Description: This restaurant is fast becoming a favorite for us, as we stopped in twice for dinner during our week in Kona. They are slightly off the beaten path in that they are not located down along Alii Drive, which is where you'll see the scads of tourists and cruise ship passengers walking up and down along the bay. (Kuakini Hwy is the road that essentially runs parallel to Alii Drive, about two blocks away.)
Big Island Grill is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner six days a week (6a-9p). . . closed on Sundays. They have a nice menu with decent choices from sandwiches to lunch plates and full dinner entrees. Breakfast features many standards including pancakes, french toast, breakfast meats and of course SPAM. You can have your eggs served with breakfast potatoes or rice, which is common through Hawaii.
As I said, we stopped in twice for dinner. David ordered the teriyaki beef over rice, while I enjoyed the shrimp tempura. With both enjoyed our meals so much that we did a repeat when we returned several nights later. While they came with steamed veggies, these menu items were more of a plate lunch than dinner entree, so salad (or soup) did not come with our meals. At $10.95 each, however, the value was outstanding and neither of us felt like we really needed a salad.
Both evenings we shared a dessert, mostly for the taste sensation. Their version of a hot fudge banana sundae was really very good, as was the flourless chocolate cake. We felt that both were large enough to share, especially the chocolate cake that came ala mode with a raspberry sauce.
Like many restaurants in the area, they do not have an on-premises alcohol license but it appeared that they permitted carry-ins as a couple of tables were self-serving wine and bottled beer.
Our full meals including soft drinks or iced tea and the dessert to split ran $45 including tax and trip. As I said, a very good value for a delicious meal!
They appear to be very popular with the locals and on Saturday night, there was about a 30 minute wait when we arrived at 7:00pm. While they do not accept reservations, you can get your meal to go if that is more convenient for you.
Next time we are on the Big Island, the Big Island Grill will be on our agenda for breakfast . . . especially since both of our former faves for breakfast scored disappointments on this trip (see separate review).
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