Keei Cafe

This restaurant is excellent. Run by a husband, wife and son trio. Nice wine list and great food.
Highly recommend.

A very special place. Starting with the hospitable owner (Bob) and staff, serving up top notch food, drink, and desserts make this restaurant a must visit *twice* on every visit to the Big Island. The fresh Ahi Katzu appetizer with wasabi butter is insane, as is the seared Ahi entrée (when it’s the catch of the day). I had it with the lilikoi ginger sauce and just about fell off my chair it was so delicious. The lilikoi cheesecake and the dark chocolate mousse cake a la mode makes for some serious food memory. The Mai Tai’s here are some of the best on the island (ask to add some amerreto!). My word I can’t wait to get back…

Sadly, I have to decrease my rating. The food is excellent and we finish everything but they are terribly understaffed.
During our dinner, several tables had to help themselves or wave down staff to help them. A couple of people with reservations left because they were waiting too long. Several tables went uncleared while others were waiting.
I hope they can staff up because they could turn over a lot of tables with more staff.

When I imagine the perfect dinner for my wife and I’s honeymoon, the Keei Café is it. The food was excellent. The décor was stylish, but not overpowering. Open dining room with an intimate balcony. And, of course, two very talented guitarists providing musical accompaniment to the meal. I only wish there were ten more places like this so that visitors to the seafront Kona tourist-​meal-​troughs could see what fine Island dining is all about.

Nice place, fresh healthy food, good service.
But I was not impressed. Almost the same food I cook at home, the same ingredients. A little overpriced for that kind of place and location.
I was expecting more.
Live music creates a romantic atmosphere.
Make sure you have cash, because no credit cards are accepted there.
Don’t really understand why are they closed on Sundays.
Took us a while till we were able to schedule our dinner there.

Wir waren hier essen obwohl der Name Café eigentlich was anderes vermuten lässt. Es ist empfehlenswert zu reservieren und braucht dann noch ein bisschen Glück einen Parkplatz zu bekommen. Es ist nett eingerichtet, die Bedienung ist zuvorkommend und schnell. Es gibt live Musik aber nicht sehr viele Plätze. Die Karte ist auch nicht so groß, aber ausreichend um für jeden etwas zu finden. Die Preise sind eher weiter oben angesiedelt.
Ganz untypisch für die USA, man kann nicht mit Kreditkarte bezahlen. Es ist aber ein Geldautomat im Restaurant vorhanden.

Best food on Kona. quiet, relaxed environment, well worth your time. Grilled pork chops, my absolute favorite. .done to perfection..

We were not satisfied. Although there are definitely good points, there is a lot of room for improvement.
Good:
— Small, traditional, moderately priced menu.
— Veggies and mashed potatoes very well executed, well seasoned.
— Nice cut of Ahi.
— Yummie cheesecake!
— Live music.
Not good:
— Waited 20min before they took our order (place wasn’t that busy — about 5 tables occupied)
— After ordering we waited another 30min for the food, drinks (glass of wine and a lemonade) came even later.
— We asked for seared Ahi, it was well done.
— The glass of wine came with 2 flies.
— After mentioning the above to the waitress, she apologized and offered desserts on the house. Yet one dessert still found its way to the bill…
— They don’t take credit cards, which is fine if you have a working atm nearby. They have an atm, but it wasn’t working, so my husband had to drive to the nearest bank.
The food was ok, restaurant has a lot of potential. We were looking for a good restaurant to end our vacation, unfortunately expectations weren’t met.

Great place for a casual breakfast. Great food, attitude and service.

This is our go to restaurant for special get-​togethers. Yes the service can be slow but honestly that is one of the reasons we dine there, to relax and enjoy the food, wine & company of whoever we are having dinner with. You can bring your own wine (there may be a small corking fee) and the food has always been very fresh and consistent. The ribeye portion is large enough to share and is some of the best I have had. I can not resisit the Coconut Flan that comes with a delicate lilikoi sauce… AMAZING! Bring cash and they do accept our local check when we have large parties.

