Honu’s on the Beach Restaurant

The view was nice but wished we sat more in the center to see entire beauty. I had to add more salt and pepper to braised short ribs and rice was plain too. My husband’s chicken was such a tiny quarter, not worth $ 30 and few slivers of potato. It was to be my Mother’s Day dinner but I think the brunch was probably better. The sushi was really delicious though, tempura roll.

We tried to go to another more commercial place but they were packed since it was Easter Sunday dinner so thankfully we had to find another spot. This place accepted the 8 of us easily and we sat out on the patio, under the stars and listened to the duo playing soft tunes.
The meal was excellent. I ordered the fresh catch, which was Ono, prepared in a lemon butter caper sauce with crab on top and veggies. Everyone in party loved their food. This was a really good choice we sort of stumbled into.
The service was excellent but don’t bother to check in to get a free app, they say they’ve been trying to take that off Unilocal for years. They won’t honor it.

So our flight got messed up and we are stuck in Kona for another night. No car rentals available but thankfully there were rooms at the hotel!
We decided to just hang out here for dinner and check out Honu’s. There seemed to be mixed reviews but traveling with a toddler makes convenience much more necessary.
WARNING: they do not honor the Unilocal check in coupon for a free app and they do NOT give Kamaaina discount.
The food itself was pretty good. The burger my husband ordered was gigantic! I had the Honu roll which was a mix of ahi, salmon, hamachi, tobiko and asparagus that was tempura-​ed. So Ono!!! I could barely finish it!
My one complaint other than not honoring the Unilocal stuff was the high chair was nasty! It was all sticky! We wiped it down ourselves with our own wipes.
Because of this, I would give them 3.5÷5 stars (if there were half stars that is)

I wanna start off by saying thank you to cisco for the amazing service. Although it was a buffet and he didn’t have to serve us food, he was definitely on top of everything and was very attentive. I rarely had an empty plate in front of me and I could see him running around and working really hard.
Now on to the food. I usually rave about this seafood buffet. I tell people all the time at my job, which is a rental car company, to make this a MUST STOP DINNER PLACE. But this time, I was extremely disappointed. The crab legs were so overcooked I probably took 15 crabs lives yet ate only about 1 crab worth of meat. Such a waste. As a local, we can’t always afford to eat at places like this all that often. We consider it a treat or spoiling ourselves when we finally get a chance to go out to a place like this. I would’ve rather gone to outback to be honest, and it would’ve been much cheaper.
I wanna say that the 4 stars is for CISCO ONLY.
If it were based solely on the food, I would give one star.
If the food was worth the price, I would’ve thrown 5 stars automatic, like I would’ve 2 years ago.

One of the worst buffet dinners I have had. It is in no way worthy of a $ 45 dinner buffet. The selection in food was poor and the service was even worse.
The deserts were tasteless and looked like it was purchased from the local Costco. On more then one occasion we were forced to wait for food to come out.
The waiter would come by and attempt to refill our water and kept spilling water in to our food because he was to lazy to grab the cup.
To add insult to injury, we were forced to pay a 15% gratuity because our party was 6 people regardless of how poor the service was.
Avoid this buffet at all costs, there is better food and service along Alii drive.

Just finished Valentine’s Day dinner with my boyfriend, we had somewhat high expectations because of menu prices. I ordered the baby back ribs with rice and my boyfriend had the special which was steak and lobster with mashed potatoes. We had appetizers before that which was unagi (eel) sushi and calamari. Those were amazing!
But we waited a while for our food, not to mention we were surrounded by dirty tables that needed to be cleaned.
Anyway, our food came and the presentation was beautiful BUT my ribs were the driest ribs I’ve ever had! the sauce was great but I couldn’t finish my ribs. So I tried my boyfriends steak and there was absolutely no flavor. The BIGGEST downside, both of our plates came out cold, my rice was hotter than my meat. My boyfriends mashed potatoes were cold also.
Really disappointing…

We stayed at the hotel so we got to eat here for breakfast, which was extremely overpriced at $ 23 a person for the buffet. Selection was good and they have an omelette bar. None of the food wowed me but it was a nice breakfast. But they want $ 8 for a cup of Kona coffee? IN Kona where you can go next door and get it for $ 3??? Come on! That pissed me off to be honest. I just hate seeing hotels rip tourists off. I just got the regular coffee included with the buffet, which was only 10% Kona but absolutely delicious. Service was good and it was a nice location with a pretty view. So not too bad. My only gripe is they should bring their prices down, this is big island not Maui or Oahu!

