Manta & Pavilion Wine Bar

The tiny wine tasting machine is a stroke of pure genius! WAY too much fun — all this and a big Island sunset, too? It seems impossibly luxurious!

Wonderful setting and staff but dinner doesn’t measure up if our one visit is any indication. I didn’t know fresh fish could be at dry and overcooked with vegetables undercooked. Butter leaf salad was overdressed with unappealing oily coating. Even the amuse bouche was in amusing. For really good fish and other well prepared food go to merrimans. Brunch at mantas is a different story. Best on island.

I’ve been to this restaurant well over 20 times and it never disappoints! Brunch is fanatic, so many options and I love the omelet bar. The staff is incredibly accommodating! Dinner is lovely, the ahi is great as well as the steak. The Waimea tomato said is fantastic! Don’t forgot to order the soufflé, it takes about 20mins to cook!

One of the better brunches I’ve eaten in a while. Not to mention the excellent service! But then again it helps if you know the staff. The omelet station was delicious, and you can choose from a variety of toppings. The spread of food varies from eggs benedict to steamed salmon to traditional cereal and toast bread. For the price you pay its only $ 35 for a super meal! Definitely will be back again one day.

A major favorite when we are staying in the Waikoloa area. This restaurant continues to knock it out of the park with ambiance, service and food. The setting is absolutely stunning. Wait staff have all been there for years and are attentive, professional and personable. Food is inventive, their new Korean chef puts a new twist on some traditional fish dishes that are both creative and delicious. Always look forward to coming back again and again.

Manta has a few new items on their menu on our most recent visit.
Barry the manager is very excited to point out some of their culinary creations. As always every dining experience at Manta is special.
The Loco Moko is definitely worth a try, it is so flavorful and has a filet mignon which melts in your mouth. If you like indian curry, the curry entrée is the real deal, and love the condiments (peanuts, coconut, mango chutney) that comes with indian curry.

My wife and I are guests here at the hotel and due to renovations, the Manta was the only restaurant for dinner. The wife ordered the Ahi Tataki and I had the blackened Ahi.
The Tataki was cooked beautifully yet had almost no flavor. The Blackened Ahi was terrible. All you could taste was charboiled and smoked pepper. It completely overwhelmed the dinner. It gets two stars for the excellent service though our wine choice was not available. We returned for brunch the next day and the buffet was sub par. How can you make eggs cooked to order taste like dish soap? Suggest to anyone to find another restaurant for either meal.

Superb food, wine and service. Perfect ambiance. Short walk down to the beach to see the Manta Rays.

The passion fruit soufflé is to die for. Wonderful location and typical first class cuisine.

What a perfect way to spend my birthday on the island! Gorgeous view of the ocean, delicious menu choices, and excellent customer service by our server Sharon and the manager Barry.
The restaurant décor is very sleek and modern. I’m not a wine drinker but they had those cool wine refrigerator/​dispenser/​taps around the bar.
We sat outside for dinner and although you cannot see the sunset (the trees block the actually sun), it does not take away from the breathtaking view of the ocean.
I ordered the Loco Moco Foie Gras with kimchee rice ($ 39), which was a good size portion and the foie gras was excellent. My fiancé had the chicken curry, which he said was good but not great, did not really have any spice to it. For dessert we had the Kona mud pie which was huge and out of this world!
Thanks for a great birthday experience, Manta!

Terrible. Farm to fork is always a fish dish. Perhaps a dictionary is in order. We dined here twice. Both times food was good. Not the problem. Service should be better at $ 30-​$ 50 a plate. Staff was non responsive. Charles should not be allowed to serve at an upscale restaurant. Pretentious with no backup. Manager Barry chu was accommodating but not really. After the horrible first night experience tried to come back on the second night as we were staying at hotel and wanted to do the wine enomatic experience. There were 14 empty tables outside and 15 empty tables inside and we were told by GM that we eWorld have to wait for over 1.5 hours. This level of service should not go undocumented. The chef does not deserve this level of slack in his amazing food creations. Very disappointing. Would not recommend to my worst enemy.

Beautiful tiki torch ambiance with stunning ocean views. Excellent service. The shrimp dumpling appetizer was delicious as was my Mahi Mahi dinner. And If you are not on a diet, try the Mud pie.

I stayed at the sister hotel Hapuna Beach Resort and there’s a 1mile walkway to Mauna Kea Resort. I came here for early morning brunch and it was very quiet. I was seated outside and the view of the ocean /​pristine beach was breathtaking. It was very pictureque. SInce the breakfast entrée was on the pricer end, we chose the all you can eat brunch. The food was the usual local Hawaiian food and it was okay. The ambiance, the view, and the attentive service is already 5 stars.

