Umeke’s Fishmarket Bar & Grill

This place was busy, and almost everyone we interacted with was not in the mood to crack a smile. My bf and I chose to sit down at the bar, which is usually pretty fun. Their bar counter is pretty wide and spacious. The lady working at the bar was friendly. (Thank goodness!!)
However, I’m quite underwhelmed by their poke bowl. I got hottie, white rice and Lomi Lomi Salmon. I liked 2 scoops of white rice with furikake. Hottie is basically Sriracha and mayo and some Masago. It was slightly spicy, but too mayonaisy. Their salmon Lomi Lomi was WAY too salty. I was grateful for all the rice I got! My bf got a Nom Nom Burrgah or however they’d like to spell it, His burger was good, but we don’t believe everything it was supposed to have according to the menu was not included. It was good just not great.
I like the HUGE goblet beer glass. Good food but not great food, I’d say.

From the Unilocal reviews, I expected to taste something really wow!, but it turned out to be just good, basic food at a reasonable price. My friends and I love fresh fish and we certainly weren’t disappointed there. The ono was so nice, but it could have used a few more drizzles of garlic sauce.
We all chose different sides. The mac salad was standard. My crab and broccoli salad had a nice flavor, but only a peekaboo of crab here and there. My adventurous friend chose the seaweed salad. It actually was pretty good, with a dry and somewhat crunchy texture and bright green stringy appearance.
We agreed we would return for the fresh fish, but what would really draw us back were the dessert poppers. These were small, round frozen treats — however, so small you had to have two to make a decent dessert. The purple haupia/​sweet potato was tasty, but the lilikoi was delicious! Even though we went to the restaurant in the early evening, we snagged the last lilikoi popper, so had to be satisfied with our two small spoonfuls each.

First time coming to this location. There’s lots of room in the restaurant, so it’s great for family gatherings or a place to get together with your close friends.
The food is fresh, especially the fish! We literally watched them wheel in a fresh ahi straight into the kitchen.
Highly recommend the spicy ahi bowl. The fish tacos are also delicious, however, the avocados may have been too fresh. They weren’t ripe enough and made it hard to eat.
The wait staff was friendly and attentive. The restaurant was clean and the wait time wasn’t long at all.

Umeke’s is easily one of the best local Hawaiian restaurants I love to go to. The restaurant looks amazing from the inside and the food is spectacular. I recommend having their poke bowls of you feel like having some fish. If you don’t want fish, I recommend having the teriyaki. Keep up with the great work Umeke’s

The only bad thing I have to say about this place is that service can get pretty slow (and I mean really slow), especially during peak hours. The food here, though, is great! I’m a sucker for poke, so that’s what I got both times that I was here. Each poke bowl comes with one choice of poke, 2 scoops of rice, and a side dish. I tried the Avo and the Sweetie, and both were delicious and very fresh. The Avo is more creamy in texture, whereas the Sweetie is soy-​sauced based, so it’s slimier/​runnier. The sauce that they put in both is just the right amount, so that you get a decent kick of flavor without losing the taste of the fish. And they give you a very generous scoop as well. I got the mac salad as my side dish and it was delicious! Not too heavy but it still had a lot of creamy/​rich flavor.
Like I said, service can get pretty slow here. But I think the wait is worth it. Will definitely be back!

If I could give this restaurant 1000 stars I would. It hasn’t ever disappointed! The service has always been amazing. The staff has always been so kind and filled with Aloha! The foot always warm and served with such a beautiful finish. I genuinely love the sides you can pick from! #TeamSpicyCrab here! ‚-) basically this location has the parking, but they also have the seating! The bar is really high so prepare for a slight jump! Also, instead of pickle juice backs for your Jameson they will have pickled mango juice! Honestly, the daily specials are worth just going once a day for a meal! So glad we have found a home routine and restaurant in such an awesome brand, company and food flavors here! Thanks for the welcome every time

After driving for 20 min we arrived a little after 8:00 pm and were told they were no longer seating for dinner. The hours posted on the door and Unilocal says they close at 9:00? Disappointed– would be nice if you would posted your correct closing time.