We initially went there for Sushi Night. Although I did get the Hawaiian burger with sweet potato fries. The others had sushi and other entrees. Nice open atmosphere, next to the beach.
BAD point: I checked in with Unilocal and I received a coupon for a free appetizer, which they did not honor. A cheap move, especially since we spent quite a lot and were one of the few customers there.
Verdict: while the burger and the sushi were delicious, they were really expensive. I recommend the burger, not the sushi. Pretty typical hotel restaurant in this perspective.

Mom went for the full breakfast buffet and I had the acai bowl. For $ 12, I guess I was sort of expecting better, but it was pretty average. I’d rather go to Basik or even to the Edible Art café in the same hotel for a bowl of Acai for $ 10 and probably have the same quality if not better.
Mom commented that the breakfast was quite average. She was only there for the eggs really. She missed having hot food and they did provide that minimal requirement in order for her to be satisfied. It was hard for us to not compared this hotel buffet to that of the hyatt in honolulu. It’s around the same price, but the service and quality and variety of food there was SO much better.
Found the service to be lacking. The coffee that was served was only luke warm. They’re very very casual there. I feel for what they’re charging, there really should be better service or more attentive at least. They cleared my mom’s plate without her finishing her food yet and we had to always wave them down whenever we needed something or had a question for them.

We were staying in the hotel and came here twice for breakfast. Nice view and loved the open air quality of the front of the restaurant… but that’s the best thing going for it.
We were advised by fellow travellers to skip the buffet (too pricey for the food quality), so we tried a few different things on the menu and all were disappointing for the price! There are far better breakfast options nearby.
We were surprised to find a gluten-​free pancake on the menu — which was exciting for our gluten-​sensitive kids and rare to find in Kona — but it wasn’t great. It’s a bad sign when one of my kids doesn’t finish a sweet breakfast! One egg and bacon meal was served lukewarm. And our server wasn’t too interested in his job. The topper: awful coffee! Not sure if it was the water or just the fact that we were in Kona and expected much better than that? Either way, several of us determined it was the worst coffee we had tasted. I stuck to espresso the next time we were there.
TIP: The café in the hotel shopping complex by the ABC store has great coffee. We ended up going there every day for our Kona coffee fix.

The only reason why I decided to check this place out was its proximity to the hotel. The place has a lot of potential but for some reason it’s not being fully utilized. The breakfast buffet is $ 22.95+tax. Very limited and basic offerings. The only reason why some people come to dine here because they have breakfast vouchers from tour groups.
Servers are attentive and friendly and that’s the only redeeming quality of this restaurant.

Don’t waste your money on the seafood buffet on Friday nights. Really bad! Seafood with absolutely no flavor. Crab legs didn’t taste fresh and the Poke had no seasonings on it at all It was just awful compared to all the other poke we’ve had on this island. lt annoys me to pay $ 45 for a meal and not be able to eat much of anything here

This place was good enough for late buffet dinner, after all day at the beach if you are at the hotel and you dont want to drive around, its expensive, but not that much. The food was really good, sea food for the most part, very delish.
I give 4 stars because there was a roach on my table, now this is Hawaii, roaches are all over, is hard not to see them in an open air restaurant lol but I ate at other places before with full on open windows at night and no roaches to be seen.
The staff was so nice and all smiles and friendly, totally made me feel welcomed and comfortable to eat whatever was available lol Hawaiian style just eat and eat haha
There was a weeding over at the other side so the live music sound was making its way to our table, lol it was a great feeling to eat by the ocean, with music, night lights after a swim. Vacation feeling 100%
Btw– Desserts here are delicious too!

Buffet was convenient as we were staying at the courtyard however prime rib was warm, not much variety in food selection and all the deserts were out for awhile and absorbed the Hawaiian humidity… 2 stars for the crab legs… Def would not recommend return

Food was good. View was nice. Very nice and quiet atmosphere.
Do not worry about using the free appetizer promo that is on here. The server said he had no idea what it was and didn’t have any intention of looking knot it.

