Boston Basil’s

If I could give a negative star I would. Terrible service, got told to get the f*** out also had a beer thrown in one of the people in our parties face. Our server was more interested in going back upstairs to watch the pre season broncos game. Terrible terrible place.

boston basil’s has closed.
it was one of favorites in kona, but it is no longer.

Hubs demanded we give this place five stars (I would have just gone with four).
The one thing that makes this place outstanding is the live music that was going on when we grabbed a bite to eat midday. We planned to just stay for 20 minutes to eat our slice of pizza and drink our beers, but ended up staying for close to an hour because the people who were performing at the front of the place where phenomenal. To the point where hubs (who is a music fiend) regretted not getting their band name and autographs.
The cheese pizza was decent as was the beer selection, but the wait staff was inordinately friendly to us, attentative and talkative. They brought beers for the street performers as well.

Right on the main road so great view and perfect for people watching. Friendly service, casual dining, hand-​tossed pizza. The BBQ chicken pizza was relish and there was lots of pepperoni in my husbands half. Yum.

To the points:
1. Server was not listen to what we ask, she spokes and eating food in the same time, and she admit it that she was still chewing it.
2. Foods are below standard: tough calamari (it looks over cook) and lasagna had unmelted cheese inside, the sauce taste bitter.
3. We still have to pay the horrible food that we cannot even eat.
Conclusion: a completely regretful experience and we definitely never comeback.

This is a cool little pizzaria with a mini upstairs bar lounge area. When we were there, we got to get a taste of Belladonna rockin’ out upstairs. We just had a few drinks here, but the atmosphere and the band (bad ass guitarist) was really cool.

Good beet salad but caprese could have used better tomatoes. I wasn’t a fan of their pizza crust for the pizza. There are better places to spend your dining dollars nearby.

Everything on the menu is awesome. Also, they have live entertainment on the weekends and other nights. A favorite local hang out for me :)

Came here after finding «You make the roll» closed at 6pm (when they advertise that they close at 7, damn you hawaii time).
Ordered 2 large pizzas, 1 Margherita and 1 BBQ Chicken. I also ordered the Pele’s Lava Flow. The 2 pizzas were good enough for me and my family (5 of us total) and we had a couple of slices left over. The dough of the pizza was a bit different, and my brother really seemed to like their crust. It is a bit more dense compared to something like Pizza Hut or something, it was more… how to describe it. pastry like? Whatever the case, I had 2 slices with my drink and I was good.
There was only one server, and after we sat down, a lot of other people came, and he was still attentive to us, which was nice.

The other restaurant I dined in on my weekend trip to Kailua Kona this past weekend. One of my friends who happens to live in Kailua-​Kona recommended this place, since she told me that it had variety and good italian fare. Located in Kailua Kona town, across the pier, where the IronMan world championships are held, Boston Basil’s is one of the more decent places I have been to, especially when it’s in a tourist meca like Kona. I was in a party of 20 people, whom were carbing up for the 2012 Kona Marathon the next morning and we needed to get our carb on, however we wanted it to be.
Boston Basil’s is basically a 2 story full service italian restaurant that caters to anyone who love italian food. My group loved the atmosphere and the server was somewhat confused and overwhelmed, since probably he didn’t expect that large of a group come in on a Saturday night. I myself eventually decided on getting a 14″ Boston green monster pizza, which was pretty decent. The presentation was apetitzing, but as the taste goes, it could have used more alfredo sauce on it. I felt that this pizza tasted flat, but at least it went down smooth, and I didn’t really feel full at all — and I ate the entire pizza by myself. Along with a Kona long board beer.
The beer was room temperature, so it tasted flat — but at least it was $ 3. The whole pizza was $ 22, which wasn’t worth the price. Maybe $ 16 – 18, but then again, it was Kona and it was just a real opportunity to gauge the tourist to keep the business afloat in these economic times. The atmosphere was good enough and I had a good time with friends. If you like italian at a reasonable price, you should go here and experience it for yourself. Overall, it’s a nice quick spot to get your pizza or italian on, wherever your travels take you on the Big Island.
Support local!
B

After being discouraged by a 1 hour wait to get into Kona Brewery, we decided to walk the strip and find a dinner spot.
We came upon Boston Basil’s and decided to try it based on one of our group really wanting Fettucine Alfredo.
We ordered a bunch of appetizers, calamari and bruschetta, and enjoyed them. What stood out for me was that they got my order right. I’m lactose intolerant and am very specific with my order (no dairy — which means no butter) but you’d be surprised how many places get this wrong. If you can’t make it they way I’ve requested then I won’t order it and I can figure something else out. Its very simple. I ordered their spaghetti and meatballs dairy-​free and I got what I asked for. And it was delicious. The meatballs were homemade and I could tell.
The owner and waiter were very friendly and personable. I have to admit this place was an unexpected hit and we are so happy that we stopped here.

