restored S. Hata building with Hawaii Regional Italian pizza, a wood-fired oven, and a standard wine programme. Pacific Rim influences shape its pizzas and locally sourced plates.
A Hilo diner serving Hawaiian-style plate breakfasts and stacked pancake variations to locals and visitors. Its large 'Sumo' breakfast stacks come with a gong-ringing tradition, bringing together American diner cooking and Hawaiian breakfast dishes.
Broke Da Mouth Grindz and Umekes Fish Market Bar & Grill in Kailua-Kona serve Hawaiian plate lunches and locally sourced poke respectively. Cafe 100 in Hilo serves loco moco, while Scandinavian Shave Ice in Kailua Village serves shaved ice with natural fruit syrups.
A Kailua-Kona plate lunch spot known for Garlic Furikake Chicken and a 2026 Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives feature. It serves Hawaiian plate lunches à la carte within the town’s everyday local dining tradition.
A Kailua-Kona seafood and poke restaurant with a retail fish market and a standard wine programme. It serves poke bowls made from locally sourced fish and grilled seafood, alongside craft cocktails and beer.
A Hilo plate-lunch counter known for loco moco, with over 30 trademarked varieties. The restaurant helped popularise the dish across Hawaii’s Big Island and remains part of the city’s everyday Hawaiian comfort-food tradition.
A Kailua Village shop serving finely shaved ice with natural fruit syrups, ice cream centres and Hawaiian toppings such as snow cap. Its customers include both regulars and first-time visitors throughout the year.
Miller & Lux Hualalai and Ulu in Kaupulehu and Beach Tree Restaurant & Bar in Hualālai Resort hold 2026 Wine Spectator Awards of Excellence. Miller & Lux Hualalai and Beach Tree Restaurant & Bar have extensive wine lists; Ulu has a wine list. Mauna Lani, Auberge Resorts Collection on the Kohala Coast has Star Wine List recognition from 2026.
There are no Michelin-starred restaurants and no Michelin restaurant stars among the 40 venues in our Big Island guide, with these counts covering Kailua Kona citywide, Hilo citywide and Kohala Coast citywide.
La Bourgogne in Kailua-Kona serves a prix fixe dinner in three courses, drawing on French country cooking. The family-owned fine dining restaurant has an extensive wine list.
Both Hilo and Kailua-Kona have casual local food in our guide. Cafe 100 in Hilo serves plate lunches and loco moco, and Ken's House of Pancakes in Hilo serves Hawaiian-style plate breakfasts. Broke Da Mouth Grindz in Kailua-Kona serves Garlic Furikake Chicken plate lunches, while Umekes Fish Market Bar & Grill in Kailua-Kona serves poke bowls made from locally sourced fish.
By Emmett Haley · Updated October 8, 2026 · Editorial standards
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 indulge 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 legendary 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.
Kailua Kona, United States
Umekes Fish Market Bar & Grill occupies a working-harbor address on Pawai Place in Kailua-Kona, where the fish market format collapses the distance between the Pacific and the plate. The restaurant draws a local-leaning crowd that treats it as a benchmark for fresh poke and grilled seafood on the west side of the Big Island. It sits in the casual end of Kona's dining spectrum, where provenance matters more than plating formality.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
Hilo, United States
Manono Mini Mart occupies a suite address on Manono Street in Hilo, Hawaii, placing it within a commercial district that reflects the city's layered, community-driven food culture. Details on cuisine, hours, and booking are limited in public records, making direct contact a reliable first step for visitors planning a stop.
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 indulge 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 legendary 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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