Ma’ona Restaurant & Grill

Love this place. Found it by chance last year. Glad to see it was still in business. Friendly staff. We order the local meals. Very tasty. They get a lot of takeouts. Never been crowded when we been in. The crispy chicken and oyster sauce is a favorite.

What a pleasant experience! Excellent service and good local food. I can recommend the Aloha Mix Plate with laulau, chicken and fish. Yummy.
My only complaint is that I wish they would get the air conditioning fixed for hot days.

Ma’ona has always been a favorite of mine here in Hilo since I first had one of their burgers. Juicy, seasoned well, and cooked to perfection, they’re just plain ‘ol good burgers! I’ve been here numerous times, all around dinner time. There’s never much of a crowd around during that time of day, so the service you get is exceptional since staff isn’t running around trying to tend to a million different people. Of course, I’m sure it would be great either way. I’m a creature of habit, so I tend to go for the same kinds of burgers. Since coming here I’ve had only the bacon cheeseburger and the baby bleu burger. In both cases, you get a burger with generous amounts of cheese (as you should with any truly good burger) and a heap of nice thick french fries! Now there’s only so much you can say to describe a burger, so just take my word for it. These things are good. I would very highly recommend making this place a stop if you’re in the area and looking for a quality burger and a full stomach! I’d also try to drop by later in the day, so as to avoid a crowded lunch-​rush.

Great service with a smile! The food was ono! I had the oyster chicken salad and I must say the oyster chicken is awesome! My daughter had chicken katsu and loved it.

This place is my Friday night «Beer & Burger» night place to go! I always order the Calamari Rings and a Longboard to start. The waitresses and kitchen staff are super friendly and make you feel so welcomed as soon as you walk in. If you’re wanting an awesome burger but can’t decide, order «The Bomb»…You will not be disappointed!

5 stars for awesome service that made all the difference. Waitress did everything right, from showing and selling us on the menu when we first peered in the door to the (at that time) empty restaurant, to recommending popular menu items and just being darned nice. And while we were the first patrons sitting in the dining room, it did fill up and they were also doing a steady stream of take-​out business.
Burgers are 100% grass fed Big Island beef and at ½ pound for $ 8.95 with fries seemed like a good deal compared to the inflating burger prices I’ve seen elsewhere. My friend loved his burger; I had a two choice up-​scale plate lunch with roast pork and garlic chicken. It was a nice thick slice of roast pork with gravy and a good size portion of garlic chicken. Waitress willingly substituted green salad for rice, and drink refills were free and plentiful. So we had a great dinner with beverages, tax and healthy tip for about $ 26.
What would I want to see as improvements? I didn’t see any desserts on the menu or on the table. And I still don’t like the ambiance; the bar area is downright sad and I can’t take all the yellow. So I still want to give the place a makeover. And I’d like to see a little more creativity in the burgers like Honolulu Burger Company. But this is now my #1 spot in Hilo for a burger.

M a’ona is now serving desserts. Today they have Strawberry Cheesecake on Shortbread & Sweet Potato Haupia Pie…

My comments are mainly on the food of this restaurant and grill. Walking into the place, it is empty and we get seated right away. The woman serving us was a very good waitress and was impressed on her promptness. The food however is a totally different story. I ordered their special BBQ burger and my companion order the Loco Moco. My companion commented that the burger in her Loco Moco was cooked to the point where it turned hard (she ordered it medium well done). My BBQ burger tasted okay, nothing spectacular. I ordered it medium rare and it was slightly pink when I got it. 4 hours after this visit, I had stomach pains. Dinner was the only meal I had besides breakfast that day. Comes to find out I had food poisoning from the BBQ burger. I do not recommend this restaurant and I’m afraid to go back.

Not up to par with other «gourmet» burgers I have tried. I found it strange that they start with such great big island, grass fed, beef, then adorn it with sub par ingredients like American cheese, and canned mushrooms. Opted for the chicken sandwich, which I wished was juicier and had more flavor. Only ate half. Dining partner got a burger and was disappointed with it. Come on guys, it’s the big Island, use fresh, local ingredients! They’re everywhere!