The food was just OK and the service was pretty bad. The atmosphere of the restaurant is also just OK. The average age of the diners was around ~70 when we dined there and we did not feel like we were quite welcome. Also, it seems best to stick with the fish special as the other things we ordered were quite disappointing. I wouldn’t recommend this restaurant if you are looking for a romantic dinner.

Great food, fun creative and delish! They have definitely improved since I last went in, 2 years ago. The dishes were all reasonably priced, portions are good and the flavored are spot on. We had duck, catch of the day spear fish in a lemon caper sauce and pork chops in a peppercorn sauce. Along with the baked Brie a coup of soup and a salad with a fantastic vinaigrette. Patrons beware this café only accepts cash and it is a fairly small seating area so I would advise making reservations. The café could use another waitress. We went in on a Wednesday night and our apps did not come out at the same time, we had to remind the waitress we had ordered the soup. Also the waitress needed reminding about our drinks. The last thing that bothered me was the salad plate along with other dirty dishes were left on the table when out entrees were brought out, that is a pet peeve of mine. Overall dinner was nice!

This was a tough one. The facility i wld gve a 5. The service 4.8. The music a 7. The menu is upscale hawaii. However the product on the beef was bad. Should have been ground for hamburger. Very grissly. That makes me question the QC.
The cash only is announced on the door and on the menu and there is an atm in the lobby. I would go back. Maybe ask the chef if the items have been sampled. Other wise i would give it a 5

Lovely atmosphere with a great view of the sunset if you get there early enough. When we went, they had live Hawaiian music, played at just the right noise level– really lovely. The food was awesome!
The only reason I didn’t do 5 stars was because the night we were there, they must have been short staffed. Although the staff that was there did a great job running like crazy to get everyone served, we did not get the attentive type of service you expect when paying for fine dining.

Ke’ei café was really hit-​or-​miss. I would give this 3.5 stars if we could do ½ stars. I hadn’t been here in years, but I remember it from when it was a BYOB hole-​in-​the-​wall in Kona’s old industrial area with plastic patio chairs and amazing food.
The new location, where it has been for many years, is beautiful; the décor and furniture are great, and the lighting and volume of music are also perfect for a wonderful dining experience. The service can be a bit slow, but I prefer this to being rushed through my meal, so it was perfect for me. Also, if you go here you should know they don’t take credit cards.
We started with two appetizers, the eggplant rolls and the crab cakes, which were both very good. They also have a nice wine list with some thoughtful selections, but not an overwhelming long «everything but the kitchen sink list,» which I don’t like. Then, I ordered the Brazilian seafood chowder. This chowder was the main reason I wanted to come back to Ke’ei café. I remember it from years ago as being the best tomato-​based seafood chowder I’d ever had. Unfortunately, either the chef or the recipe had changed. The soup came with a layer of oil floating on top, along with a big dollop of pesto (WHY do people ruin/​muddle soups by insisting on putting pesto on top? Pesto does NOT go with everything; especially not seafood chowder!) The broth was relatively flavorless, and the vegetable chunks in the soup were oddly crunchy and out of place. There were so clams and chunks of fish and a shrimp in my soup, but, despite this, the seafood flavor was lacking.
Here’s how I remember the soup: It used to have a much clearer, lighter tomato broth, with a nice fishy flavor, and came with clams and mussels along with maybe a chunk of fish or a scallop as well. It wasn’t confused with so much oil, pesto, and chopped veggies added in. It was much simpler, but the flavors were infinitely brighter and cleaner and more delicious. If the chef or anyone who knows the chef is reading this PLEASE reconsider that dreadful soup recipe and bring back the old one!
So, on to entrees: there were three of us so between us we tried the seared ahi with the thai curry preparation, the lamb chops, and ono with the preparation of salad with peanut dressing. The seared ahi/​thai curry and the lamb chops were both EXCELLENT and I highly recommend trying them. The Ono, on the other hand, was overcooked, chewy, and salty, but otherwise unseasoned. It came on a bed of undressed lettuce (Not sure one would really call that a salad as there was ONLY lettuce – only one kind of greens – and nothing else.) The peanut dressing came on the side and was also remarkable salty. Overall, the Ono dish was pretty terrible. Even if the fish had been properly cooked, the preparation was still to toss it on a bed of undressed bland lettuce with some salty peanut sauce on the side – really not worth the catch-​of-​the day entrée price of around $ 30. The contrast between how good the other two entrees we ordered were, and how bad this one was, was shocking. I felt really sad for my friend who made the mistake of ordering the ono.
So, there you have it. Ke’ei café has a gorgeous setting and ambiance, but is very hit-​or-​miss on the quality of the food. Still, it’s worth taking a chance on. The dishes that were good were superb. Hopefully, you’ll order one of those.

