Moon & Turtle

This was a small little hole in the wall in Hilo. The menu is super short and sweet. We came here with a party of 5 and we literally ordered every dish on the menu (4 apps 4 entrees). Going off memory here (and some photos I took):
— Ono Ceviche. forgot what kind of fish, but it was really good. Had small chunks of sweet papaya in it too. Would def order again.
— Spatzle Mac and Cheese. This was a little too rich, but the cheeses were great.
— Oyster Sauce Sauté. This was ok. It was huge, with lots of fresh veggies, but nothing stand out.
— Salty Fish Fried Rice. This was not cooked well. Some of the rice kernels (maybe 5%?) were really hard. like teeth breakingly hard.
— Vegan Noodle Soup… this was ok in flavor but not my favorite.
(No pictures for these)
Yaki Udon — This was a huge portion of noodles. Nothing stand out though.
‘Spider’ sliders. Not bad. $ 16 for 2 though, not the best value.
Anyways, love the concept. just didn’t quite hit the mark with our dinner.

I went here solo, sat at the bar. It was a little crowded but the servers were attentive and the cramp-​ness suited the place. I ordered the Mac & Cheese and the Brussel Sprouts. So yummy!

Tucked away in a side street of Hilo town, this restaurant was a pleasant surprise. Their menu is divided into small (appetizer size) and large (entrée size) plates and only has 4 selections under each heading. The menu changes intermittently. Tonight we had the crispy Brussels sprouts, spider sliders, and vegan noodle soup. Would give 5 stars for innovation and 4 stars for taste (the Brussels sprouts were absolutely delicious but the spider sliders a bit disappointing). Service was attentive, décor attractive.

Food is fresh and prepared on the healthier side. Waitresses are courteous. The ingredients are of high quality and fresh. Recommended.

Mark and Soni are pac-​rim restauranteurs extraordinaire AND 21^st century entrepreneurs… all wrapped in home cooked cuisine and an endearing local style. Over the few years we have dined here, we have settled in on the smokey sashimi, the fried rice with fish and more recently, the udon yaki with the scrumptious poached egg ala loco which I love… and my wife prefers without the egg on top. All in all, a mid-​priced local fave establishment on par with Pesto and HBC for culinary creativity and prowess, but with a much friendlier hit to the wallet, very important in the east Hawaii island eatery landscape. When we feel like eating out at the drop of a hat, shorts, slippahs and T, we head for the friendly, smiling climes of Moon & Turtle…(formerly FMC)

Great take on ceviche.
We got each of the starters (four) and one entrée. Only the ceviche stood out. The rest of it was good, but nothing extremely different or exceptional. Still, probably one of the better, more solid places on the island. Incredible service. That stood out the most. I tipped about 35%, because they did such an excellent job.

What can I say that hasn’t been said by others. It is excellent food at a fair price and a cozy, intimate setting. I highly recommend it.

We visited on our first day in Hilo for dinner and were among the first to enter. It is a very nicely decorated and airy, however we were not impressed with what we ordered. The Brussels sprouts were roasted with shavings of artichokes and a fish sauce based dressing and the fried rice was cooked with some seafood and sausage but were chopped into little bits that one would be hard pressed to find them. Also the rice was whole grained and for me it was a bit hard. I cook brown rice and you have to cook it longer for it to soften and add a little more water.
We also ordered the lilikoi pie which was good and the Tahitian vanilla ice cream was also good.

Small crab burger is incredible! I don’t like burger but this! It is the best restaurant during the Hawaii trip!

Their appetizers were ALL very delicious. Their menu isn’t big. My husband decided he wanted to try all their appetizers (there were about 4 dishes) and enjoyed them all. I had a bite of each dish and loved it. I ordered a dinner entrée of their salted fish fried rice. I didn’t like it all. Overpriced for a rice dish with very little fish. I would have preferred if the fish wasn’t entirely minced up and mixed into the rice.

