IZAKAYA SHIONO KONA — Restaurant in Hawaii

The terms Authentic and Japanese cuisine are proven at Izakaya Shiono. Located in the busy kona brewery area, it is bustling with shops and music. Our server Naomi was so nice and hospitable. The food quality for sushi and chirashi is incredible, like as good as traveling to Japan incredible. The Chefs are visiting directly from Tokyo and the fish is prepared with masterful skill level. The bara chirashi was diced and complimented with perfectly seasoned sushi rice. Orion beer from okinawa was good. Fried oysters were bomb and the rest of the menu has options like bento boxes, ramen and appetizers that are available at most Japanese restaurants. For sushi nigiri, sashimi and chirashi items Shiono definitely is impressive with 5/5 for presentation and taste.

If you're traveling during the daytime around kona, check out Shiono-ya which is the deli / bento area of KTA Kailua Kona grocery, the egg spam musubi, tunamayo onigiri and other bento options are bomb and taste just like a Japanese Lawson or 711 - if not better!

Also find the Olu Olu bakery which is a sister bakery of Shiono and it's so delicious. The chewy fluffy shokupan bread, ebi cutlet potato salad roll was so well good. The team has trained / worked in Japan and it shows. 10 out of 5 stars, the bread items are 100% legit...

I chose this place based on the reviews — and honestly, I have no idea where all the stars are coming from. I ordered the miso soup, a sushi bowl, and the unagi rolls — and the only thing that actually felt decent was the water (and even that tasted like it wasn’t from the tap — so, thanks for that at least).

The bowl? 3/5. Not terrible, but also not enjoyable. Just raw fish on rice. That’s it. No concept, no flavor balance, no feeling like it was a full, satisfying dish. Didn’t fill me up — not physically, not emotionally.

Now to the main issue — the rolls. Total mess. The rice falls apart instantly, the texture is mushy, and the unagi was a tiny, sad little strip. Everything was coming apart before I even touched the soy sauce. Honestly, it looked like someone made it who had never rolled sushi before in their life.

Come on, guys — you’re literally surrounded by the ocean and there’s no fish?? These rolls were worse than pre-packaged supermarket sushi.

It feels like they just added as many items as possible to the menu instead of focusing on doing a few things right. Didn’t get food poisoning — so that’s the one win. But if you’re looking for actual good sushi? Go...

Our family of five visited this place with the intention of dining at the restaurant. Paid and tipped. Although we were already sitting down at our table, the girl at the order counter somehow assumed a party of five showwing up to their restaurant just wanted take out without even asking us to confirm. We waited at our table for a long time but nothing came out. No water served, nothing. After checking with the same girl at the counter, she then told us we ordered take-outs and some items from our order was already in to-go containers. Fine, let's fix it so we can dine in at the restaurant. She commented that our food was already packed and she then refuses to allow us to dine in.

When did people like these folks working at this place become robot-like and can only perform such limited demand input into their mind? What is it so difficult about reversing course of your mistake to allow customers to dine in at the restaurant instead of take-out? A mistake you yourself made when you take our order. Bad experience and won't be...