*This review is based on poke bowls only.
Tried this place with three friends. Our friend who lives here took us because we were craving poke bowls. 3 of us don’t live in Kona so it was our first time. Though I’ve eaten at Umeke’s other takeout location. We didn’t dine in at this restaurant location, but ordered takeout at the fish window and cashier in the back of the bar and grill.
The workers are friendly and super nice about samples. Got that? Sample so you know what you’re getting yourself into and don’t be shame if you don’t like it. I wish I wasn’t being meek and frugal on their behalf and sampled!
3 of us including myself got the avo poke and my friend got the ahi with ginger. My friend and I got brown rice with our avo bowls, furikake allllllllll over of course yes please! Everyone besides myself went with lomi salmon as their side choice which maybe I should’ve gotten too, waahhh, but I went with kimchee cucumber. I couldn’t choose between that or seaweed salad.
The poke came in a scoop. Like a single scoop of rice. Then two scoops for real of rice and the last spot of the «poke plate» gets filled with your side choice-​also relatively single scoop looking.
It was too small for me. Boohoo. It also didn’t hold up well the best against the heat and over a period of a drive. Flavor wise I wasn’t as impressed as I was at the other location. However long ago that was. I swear I thoroughly enjoyed «Da Hottie» at said spot. This is a different hottie perhaps. The avo poke has similar flavor so I can imagine. Kimchee cucumber was alright and the rice and furikake was great. The fish itself tasted much different than I expected but on its own experience, it was fine. I love avocado and it wasn’t the shitty kind so that was good with the brown rice.
Another avo and the ginger eater said it was also too small of a poke portion and just alright in flavor. Ginger went on and on about marination and the use of it.
What was really weird was that I ordered last so I was rung up last at the register. That’s not what’s weird. Three plates before me rang up exactly the same as $ 14.06 (yeah that much). $ 14.06. $ 14.06 $ 14.06. Meanwhile I’m in the back all prepared with my $ 14.06. And then finally my turn. Lucky number 4. She rings me up it seems based on my particular order, but I’m not sure. Ring! $ 14.63. Naturally without thought I blurt, «Wait, really? Why… that’s weird.» The girl was poking at the register and replied, «Yeah, I know. I’m trying to see why.» She did it again. Same. Then again and still 14.63. «Maybe the cucumber,» she said. «But why? Do you charge by item or weight?» I ask. She mumbled something that I couldn’t catch. I go on, «Wouldn’t lomi be more because of the salmon? I just have cucumbers. And are cucumbers really more expensive AND heavier than tomatoes and salmon? Hmm could be…» I was in a good mood. She mumbled again and seemed to have punched the order into the register. Same smell. She resulted to «Yeah, I don’t know» because register always wins. I didn’t have time or energy to fuss over 57 cents if you know what I mean. But it made me think, what if I were homeless or broke or both then that 57 cents actually does mean a lot more than «I don’t know» if you know what I mean?
In conclusion, I really should have done the lomi like the lot for the lower deal and because of the already ridiculously high price. But nope… I was the loser for 57 cents more value in cucumbers. Well, it was good with my beer.

Umeke’s is a place which you must visit. There is a connection between Da Poke and Umeke’s, so you can see similar concept.
Umeke’s opened this restaurant to see if poke (bowl) style of cuisine will be accepted outside of shacks… And seems like it is! This restaurant was constantly busy and it’s always hard to get a table.
Food — poke was good and they now serve beer too. But there was something what wasn’t right-​I think it was the interior. Since Umeke’s is Hawaiian (fisherman) place, I would add more Hawaiian soul.
I definitely recommend you to give a try and let us know your experience.
And don’t forget! Life is sweet!

This was my first time at the restaurant version of Umekes and it wasn’t a disappointment. It was clean and felt like an established restaurant. I ordered the Big Boy Bowl which lets you choose two types of poke and two sides. Everything was really great and flavorful. My sister and I split it which turned out to be perfect. It was $ 20. The only problem was that they served stale fries and even though they brought out fresh ones, it was half the amount. I would definitleygro again though for the poke.

