For me personally, the highlight of traveling is always the food. That's how food-centric I am, and my hubby is the same way. That's one of the main reasons why I married him.
And so without further ado, here's the scoops on what we ate on our recent trip to the Big Island:
We can never visit the Big Island without a stop at Roy's in Waikoloa. The service and quality are 5 star.
I have yet to find a place that makes better crab cakes than Roy's.
Their Jade Pesto Kampachi was amazing. The Kampachi is farmed right offshore of the Big Island - it can't get any fresher than that.
The hubby's braised short ribs was rich and juicy. Definitely man-food.
A trip to Roy's is never complete with their signature chocolate souffle ala mode.
Roy's Restaurant
69-250 Waikoloa Beach Drive
(808) 886-4321
Hawaiian Style Cafe:
A friend who I met on Yelp suggested this place for breakfast. It's located in Waimea, which is a 10-15 drive from Waikoloa. If you're in the mood for local, homestyle cooking, this is your place. The portions are large but don't feel too bad about wasting food if you can't finish everything on your plate - they state on the menu that the leftovers are fed to the hogs.
This place is popular amongst both tourists and locals.
Here's the hubby's kalua pork hash with eggs and fried rice.
The haupia pancakes were huge.
Hawaiian Style Cafe
65-1290 Kawaihae Road
(808) 885-4295
We drove to Hilo and the hubby insisted that we stop at Big Island Candies to check out their factory. No complaints from me.
You can't miss their store/factory.
Free samples are given at the door!
Their factory is visible from the retail area. Everything is dipped by hand, one by one.
So many products to choose from - cookies, chocolates, brownies, coffee, etc.
Their signature product is the Hawaiian Macadamia Nut Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies. This cookie became so popular that other manufacturers began to make a similar product. In fact, Big Island Candies once filed a lawsuit to stop a competitor from making their version of a chocolate dipped shortbread cookie. Big Island Candies lost in court, and hence you'll see many versions of this cookie around Hawaii.
But this is the original.
Big Island Candies
585 Hinano Street
(808) 935-5510
Two Ladies Kitchen:
These ladies make the best mochi in Hawaii. The family-run operation is small but the demand is huge. Everyone knows about them, and their resistance to expand allows them to maintain the quality and freshness.
The entrance.
They are the originators of the strawberry mochi - mochi stuffed with a sweet strawberry and an (bean paste).
After one big bite, there is still plenty of goodness left for one more bite.
You can make your own variety pack, which is made to order.
Two Ladies Kitchen
274 Kilauea Avenue
(808) 961-4766
On the way back to Waikoloa from Hilo we stopped at Tex Drive In so that we could try their malasadas. I can't remember exactly how I learned about this place, but apparently they get a lot of exposure for their "world famous" malasadas.
They have an open kitchen where you can watch the malasadas being made. Yum.
This is the first time I've ever seen a square malasada. It was denser than Leonard's, and delicious. Not sure if I could have handled more than one. Fillings are available. On this particular day they had bavarian creme, chocolate, raspberry, strawberry, mango, lemon, and apple.
Tex Drive-In
45-690 Pakalana St.
(808) 775-0598
Our last dinner on this trip was at Sansei. It was supposed to be at Merriman's, but after I received a text message from my friend telling me about how mediocre and overpriced the food was, we made a change to our plans at the last minute.
Sansei's Asian Shrimp Cake - looked like the shrimp had a bad hair day. This was not very visually appealing, but it was pretty good.
The garlic steak was ordinary, such that I could probably make the same thing at home.
The panko crusted ahi sashimi sushi roll was one of the stars of the meal. They use a nice, thick block of ahi (tuna).
The other star of the show was D.K.'s king crab ramen with Asian Truffle Sauce. At $18, it's probably the most expensive bowl of ramen I'll ever eat, but it was worth it. As you can see, they top it off with a generous amount of crab. The noodles were overcooked, and soggy, but the flavor of the broth and the crab made up for it.
Because it was my birthday, they gave me a creme brulee with a candle in it.
Sansei Seafood Restaurant & Sushi Bar
69-201 Waikoloa Beach Drive
(808) 886-6286
The hubby and I discovered The Ultimate Burger by chance a couple of years ago, and every since then, we have made a tradition out of making this our last meal on the island before heading home (since it's located 10 minutes from the airport).
I normally don't order drinks when I eat out, but I got a cup of their homemade lemonade free for checking in on my Yelp app on my iPhone.
The Ultimate Burger comes with 1/3 lb local grass-fed beef patty, organic hand-torn lettuce, onions, local tomato, house-made Ultimate sauce, and a dailybaked Brioche bun.
We also split an order of their Ultimate Fries, which are out of this world, but unfortunately I could not get a good snapshot of the fries for this post. But trust me, you'll definitely want to try them if you ever come here.
The Ultimate Burger
74-5450 Makala Blvd.
(808) 329-2326
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