Hilo Bay Cafe — Restaurant in Hawaii

Food- Poor. We've gone there since they opened. We used to go when it was Restaurant Nihon. Their menu has been becoming progressively more mediocre. Was good 7 or 8 years ago but it hasn't really changed. Their entrees taste like they came out of the freezer then cooked in a plastic baggie in a microwave. The crab cakes are good. Forget the rest of the menu. Btw, without notice they have dropped sushi which was the savior of their otherwise poor menu. With that gone, Hilo Bay Cafe has become something of a rip off. Seriously. This is an honest review. Service- Poor to Mediocre. At one point I nearly yelled to get the waitress's attention and it didn't work. She continued on by. Had to ask for water refills. Toward the end of our meal, we hadn't seen anyone in the room we were in since the food came. No one. This aspect was especially poor in consideration of the next element of this review. Atmosphere- Terrible. We were seated indoors in the room that has booths in the lower side and a large table in the upper area. There was a group that may have been having a baby shower or something. About 8 or 9 women who behaved like inconsiderate children. They had finished their meal then carried on dragging chairs around loudly, taking pictures and talked/laughed loudly for about 40 minutes which went on from before we got our food all the way until we were finished. Needless to say, the nice birthday dinner we had hoped for was completely ruined. When I raised the issue with the waitress, she simply said that there is no time limit for people to leave. She asked if I wanted to speak with the manager. I said yes. The manager, while somewhat apologetic, offered no acceptable response. She offered to put a code next to my name in their system to say not to put us next to large parties. I questioned why I would need a code next to my name for this restaurant to consider their patrons. Their job is to ensure a positive experience for their guest regardless of some kind of silly "code" which was a lame offering to placate an unhappy customer. Summary- It all added up to a poor to terrible experience and a tip commensurate with that experience. Sayonara, Hilo Bay Cafe. We'll await your closing and will try the new restaurant that takes your place. ...

This was probably the most disappointing meal my wife and I have had in Hawaii. This cafe was recommended to us, so we came in expecting a lot. The lanai seating had a decent view, but the extremely wobbly table nearly toppled my drink a couple times. That drink was probably the highlight of either of our meals; their bartender makes a pretty good margarita.

The food, though, was disappointing. My wife originally asked for a simple ahi roll, but without the green onion that apparently came with it. The waitress came back and said that the green onion was pre-mixed in. Isn't sushi usually made to order? What was pre-mixed?

Eventually, my wife settled on a different sushi roll, which was nothing special. But she also ordered onion rings, which were easily some of the worst onion rings we've ever had. They were still mostly raw, most were missing over half of their breading, and even the parts that were still breaded had a weird texture. We each tried a bite, and couldn't try another. To our waitresses credit, she did comp the onion rings after offering a new plate or another dish, but at that point, we kinda just wanted to leave.

For my meal, I ordered buttermilk fried chicken, which said it was chicken thighs and came with pickles and jalapeño cornbread. What I got was two SMALL pieces of chicken, certainly less than a single thigh worth of meat, and more pickles than I had chicken! It was a pickle dish with a side of chicken, rather than what was advertised.

Overall, it was just very disappointing, and we ended up going elsewhere afterwards because we were still hungry after our disappointing meals. I can see that they were aiming for fancy, upscale dishes, and they just really missed the mark, both in execution and design. If you're just looking for drinks, we can recommend the margaritas, but otherwise, consider going...

My family had the most amazing first experience. We came for dinner and my adult children are extremely picky eaters. They ordered off of the kids menu the sliders, chicken fingers and the best Mac and cheese EVER!!! The only disappointment was that I wanted to try the scallops, but they were out. However, my husband and I enjoyed our meals and felt it was the best we had on the island.

Our downfall was going back for lunch....

My husband and I wanted to try a new restaurant, but my children enjoyed it so much that we were talked into going back 2 days later for lunch. The hostess clearly needs a lesson in customer service. We were told it would be approximately a 30 minute wait. After 25 minutes and 5 families that came in after us being seated before us I simply asked, How much longer would it be?" The hostess responded, "I said 30 minutes and it will be 30 minutes." At that point, I said that it seemed like it has been 30 minutes and she said you only waited 25 minutes so you have some more time, don't you...I should have walked out. We waited an additional 15 minutes and another 3 families were seated (all stating they did not have reservations.)

We were finally seated and it took 35 minutes to get our drinks. When we tried to order, we were told that we could not order off the kid's menu. The hostess came over to tell us it was an oversight the night before and to figure something else out. I offered to pay additional and she said no. After 5 minutes and us almost walking out she said they could serve us an adult size Mac and cheese and an adult size chicken fingers....

Not sure why she could not have started with that but it felt like she needed to caused a issue that could have been avoided.

By the way.. the adult size was the EXACT same size as the kids!!! (Which we offered to pay more to simply get what we...