Amazing poke! Lots of great choices and sizes. We tried the sweetie poke, shrimp bowl, Friday special of katsu, tamago, and spam over rice. The poke bowls also come with a choice of sides like Mac salad, kim chee cucumbers, seaweed salad, crab broccoli, edamame, spicy crab, Lomi Lomi salmon, and ho’io salad (fern) Which is amazing! Variety of other local foods, very popular with the locals so you know it’s great! Banana lumpia! Yum! Also don’t forget to try the ahi belly pupus! Truly amazing!

Poke, sashimi, and some beers make for a perfect afternoon at Umeke’s!
Try the Makai Platter. For $ 50 you get to try a lot of different things plus pick out 3 of their Poke.
Also, try the «Ocean» Salad aka Seaweed salad, so good with all the fish. Beers are super reasonable during happy hour at $ 3.

Started with Poke Balls, panko and fried poke. Delicious.
Mauka 2 Makai bowl with Avo and Hottie. Described as «divine». Fiddlehead fern salad. My wife stated best poke in Hawaii and followed up with best restaurant in Hawaii.
I had garlic Kauai shrimp with edamame
For dessert we had banana lumpia. Banana wrapped in spring roll paper, deep fried and dressed with bananas fosters sauce and Mac nut ice cream. Wow. Perfect.

Great place, mostly locals, with some tourists mixed in.
You can see fishermen roll in carts of fresh fish roll into kitchen throughout the day. It really truly is FRESH, not the fake «fresh» term we use loosely in San Diego.
$ 5 Cocktail of the day… always in a tall glass, and always delicious.
$ 20 Two Kinds of Poke Plate… BIG delicious scoops of poke, and lots of variety.
$ 17 Two Meat combos… lots of choices! I recommend whatever grilled fish of the day is. Mahi was excellent!
We ate here twice because of the friendly service, chill local vibe, and great food. The first time the waitress even gave us a free side of Ocean Salad (seaweed) just because she really wanted us to try it. I’ll be back!

I had this combo platter for two — see pic. It was plenty for two. I liked the fact that you can choose the type of poke you want to add to the platter. I had wasabi and soy sauce. Both were fresh and delicious. Wasabi version was not too spicy. I also liked the grilled prawn and deep fried prawn — they were so big. Having had so much poke over the week, my favorite was the deep fried pork katau– crispy, tender and not too greasy.
We were sitting outside and the open flame was making black smoke which would sometime blow to our direction (dont sit outside — you only get highway view anyway.). I thought our waitress was a bit rude when we were taking sometime to decide.

This place is absolutely fantastic. We stayed in a hotel near the other location but this place is just roomier and less fast food.
I would give this a 5 for sure but we went twice and the 2^nd time it wasn’t as good (service and we made poor choices). Still good, but I was seeking the high of our previous visit, and the girl seating us was clueless and a poor communicator (previous trip great friendly folks just eager to explain to us their offering).
There is a key message to observe here: stick to poke (avocado especially), and the amazing lau lau (first time I’d had it). They will blow your mind. and obviously stay away from the standard, non-​craft American beer, but that is sort of universal.
What else will blow your mind? The price!

Best umekes out of all the other umekes. I like the sweetie, hottie, and avo. Their salad made with sea asparagus was awesome too but they didn’t have it the second time I came around at about 1130 am. The lady said that they don’t sell those until later during the day. Get grilled shrimp here! It’s so good but they also top it w mayo. I suggest asking them to put it on the side or omit it because the shrimp already tastes good without it. Don’t get the Kalua pork because it was kinda dry. We tried their ahi fried appetizer. It was 10 bucks. Meh but good if ur feeling like something fried.

Good Poke and fresh fish, but noisy. If you like a lively place this is it. Popular with the locals and they have live music some nights.

Food is great but the service is extremely bad. Don’t go if you don’t have 2 hours to sit. We thought we would try again and ordered take out. We ordered over an hour ago and my wife is still there waiting.

I liked their food. We ordered the $ 50 appetizer platter which is huge and super good. We also got a Tuesday special ramen, somehow too sweet for me but overall tasty. The $ 2 side ocean salad was nicely a good portion too.

