Tex Drive In

Ok– I did not try the regular food here. I went strictly for the malasadas. We called to find out the hrs & the nice person that answered the phone asked if she could go ahead & take our order over the phone so that she could make our malasadas ready to order. I agree with most of the reviews– the filling is excessive. The plain ones are great. I would suggest getting some of the filling on the side & dipping it. I ended up squeezing the raspberry filling out & using it as dip for my plain one.
It is my understanding that the original Tex Drive In in Honokaa has good food. Personally, I would not even think to order food from the new one in Kona. The people working there don’t even LOOK like they can cook local cuisine– But they made a helluva malasada lol. The Kona location is surrounded by great restaurants on Ali’i Dr. Go to Ali’i Dr for food and then to Tex Drive In for dessert! The malasadas were great & fresh. If you’re in town on vacation, they’re a must-​have.

I don’t know why people dont like this place. The malasadas are good. What else do you want? The workers are nice and the place is clean.

I guess I expected to much from this place. The malasada was alright nothing big like in Maui. To me and the hubby it tasted like pandesal (Filipino bread). So we were not impressed. The filling was whack. The Bavarian crème was the best out of the raspberry and strawberry. The filling raspberry and strawberry was just plain jam. WTF boring. Well at least the good thing they gave us a extra plain malasada. But we didn’t even eat it all.
The food we ordered the chili bowl with rice. It’s alright. I ordered the pork with gravy sauce. WOW one big piece of pork, one scoop of rice (which is weird when HI usually give 2), and salad cause i was tired of mac salads. That pork with gravy over I won’t get again. But who knows i might not even go back. I’ll have to try the other one even tho it’s a little far.
The cool thing about the place is the cashier. She was friendly and nice. Served us and gave us a extra piece of malasada. Thank you!

I haven’t tried the food dishes here but came twice for the malasadas. When I bit into my first malasada ever, I had to pause just to appreciate the fluffiness and warmth of the fresh pastry. It was delish!
I ordered a variety to try: Bavarian crème, raspberry, chocolate, pineapple, guava and mango. My favorite out of the bunch was the Bavarian crème — my bf agreed. I decided though that I liked the pastry better without any filling because there was so much filling it was almost overwhelming. So on my second trip I ordered a plain malasada and it was just as satisfying. :)

Good food, good prices, and friendly service.
Maybe not quite as good as the original in Honokaa, but still worth checking out for some good, straightforward local food. Lots of their choices are pretty good — I’m a fan of the teriyaki beef. But, of course, what bumps them up are the malasadas — today was the original and the guava filled. Yum!
If you’re on the Honokaa side of the island, of course go to that one; but otherwise, this is a good option for your malasada fix!

1.5 Stars
Compared to the *original* Tex Drive In on Pakalana St (Hwy 19) in Honokaa, this place realllllly disappoints! (even though they’re the same owners) It’s located in Kopiko Plaza (not a drive-​in so they may need to think about modifying the name). We were browsing through a magazine and noticed that they had a Tex Drive In over on the Kona side and wanted to check it out since it’s such a long drive to the other side of the island since we were coming from South Point.
We walk in at 5:00pm. It looks like your typical small fast-​food place. There wasn’t a lot of seating. Drinks are sold by the can. They also sell malasadas here. My husband wanted to order the beef taco salad. The lady behind the counter said «Oh, I was afraid you were going to order that. We’re out of taco shells». So he orders a mahi mahi salad instead. I ordered the Kalua pork & cabbage wrap which comes with a side of sweet potato fries. The couple behind us in line ordered the pork as well and guess what… yep, they were out of pork! (Mind you. that it’s 5:00pm).
OK, so when it took a while for the order to come out, my husband went back inside to wait and the lady asks him if he’s ready to order.
My husband is like «UHHHH, we just ordered 15 minutes ago??? I’m waiting for my food».
When the food comes out, they’re in white Styrofoam to-​go containers (even though we were dining in). My husband asks the lady if his dressing and all the sauces are in there and she said «Yes».
HOWEVER, his dressing was missing and there were no sauce! :*SIGH*:
The salad looked pretty bad, basically a small handful of wilted lettuce and flavorless rubbery fish. My wrap was decent HOWEVER, instead of sweet potato fries, they gave me tater tots. They didn’t have any sweet potato fries OR regular fries so they just gave me tater tots. OK, I don’t mind, but at least tell us in advance! (I’d rather get a side salad then if they were out of fries)
A couple days later, we went back to the original Tex Drive In over in Honokaa and spoke to some of employees there to tell them how we didn’t like the new one in Kailua-​Kona.
One of the workers there (who’s been there for 16 years) tells us that we weren’t the first people to say that. Other people have complained that the portions are a lot smaller at the new location. Apparently, the folks over in the Kailua-​Kona location came to train for 2 months over in the Honokaa location… but yea. it can never compare to the original (with the cook being there for 30 years). We also spoke to the General Manager who happened to be there and told us our experience & feedback.
Major FAIL!
(You can tell, I wasn’t happy because I didn’t take any pictures! lol I was too busy trying to console the hubby!)
If you ever go to Tex Drive In… Please PLEASE go to original one for the real thing!!! This place can’t compare.

Only tried the malasadas but I thought they were pretty good. I am not a huge fan of the plain ones so I was happy to see that Tex had multiple fruit fillings. They seem to have lots of other fast food options but did not have a chance to try them