Email ElizabethRestaurants in Kona
Lunch at the Aloha Vista Bar and Grill at Keauhou
At Aloha Vista Bar and Grill, you might initially come for the view, but you will come back for the food. Wish I could say the same thing about the interior of the restaurant, but that would be only my suggestion for improvement: to beef up the atmosphere. Makes you want to stuff your face and leave, not hang out and order another drink.
For a Kona Country Club restaurant on a golf course, the Aloha Vista Bar and Grill lacks ambiance. When I first poked my head inside, I thought maybe it was a cocktail lounge and had to ask if we could get lunch. It looks like a high school cafeteria. But perhaps I was disappointed because I had it in my head to expect so much more. It is nothing like the golf course restaurant at the Four Seasons in Lanai; that place is plush. So you can’t blame the interior on “well, it is Hawaii.”
You will find 3 menus, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Some of the dishes are identical but cost more as the day goes on. This delectable dish in the photo above is Loco Moco. Popular meal for any time of the day in Hawaii. When I first heard of this years ago, I thought it sounded dreadful and wondered who would consume such a thing.
However, I have come to love Loco Moco, so I now have to eat my words. Along with the grilled hamburger patty on a bed of rice, topped by two over-easy fried eggs and a shitload of brown gravy. I think the gravy contains beef broth and Worcestershire sauce. I scarfed down the entire bowl.
My friend ordered the rigatoni, alfredo style, with gorgonzola cheese, mushrooms. Since she is allergic to garlic, the chef left the garlic out of the sauce. That is always a nice sign when the chef can accommodate special requests. Fabulous dish, and I’d like to return for dinner and order it.
I should mention the Aloha Vista Bar and Grill features American and Italian cuisine, with a heavy emphasis on southern Italy. It is a little confusing to find, but don’t try to use GPS. Just drive down Ali’i Drive until you see the Kona Country Club and turn makai into the driveway. A rather unassuming building greets you below the parking lot; park and go in.
Mi’s Waterfront Bistro Has More Than Location Going For It
Elizabeth Weintraub on Christmas Eve at Mi’s Waterfront Bistro
Mi’s Waterfront Bistro seemed like a fine enough place to enjoy dinner on Christmas Eve in Kona. We figured even if the meal was lacking, the location would be great. That’s because we went to dinner at Sam Choys in the Keauhou Shopping Center the day before, and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. A trio of fish lacked imagination, and for a $30 entree, I expected better. Service was slow. They forgot half of my husband’s order but still put it on the bill until we corrected them.
When we have a bad experience at a restaurant, we usually do not return. However, Mi’s Waterfront Bistro was wonderful. I had made a reservation, but when we showed up, the only table available was inside. We elected to wait for a table on the water outside. It was OK, and I’m not complaining. We were escorted to the bar area and ordered a drink.
Bar seating is available on both sides of the bar at Mi’s Waterfront Bistro
The thing about dining out in Kona is one is not expected to dress up. I wore an old cotton tie-die dress that had belonged to my mother, and I swiped it from her closet after she died. Somewhere along the way, I managed to rip a hole in the front of it, but that just makes the garment more endearing to me. I topped it off with baroque pearls and matching earrings, although I did not comb my hair nor wear any makeup.
This is how dining out should be. No pretenses. Good service and good food. Our waiter appeared knowledgeable and he was fast on his toes. At first I leaned toward the rigatoni with sausage, probably because I’ve never met a rigatoni I did not love. Since my husband desired that dish, I instead chose the seafood cioppino. Blue crab, scallops, shrimp and marlin simmered to perfection in a rich tomato sauce.
Pacific ocean laps the shore at Mi’s Waterfront Bistro
It was so delicious I mopped up my bowl with bread, and I almost never eat bread. A Napa pinot noir was a great pairing with this dish. My husband’s rigatoni seemed short on the pasta and long on the sausage and sauce, but marvelous. I do not recommend the pineapple sherbet, though; it was like shaved ice without the syrup.
If you don’t feel like driving out to the resorts for dinner, you can stay in Kailua-Kona and enjoy dinner at Mi’s Waterfront Bistro in the Waterfront Row Building on Alii Drive. There is also underground parking for 5.00 in the evenings, although the elevators don’t always seem to work, I hear. I’ve been to all the top resorts in the area, and Mi’s Waterfront Bistro is every bit as good as, say, Brown’s Beach House.
Hanging Out at Jackie Rey’s Ohana Grill in Kona
Sacramento Realtor Elizabeth Weintraub loved the ambiance at Jackie Rey’s Ohana Grill.
Our server at Jackie Rey’s Ohana Grill in Kona has worked at that establishment for 4 years, and she was bursting with energy, smiles and helpfulness. It’s such a different vibe here than the reception you get as a Sacramento Realtor in a place like, say, Midtown Sacramento. There is little reserve or over-the-top formalities. Everything is casual.
Which is partly why I love Big Island. No dressing up. No makeup to wear. No brushing of hair. Nobody you need to impress. You can dress as a slob and be welcome just about anywhere, and let me tell you that sloppiness is my preferred style of dress. I would wear the same article of clothing over and over without laundering if I could get away with it.
We were searching for a place close to our new vacation house in Hawaii for dinner because my husband, for some reason, does not want to cook, even though we have a perfectly good kitchen in which to practice his art. I don’t care. We can go out. None of the restaurants we have frequented thus far are what I would call “fine dining,” but it’s fine all the same. Not memorable. Not bad.
The Passion Flow cocktail at Jackie Rey’s is $9.00.
The perfect way to start dinner at Jackie Rey’s is with a Hawaiian cocktail such as the Passion Flow, made with blended rum, pineapple juice, cream of coconut, lilikoi and a shot of orange juice, served in a li hing mui rimmed glass. Because I was driving the jeep, I nursed a glass of Stag’s Leap Napa Chardonnay.
We both ordered the Angie’s Salad, with greens, farro, apples, beets, macadamia nuts, blue cheese with a strawberry vinaigrette, but I added a lobster tail just because I could. My husband selected the New Yorker which, despite its name, was not a New York Strip. It was really more of a sirloin, so the name is a bit misleading. Asparagus and bacon-mashed potatoes rounded out the dish.
The open air dining was relaxing. We were lucky to have nabbed a booth all the way to the back of the restaurant, right by the window overlooking the parking lot. It was noisy but not so loud you couldn’t hear a person talk across the table. Plus they gave us crayons to draw on the paper table cloth, and that kept us busy for a while.
It was somewhat affordable at Jackie Rey’s but not two dollar signs as shown on Trip Advisor. Our dinner with tip was a little over $100. Two drinks were $21. It’s a restaurant I would return to, though. The ambiance and friendly staff perk it up. And when I picked up my cellphone to leave, it appeared our conversation ended up in a Siri search. I include it below. This is not what we were discussing by a long shot. Siri is somewhat poetic.
Siri sent a poetic message for Weintraub at Jackie Rey’s.
