Aloha Bayfront Cafe

Going along with most of the other reviews, we stopped in Hilo for lunch before a trip to the Botanical Gardens, and made it to Aloha Bayfront Café via Unilocal.It really hit the spot — fresh, healthy soup/​salad/​sandwich type fare with local ingredients and Hawaii-​specific drink menu. Our server was excellent and very personable. The space inside is warm and friendly. Good prices, too. Would recommend for a quick or relaxed, healthy, friendly lunch.

UPDATE: They changed their menu some so the ono onomea bay wrap we loved comes in a sandwich now between multi grain. Whhhhyyyyyyyy? If it’s not broke don’t fix it :’(
They still put it in a wrap for us upon request, but it was ridiculously much smaller than it used to be. Like eons!

We were running late after spending more time than anticipated at the Pacific Tsunami Museum. Instead of hunting around downtown Hilo for a place for lunch, we walked into the Café two doors away. The menu looked very promising, even with two kids in our party of five — organically, and interesting salads and wraps.
I ordered the Veggie Nui. My dining partners had the Cuban Midnight, the Ono Salad, and the Kalua pork wrap. The five year old opted for the pbj. Several things were quite good. My doing partners each pronounced their choices to be tasty and fresh. However, there were several areas that left me wondering about this place.
First, service was very slow. We waited twenty minutes for our food. The five year old was complaining that she was hungry. I had to ask the waitress to speed up the pbj, of all things. Second, several of us had fries. We asked for ketchup — three times. Third, my veggies Nui was like two separate meals. The wrap was cut in half and nicely presented. However, it turned out that almost all the balsamic and all of the goat cheese was in one half. The first half was like eating an undressed salad (a good salad admittedly) in a spinach. On the other e was way too much dressing and cheese on the other half.
Finally, the noise level was terrible. The place is all hard surfaces. Staff in the front were talking loudly with customers, but their voices exhorted off the hard surfaces throughout the restaurant.
Next time, perhaps we’ll order ahead and do take out. I’m not sure I would do sit down there again.

Best service I’ve had in ALL of Hawaii, and I’ve been here nearly 2 weeks now. The main server/​manager named Randy is an amazing guy! Highly suggest it!

Such a cute little restaurant with amazing food! Everything was fresh and felt very authentic to Hawaii. Make sure you try dessert– the ice cream was delicious!

Food was good, but skimpy. Yes, I realize $ 14 per sandwich is to be expected considering the locale, but they could have doubled the shot glass sized amount of cole slaw and not hurt profitability at all.
Staff was nice, bit perfunctory. Service was terribly slow. We ordered four basic sandwiches, but saw several parties that came in after us served before us.
The food was very tasty and creative, but only left me wanting an adult-​sized portion. Garnishments were skimpy (no tomatoes on sandwiches? No peppers or pickles on the side?) The cole slaw has been highly praised, and with good reason, but, again, skimpy!
I like the quality of what they provide, but the quantity and the service were seriously lacking.

Cute little place for lunch. I had turkey club with coleslaw. Really good. Love the coleslaw and I’m picky about coleslaw. Everything tastes fresh and delicious. My server was nice, she recommended that I add the Hawaii chili pepper water to my sandwich and it was a nice touch. The place is very clean and vibrant. I recommend for lunch. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is cause of the price.

My sandwich was delicious. Had the chicken bacon cheddar apple sandwich on rye and it was quite an interesting combo of flavors, and in an awesome way. I wish I could find a sandwich lick this back at home! The other food that our party ordered was also really good. Fresh ingredients, and interesting ingredient pairings. Oh yea, and they have ac so it’s really comfortable inside ;)

A cute little hole in the wall along the boardwalk. You can see the beach when you step outside and it is a beautiful scenery. I stopped by here with my friend on our way back from a botanical garden. We needed some fuel and found this place on Unilocal.We were craving something light and saw that they had fresh wraps on the menu, It was exactly what we needed. This place is super colorful and quiet since there were only one party in there with us. They also have ice cream for dessert which was delicious as well. Great service and super modern vibe.

I love this place. I wish it were near my home. We stopped here before going to hike the volcano park. Clueless, we searched Unilocal.Came here for the promise of healthy food. The house salad was really big and just what I needed after so much traditional island food. Hubby ordered the (kualana?) pork wrap. It was so good! My ideal healthy meal– beautiful pork, tossed salad greens, wrapped in a spinach wrap. I would eat this everyday. We tried to come here after our volcano hike but they were closed – dang it!

What a great find. Visiting from
Los Angeles, CA on our way to the volcano decided to stop and eat first. Service was great and food was delicious! My wife and kids loved the home made ice cream.

Drove from Kona to Hilo for the day and decided to stop in here for lunch after reading some of the Unilocal reviews and I’m glad I did! The place looked very clean and our server was super friendly. She explained everything on the menu to us thoroughly.
To drink I had the Lilly koi ice tea… not too sweet or bland… just right! We ordered the soup of the day which was a split pea soup that was just made. It was sooo good! It had crumbled bacon bits on top, and wasn’t as thick as other pea soups I’ve tried. It was really good especially because it was a little rainy on the day we came in. I then had the BLT sandwich which was tasty as well. The chips on the side were also good. The others in my party had the spinach wraps; 1 had the BLT and the other the Kahlua pork. I had a bite of each one and the wraps packed a lot of flavor and were a good size! It came with a side of coleslaw that tasted really fresh and delicious.
We were so pleased by this restaurant and the food and service and recommend it to anyone visiting the Hilo area. The menu consisted of sandwiches, wraps and salad… they had many vegetarian options as well.