Mediocre food, awful service, sky high prices.
I’m not picky but this place must not pay their employees because clearly the «aloha» doesn’t exist here, you can see the unhappiness on everyone’s faces. We asked for lemons for our water and they were all but thrown down in front of us. Must have asked the waitress and busser 10 times for more coffee.
Food is blah. Ordered the burger one night $ 15… came with gruyère, bun, guacamole, fixings and fries. Decent. Not great.
The next night I wanted a healthier version. … asked for just the burger patty, sweet potato fries and side of asparagus. … suddenly the price jumped to over $ 20. No thanks. Will never return here.

Very disappointing buffet, however, at $ 45, at least it was reasonably priced (for the island).Of the hot dishes, most were deep fried such as the tempura, wontons, fried chicken wings and some other KFC-​like chicken. The tempura batter was thick and rubbery. The cold seafood and crab legs, I have to say were very fresh. The cold seafood consisted of tuna, tuna poke, shrimp and mussels, no oysters. The prime rib was ok… a little chewy in parts.
There was quite a variety of desserts to choose from and the cheesecake was the best. I don’t think you can go wrong with cheesecake on the island. Every where we had cheesecake on the island, it was fantastic.
The service and view were great though and made up somewhat, for the sub-​par food.

CHRISTMAS DINNER ON THE BEACH… Only in HI
We ate Christmas dinner here– they offer a Special seafood and prime rib buffet for $ 49. There was lots of fresh seafood– sashimi, poke, take, oysters, snow crab And a tempura station where they were doing fresh tempura. It was pricey but what made it special was that we got to sit in the open air restaurant area (they were going to put us in the «paddlers room» where there were no windows. We lucked out because it is right on the beach and it was a beautiful afternoon. A really special dinner! After dinner my family went waking in the beach and in the pier and watched the sun set. A definite due over next year, just gotta make sure we reserve early to get the food table again.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at the buffet yesterday at Honu’s on the Beach Restaurant and I was NOT impressed.
The only reason I did not give just 1 star was because the wait staff was very friendly/​helpful and the buffet was organized well, but the food… ugh.
I sampled just about everything on the buffet and only 4 items (out of about 30+) were good and the others ranged from boring/​bad to horrible.
Good (but not great): prime rib with horseradish sauce; ham with pineapple sauce, cioppino and spicy tuna sushi roll.
Horrible: inedible tempura (doughy and undercooked); fried calamari (tough and greasy) crab legs (poor quality, frozen and tasteless) and turkey and stuffing (bland/​tasteless). The other dishes were not horrible, but were not good.
Hotel buffets are notorious for serving bad food, especially if the restaurant isn’t that good to begin with, this place is no exception. We had an extra plate at our table to remove the disgusting food off our plates and it was piled high.
I will never eat at Honu’s again, it was not worth the $ 45 a person rate, but at least it was a pleasant experience because of the friendly staff and pretty setting.

50% off second entrée with Unilocal check-​in!
Located in the King Kamehameha hotel, this restaurant has a very cool ambiance, featuring tables on the patio with a beautiful view overlooking the ocean. The outside area is cutely decorated with lights on the palm trees and candles on the tables. As the restaurant never seems to be busy, it’s a quiet and relaxing dinner spot, which is just what the doctor ordered on the day we visited.
If you stay in the hotel’s rooms, it comes with a coupon for a free Chef’s choice appetizer. On our visit here, the Chef choice appetizer happened to be kalua pork tacos. With our party of 5, we each got to try one!
The flavors to the food were very good and the dishes came out with the classy presentation that is familiar to most fine® dining restaurants. However, nearly all of the entrees were priced in the mid $ 20s to low $ 30s, and for the price, the food wasn’t quite as top notch as I would expect.
I ordered the mac nut crusted mahi-​mahi with Thai sticky rice, curry sauce, and wilted pea shoot salad ($ 28 —
). The flavors were wonderful, the ingredients were quality, and the two huge pieces of fish were moist and cooked perfectly. But it was the little things that got to me. The sticky rice was WAY too sticky; I felt like I had to cut chunks off the scoop with a knife. The mac nuts were not chopped finely enough (for my palette), which gave the fish a (too) chunky crunch as I bit into it.
However, I think this is to be expected for hotel restaurants in general. And for a hotel restaurant, I was very pleased.
My dinner friends had only good things to say about with the Wild Hawaiian Ahi (seared ahi with deep fried California sushi roll — $ 26) and surprisingly, the burger ($ 15), so if I ever come here again, I’ll have to try one of these.
A convenient and yummy dinner option for those staying in the King Kamehameha hotel!