Kona Kitchen

The Kona Kitchen is a family owned bar and restaurant. The main attraction is the atmosphere - not the decor, which consists of autographed photos of famous people and a few surfboards hanging on the wall. The appeal comes from the laid back, dinner at your friends' house feeling of the place. If you go early enough in the evening, you are likely to see the owner's daughter racing her tricycle through the dining room. Later on there's karaoke. The menu is pretty typical bar fare, with a bit of a Hawaiian twist. It's nothing fancy, but it's pretty tasty and it's sure to hit the spot. more

I'm tempted to try and count the number of extrordinary hangover breakfasts I've had at the Kona Kitchen, but I don't want to get a headache. Let me just state for the record that the breakfast experience here is second to none. The age-old dilemma of "do I want an omelette or pancakes?" is solved by offering pancakes OR toast with your delicious omelette, and then they go ahead and throw in perfect hash browns, just to be that bitchin. Their bloody marys are wonderful, their hot chocolate comes with sprinkles (genius!), and their service is totally friendly and down-to-earth. And who doesn't want to dine in a restaurant with nearly every available inch of wallspace covered in signed celebrity photographs, including Chuck Norris and Connie Chung? That's right-- nobody. Everyone belongs at the Kona Kitchen. more

Kona Kitchen is a cozy, casual restaurant located in the Maple Leaf area. It feels like an authentic, unpretentious Hawaiian hangout. The food is really good. Their breakfast menu includes delicious, fluffy, and huge pancakes, as well as bacon, eggs, portugese sausage, and rice. The lunch and dinner menus feature some dishes that you would expect from the kitchen of a Hawaiian grandmother. They have Kalua Pig, Broke da mouth Beef Stew, and many other island favorites. They also serve the plate lunches that are common in Hawaii. These usually consist of eggs, rice, macaroni salad, and a meat dish. This is a great, family-friendly restaurant run by nice people. I just wish they offered a children's menu. more

In the odd not-quite neighborhood between Maple Leaf and Green Lake, there is a failed German restaurant that was purchased by a relatively unknown movie star (remember Karate Kid 2? I don't) and transformed it into a Hawaiian restaurant. For breakfast, they serve two of my favorite dishes that are hard to get here in the mainland. One is called "Loco Moco", it's a bowl with rice, hamburger patty, and a fried egg, all covered in brown gravy. It sounds disturbing, and it is, but it works for me. The other is fried rice with Portuguese sausage. The fact that the sausage comes from Portugal (or at least pretends to) doesn't mean as much to me as the simple fact that they'll serve you fried rice for breakfast. I got in the habit of doing that while on vacation in Hawaii, and I missed it until I found this place. They don't have a kids menu, though, so if you bring a small child, you might wind up ordering more food than they need. To make up for it, however, is a little cove near the host station with toys and kids books for the kids to play with while you're waiting. I guess it evens out. All of the people there are very friendly, and the more traditional breakfast food is good, too. I haven't come for lunch or dinner. So I can't speak to the quality of their other dishes. more