Re loco moco: We asked for a medium cooked cooked patty and received a well done burnt patty :(the dish wasn’t really all that flavorful.
Re oyster chix: pan fried drizzled with something that tastes like mcdonalds secret sauce. I didn’t care for it.
We won’t be back
But I must say — the service is great and friendly. Exactly what you’d expect from the local area :)

Had the «bomb» burger medium rare. Just pink in the middle– just right in my book. The meat was very tasty– not the usual Safeway type hamburger meat taste.
Tried the oyster sauce chicken. It was ok. A bit too salty and greasy fried. We also had the calamari– that was really good. Would go back for the burgers and calamari. Made reservations for Friday nite. Didn’t need to– at 5:30, the place was pretty empty.

My husband and I decided to go with the specials. I had the blackened Ono with quinoa salad. The fish was seasoned really good but it was a really thin cut piece. The salad in itself was fresh and crispy. I had it with the house dressing which I really liked. My husband had the laulau and kalua/​cabbage combo, he said it was meh. It had A LOT of juices so the rice was kinda soggy. I’m gonna give them one more try and next time try the burgers.

I took the Unilocaler’s recommendation for Ma’ona and wasn’t dissapointed. When I saw the evening’s specials, I thought that maybe I wouldn’t get a burger… they had a lot that looked good. But after considering the reviews, I decided to stick to my guns and get the Da Bomb Burger. My friend got laulau, and my wife got beef tomato.
Our food came out and normally we would all share, but not this time. Once I took that first bite of my burger I understood what everyone was talking about… sooooo good! I really like that the patty is seasoned well (dry rubbed?), oh and also that it’s large. With all the toppings, this makes for a delicious, meaty, mouthful of greatness. I was on the fence of ordering it medium rare, but I ordered medium instead… it came out medium rare (IMO). This was fine with me because it was juicy and perfect. I ordered my fries well done and they were happy to oblige. I only made it about half way through my fries because I was so full, but the rest of the table killed off the rest.
Yes, I will be back for the burger. 4 stars

this is only because of that ridiculous oyster chix plate they make! FORGET THE BURGER (IMO it’s not as good as folks are claiming)… i was just sad that i got suckered into the burger when i could have had a plate of that chix all to my piggie self! oink. i only managed a taste or two from my aunty’s plate. and here i was thinking… aunty, seriously? how can oyster chix be that good? (well don’t underestimate the power of maona’s oyster chix. you fool)
this place is in a mall and in the weirdest ally that if you didn’t know where it was you’d simply walk by not noticing it. they do have signage but if you aren’t paying attention it’s easily missed.
just go in and order that oyster chix plate– you’ll understand me.

The burgers are very good but they no longer serve them with their steak fries! What happened to the Maona’s from downtown hilo that we all loved so much?! Crinkle cut frozen fries are NOT, I repeat, NOT the same as fresh steak fries. Anyway, my low rating is not because of my whining that there’s no steak fries: P it’s because I ordered a chicken salad today and found that it hadn’t been washed!!! If I was eating my $ 8.50 sad dirty salad in the dark, I wouldn’t have had a problem
.but they didn’t count on the fact that I have eyes and could see the obvious DIRT on my lettuce! Wth?! First of all, it wasn’t even worth $ 8.50, and to make it worse it was dirty! I was so pissed! I posted a pic of the dirt on my lettuce and the salad. It looks decent, but it’s really not that great. Ok, so I know I’m basing this review off of something you would most likely not order at a burger restaurant, but it shows how dirty everything else might be too! You’re probably eating unwashed veggies on your burger. I’ve worked in a grocery produce department for the last 7 years… I know how dirty these veggies are. I scrub mine with soap and a sponge!