We were trying so hard to like this place! First of all, it’s cash only. That’s fine, but the only indication is a tiny sign near the door. The ambiance is nice, but the service is so slow. There was only one server for the entire place on a busy Friday evening. She was very kind, but we spent a lot of time waiting around.
Our appetizer arrived with our main course and I’m not sure if that was because of the kitchen or the over extended server. The food was hit or miss. I had the bean soup and it was terrible. It tasted like someone dumped a can of black beans into a bowl, microwaved it, and then let it sit for a long time. It had no seasoning. It was supposed to come with salsa, sour cream, and a tortilla, but arrived with nothing. I had requested no salsa, but was counting on the sour cream and tortilla. The peanut miso salad, however, was good.
Of the other items ordered at my table, the French onion soup was barely room temperature and the cheese was not at all melted — it was just a brick of cheese floating at the top. The fish was significantly under cooked, but once it came back fully cooked, was good. The pasta primavera (with chicken and pesto) was bland at best. The pork chops were good, though.
For what was paid for our meal and drinks, we all left severely disappointed. I would not recommend this place.

Although this place is call ‘Café’, like many places in Hawaii, a café sometimes is more like a bistro. This one is a Brazilian Hawaiian fusion restaurant. Owner Bob and his wife (the one who has the Brazilian connection) created a casual chic ambiance with a colorful menu.
This was my favorite restaurant in Captain Cook. It also has a veranda where you can get more fresh air. There is also a Hawaiian gentleman at night in the weekend who play guitar and sing mellow songs.
The food is very good and generous portion, I had the most wonder Shrimp Coconut Rice Cake, is like a crab cake, but with shrimp and coconut. The Tuna Sashimi was so fresh that I can still taste the sea. The organic green salad comes with a fruity dressing. The Grilled Chicken was as big as the plate (as you can see in the photo), and my seared Ahi Tuna with Rice and Vegetable was light, fresh, seasoned well and cooked well.
It is more pricey than other place in Captain Cook, but it is well worth it.

Best food we had on the Big Island — the pineapple pork chop entrée was GREAT
Good wine selection, excellent dessert menu with splendid French press coffee from local coffee growers
So glad out B&B hosts recommended this place to is.
***the only thing bad thing I can honestly say is that it was cash only, with some of the entrees being $ 20 or more this made no sense to me. I live on NS Oahu and even the food trucks have switched to the CC iPad option in order to allow customers to use cards!***

This is a really comfortable, quiet place to enjoy a fine dinner in Captain Cook. We ate here twice on our visit and I would definitely return.
I ate a regular menu item one night and the special on the next visit and both were wonderful. Dessert both nights… couldn’t resist!
The staff is friendly, the service is great and there’s even some unobtrusive live entertainment, or you can eat on the outdoor balcony for a more intimate experience with the wild sounds of the Big Island.

We love Ke’ei Café! The last time
we were in the Big Island we visited this place twice. We had the stuffed eggplant roles with cous cous which were amazing. We also shared a curry dish and amazing black bean soup. Topped the night off with an incredible mango cobbler. Don’t miss this place! Atmosphere is gorgeous and service was great!

I had a very good dinner a couple of months ago at Keei Café and have been meaning to go back.
The food is good, the décor is beautiful and the service is good. The male singer/​guitar player was actually very talented performing jazz and Hawaiian music. He was my favorite part of the experience.
We had the eggplant rolls, the pasta primavera and the lamb chops (which were done to perfection) over yummy mash potatoes.
Keei is good for the Kona area, but it does not compete with fine dining elsewhere. If you are a «foody» you will like this place, but you will not be inspired or crave any of the dishes afterwards.
The best part about Keei Café is the music and the décor.