The 17 Best Places To Eat On The Big Island Of Hawaii

Tommy Bahama

Tommy Bahama is a successful clothing store and furniture brand that owns a chain of restaurants and bars across the country. We spoke with Big Island Assistant General Manager Liz Costigan about what sets the Big Island location in the Shops at Mauna Lani apart from the 20 or so other Tommy Bahama Restaurants and Marlin Bars.

Costigan says much of the Big Island's success is due to working with local purveyors who provide the highest quality produce and products grown on the island, including produce from executive chef Stennis Hirayama. Costigan adds Hirayama grew up on his family's farm, Y. Hirayama Farm, Inc., in Waimea before attending culinary school in Portland, Oregon. He returned to Hawaii, taking the leadership role at Tommy's in 2012. His family's Hirayama Farm, and surrounding Waimea farms, like Kawamata Farms, have supplied produce to the restaurant for years. Costigan says, "It is essential to Tommy Bahama to not only source and support local but also use the freshest ingredients possible."

Working by the motto that "life is one long weekend," island flavors served in a relaxing atmosphere define the island life of Tommy Bahama Mauna Lani. And don't miss happy hour from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. daily to enjoy Costigan's favorite cocktail, a grapefruit basil martini made with freshly squeezed juice, or our favorite, a heavenly coconut cloud.

Merriman's

In 1983, Pittsburg native Peter Merriman arrived on the Big Island to be a cook at the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel. At the time, Merriman thought he would stay a short time, enjoy a little sun and surf, and then head back to the East Coast. Instead, he made Hawaii his permanent home, becoming one of the first chefs on the island to focus on regional Hawaiian cuisine, featuring local meat, fish, and produce.

At the time, Hawaii was still an island of sugarcane and pineapple plantations. While working at the Mauna Lani, Merriman began encouraging local farmers to grow fresh produce, like berries and tomatoes, which he purchased to use in the hotel's restaurant.

When Merriman opened his signature restaurant, Merriman's, in upcountry Waimea in 1988, the island's farmers became his culinary partners. Today, Merriman's features farm-to-table dishes with 90% of the ingredients sourced on the island. Favorite dishes include Kua'aina beef tenderloin, Lehua taro cakes, and Hiraraba Farm beet and fennel salad with Hawaiian goat cheese. Locations on Maui, Oahu, and Kauai today join Merriman's original site on the Big Island.

Pueo's Osteria

Pasta lovers can enjoy an authentic taste of Italy thanks to chef James Babian. After years of cooking on the mainland, Babian moved to the Big Island to join the growing locally-focused chef movement of exclusively using local fish, produce, and meats. He became executive chef of the Fairmont Orchid, followed by a position as executive chef at the Four Seasons. When he arrived at the Four Seasons, he quickly implemented his regional, seasonal, artisanal approach, utilizing over 130 local purveyors on the resort's menus.

After leaving the resort, Babian and his wife started Pueo's Osteria in Waikoloa Village, focusing on Italian flavors with local flare, working sustainably and creatively with dozens of local farmers and fishermen. Menu favorites include fresh Kona abalone with agrodolce glaze, garlicky scampi-style Kona shrimp, vine-ripe tomato bruschetta, and whole wheat tagliolini with a mélange of earthy Hamakua and mermaid mushrooms.

Manta

The Mauna Kea Beach Hotel is the oldest resort hotel on the island, established in 1964 by Louis S. Rockefeller north of the pristine Hapuna Beach on the Kohala Coast. A member of the Historic Hotels of America, Mauna Kea is recognized for its unique culinary heritage and traditions. Additionally, the hotel works toward sustainability and carbon neutrality.

The hotel's signature restaurant, Manta, offers an array of flavors for breakfast and dinner, including the hotel's signature banana bread made from locally grown, sweet apple bananas in the morning, to local abalone, ahi, lobster, and kampachi at night. If you prefer land over sea, the restaurant's Mauka dishes (toward the mountain) include Big Island oxtail, lamb, and beef, all served on the lanai overlooking the glistening waters of Kauna'oa Bay.

Cafe 100

Though fans of delicious food throughout the Hawaiian islands enjoy a classic plate lunch of loco moco with rice and macaroni salad, the dish has roots on the eastern side of the Big Island in Hilo. The story goes that Richard Miyashiro first assembled the loco moco in 1946 when he opened his Cafe 100 restaurant in his hometown, naming it in honor of the 100th Infantry Battalion, which he served with in World War II.

Miyashiro's loco moco brought a classic combination of rice and a hamburger patty, topped with gravy and a runny fried egg, perfect for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Today, Cafe 100 serves a dozen varieties of loco moco, including chili, fish, spam, and sausage options. Still, for us, the original is the original for a reason; it is the best.

Huggo's On The Rocks

If sitting oceanfront with your toes in the sand, listening to the sounds of the waves and sipping a Kona Brewing Longboard while digging into the best fish taco plate on the island is your idea of heaven, head immediately to On The Rocks.

On The Rocks has been a Kona destination for over 25 years, delivering island-inspired dishes and drinks in a laid-back, relaxed setting where visitors quickly feel like friends. The casual restaurant sits surfside just off Kahakai Road overlooking Kailua Bay, adjacent to its fine dining sister restaurant, Huggo's. Happy hour is daily from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the afternoon, with local live music beginning at 6 p.m. in the evening (and it's always good, too).

Kona Coffee And Tea

Kona coffee has been continuously cultivated since the 1800s, becoming renowned in the last few decades. Brazilians brought the first coffee beans to Hawaii in the 1820s. By the decade's end, it had found a home in the fertile volcanic soils on the westward side of the Big Island above Kona.

In the past, the island's significant crops were pineapples and sugarcane. Coffee Times explains that Kona's coffee farms grew thanks to former plantation workers' development of the industry, particularly first-generation Japanese and their Hawaii-born children. Today, consumers appreciate flavorful, ethically sourced, artisanal coffee. The quality of Kona coffee continuously receives international notoriety.

Kona Coffee and Tea grows its single-estate Arabica Typica coffee on the slopes of the Hualalai volcano 2,000 feet above Kona. Beans are hand-picked, milled, roasted, and taken to the Pulalali Street cafe in town. Kona Coffee & Tea's unique flavor makes it some of the best on the island, delivering dark chocolate, roasted hazelnut, and caramel with a nutty, perfect served black in a cold brew or an indulgent Kona bullet, incorporating grass-fed butter and coconut oil into the coffee.

Punalu'u Bakery

At the southernmost tip of the island, near the scenic Punalu'u black sand beach and Ka Lae, lies America's southernmost bakery, Punalu'u Bakery. The commercial bakery crafts an array of Hawaiian sweets, including Hawaiian sweet bread distributed throughout the islands, as well as takeaway treats like macadamia nut shortbread and a variety of glazed and filled malasadas, Hawaii's version of a doughnut with Portuguese roots.

Visitors to the bakery can enjoy a plate lunch, sandwiches, and salads, dining al fresco with a cup of locally grown Ka'u coffee. Ka'u coffee is distinct from Kona coffee, as Ka'u is grown on the fertile volcanic ash-filled slopes of Mauna Loa in the southern part of the island that was formerly home to sugar cane plantations. The flavor is bold and rich with slight acidity, delivering a delicious cup of Joe.