Meridia — Restaurant in Hawaii

We had a pretty terrible experience to put it mildly. You can check my reviews in general. I give mainly positive ones because I think it’s good to shine a light on great businesses & restaurants.

Unfortunate to say it but this place doesn’t deserve your business. The manager is unprofessional and couldn’t even manage a fast food joint, let alone a place where guests expect great service and some sort of hospitality.

I’ll break it down by category but I’m going to start it all off with the reason this is getting a 1 star.

Staff: Okay, so most of the staff was actually very nice. The manager however is awful. My father is not a confrontational person in the slightest. I’ve only ever seen him argue with someone a handful of times in my life. It should also be noted that he is a smoker.

That said, the place was pretty empty given that very few people are traveling to Hawaii right now. He found an outside area away from everyone to go smoke. The manager then went up to him and told him he could not. He put out his cigarette. She then asked him to put his mask on, which he did.

After all this she refused to leave him be alone because she didn’t trust that he would follow her demands which he kindly abided by. He asked her to leave him alone, but she refused. She then threatened to call security on him because he wouldn’t go back to the table I guess, which makes no sense to me still.

She comes to our table and tells us she’s going to call security on him because he was smoking earlier. We explained that he is a grown man and that her confrontation with him doesn’t need to go through us. She stormed off angrily.

My father wanted to speak with the manager but she hid in her office like a child. She eventually did come back, and left within 30 seconds after my father (admittedly) raised his voice at her, but he didn’t yell. He of course should not have done that, but she also used it as an excuse to not do her job which is weak and pathetic.

You’re in hospitality, you’re supposed to please customers, not threaten security on them, especially when they obey the rules. This lady is terrible at her job and quite frankly is kind of stupid to think that it’s smart to berate customers during the worst point in tourism in Hawaii’s history. Call me crazy, but I think this is a terrible business plan.

I’m obviously biased in this situation, but all I can tell you is I know for a fact that my dad knows smoking is a nuisance. He’s not proud of it, and if anyone ever asks him to put out his cigarette he wont argue.

The manager has the type of personality that likes to have authority over other people, and when she doesn’t get her way (right or wrong) doesn’t want to have to deal with any blowback.

She suffers from a victim type of mentality where she can’t possibly have been wrong. And look, I understand there is a possible version of this story where she says “It wasn’t my fault, here’s what happened”, but the reality is in either scenario she is not supposed to act the way she did. She’s supposed to please the guests, not scare them off. She escalated a situation that didn’t need to be escalated.

I feel bad for all the staff working there, they must hate her.

Anyway....here’s everything else.

Food: It was fine. Some of the dishes were very good, others were just so/so. Definitely nothing that is a must try or screams “Come eat here”.

Ambiance: Not really worth noting. We did eat here at night, it seems like during the day it might have an excellent view of the ocean but it was night and we couldn’t see.

Price: It’s reasonable. It certainly isn’t a bargain but it’s also not going to break your wallet.

You can do better, and if you’re going to spend your money, spend it somewhere that cares about...

This was the last dinner of our trip. There were 6 of us…4 adults and 2 kids. We were really excited as the menu looked amazing and the views spectacular. I have to say the staff was awesome. Obviously trained well and very friendly. Service was very attentive and they paid special attention to our boys. Once food was ordered it took a very long time to get appetizers. Drinks flew out quickly, assuming my to get us to drink more while we waited forever for food. To their credit they did try and get our dinner order right after ordering apps, but the adults wanted to wait to see how full we were as we oftentimes will split a meal if the appetizers were filling. This was a huge mistake. Appetizers took about 20 minutes to come out. The ravioli fantastic. The frito misto had very fishy calamari but the shrimp were tasty. The garlic shrimp had 3 full shrimp but were lacking flavor. Fairly bland but cooked well. We then ordered meals to split. My mother in law and father in law ordered the fish special Monchong(spelling?) the filet was about 2.5”x 2.5” no joke. This was $71! My wife and I ordered the ribeye to split. I do t know what kind of steak this was but it was very thick, like a sirloin without the traditional marbling or ribeye cap that holds all the flavor and juiciness. It must’ve been the very think eye of the ribeye. It was medium when I requested medium rare, tough, and flavorless despite having a bacon jelly on top. Potatoes were pretty damn good though. The entrees took 45 minutes to come out. Unacceptable.

Here’s the kicker and something that will make me NEVER come back unless they attempt to try and make things right. The prices on their website were much lower than on the menu. Deception #1. Deception #2 was the included 18% gratuity. I’m sure it was in the fine print somewhere but the server never mentioned it. I was so annoyed with the time that I had my card ready and had him run it without checking the line items. My bad. I added 20% to the $500 bill 😳but thought it seemed odd so I checked the line items to find the 18% already added. Thank goodness I caught this as he would’ve been tipped ~38%.

For context we also ordered 2 Mai tais, 2 glasses rose and a glass of Chardonnay. We brought our own bottle of red and they waived the corkage fee, which was nice. But $500 after the auto tip, for mediocre food, and 2 couples splitting is atrocious. I should have complained about the food at the time, however I figured it would take another 45 minutes for them to fix and it or ably still would have taken forever to come out. The views were nice. The music terrible. Mount music between the piano bar music. No Hawaiian ambiance for music at all. Worst meal of the trip. My wife said she would rather have the pizza and salad from Kona brewing company h than ever eat this places food again. We felt deceived, over charged, and absolutely let down by this experience, especially since we were taking my wife’s parents out to a “nice dinner” to thank them for letting us stay at their property on the big island. I’m sure they will be sharing this poor experience with their friends as well. Going to post this same review on google reviews and trip advisor because I do t want anyone else having this...

Meridia is a very beautiful, intimate restaurant with a glorious view of Hapuna Beach. Sandra in reception is exemplary!! She traversed the extra mile to ensure we received a quieter table and specifically went out of her way to check on us throughout dinner in hopes her curating us by low key dinner neighbors was a success. Sandra is an absolute gem!!! Hence, when I located several bones in my grilled Branzino Seabass she was the first person I communicated with as she is efficient and ultra professional. It was quickly communicated to management and the chef and they kindly took care of the entrée and checked on me after the coughing debacle. The seabass, albeit was tasty and the kobocha squash bisque was delicious, although I might request the Smoked Paprika Pepitas on the side as they are quite pungent. The Meridia team was quite kind in helping curate a meal my spouse could enjoy. The salad was also delicious and the server provided excellent service. Our only constructive feedback would be some guests may prefer a quiet, intimate dinner with minimal conversation with their server. Our server was very kind, extremely energetic and clearly enjoys conveying extensive details about Hawaii, origin of the food and appears to appreciate connecting and talking at length, which is lovely if one is seeking that experience. If one is not, it can be a bit depleting and one finds themselves bracing each time the server returns. It appeared many people surrounding us enjoyed a tour guide server experience, however, we recommend reading the room and the guests to ensure they have the experience they are seeking. We definitely recommend Meridia, it is a lovely experience with tasteful fare and we were extremely pleased we chose this location over The Manta at the Mauna Kea. Sandra was an absolute stand out and truly made our experience. Thank...