Herbivores — Restaurant in Hawaii

AVOID THIS PLACE AT ALL COST!! YOU WILL BE FOOD POISONED!!!!

To the unfriendly guy that was working on August 8, 2025 at 630pm-8pm...THE HAWAIIAN PIZZA GAVE MY BF 4 DAYS OF FOOD POISONING AND WE HAD TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL!!!

Before I get into that, I'll just start how everything went down from start to finish.

The restaurant is a little shack with outdoor shaded seating in the middle of a parking lot. As you know parking in Kona is expensive but this parking lot allows you 90 minutes of free parking. Me and the bf still didn't want to park there just in case we take forever so we just parked up by Jack in the box lol.

We walked down to the restaurant, grabbed the menus from the cashier window to see what foods we want. We went up to the cashier and see the guy just sitting in there watching TV with his back facing away from us, I greeted "Hello there! We're ready to order." he then slowly turned his head with a mean cold silent stare, not even a hello back, he just passed me a QR code and said "Order here". In my mind I was like okay? At least say hello???

So we used the QR code and mobile order from their website. When you submit your order, you'll hear a ring noise from the shack so you know your order went in, you also get notification in your texts that your order is submitted. We waited about 30 minutes, took awhile since he's the only one running it so I recommend ordering ahead of time on their website.

You'll get a text notification that your order is done. FYI since he's very unfriendly, he will not announce that your order is done so you'll have to flag him down at the cashier window.

Here's what we ordered: Hawaiian Pizza 10inch BBQ jackfruit sandwich (includes chips) Uncle island refresher

The Uncle island refresher tasted mostly like mint tea, I couldn't taste any of the fruits inside and it was all very bitter to eat and drink.

The BBQ jackfruit sandwich was okay, it was very different and I kind of enjoyed it. It paired well with the chips.

I ate one slice of my bf's Hawaiian pizza, it tasted fine? But it was difficult to eat since the crust was flimsy thin and if you were to try eat it will all just fall off leaving with just the bread. So I had to eat it with a fork.

2 hours later, my poor bf had the worst tummy ache of his life and was stuck in the bathroom detoxing his whole insides out. It continued like this for our whole entire Kona vacation! His diarrhea was happening every other hour non stop! Were now going to the hospital soon since his body was starting to get severely dehydrated. So far I feel fine, for now......my bf's stomach is much more sensitive than mines.

Not sure if the pizza sauce might have been left out too long, angry sweat drips on the food, unsanitary food handling, maybe E.coli? who knows????

So yah.......don't eat here unless you wanna go to the hospital for your vacation. Please retrain your staff to handle the food better because someone might...

Summary: Basic, convenient, and inconsistent vegan "junk" food.

Ambience: It is a small building in the middle of a parking lot with some nice (yet very large) tables to sit at in some spaces. Just know this is window order, they bring out, you do the rest style.

Service: We went four times in six days and each day service was night and day. Sometimes we had really interested, nice counter service that wanted to help us. Other times it definitely felt like they just didn't care. "Hey what would you recommend?" "Well get the hot dog if you like hot dogs"

Bad experience, cheated, will NOT Return ! Most recent Review immediately follows 3/31/2023 BEWARE of Herbivores Extra Fees Reviewing an online Receipt for a Carryout on March 21, 2023 from Herbivores in Kona (75-5722 Hanama Place 96740) an extra charge of $10.15, identified as a “Large Order Fee (10.00%)” appears. The items purchased totaled $101.50 + $4.78TAX. The total charge was $116.43.

Revisiting Herbivores on March 30, 2023,I questioned the Manager on Duty, “Antoinette” about the charge and was told that this Fee is applied on orders for a “party of 5 or 6”. As Antoinette was my original Server on March 21, I reminded her that this was a Carryout (not table service), that I was alone, and that I was unaware of the policy. She claimed that it was listed in the Menu. Before my March 30 return visit, I did review the menu and did NOT find any such notice. Further, as she recalled my previous visit, and did acknowledge that I was alone but, because she has expenses to run the business and pay employees that she must charge the Fee. This is outrageous !––So, since I was NOT a “party of 5 or 6”, was NOT informed of the policy (and still unable to find any such notice) and, regardless of the irrelevant “business expenses”, including employee expenses, the $10.15 does not apply. I am responsible for the Menu Price ONLY. The more purchased, more revenue and profit is collected. Without purchases, less revenue, less profit ! The added charge of $10.15 is NOT a tip/gratuity: nor is it relevant to MY purchase. In fact, it is FRAUD. Please, Herbivore Customers, be aware ! Sadly, without reversal of this cheating loss, I left without further purchase but returned, briefly, to inform the Manager that this Review would be posted. Originally reviewed in late 2022 as "Online menu out of date: items and prices. Staff helpful, substitutions kindly offered. Fast service. Great quality !" Customer since 2021...