We had friends who were staying at the MKB, and we met them for dinner here. Beautiful outside dining was our choice, and we enjoyed the sunset as we ordered. My wife had the Kalbi veal, I had the fresh fish special, which was a local snapper variation similar to opakapaka. My friend had the same, and his wife the filet. All the meals were delicious, artful, and the service was excellent; our waiter, Ka’imi? (sp) was attentive, friendly, and everyone was efficient and invisible as far as filling glasses and that sort of thing. We thoroughly enjoyed the evening.
It was a good reminder of why this hotel, the first built on the coast, remains an icon. My friends are Marriot miles fanatics, and they were ensconced in an ocean front room, and absolutely love the resort. I’m going to have to get out of my Mauna Lani rut and drive a little further up from Kailua town.
We will definitely return. Mahalo.

I celebrated my birthday at Manta and Pavilion Wine Bar at the Mauna Kea Beach Resort.
This is my first time dining at Manta’s and I could kick myself for waiting so long to experience this gem. This restaurant is absolutely Remarkable!
Very romantic, with gorgeous settings, torch lights and even a pianist who didn’t skip a note.
All I can say without writing a novel is Manta deserves a MILLION stars!
The service is phenomenal, perfectly paced and not rushed.
I started off with a glass of Pinot Noir
The server brings a bread basket along with some Hawaiian salt butter and a tapenade.
Also brought to our table was the chef’s tasting of poke.
Then I split a Signature Manta Salad with hubby.
Local Greens, Papaya, Shaved Sweet Onion, Avocado, Toasted Macadamia Nuts, Balsamic
For my entrée, I ordered the Macadamia Nut Crusted Mahi-​Mahi.
Fresh Local Lilikoi Nage, Long Rice Noodle, seasonal Vegetables.
Desert, I chose the Maunta Kea Mud Pie
Kona Coffee Ice cream
Chocolate Lahlua Gamache
White Chocolate Drizzle. Gawd. Best. Meal. Ever.
But wait!!! They even brought French press coffee with small plates of sweets, macadamia chocolate clusters, macaroons, and fruit square.
I give Manta’s two thumbs up!
I still remember each bite bite so vividly. The food is delicious, the cuisine is beyond words, the chef had hit his stride! I simply can’t wait to come back.

Buffet was delicious. There was tons of food. They had a variety of items to choose from. The made to order sushi bar was to die for. An amazing buffet experience. The staff was nice but did not come around to check on you. The food made up for the wait staff though.

Manta deserves these five stars for the amazing food, staff and fantastic atmosphere including beautiful views of the ocean. Very romantic. We came here for our last night on the Big Island after having visited some other pretty amazing places and loved it from the front door.
First, you can a do metered wine tastings. Yes, a little Napa and Sonoma wine tasting done Hawaiian island right. They had gluten free bread for me and were able to make gluten free dishes.
The chicken curry was one of my favorite dinners on the island. The lamb they served was a very close second. We loved being here and simply living in the moment. The staff were friendly, talkative but not overly invasive and did I mention the views… beautiful.
If you have a chance, make this one of your evening stops on the island!

When visiting the Big Island and experiencing Kauna’oa Beach (aka Mauna Kea Beach), breakfast at the Manta is a nice way to indulge! If you are going to go to the beach, you will have to get there early… this restaurant offers you a chance to eat breakfast with a 10 STAR view! Keep in mind though prices are not cheap, but you will get a quality meal with a view that is priceless. The breakfast buffet appears to be the best monetary value but if you are not too hungry or don’t want to be overfull, there are many a la carte options to pick from. A great spot for a romantic breakfast! Or a nice way to enjoy breakfast if you got to the beach early and after a couple hours are ready to eat.

Our favorite guilty pleasure. We live nearby and belong to the Mauna Kea club, so for transparency, we do get a good discount. Having said that, we would pay full price and still feel pampered and satisfied.
Particular breakfast fave is the Bircher Muesli, smothered in fresh berries and fruit.
And, I’m not kidding, they have actual, live, (wait for it) Real Maple Syrup For Pancakes & French Toast! It can be done. Even Ihop doesn’t offer RMS! Cracker Barrel used to «let» you pay extra for 100% MS but even they sneaked in 100% NATURAL syrup. Note the lack of the word MAPLE. So lame. So applause for Manta for attention to details, great coffee, killer cream-​of-​wheat, banging banana (& carrot & mango) bread, generous portions and the absolute best view for any meal.

We had an amazing dinner here.
We were seated outside with the most beautiful view.
Our server was excellent, though a tad hard to understand. She was friendly and took pictures of us. She had great knowledge of the food that was being served and answered all of our questions. We were never waiting long for another item to be brought out.
The wine menu was expansive and had good selections for by the glass, which was good for us, since we didn’t want to buy a bottle. The wine was expensive, of course, but your on vacation at a beautiful resort, what do you expect? We were very happy with all four wines we tried. Especially the wines from France.
Our food was AMAZING. Definitely the best out of the whole trip. We loved that we were offered a free little bite in the beginning, too. The breads were also delicious! I had moon fish and my husband had ahi. We were both sooo happy. Our appetizer was crab ravioli. We ordered the smaller portion size, but I’d even order the whole portion for an entrée. Dessert was good, but probably the most lacking.
All in in all, we had a great experience here. We desperately wanted to come back but they are closed on Sunday and Monday’s. We’ll cherish our dining experience here for the rest of our lives, since it was the best of our whole honeymoon.