This place is simply the best restaurant I did in 3 weeks in Hawaii! The food of the moon and turtle is poetry in the mouth! Indeed the poke is just out of this world and the sashimi incredible! We had a hard time choosing but the waitress was very helpful and explained us that the chef was doing a local competition of the best poke! On my judgement, he should definitely win!
Not only the food is exceptional but very affordable!
I would definitely recommend this place to any gourmet reader!

We are here the last time we visited the big island about two years ago and it was my best meal of the trip. I was really excited to come back.
We started with the Ono sashimi starter and it was deliciously fresh, had an excellent texture and the spice was just enough to make it really interesting without being overwhelming.
For dinner, the BF and I both ordered the fish special: seared, crusted Ono over fingerlings and vegetables in a light tomato sauce. It was heavenly. This place has not failed to impress is yet.
Even though I was so full I was forced to let the BF finish my fish, we ordered the locally-​made salted caramel and mac nut ice cream. We’re fatties but it was worth it.

Cute little restaurant for a nicer meal without doing too much damage. 4 small dishes and 4 large dish options every day.
My BF and I were staying in kona and we tried to catch their lunch the other day during our north island drive but missed it. We only had one day left to drive to the Hilo side (going south this time) and even though we weren’t too hungry, we decided to get it to-​go instead.
We ordered the wild boar brown jasmine fried rice. It was so yummy! My BF was scared it would be too salty but it was good! I liked the crisp on parts of the rice and how the veggies were actual veggies and not frozen peas/​carrots.
Overall I wish we had more time to sit in the restaurant and really enjoy the experience but it was getting rainy and dark so we didn’t want to drive back to Kona in bad weather.
Tip: make a reservation or else you will have to wait for the bar to open up. If you are ordering to-​go, be warned that you can’t order everything off the menu apparently…

Came here for lunch on a Friday without having checked the menu first. It’s a small menu, with only 4 «small plate» options and 4 «large plate» options. I was immediately concerned. I don’t like being limited like that! Especially since most of the items on the menu didn’t seem to appeal at first glance. I was concerned and contemplated leaving. Fight or flight!!! My husband was also concerned by the lack of options, but we decided to stick it out because you never know what awesome meal can come from being pushed outside your comfort zone.
I’m glad we stuck around.
The Starter we ordered was the Smokey Sashimi. Local ahi, Kiawe smoked soy, Hawaiian chili pepper water, and extra-​virgin olive oil. It was super smokey, sitting in a thin sauce and had a nice heat to it. Good size portion for 2 hungry people. $ 13.00
My husband ordered the Mahi: Pan-​roasted local Mahi, fingerling potatoes, sweet onion and peppers, zucchini, roasted eggplant, kale, dashi tomato butter sauce. It was out of this world. I don’t love fish but I took a bite of his food and was blown away. What a delicious combination of flavours! $ 27.00
My choice was the Wild Boar Fried Rice. Garlic seasoned brown jasmine rice, Kulana wild board sausage (super small chunks of it), farmers market vegetables and fresh egg. This came in a deep bowl and is clearly intentioned to be a share plate cause it’s MASSIVE. So much food. And SO YUMMY. The flavours were bursting! Salty bits of bacony goodness and egg in every bite, with scallions and (I think) green beans. Everything was chopped up super finely so you never got a huge hunk of something that overpowered the flavour of the rest. It was sooooo good. And since it was way too much for me to eat on my own, my husband was thrilled to be able to finish my bowl. $ 15.00.
We ordered 2 beers with the meal, and the bill came to $ 69, which is more than we normally spend for lunch but well worth it. We just had a small dinner after this so it all balances out in the end :)

I could probably write a novel about all the many reasons there are to love Moon & Turtle but here are just a few:
–Hands down best service in Hilo, all the time.
–A daily changing menu made with local ingredients.
–Cute and friendly atmosphere.
–Awesome happy hour deals on their already very fairly priced food.
–Fresh and fun cocktails.
–The owners are just amazing people who are CLEARLY passionate about what they do.
–And lastly, BONE MARROW BUTTER. I’ve only ever seen it on the menu once, about a year ago (served with the best Vietnamese style stew I’ve ever tried) but I still daydream about it often, so definitely order that if given the opportunity. Life changing.