Food is good, but the wait help is EXTREMELY slow. It’s almost like they don’t care or have other places they rather be. Initially I thought it was due to being new but it has remained the same, maybe even gotten worse… We waited at our table after being seated for 20 minutes and had 0 people came to take our order… We ended up ordering to go because my son really wanted their burger but they messed that up too.
I will give credit to the server who apologized for not coming to take our order. She didn’t need to say anything but took it upon herself to come over and contact us.

The freshest poke that we found. Get the Big Big Noël, which features two pokes and two sides.
We did the avocado poke and the normal ahi poke and for the sides, we did the crab salad and ho’io salad. Mmmmm
Be sure to get extra seasoning on your rice. That stuff is so good.
I’m going to make it a point to come back here to keep trying different poke.

Dinner in kona town before flight home. Poke special, two different types and side of spicy crab. This place is in industrial area, on my bucket list forever. Will go back a again with family.

Service excellent! Food so disappointing. I had the shrimp tempura, heavy batter and 3 medium size shrimps with a few tempura vegetables. Rice dry and tasted day old. Spicy imitation crab side. My two friends had the fish tacos. It had more French fried onion rings in it then fish. The side of fries it came with, looked and tasted like frozen fries. Sadly, not worth the price or drive to Kona. Should have gone to Quinn’s!

Getting off the plane to Hawaii for the first time in a year and a half, made me happy, but also really hungry. My mom told me about a new location of Umeke’s and said this place was definitely the jam, so first meal in Hawaii: Umeke’s!
I like the vibe of this place. It’s on the corner of one of the busiest intersections in Kona. When you walk in, you get the modern fisherman type of ambiance. Different fish statues on the wall, sea foam colors and a big one man canoe definitely sticks to the fishmarket theme. My mom apparently frequents this place so she knew our server, who was also the manager here and was super sweet.
For dinner we started with two apps: the smoke meat plate for $ 11 and a spam musubi plate (I can’t remember the price and name, sorry!). For the smoked meat plate, it was served with caramelized onions and was fried up nicely. Great smokey flavor. For the spam musubi plate, that was bomb! It was sliced spam musubi, breaded and deep friend and topped with brown gravy. Oh-​EM-​GEE! What a great take on a classic dish. I would totally go back just for that.
For my meal, I ordered the «Mauka to Makai Mixed Plate» for $ 17. You choose two items from the list provided. For my meal, I got Da I’a, Fuikake style salmon and Da Pipi, Pulehu style beef. This meal was awesome! The salmon was grilled nicely and topped with an aioli, the beef was tender and flavorful and the the dish was served with white rice and mac salad. Served in a bowl but lots of food!
Listen, if you’re in the area, you really need to try this place out. Such a great local joint in a small town. You would feel right at home!

Ummmmm finally made it to this place and although not hugely disappointed I was pleasantly surprised. If you love fish this is your place. It reminded me of a small fishing town modern pub with tons of fresh fish. The only issue for me is that everything almost tasted the same. It has that same ‘seaweed’ ‘soy’ taste.
The noise level inside is almost unbearable where you can’t even hear your dinner companions. It got progressively louder as the night went on.
I’ll go back, the wait staff were friendly. They have great merchandising but I wouldn’t be in a hurry to rush back for the food.

Great poke. Good portions. Very tasty.
I had the Lau Lau and Kanaka (shoyu, onion, limu) poke combination for $ 17.
Poke and Mac salad were excellent. I love peppery Mac salad.
Went on a Saturday night. A little busy but we went relatively early… 530p.
It’s loud in the dining area with the bar and TVs so we opted for outside seating.
Staff was very friendly.
Only thing negative would be the Lau Lau was a little dry as was the boneless braised short ribs that my wife had. I think we’d stick to the seafood items next time.

Amazing! In our short whirl around the Big Island, we visited Umeke’s twice: once in the beginning and then we had to return on our way back through Kona.
The first time, we chose to share the Da Makai Platter for Two. It included seared ahi, 3 kinds of poke, breaded and fried ahi, and 3 kinds of poke. We chose the shoyu, avocado, and kanaka poke salads. To pair, we drank Riesling. Delicious!
We also got side salads that were pretty normal, but the unagi vinaigrette dressing was quite unique and tasty.
The second time, I got a 3 poke salad and my friend got a seared fish of the day, ahi belly, with garlic edamame. Again, delicious!
The environment can be a bit ruckus like a bar, but the service is friendly and fast.