If you like a good burger asI do, then this is the place for you. The new location in the Hilo Shopping Center lacks much of the charm found in the old Kam Ave. location but the burgers have lost nothing in the move! While in Hilo we ate here 3 times. We tried the regular cheeseburger, the spicy burger and the blue cheese burger. It was really hard to pick a favorite. Other reviews are correct in that they no longer serve the steak fries that were a staple in the old location but the the current offering is just fine, thank you.
Liked the place so much, I bought a tee shirt to wear at home.
Great job, Chef!

Ive been wanting to go here for awhile being that i love me a good burger. Let me say that i couldn’t even stomach two bites of my burger.
Thankfully i ordered myself a beer because that was the highlight of my lunch.
I ordered the Da Bomb burger and it was very far from being «DA BOMB».
The burgers have a very different taste to them. I tried my boyfriends BBQ burger and it wasn’t very good either. This was a disappointment.
I’m sorry Maona. we will not be returning.

2^nd time trying Ma’ona because I wanted to get a burger! I’ve read mixed reviews on the burgers so I just had to find out for myself :} The bf & I went for dinner around 7:30. It was empty, there were like 2 other tables dining there. Good service, but even though it was empty, it took awhile to get our food.
I got the bacon cheeseburger. I asked for medium-​well, but it was wellll-​done. So it was more on the dry side. The bacon wasn’t cripsy-​crispy, but I’m just picky about bacon I guess… I don’t like floppy bacon: P Overall the flavor of the burger was okay. The steak fries were good, but not the best fries I’ve had — I was expecting them to be super good because my friends rave about them. The bf had the angel hair pasta with shrimp, which was really good, but I feel like it was a small portion, or maybe it’s just because the plate itself was small.
Overall I wasn’t too impressed with my burger. Maybe I need to try a different one. I still would rather go to Cronie’s for a great bacon cheeseburger though ;P

First time I went to maona, I ordered Korean chicken. It was pretty good! Not salty or oily like some of other Korean chicken I’ve tried!
When I went on Monday, I ordered bacon mushroom Swiss burger. I am not really burger person but it was alright. Their steak fries are really good though!!:) I would probably go cronies for burger lol

Went there yesternight with my boyfriend for dinner. I wanted to try it since I never got to try it when it was a lunch counter.
The place is located in a nook of the Hilo shopping center, next to Island Naturals. The restaurant itself is pretty roomy, with potential to put more tables in. Currently they have it set up pretty openly, so it isn’t overly crowded.
My thoughts on the place: I ordered the slider sampler, which I thought tasted a little weird with the sweetbread buns. They were the taro flavored ones that are extremely sweet and didn’t really match the burger flavors. The burgers were cooked and flavored perfectly, though. I tried a bite of my boyfriend’s «Da Bomb» burger, which simply was da bomb. It is a combination of all their burger toppings on one massive burger. Yum yum. He was very satisfied with it as well. The steak fries are good but with the massiveness of the burger, they are overkill in the quantity given and the thickness of their cut.
Overall, I thought it was a good burger place. Prices were reasonable for the portions given. You will not leave hungry. I will order Da Bomb next time.
My recommendations: Get your liquor license and turn it into a bar-​restaurant-​grill. At least serve beer and wine. Also, they could distinguish themselves even more if they had a signature sauce as an option for their fries and burgers, just to make it an even more unique burger place. This is also just my opinion, but the place could use some flair. It is decorated, but it is missing personality. The ambiance was a little stale, in my opinion. The music was barely audible and was just sounded like KWXX jawaiian. The décor was reminiscent of an old fashioned diner with some pretty orchids, but it was missing style. The cups were red plastic coke cups. Its a place I can see myself getting to go more often than eating in the restaurant.
Perhaps it is because they are still fresh in their new location, but it was a Friday night, and there were only 2 other tables occupied in a restaurant with triple that amount of tables. They are still new, so they have potential. I’m holding back that one star to see how they progress.
They are 4 stars within the genre of burger restaurants. As far as restaurants in general, it would probably be closer to 2.5 stars to me.