Nori’s Saimin & Snacks

We come every time we come to the Island! It is our annual food stop and the best deal for the incredible food you get!
My family loves coming here it is a favorite. The won tons are great and the saimin is so tasty.

Am here for work and walked over to this place to grab some lunch. It was OK. They were out of the panko ahi dish so I opted for the «Hot Pot». It wasn’t very good at all but the korean beef that came with it was excellent. Service sucked and was very very slow. This is just a very basic place to get some mix of Hawaiian and asian foods.

The saimin was alright. . A bit on the salty side… but what was worst was the service. They need to hire more waitresses. Not once did any of them check up on us to see if everything was ok or if we needed something. The broth was salty so we drank our waters fast. with no waitresses refilling ours nor anyone’s cup. Common Noris… gotta step it up!

Just got into Hilo on a late flight and in a hongray state of mind. Jumped into my Brother in law’s truck and away we went Nori’s!
Small restaurant filled with wooden booths, typical Hilo town eatery, very comfortable atmosphere. Specials posted on the walls of this place.
There was a lot of items on their menu which jumped out at me. I decided on the Oxtail Soup ($ 12.95) which was one of the specials, my significant half ordered the Nori’s Chazuke ($ 10.95). The Chazuke is well worth the price and the fish which I sampled was excellent. Unfortunately for me the Oxtail Soup was inedible, the meat was tough and not even close to fall off the bone.
The service was semi attentive and just seem to be lacking missing sincerity, you know that I’m so happy that you chose us to eat here kind of feeling.
Overall I would like to come back and try the saimin which features Maebo noodles, but an inedible dish and walking on sticky floors equal barely equals 3 Stars for now. No Bueno…

Food was over priced, made a telephone order and one hour later I was still waiting for my food. To add insult to injury I went home and didn’t have the item that I initially went there for… fried saimin!

My BF and I love ramen and supposedly Saimin is the Hawaiian ramen? We decided to try it at Noris because of the reviews. This might be the worst dish we had in Hawaii. It was SUPER salty, even after adding a cup of water. It made my stomach hurt 15 min later bc of how salty it was.
We only ordered one large Saimin to share because we wanted to try multiple restaurants in a day to maximize our time in Hawaii… The staff informed us of a $ 2.50 fee to share… This would have been fine if they split the bowls for us like some restaurants would. They brought one bowl over and didn’t even give us extra bowls to share until we asked. We also only got chopsticks and forks… No spoon until we asked.
I don’t know if we just don’t like Saimin or maybe this is a bad batch but I don’t recommend this place…
Tip: don’t get anything from the gumball machines… They look really old. And watch out for $ 2.50 sharing fee

They have some really good local food for a reasonable price. It is a really laid back local place that puts you in the feel for old school Hawaii. I would recommend the Nori burger!

My friend and I have been wanting to try saimin for a while, so we were pretty happy to find this place. We ordered the small special saimin (they were out of the Hilo saimin), and it was pretty good. The soup reminds of some Asian food/​spice/​flavor, but I can’t figure out what it is. The noodles were really chewy, the fish cakes are clearly store-​bought, the pork in the saimin wasn’t very flavorful nor of good quality, the cabbage could have been cooked more, and the chicken stick was well-​flavored outside but a bit dry and a bit flavorless inside. It was a pretty average meal for $ 8.60 post-​tax (it was $ 8.25 pre-​tax), and the quantity was definitely good. Not sure whether all saimin tastes this way, so I want to try another place.

Since I live on Oahu, this is such a treat when I get to eat here. I go to Hilo about 4 to 5 times a year and you will almost always see me here when i’m in town.
Nori’s has very cozy food. I usually get the saimin and teri stick combo. Their saimin is soooo good! You can tell that it’s great quality. The teri stick has great flavor and it’s perfect with the saimin.
Great on those rainy nights in Hilo (So almost every night). Lol

Great ‘Hole in the Wall”
Had the Saimin/​Burger Combo with a side Teri Stick. It was just what I had expected. Ono! Went with a co-​worker who had nothing but good things to say. Even had the Chocolate Michigan Cupcake… wow that was different in a great way!
A must eat, if in Hilo!

I was too tired to cook so I ended up calling Nori’s for a take out order. Before I hung up. I asked the girl if they honor Unilocal Elites and she kindly said, «Ohhh no». Hahaha figured I try. It’s all good!
I ordered the «Big Plate» which is food for 2 people and costs $ 23.95 with a .50 cent charge for take out. But, with my appetite it’s enough for me LOL! It consists of 2 musubis, fried noodles, kalbi short ribs, battered fish, yakitori chicken sticks and teri beef. The flavor profile for the teri beef and kalbi short ribs were on point, bold and marinated perfectly. The fried noodles were good as well as the battered fish. The yakitori chicken sticks were dry for my standards, but still edible.
Nori’s is a hole-​in-​the-​wall joint that serves up Japanese and local food with having some of the best saimin in Hilo. They are open Tuesday through Sunday from 10:30 am to 9:30, but only on Fridays and Saturdays they close at 11 pm. Mondays Nori’s is closed. Service is good and the servers welcome you with a greeting and a smile!

This is my go-​to place when I just wanna have a casual meal. Their bim bim bop hot pot is awesome and so is their sizzling hamburger steak. Also tried their caramel honey toast today and it was delicious. Sometimes you just need to eat at these small homey places.

Been going back and forth to the Big Island, specifically Hilo and Volcano, throughout my life and NEVER heard of Nori’s Saimin & Snacks until yesterday. A co-​worker raved about the chocolate mochi cookies but lamented the fact that ordering over the phone was sketchy at best…
Not to be daunted, I called and spoke with the owner, Beth, and she was very helpful in putting my order together, following up with me several times as we played phone tag, and went so far as to arrange for her husband to bring the cookies to Honolulu because we live in the same neighborhood and thus I won’t incur shipping charges! Woo hoo! Now THAT’S customer service — going above and beyond tbe normal to satisfy the customer, ME!
Can’t wait to try these raved about cookies! And if they’re as wonderful as my co-​worker says, I’ll be a loyal customer on my annual trips to Hilo and Volcano! Winner! Stay tuned…

I’m kind of obsessed with this place. I was in starvation mode before a movie and only had 30 minutes. I found this place on Unilocal and rushed over here. Plenty of parking in the private lot. This place is straight out of the 80’s ambience wise. It’s set up looking a bit like a grocery store, but don’t be fooled. Lots of booths and old table, harsh fluorescent lighting, but it doesn’t matter.
Food here is legit. Menu is extensive. I got the Unagi, which is eel, over rice. It had a sunny side up egg on top. Delicious. It also came with sides of cold Japanese noodles and macaroni salad. Really great deal. My friend got the kimchi fried rice, which was also delicious. We ended the meal with a mochi cupcake, which is very interesting. We thought there would be a mochi inside the cupcake, but it’s really mochi texture integrated INTO the cupcake.
Great service, although it can get busy at certain times.

I’m on the fence with this place. it’s tucked in an office building so you really have to look for it. My husband got the beef sukiyaki and to him it was just beef, veggies and tofu in chicken broth. My husbands experience with beef sukiyaki is beef in a dark, rich beefy soup and it was none of that here. I got the large wonton saimin which I though it was OK. The wrapper on the wonton was really thick and there was a lot of noodles, I mean a lot of noodles where I felt like I was just eating starch. We shared a Kim Chee Fried rice, however it had peas and carrots. My kids each got teri chicken skewer and they liked it. Unfortunately this place will be removed from our HI itinerary.