Hilo Bay Cafe

Really great place once you get past the sketch intro. The service was a little touch and go when the server didn’t know what to do when we wanted a custom drink, and then the menu didn’t look too great (no one saw anything they liked), but we stayed none the less.
Glad we stayed! Food was great! I got the seared scallops dish. It had great flavor! I devoured it. My mother got the pork belly roll and she loved it (and she’s a tough critic). Definitely give it a try and stay for the food!

Best fish and chips we have ever had. No, seriously… it was. It takes fish and chips to another level. Caesar salad was pretty awesome too paired with a Dew drop martini that contained fresh rosemary and squeezed lemons.

One of the best restaurants on this Island. I always order the filet mignon. It has to be the best cut of steak I have had on the Big Island. The only complaint I have is the deserts aren’t so good. I have tried all of them and it is always a let down. The service is good. It is best to have dinner, rather than lunch. The lunch menu isn’t that great.

Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom! I met my niece (who also works here) for lunch and it was soooooooooooooo good! The view from the patio was a view of paradise, and along with the great food it was such a treat.

We were greeted promptly by a smiling hostess and asked to sit at the bar to grab a cocktail while waiting for our table. The table was ready in about 10 minutes. We were then greeted by our very nice server who took the time to go over a few details of the menu we inquired about. The food came out timely and was beautiful and delicious! I highly recommend this modern chic restaurant for a great night out.

I love stopping here for lunch. Great quality simple sushi and some rose. I’m a happy woman. My 4 year old also love the sushi. Haven’t tried other dishes. But if you’re like me who just want simple sushi and some wine… This is the place.

This was my first time here. Loved it!!! I had the Hamakua mushroom lettuce cups and Warabi. So so good!!! The Warabi was outstanding!!! My friend had fish and chips. That too was very good!
The view is beautiful! Place is clean. Friendly service! I can’t say enough good things about this place.

Great dinner at the Café. I had the Pot Pie with Chicken and loved it! Staff was attentive and very well versed in the menu. One of my party had dietary restrictions and the chef was most accommodating! A little loud and a little dark. Maybe I’m just getting old! Its a great place for a date or a larger group. Amazing dining overlooking the bay. I highly recommend the Café.

We had a delicious meal for two here, with a great view of Hilo Bay. The Island Elixir cocktail is fresh and potent, with plenty of coconut. We shared some fresh himachi sashimi and a little Caesar salad to start; and we tried the fresh catch chirashizushi and fresh ono with green beans and potatoes. For dessert, the lava cake was tasty, but the Kona coffee ice cream with it was even better! Attentive and gracious service; fair prices.

This place only gets one star because of the beautiful view of Hilo Bay. We’re a local family from Hilo. This was our first visit to this place and I thought it would be a nicer fine dining restaurant to celebrate our wedding anniversary at. Our waitress was a sweet and friendly girl. She helped explain some of the menu items. Ordered the eggplant Parmesan custard which was extremely salty and the eggplant was still crunchy. Also ordered onion rings which was okay but cut way too big for my liking. Third appetizer we got was the cauliflower which was also crunchy and plating was terrible. Disappointed with both veggie dishes because they were undercooked. If I wanted crunchy veggies, I would have ordered a salad. We weren’t even halfway through the appetizers and the entrees came and the waitress just said sorry the entrees came earlier than expected but they’re here. :/​Food ended up getting cold. For entrees we ordered the special pan seared ono. This was the only good dish. However we asked for white rice and they had none. So we asked for bread, but by the time it came, my husband was already done with his meal! Our second entrée was the portobello mushroom, which like the eggplant was EXTREMELY salty. I generally like my food salty, but this was so overbearing I couldn’t even eat it. The only reason I managed to eat half the eggplant was because we were fasting all day and this was our first meal of the day and I was starving. The waitress failed to come back to ask how the meal was so it could at least be fixed and our dinner saved, but it was over 20 minutes before she checked and by then I lost my appetite and my husband was done with his meal. We also only got one refill on waters when appetizers came and was left to eat salty food with no water for the rest of our meal. There was a waitress that came out in the lanai area, where we were sitting, 3 times with water, but never stopped at our table to check, neither did she even look at me so I could get her attention to get us some water. I left hungry and extremely disappointed. I did speak to the manager before leaving but it was like it was going in one ear and out the other. I just wanted to be more thorough in my feedback and I guess because she already heard my complaints from our waitress, she didn’t want to hear it again. NEVER going back to this place again and will NEVER recommend this place to anyone. Fine dining look and prices but crap food and service. Now I’m at home with an upset stomach from all the salt and still feeling like I didn’t eat a thing. The worst dining experience in my life!
2 days later and both my husband and I still have upset stomachs from the terrible food.

Great food. Waiter was excellent and the food was moderately cheap for what was served. I went with my family of four and we shared the fish and chips, crab cakes, warm bread with olive oil, and for desert a lava cake with ice cream. Definitely a satisfying meal after a game.

Wowzers! This place is amazing. I eat all over the world and thus is as fresh as it gets. Plus, amazing service. They are not going to kiss your ass but they know the menu and they’re genuine. I would suggest going here over anywhere. I had the poké and a sushi roll and it was more than enough. Sit at the bar and chat with Kelly and Jessica. They’re awesome!

