Restaurants, hotels, bars and wineries in Hilo from the En Primeur Club guide.
Accolades in Hilo
These Hilo restaurants make the wine side explicit, with programs or service styles that help frame the meal.
Downtown Hilo’s Moon & Turtle runs a wine list with craft cocktails and beer, and it serves small plates and family style. Chef Mark Pomaski’s seafood-forward kitchen includes a signature smokey sashimi with kiawe-smoked soy and local ahi. Opinionated About Dining’s North America Casual list ranks it #116 in 2023, #158 in 2024 and #128 in 2025, and names it Highly Recommended in 2026.
Manono’s Miyo’s serves homestyle Japanese cooking with a wine list and sake service, in both à la carte and omakase formats. The menu centres local Big Island seafood and produce, and the restaurant’s long run since 1987 gives this part of Hilo a clear Japanese anchor.
Pineapples Island Fresh Cuisine is the only open-air restaurant in downtown Hilo. It runs a wine list and serves signature Pineapple Pow cocktails in a hollowed-out pineapple. The menu is built around local sourcing, with an open-air room on Keawe Street.
Hilo Bay Cafe in Hilo serves contemporary Hawaiian fusion and sushi, Suisan in Hilo Bay is a waterfront fish market for daily poke, and Cafe Pesto in Hilo Bay serves Hawaii Regional Italian pizza from a wood-fired oven.
Hilo Bay Cafe in Hilo pairs a wine list and craft cocktails with contemporary Hawaiian fusion and sushi, served à la carte. The room looks over Hilo Bay, Mauna Kea and historic downtown, and the cooking uses fresh local ingredients. Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives named it a Featured Bar in 2026.
Hilo Bay’s Suisan is a historic waterfront fish market. It offers fresh Hawaiian poke made daily, locally caught, with a wide variety of reef fish and signature flavors. The restaurant serves that poke à la carte on the Hilo Bay waterfront.
Hilo Bay’s Cafe Pesto occupies the restored S. Hata building and has cooked Hawaii Regional Cuisine since 1988, using a wood-fired pizza oven. The wine program is standard and the menu is à la carte. Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives featured the restaurant in 2026. Wood-fired pizzas and locally sourced plates carry a Pacific Rim influence.
Hilo, Downtown Hilo, downtown Hilo, Manono and Volcano Village hold the wine lists in our guide. Hilo is the largest neighbourhood, with 7 venues, and Hilo Bay Cafe there runs a wine list with contemporary Hawaiian fusion. Downtown Hilo has Moon & Turtle, downtown Hilo has Pineapples Island Fresh Cuisine, Manono has Miyo’s, and Volcano Village has Lava Rock Cafe.
Hilo has no Michelin-starred restaurants in our guide. Moon & Turtle in Downtown Hilo holds Opinionated About Dining’s North America Casual Highly Recommended distinction for 2026. Lehua was a James Beard Award semifinalist for Emerging Chef in 2025.
The clearest wine programs in our guide are ones: Moon & Turtle in Downtown Hilo, Hilo Bay Cafe in Hilo, Miyo’s in Manono, Pineapples Island Fresh Cuisine in downtown Hilo and Lava Rock Cafe in Volcano Village. Hilo Bay Cafe also pours craft cocktails, Miyo’s pours sake, and Moon & Turtle pours craft cocktails and beer.
Moon & Turtle in Downtown Hilo, Miyo’s in Manono, Hilo Bay Cafe in Hilo and Lava Rock Cafe in Volcano Village pair wine with small plates, family style, omakase or à la carte service. Moon & Turtle serves small plates and family style, with craft cocktails and beer. Miyo’s serves omakase and à la carte, with sake. Hilo Bay Cafe and Lava Rock Cafe serve à la carte.
By Emmett Haley · Updated October 8, 2026 · Editorial standards
Hilo
Selected entries from the current guide for Hilo.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Hilo, United States
Miyo's serves homestyle Japanese in Hilo with Ahi-Donburi, Chicken Katsu, and Bento Box, plus a sake program for lunch or dinner.
Hilo, United States
On Keawe Street in downtown Hilo, Pineapples Island Fresh Cuisine sits in a dining scene that takes local sourcing seriously, where the menu architecture reflects Hawaii Island's agricultural range rather than mainland interpretations of it. The address alone places it within walking distance of Hilo's working waterfront, and the 'island fresh' framing signals a menu built around proximity to source rather than imported prestige.
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.
Hilo, United States
"Served with Hawaii's familiar aloha, the Puka Puka Kitchen cooks up delicious Island food including ahi don, garlic curry, and chicken katsu. It seems like there is a Greek and Indian influence to the Hawaiian flavors which makes Puka Puka unique and worth a visit!"
Hilo, United States
Hilo's relationship with fresh Pacific seafood runs deeper than any single restaurant, and Suisan has long been a reference point in that conversation, less destination dining than the kind of place a city actually depends on.
Hilo, United States
Thai Thai Restaurant sits on Old Volcano Road in Volcano, Hawaii, drawing visitors heading to or from Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Thai cuisine in this remote, high-elevation setting fills a specific gap in the Big Island's dining options, making it a practical and culturally distinct stop for anyone spending time in the Volcano Village area.
Hilo
Selected entries from the current guide for Hilo.
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.
Hilo
Selected entries from the current guide for Hilo.
No venues found.
Hilo
Selected entries from the current guide for Hilo.
No venues found.
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