Merriman's Big Island — Restaurant in Hawaii

The reviews. The reputation. The fame. Honestly we had sky high expections having dined at Monkeypod on Maui and having a relative regularly swear by Merriman's at Kapalua. We were underwhelmed. We went for the prix fixe dinner, which we feel was overpriced. The atmosphere, for a fine dining experience is casual and noisy at best, as if the restaurant does not know whether to be upcountry farm style in a shotgun building or whether to be white tablecloth Parisian style. It was very difficult to hold a conversation and the tables were so jammed together, nearly everyone, from the customers at the next table over to the wait staff, bumped into my father-in-law. Order the famous Lilikoi foam Mai Tai! The fruity sweetness of the lilikoi foam pairs perfectly with the rum combo. A generous pour made for the best value of the evening. A $15 mai tai at a resort is probably made from a mix. A $15 mai tai at Merriman's is top of the shelf with great lilikoi foam.

Appetizers were delicious. Kalua pork quesadilla was small but packed with smokey kalua pork. The poke was very good with a nice crushed avocado (think guacamole) base and ube sweet potato chips. The Ahi, however, was cut with small pieces of Kampachi, which were tough and not as flavorful. Felt like a scam actually to pay that much and cut the poke with Kampachi. Ahi was tender and delicious.

Entrées were very good albeit small portion sizes. The day boat catch was a small portion of Mahi, which seems pretty standard around the island and was perfectly cooked (although a bit fishy and uttetly lacking in seasoning). It was served over a delicious ube sweet potato mash. The mac encrusted fish was Kampachi, which was tasty and tender this time with a nice crunchy and nutty crust. The garlic jasmine rice was kindly replaced with jalepeno mashed potatoes, which were unfortunately like a bland and slightly spicy porridge. My wife had delicious wok-seared ahi tuna which was terrific. The tiny 6 oz portion was cut into miniscule pieces for the presentation and served alongside a bok slaw, which was dominated by a minty flavor. Unable to substitute another side, she opted for an extra jalepeno mash and was heartily disappointed in them. Graciously, they were taken off our bill. The main entrees were perfectly cooked with fresh, quality local ingredients. Peter Merriman did not disappoint in this regard. The portions and quality of the sides, however, could use improvement. Whether it is the current recession or not, the $95 prix fixe felt more like a scam than overpriced. The desserts we tried were the chocolate purse--a half-dollar sized dollop of delicious local chocolate served inside what appeared (and tasted like) edible parchment paper--and tasty mac nut bread pudding. The mac nut pudding was nutty and carmelized on top, but was still, just bread pudding. Perhaps a splash of bourbon would liven it up a bit. Both served with a scoop of ice cream (little more on the mac nut pudding). I applaud the prep and local ingredients. The inflexibility and haughtiness of the chef to substitute as well as the relative small portions and somewhat boring sides really are what lead me to a disappointing 3 stars. Perhaps if we had no expectations this would be higher. Certainly not a Michelin rated restaurant! Very good but not 5 stars. On a brighter note, the fresh baked bread was fabulous as was the pink Hawaiian sea salt. Our server, Chaunte, was thorough and attentive and did her best to make the evening special, even after they forgot about my father in law's entrée. I recommend trying Merriman's yourself. I would not return for dinner, however, I would consider returning for lunch and offering...

We highly recommend Merriman’s!! This is our first time to the Big Island and a friend recommended Merriman’s to us. We are so thankful for that recommendation that we wanted to share it with others here 🙏 We spent the morning over at the farmers market at the Parker school and then headed over to Merriman’s. Highly recommend making reservations on OpenTable to ensure you don’t have to wait. It’s very popular! From the moment that we walked up to the hostess stand, we were greeted as if we were coming home. The true feeling of Aloha. We were originally going to go in and just have a late lunch before we headed back to the Kailua Kona area, but after looking at their gorgeous menu, we decided to stay longer and have a more extensive lunch. We enjoyed our conversation with our waitress Faith, who was beyond expectations, so friendly, and so truly welcoming. We ordered one thing at a time so that we could really enjoy our meal and Faith and the other servers were so happy that we were just sitting and relaxing, and there was no rush at all. How refreshing! We normally opt for a glass of wine if dining out for lunch but their cocktail menu was too beautiful to pass up. I had the No Ka Oi and my husband had the Merriman’s Barrel Aged Negroni. Unbelievably yummy!! We ended up having another they were so good! We started out sharing the soup of the day which was a mushroom soup … the best we’ve ever had! Then we ended up sharing the Kahlua Pig and Sweet Onion Quesadilla and it was perfectly proportioned and absolutely delicious … light, flavorful, a masterpiece! After that experience, we decided on lunch … I had the fish tacos and the fish of the day was Ahi. I was a little reluctant because some places overcook the eye and it ends up being very dry. This was cooked to perfection and the portion was perfect. Too light flour tortillas with the perfect amount of toppings. Absolutely incredible! My husband had the Smashburger and the temperature was perfect, it was moist, and completely devoured. Holy moly, EVERYTHING WAS SO INCREDIBLE! We were tempted to lick our plates afterwards, but refrained 😂 we knew we didn’t have room for dessert, but we took a glance at it. It looks amazing and we are hoping to get there again so that we can try a couple of the desserts. Honestly, YUM!!! We couldn’t have asked for a better experience. Everyone was so friendly when we were leaving and welcomed us back anytime. Thank you to everyone at Merriman’s (the host, the servers especially Faith, the chef and kitchen staff) for such an amazingly memorable...

This was actually my favorite meal on the big island. It seems like it’s just a small place in the middle of a bunch of ranch land but don’t let that fool you. My first surprise of the night came right after we got sat down when they asked us how many in our party would drink alcohol. They were aware we were celebrating some special occasions and told us they would bring a little something to help us celebrate. About half our party drank and the other didn’t. They ended up bringing out a lovely Prosecco for the drinkers and a refreshing house limeade for the the non. As a non-drinker, this was the first time I had seen such consideration and that level of service was consistent with the rest of night. Everyone was friendly, polite, and attentive. I also appreciated the option in the prix fixe menu to choose any two from the appetizers and desserts list since a member of my party didn’t eat sweets. As for the food, it was absolutely wonderful. For the appetizers and entrees, literally everything was cooked perfectly, the flavors blended beautifully, and the dishes had a special pizazz that made it pop out from other meals on the island. They also served us a very interesting roasted taro hummus amuse-bouche that was actually super tasty and well-liked even by those who didn’t generally favor hummus. My favorite of the night was probably the poke appetizer. I had a lot of poke on my trip but the poke at Merriman’s definitely stood out with the mix of strong seasonings, sweet and creamy avocado, and salty sweet potato chips. My only real complaint is the chocolate purse dessert was too sweet for me but I understand that may well be a personal preference. The bread pudding was lovely though and definitely one of the best...