We drove from Kona to Hilo, stopped to find a bathroom & look for lunch & just happened upon the Aloha Bayfront Café. I was really excited when I saw they served organic & locally grown food.
When we walked in, a group of 4 was leaving & raving about the food. They told us we couldn’t go wrong; everything they ordered had been delicious (or «Ono»).
Katraessa waited on us & Autumn was at the counter. They both were friendly & the service was fantastic. The menu contained mostly salads, sandwiches & locally made ice creams — a perfect place for lunch.
I ordered the Cuban, my Mom & sister ordered the Hawaiian Bleu & my boyfriend had a turkey spinach wrap. Everyone was happy w/​their order. If you like ice cream, this was the place to get it! We tried the toasted coconut, chocolate brownie, Kona coffee & the Mac nut — it was all good.
This place was a great find & I’m completely happy we stopped. If you’re ever in Hilo & looking for lunch, do yourself a favor & stop here!

Cute little café along the bay hence the name Aloha Bayfront Café. Very clean and the service is great. I just had The Cuban yummy!!! The ice cream is amazing.
Tends to be a hot spot for people coming in from the cruises in port.

Ughhh, I hate giving local businesses bad reviews, but there is also much that can be learned from them.
Overall, this place is very cool with some healthy food choices, but got the 1 – 2 punch combo today that inspired the following disappointment:
1. Ordered the Hawaiian Blue sandwich (for take-​out). Website says the sandwich is $ 12, but the person who picked it up for me was charged $ 14. People rely on your web menu to make take-​out orders, so it is important that the prices jive.
2. If you are going to sell a take-​out sandwich for $ 14, it needs to have some combination of the following:
— Exceptionally good taste
— Large Portion
— All (or mostly) organic and healthy ingredients
— Unique ingredients
This sandwich sounded great on paper, but it turned out to be just a bit of a bland grilled cheese with some chicken and pineapple thrown in. It could have hit the mark had it been exceptionally good, because it definitely didn’t meet the other three qualifiers… but sadly, it was just ok. Somewhat bland with decent texture.
I suspect I just picked the one item on the menu that lacks, because everyone seems to rave about everything else. So hopefully this review will help the owners sharpen their pencils on this item as well as the Menu pricing discrepancy.

Super cute, colorful little lunch café with friendly service. I ordered the Bayfront Club with chips & appreciated the fresh veggies used in the sandwich. The mango butter & herb cream cheese added a nice flavor as well. The Muffuletta sandwich was deliciously rich & cheesy — loved the focaccia bread they used.
Both sandwiches tasted great with a douse of the Big Island Peppers chili pepper water too! We went home with a bottle of our own.
We finished our lunch with the warm bread pudding dessert — so sweet topped with Tahitian vanilla bean Hilo homemade ice cream & condensed milk. Amazing. I’d highly recommend this dessert.
Prices are a little high for the portion sizes but for interesting sandwich, wraps & salad combinations featuring fresh local ingredients, it’s worth it.

Muffuletta sandwich is good, but waayyy overpriced! Couple slices of salami, one-​two slices of ham, and a bunch of different cheeses. That’s not worth $ 14.58! I could’ve gone to Puka Puka Kitchen and got a huge plate that would serve me twice. Maybe if they put more than one or two slices of ham and salami I’d give a better review. A true Muffuletta sandwich should have layers of meat. Not sure if I’ll go back. Only reason I tried was because this place looked like they have something different.

Had lunch today. The person who seated us was so mellow, made us feel so welcomed. The décor was trendy and pretty.
I ordered the Cuban, toasted sweet bread with warm pulled pork, ham and melted Swiss cheese, so yummy! I also had the Lilikoi iced tea with free refill. I usually take sugar with my tea, but liked it as it was, not sweet at all.
After reading the reviews for the key lime pie, I ordered mine to go, since I ate my whole sandwich, which was filling. I snuck a bite of the pie and it didn’t disappoint! Not too tart not too sweet, but creamy lime goodness with macadamia nut crust. Can’t wait to go home and have it with coffee.
Minus one star cause the Cuban was $ 14, and a slice of pie was $ 6, but I guess the clean and friendly atmosphere made up for it! Will be back!

Quite a while ago I did a search for places that served wraps near my office. This came up. I had never heard of it before. It had apparently only opened about 2 weeks prior. So I went and had lunch. I like the clean, chic atmosphere. It reminded me and my boyfriend of the cool coffee shops we’d go to in Chile.
I go the Onomea wrap, coffee, and key lime pie. It was all fantastic and the key lime pie is the best on the island (I try them everywhere I see them — I recently learned that they actually use limes from Key West. I had no idea that could make such a difference). I’ve only gone back a few times and usually order the same thing (because I tend to go there when I’m in the mood for a wrap). I once tried the the Bayfront Club sandwich. It was amazing! The wrap and sandwiches come with your choice of local chips or cole slaw. The cole slaw is a small serving but you really don’t need more than that. It’s light, fresh, and refreshing.
Although I first thought of it as a touristy place, I’ve seen several people I know eating there. The room is bright, the chairs and bench are all comfortable, the bathroom is very clean, and the service is excellent.

The food was amazing. Like, really, amazing. I had their cuban sandwich and I seriously wanted to order a second one right then and there.
The place is small, like really small, narrow, like maybe 12 feet wide. When we stopped in for lunch, there was one other party there but it filled up while we waited for our food. There was only one server working, and I’m guessing one person cooking in the back. The food took a long time and the service was slow but friendly. Did I mention the food was amazing?
This is a really small space, and while they were kid friendly to my kids, they only had 1 high chair so that meant lap sitting my other kid. The next group that came in with a kid was out of luck on the high chair situation.
Beverage selection was super limited which was a little disappointing but not the end of the world.