Fish Hopper Kona — Restaurant in Hawaii

We had just arrived in Kona from Canada and looking for a place for dinner late night. Not many places were open but we found Fish Hopper on a quick Google search. We thought it was a fish & chips place.

Parking on the streets in Kona is kind of tight. We found parking within a bit of a walk. While crossing the street, one of my teenage sons got yelled at by an impatient driver. Not a nice welcome from a tourism point of view. If that driver was a local in the area, he’s doing a disfavor to the local business with his behavior.

This open air restaurant has a great waterfront location. I would say that’s its greatest asset.

We soon discovered it was a fine dining kind of restaurant based on its prices. The prices were much higher than currently posted at time of our trip and at time of this subsequent review. For instance, we thought the poke nachos were overpriced. 3/4 cup of poke and maybe 10 bite sized crispy wonton chips. Not enough wonton chips for the amount of poke. (For the same price in Canadian dollars we recently enjoyed a twice-sized plate of heaping nachos with a generous amount of pulled pork at Montana’s BBQ with leftovers that other 3 members of our family enjoyed.) We could’ve easily made our own similar poke “nachos” with prepared poke from a local Kona grocery store and One-Ton wonton chips from Costco Hawaii for way less.

We ordered macadamia nut encrusted mahi mahi ($35US), steak ($?), clam chowder, and seafood pasta ($44US). Food served was presented nicely with a beautiful orchid on each dish. Small portion of mahi mahi was on the dry side, and the small amount of crushed macadamia nut on it didn’t seem to enhance its flavor. Bowl of seafood pasta seemed overpriced. We would’ve thought that being near the ocean and accessible to seafood, seafood dishes would be not be that expensive. (For dinner one evening later during our weeklong stay, we bought a large pack of fresh swordfish at Costco since we already had mahi mahi at Fish Hopper, and we made and enjoyed our own delicious and satisfying fish dinner at the beautiful ocean view townhouse we rented for a fraction of the price.)

About the service at Fish Hopper…We were greeted and seated by a pleasant lady (hostess?) shortly after our arrival. Being late night, restaurant wasn’t busy - less than 5 other tables besides us. A pleasant young gentleman introduced himself as our waiter. He checked once shortly after bringing our food to see how the food was and we said fine. He didn’t come again. I don’t recall if we waved him over to get the bill after waiting awhile after we finished eating or if we went to the till to pay. I recall a couple of us tried to catch his eye or wave to him as he was walking around. I gave him a decent tip, but probably should’ve given him less for his service. I just automatically picked an amount already listed as we just wanted to leave after waiting a while for waiter to come. I sure hope some of the tip went to the two (bus-?)ladies who gave us excellent service. They were the ones who set our table, asked where we were from, cleared off our dirty dishes, checked and refilled our water regularly, and checked with us regularly to see thinking how things were going. They were warm and welcoming on our first tired night in Kona after long flights to get there. Too tired to remember we brought some cash in US that I could’ve tipped these wonderful ladies with.

This turned out to be our only fine dining restaurant experience in Hawaii. We tried many other local restaurants which were less expensive. We had additional fine dining by making our own delicious meals with fresh local ingredients.

In summary, we found the best things at Fish Hopper are its location and the bus ladies. Dishes are well presented and generally delicious but expensive ($280US incl tax & moderate tip for 5 people who shared an appetizer, a clam chowder, 3 entrees plus 2...

My wife and I visited The Fish Hopper 2 years ago while visiting the big island for our 10 year anniversary and absolutely loved it! So we knew we had to bring the whole family when visiting the big island again!

What we remember best about The Fish Hopper was the pineapple coleslaw. It is absolutely amazing and I highly recommend it!

Today when we visited, we were not let down and its just as good today as it was 2 years ago! I highly recommend the fish tacos!

The view from the dining area is. Remarkable view of the bay. There is no shortage of seating inside but parking outside is a little more limited.

What they do well:

-Prompt seating at lunch time on a weekend! As good as the food is, Im really surprised there wasnt a wait.

-Clean dining area.

-Clean restrooms.

-Great food.

-Friendly Staff

What they need to improve on:

-Wait staff need to visit tables a little more frequently. Our cups were empty longer than they should have been before being refilled.

-Lastly, and the reason Im giving them a 1 star review and will not be visiting again. We were a party of 6 and expected our bill to be kinda high. For 6 people (5 orders, as 1 wasnt hungry) our bill came to about $97. which im perfectly ok with. Im also ok with the fact that they went ahead and added an 18% gratuity charge, though I dont believe the service we receive warranted it but assune its for parties of 6 or more...maybe? Typically its for a party of 8 or more but regardless... they added 18% themselves. However, I typically charge 20% minimum regardless so i was even ok with them adding less tip than I would have given.

What I have a problem with is the fact that when they brought me the slip to sign for using my credit card, that they had a line on there suggesting another tip..... why would I give more tip, when they already added 18% on themselves? Then I got to thinking.... what if they DONT only added the 18% to parties of 6 or more but automatically add it to EVERY bill and the unsuspecting customer adds ANOTHER tip on top of the tip they already automatically added? Tipping culture is already CRAZY in this country and The Fish Hopper just stole the show with how to "get one over" on he unsuspecting customer. How many other people have they done this to already that didnt catch it?

Despite the amazing food, great environment and friendly staff, I highly recommend STEERING CLEAR of the Fish Hopper, or watch your receipts VERY VERY closely. Messing with peoples money is BAD business no matter how...

My soon to be wife and I just had a terrible experience at this restaurant. This restaurant says you can’t sit by the window and enjoy the view if you’re going to have their happy hour. It’s the saddest happy hour I’ve ever heard of.

The reason this is like this is to make sure you are spending more money and saving the views for the rich people who want to spend more money.. but what about the people who are millionaires that just simply want a certain item on the menu and to sit by the nice view.. can you not accommodate those VIPs?

Why must I sit in the dark corner of your restaurant if I want to enjoy certain parts of your menu.

I don’t care about money. Charge me 1,000 for the sandwich if you must. But to not allow me to enjoy certain food in your restaurant that other customers are allowed to enjoy just because I want to sit at a nice comfortable view is a terrible way to operate a business.

I’ve made millions from the AI software company I own and If I wanted I could spread this true story and ensure everyone coming to the big island sees a TikTok/instagram video explaining my terrible experience at your restaurant. You never know who is important to be kind to.

When I asked the lady at the front about why we couldn’t sit at the window if we wanted to have happy hour she replied that “people like you wouldn’t understand” (I’m a white 32 yr old male)

I expressed that I wanted to leave a review and then the manager approached and decided that I was treating her staff disrespectfully when in fact the staff was treating us disrespectfully. Jonah. Kanoelehua. You both need to remember how to give aloha. Because you really did wrong. Both of you. With the look on your faces and the way you said what you said. The hostess as well.

I was really looking forward to having a nice dinner with my new fiancé, it’s really unfortunate that we won’t be coming back.

I will always share this experience with everyone who decides to show interest in this establishment. I...