My mom and I stopped here for lunch on Friday, after some Black Friday shopping. My mom said the place was pretty new and she wanted to try it. We walked in and were pleasantly greeted. They asked us if we wanted to sit at the high tops or the regular tables, and we chose the high tops.
We ordered:
— poke bowl ($ 10.00 that day)
— a side of Kalbi (I think it was around $ 5.00)
— Mahi Mahi, my mom got it on top of lettuce
They have a poke display case near the back, and they asked me if I wanted to try any. I was able to try all of the variety! That was pretty awesome. I ended up with the Shoyu poke. As my side I got the ocean salad, which is the seaweed salad. Everything was good!

This was my first stop after flying in from Oahu. My sister and I ordered the Mauka 2 Makai combo. She had the laulau with garlic shrimp. The laulau was lean but not dry. The shrimp were delicious. They were sweet and plump and the garlic sauce accompanied them well. I got the «the hottie» (spicy ahi) and kalua pig. The poke was fresh and seasoned well. The kalua was a disappointment. It was dry and flavorless. I added chili pepper water and shoyu but still was unable to finish it. Everything else was tasty. I hope that they improve the kalua pig in the future.

My favorite place for poke on the Big Island. New location this year — love the bigger space. Full bar — TV to watch sports. Friendly service and just good food. I come to the Big island once a year and this is a must stop place to get my poke fix. I usually go two or three times during my visit!

Excellent hotie poke lunch plate. I have loved getting fresh poke many times at Da Poke Shack on Alii drive and it seems like the poke here is as good (which is saying a lot).
Great mac salad.
Nice sit down place and a full bar too.
Only possible negative is the prices seem a bit steep however it feels like the quality is there.
I’ll be back.

I still go to Umekes regularly, but I do have to leave a few comments on some things. I feel Unilocal is a good venue for constructive criticism, and hope owners take comments to heart in a good way. The lesser than perfect reviews aren’t meant to bad mouth, they are meant to leave a tip for owners to make a great meal a perfect one.
I have long thought the least best thing about all the meals I eat at Umekes is the quality of rice. I know most people are going to think «duh, it’s just white rice», but it isn’t. White rice is a staple for us here, and it is actually pretty easy to mess up.
Case in point with Umekes. Often times I eat here and the rice is suspect. Too dry is easier to forgive than sloppy wet. I really hate to «grumble», but when you pay $ 13 for a poke bowl, and rice is half of the ingredients, it is vital you take the same care in making it as you do the poke.
It’s pretty premium prices for very lackluster rice, IMO.
The other thing that really got on my nerves was the not honoring of
coupons anymore. I’m sure there are not thousands of people out there that bought handfuls of them, but there are a lot of people who did buy them. Enough in fact, that they actually sold out online. I had used them many times with great satisfaction.
One time I went as usual, and was told by the girl at the counter the owner says they no longer accept the certificates. That was very strange I thought. Normally you would think if a company decides to stop participating with that program, they would first be removed from the site. (There are still some available to buy for a different location). Secondly, you would also think for customer service sake, they would honor any certificate already bought and paid for.
That’s pretty lame to do, basically backing out on an agreement.
I know this won’t be a popular review for many, but it’s the truth, and someone had to say it.
Has his changed my mind about eating here? No. I will still continue, I just think there is always room for improvement.

I am a huge fan of Umeke’s, but their Palani Street location gets so busy that it’s almost impossible to park and the wait can be very long.
I was so excited when I saw a new Umeke’s going up in «old industrial» and it has ample parking, a more extensive menu and a full bar! What’s not to like?
I can’t wait to get back for more great food and good service!

This is the Umeke’s right by the Old Airport Field across the way from Lex Brodie’s. The place is super clean, spacious and modern looking (it’s brand new so it figures). My special house ahi poke mix today hit the spot (spicy and sweet), and with the cucumber kimchi and furukake rice, it was the most beautiful looking poke plate I have ever seen (see pic). On a scorching hot day on the Kona side of the Big Island, this Umeke’s location provides good relief from the heat to enjoy a fantastic meal.