Delicious! I got the medium rare scallop that came with the wild rice and green beans. It was soooo good. If you’re more of a quantity kind of person then this may not be for you. It’s served on the a big plate so you may get the idea that you have little food. It was perfect for me. It came with about 6 – 7 large scallops that were salted just right. I even got to try their ribeye, French onion soup, bread, and sushi and man were they all good. I even think their popcorn was good. It’s a little pricier, but I think it’s worth it. Service was great too! The waiters were so friendly and funny.

Mothers day here again, it’s becoming a tradition! Ian, our server was excellent! He gave awesome suggestions and was constantly checking on us as well as the rest of his tables. Impressive service and food was, of course, delicious.

Great atmosphere.
Good service
Great selection of Alcohol
You really have to know what you are
ordering here. Otherwise you will be disappointed.

This is our go to for fine foods in Hilo Town.
Wonderful ‘one of’place for drinks and thoughtfully designed menu for conscious eaters.

My first visit here, AWESOME, my second visit… awful. Lets talk about my first visit, we ordered beef carpaccio and the ahi tuna on chips. Both were out of this world. Really enjoyed both dishes and both had great flavor. I ordered the burger, yes a burger in Hawaii, but it said it was locally sourced so I had to try it. It was a fantastic burger! Some of my co-​workers got some other dishes that were very good. Service was great, we sat at the bar.
My second visit was terrible. Service was horrific and the sushi was terrible.

My best and favorite meal experienced during my stay on Big Island was here at HBC. My husband always comes here when he works and he talks about how the food, service, and the ambience are excellent and I agree with him which is a rarity ha ha!
I absolutely LOVE mushrooms (so much so, my dog is named after one! His name is Enoki and sometime in my life, I want to name one shiitake so I can call him little shiit-​tahkey! But I disgress…) HBC offers a wide variety of dishes featuring the delectable Big Island Hamakua mushrooms including an appetizer of Hamakua poke, Hamakua risotto, a Hamakua nigiri roll and a main entrée of Hamakua curry pot pie. If you’re a mushroom aficionado like me, you’ll immediately fall in love with this place. All the aforementioned were amazingly good! Hamakua mushrooms are similar to crimini mushrooms in my opinion where they have a more tender, texture and sweetness rather than a woodsy meaty flavor like portabella.
Other than the mushrooms, they have an extensive variety of other foods. The sushi menu is very creative and again, there is a lot to choose from considering they aren’t a sushi joint. My recommendations are the spicy lava, featuring a mild hamachi paired well with the spiciness of jalapeño and the pork belly with a sake soy crispy pork belly drizzled in a kimchee cream sauce.
Surprisingly, the dessert menu is actually unremarkable. I was surprised after having such a wonderful meal, that the dessert wasn’t as creative or tasty. The banana chocolate tart lacked sweetness and the three flavors of chocolate, peanut butter ice cream and banana didn’t fuse as well as they usually do when combined in a dessert. The rocky road ice cream wasn’t very «rocky» and didn’t have, that I noticed, any flavors of fudge or marshmallow that I expected. The Kona coffee ice cream also lacked the bold flavor of Kona Coffee.
The place itself overlooks the bay, so you’re provided with a nice back drop for your meal. Service comes with the expected «aloha» feel you always anticipate when in Hawaii. I do like the Kona side of the Big Island better, but I’d drive out to Hilo just for a great meal

This review gets an asterisk next to it, as I didn’t actually order anything off of the menu on this visit to Hilo Bay Café.
Located in the old Nihon building, Hilo Bay Café is a somewhat new restaurant here in Hilo. On this particular visit, I was attending a large luncheon for a family celebration and Hilo Bay Café provided us with a room and a buffet.
First off, I feel like I really need to point out how much better the interior of the building looks since the new people took over. The old restaurant that operated in this space was pretty nice, but the interior of the building was definitely a bit dated. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the new people had brought in a more modern and sheek atmosphere. It was nice.
As far as the food goes, as I mentioned above, we were served with a buffet, so I didn’t actually get to order anything off of the menu. However, the food was still pretty good. There wasn’t really any one thing that stood out to me throughout the meal, but everything was still tasty. I was certainly able to appreciate the different flavors of sorbet that they served us all for dessert. They were surprisingly good.
The service that we received while here was very good. Given that we had such a large amount of people, I have to commend the staff for managing things so well.
And, needless to say, dining here will provide you with one of the very best views of Hilo bay, in my opinion. That alone is worth coming to eat here.

Recently renovated Hilo Bay Café is deceiving from the exterior. Located smack dab on Hilo Bay on the Big Island, the interior space has a hip feel with mood lighting and a cool bar. We sat on the back deck eyeballing a killer view of the breezy bay with grey goose dirty martinis sporting bleu cheese stuffed olives. Extra points for those savory stuffed olives since not many restaurants actually fulfill that request! The salads were delicious as starters. For entrees we had local grass fed grilled rib eye steak and the special grilled fish plate then finished with molten lava cake for dessert.
Service was superb during our visit. I’ll be back!