1. Excellent chefs
2. Mostly friendly staffs
3. Impeccable presentation
4. Absolutely classy
Not so beautiful location. Similar to Alan Wong but need a better coffee machine.

After seeing the great Unilocal reviews we decided to give this place a try.
The exterior is nice. Clean and tidy.
Upon entering the smallish dining room we were impressed by the overall look of the place, neat and clean, fairly subtle décor. They had old Beatles music going during our visit for lunch.
We’re were seated quickly and handed paper menus.
After a while our drink orders were taken we waited, and waited. Finally our server returns with my drink and takes our entrée orders. Market fish w/​spätzle for me ($ 25) and salted fish fried rice ($ 15) for Mrs. Then we wait, and wait…
After a while the food makes it to the table. One white bowl of food each. (See pics)
My meal was pretty good, fish cooked perfectly, light flavors overall. The Mrs enjoyed her meal also, reporting light and fresh flavors.
So, while we agreed the food was «good», the meals were fairly pedestrian. There were no, «can’t wait to come back» elements to our meals present.
Pros) Fresh tasting, light fare. Technically correct preparations.
Cons) The flavors, while good, were underwhelming. The service: slow and not «engaged». Pricing: a fish entrée and a fried rice entrée for $ 40 seemed quite high given the lack of «wow» and portion size.
Overall, we found our experience at Moon & Turtle to be quite lackluster and fairly forgettable.

We had spatzle, soft shell crab sliders, smoked sashimi, and vegan noodle soup for dinner, lilikoi pie for dessert, and to drink we had the mai tai and the market margarita. Everything was prepared excellently with high quality local ingredients and attention to presentation.
I loved that the menu was rewritten daily, and that the old menus were recycled into origami lamps!
Service was top notch.
A place like this in Manhattan would be taking reservations months in advance! Highly recommend for any foodie who finds themselves in Hilo.

I love Moon & Turtle. Thank you Unilocalers I would have totally over looked this spot if it hadn’t been for Unilocal!
Décor: 5 star. Adorable!!! Small and cutesy. Not much going on but it’s the little things that make this place memorable. Skull décor all around the rear bar was awesome, my style exactly. Cute little plants on the tables, daily printed menus, love it.
Food: 5 star. Heard the waitress telling a customer that their menu is updated daily so you walk into a surprise and obviously you come to find that they are serving the freshest ingredients daily. Everything we ordered was fantastic. Most menu items should be shared as tapas style just fyi.
Fried Mahi Mahi Sliders: out of this world!!! Crispy lightly fried fish, tomatoes, lettuce, and an amazing aioli thousand island dressing type sauce made this dish unforgettable. I could have ordered 4 more!
Portuguese Sausage & Fish fried rice: unique and very flavorful. Literally every table around us ordered this dish. Fan favorite.
Basil Iced Tea: You MUST TRY THIS!!! Trust me.
Service 4.5 star: only slight dock was our food came out before our drinks, a pet peeve of mine. If I hadn’t told the waitress we hadn’t received our drinks I doubt we would have gotten them. However they made up for this by being extremely friendly, apologized, and were extra attentive for the rest of our meal. All you can ask for when someone makes a mistake. I will definitely be back and I highly recommend if you are in Hilo make this a stop!

Asian fusion * Love the décor * Menu changes everyday
I thought the ingredients were fresh but the actual dishes were just OK. I’m just really happy sitting and soaking the ambiance. It reminded me of Bali/​Thailand but they also serve phở so yeah.
Oh, when I went it was a party of 5 and we all thought the service was definitely questionable because our server seemed so out of it and just didn’t seem nice or attentive. Finally, the manager stepped in to help with the situation on the floor and things were a little better before we got irritated haha.
The gyoza was really good and the heart of palm (HOP salad I think) is also super delicious. Highly recommend if you see those on your menu of the day.
Definitely recommend checking out think cute place in Hilo!