Ocean Grill

Great views and simple but delicious food. Great service and great atmosphere! Will come back here for sure!

What a hidden gem! Skip Canoe house and come here, also known as the pool bar for the hotel. Don’t be fooled. The sunset dinner here will rival any sit-​down restaurant in the island.
Except for pizzas, the foods were delivered in this Chinese bamboo steamer. Cocktails were made locally (it is a pool bar). Mai Tai was strong and, ahem, without the umbrella. The white wine can be a bit cooler. Oh well.
Then you sip your Mai Tai and watch the sun setting over the beach and waves. Ah…

Located just a few steps from the beach the Mauna Lani resort, this little tiki hut is the perfect spot for catching a quick bite before heading back out to play.
My serve was very attentive and places my order for fish tacos with lettuce appropriately. The tacos came out with only a few pieces of lettuce. The fish was ok (grilled), the sauces were a bit bland, and the portion was small for the $ 17 price tag. I will certainly be back because the view is fantastic and it’s incredibly convenient to the beach. If I weren’t staying at the hotel, though, I would definitely NOT return.

Crazy awesome vegetarian flatbread, very tasty drinks, great view of the ocean. Do it!

As previous reviewers state, «it’s a beach side and pool bar.» But there are great views from it! They do have 2 flat screen TVs in the bar area. Since my husband is a huge college football fan, we watched football there last night. I agree that the bartenders are friendly and the bar seats are good for hanging out. We ate here two days in a row mainly b/​c I LOVED the mahi mahi tacos. We ate lunch one day and dinner last night. Both my husband and I ordered mahi mahi. YUM! The beer is priced better than the mixed drinks but the mixed drinks are not as steeply priced as some reviewers mentioned. We’ve been to the 4 – 5 star restaurants here in the Kohala Coast and by those standards, these prices were fair. Stasha is a great server, so friendly and genuinely happy to be there. She made our meals very pleasant. We were lucky to get her as our server for lunch and dinner. I recommend any of the 3 entrees with mahi mahi.

The Ocean Grill is the poolside bar/​restaurant at the Mauna Lani Resort. I believe they serve lunch and dinner, but I only visit this spot for food & drinks post-​7pm. We visited this place nightly for a couple cocktails, and although the service and setting was nice (ocean view, nice grounds, etc.) it was a bit pricey. I don’t blame ‘em since it’s a resort and there are not very many places on the Kohala Coast (about 90% of them are affiliated with a resort).
A few items to highlight and point out for Unilocalers:
* Non-​beer or wine alcoholic beverages can be very expensive. Beer (draft & bottle) range from about $ 5-​$ 7, and wine by the glass ranges from about $ 8-​$ 13, which is totally reasonable. Fruity cocktail beverages run $ 12+ and higher quality cocktails add up quickly. We ordered a few Grey Goose Martinis, and when we got the bill noticed there were $ 17.50 each, OUCH!
* The food is decent, but nothing special. One evening, I had the Ahi Tuna Wrap, which was good but a little on the more expensive side ($ 22). Another evening, I had the Seafood Treasure Stew, which was an island-​style Cioppino. It contained mussels, shrimp, fish, and lobster. It was delicious, but not a very large quantity. I guess I expected the typical Cioppino quantity, which is massive.
* Sit at the bar — the bartenders are extremely friendly! Also, there’s 1 TV located near the bar so you can watch sporting events while soaking up the warm weather and views.

The oceanside dining was wonderful. The food, not so much. Started with a really nice poke. I had mango or guava glazed chicken, really dry and very little flavor. My husband had the fish tacos, they had fake grilled flavor and were almost inedible. I wanted dessert anyway. I ordered ice cream. How can you screw that up… Well, the Guiness Chocolate was an illadvised flavor to start with and the Hibiscus White Chocolate came in a horrifying pink color and tasted even worse! Not worth the time or the money! Hightlight — it started raining during dinner and sitting outside, in Hawaii, in the rain — actually quite lovely!

Not bad, not great. Just bar food next to the pool and beach. Food 5 out of 10, service 8.

The Ocean Grill is located within the Mauna Lani Resort grounds. It has a very casual feel to it & a nice view of the ocean. I stayed at the resort for five days and probably ate here about 7 times ;-) They serve delicious, frosty tropical drinks & tasty food — lots of appetizers, sandwiches, etc.
The prices are high, however so is the quality — if my memory serves correct, it was about $ 17 for a sandwich but it was filling and could easily be eaten as a ‘dinner’ late in the afternoon. Paired with an iced cold beer, it is the perfect meal!