Our family just returned from a vacation to Kona. We stopped in to Boston Basil’s on a whim as we went into town looking for something to eat and saw this cute little open front restaurant. We went in and sat down and waited, and waited, and waited for the server to greet us. She came over and was snippy, unfriendly, and seemed irritated that we were there. We should have got up and left but now could smell pizza and were hungry for it.
The service sucked the entire time with no refills on pop, having to go up to the counter to get our bill because we had been done eating for 15 minutes with no sign of the waitress.
The pizza was pretty good. It wasnt anything outrageously special or anything particularly memorable but it was good. Nice thin crust with tasty sauce and reasonable amount of toppings.
It is just hard for me to be excited about food when all you can remember is the crappy service.
The woman singing live upstairs (part of the same restaurant — the bar is upstairs) distracted from our experience as well. She was singing and playing a guitar with an amplifier which was very distorted (maybe the speakers were blown) and it was almost painful to listen to. It was very loud even in the down stairs area since there is just an open stair well separating the two floors. They also had pre-​recorded music, or a radio, playing downstairs so those on the bottom floor had to listen to both at the same time which was odd and gave me sensory overload.
All told, we would not go back to this restaurant for the sole reason of bad service. The food was ok though. The location is good too — right of Alli drive — the main drag in Kaulia-​Kona.
Prices were ok — not outrageous for Hawaii but certainly not a value either.
We visited in April of 2012.

aiight, the waiter was a little miffed that I didn’t tip him. WAIT! Before you write me off as a cheap-​skate, I didn’t tip him because I only ordered take-​out. I figured… why tip when the waiter didn’t actually serve me? Does taking my cash and handing food to my hand in a bag count as serving?
So his negative attitude to me made Boston Basil’s star-​rate-​age go down.
However, the food was delicious! I ordered the lasagne and Boyfriend ordered a pizza. YUM! WOOOO! If tipping meant money to the chefs, then yeah, thee deserve and i should’ve tipped well!
GO!

The stars are for the live music. It’s one of the better places in town to hear some quality live talent on a pretty regular basis.
The food? Eh, it’s hit and miss. I think they are trying to change things, and did get rid of one extremely rude server who seems to be a factor in many of the negative reviews here.

Ok this time we gone to this place it was fairly empty. The waitress was really nice. We ordered our food and waited… we waited for awhile and she came back saying the food we ordered had been 86’ed so she gave us a menu to look at and order again. So we did thinking it would been a rush, but I was mistaken it was another long, long wait for food. it finally came and I was getting full off the beer I was drinking I didn’t get to finish my meal. I like to leave a happy plate. She was sorry for the mix up and comp-​ed us a pitcher of beer and 10% off of the meal… that was really nice of her, but it was awkward that I ordered 3 beers, onion rings a sandwich and I ended up paying 30 something dollars… idk about that.
THEY ADD ON 18% TIP TO ALL BILLS DON’T BE A DRUNK ASS AND GIVE MORE THAN THE BILL. YOU WILL END UP GIVING THEM CLOSE TO 40% TIP.

I went to this place since we had a family friend performing at the bar on the second floor. The music was great! Had so much fun.
The food was not bad, I had the pizza with half Greek and half Boston.
The garlic bread was good, but it can be better.
However the worst part was service, the waitress did not come for about 10 minutes after we sat down. Instead they were chatting and watching the band play. After ordering drinks, it took them another 10 minutes to bring it out. When we tried to order, we were refused since that waitress was not allowed to take orders. So she said she’ll get another waitress for ordering, which never came, so the same waitress ended up taking orders after waiting 15 min.
Now keep in mind that already 35 minutes after we entered. If our friend wasn’t playing that night I would of left. But since this was also Kona, I decided to keep my mouth shut and enjoy the music and vibe.
The other bad part was that our friend ordered salad, and his salad came before our appetizers or before any of our foods came out.
I mean seriously, we are in a group of 5, why the heck would you bring his maid dish before any appetizers or any of the others food?
He felt bad eating so we waiting another 20 minutes for our food to come, and by then his salad was soaked in dressing and lost its crisp.
Oh yea and the appetizers came after our main dish arrived.
I do not know what the chef was thinking.
Nothing made sense like the time I read Steven Hawkins book.
Any way great venue, great music, decent food, and terrible service.
Its wasting its potential. This place can be so much better if the service can be improved.

I’m on the island for two weeks and took the family there for dinner. The pizza was good, I’m a fan of the spicier sauce. The ham on the pizza was a little lacking; it looked like thinly sliced deli ham for a sandwich. The garlic bread and marinara were good, but dear lord there was a ton of butter and cheese on the bread.
The service was good, but was a little disappointed to find a mandatory gratuity on a party of 5, especially since 2 of the 5 were 6 or under. It was also a little on the pricey side I thought; but I somewhat expected that being in downtown Kona.

We had heard their goofy ads on the radio and when we were in the area for an early dinner, we decided to try it out. The dining room was empty and we didn’t go upstairs. The pizza we ordered was just OK — about average but did the job of filling us up. The salad we ordered was also marginally satisfying. I wouldn’t strongly recommend for or against this restaurant but it was fine. The view was outstanding, however.

I first ate here about 2 years ago after going on the manta ray night dive with my brother.
The food seemed better back then. This time, I went with the family and my brother and while the pepperoni and pineapple pizza was pretty good, everything else just seemed adequate including the understaffed service and the prices (considering the quality of the food).
I’d say it’s not worth it even though I did enjoy the chocolate cake at the end of the meal (but then again, is chocolate cake with whipped cream ever bad?).
I probably wouldn’t recommend this place to a friend unless they were craving Italian and there were absolutely no other options in Kona proper (at least I think this is Kona proper).

Worst Pizza and service ever.
We were planning a fun evening on the beach with a hot yummy pizza when we decided to take a chance on a local pizza place. The order taker was rude, didn’t bother to ask our names to confirm who would be picking it up, The pizza was cold (we picked it up 10 minutes after ordering) and tasted like cardboard, the tomato sauce was bland, there was barely any cheese and was missing the additional green olive topping we asked for. The cost for a large with a salad was $ 46+. We ate two pieces and tossed the rest, what a waste!
Save your money and order from somewhere else