The Seaside Restaurant and Aqua Farm

We ate at the Seaside Restaurant on our first night in Hilo. We were looking for a taste of fresh local fish and were not disappointed. Our waitress recommended the blackened ahi and the Chinese style catch of the day. Both main courses were well presented and delicious.
Disappointments? The accompanying salad was a few leaves of browning lettuce covered in dressing. Luckily the soup option, a clam chowder, was much better.
It’s a pricey option for Hilo but it was our favorite meal during our stay there.

We were on vacation during the Christmas holiday and decided to have our Christmas Day meal at Seaside.
This place has a classic charm about it that is warm and inviting.
Showing up for our reservation we see a line of folks at the door. But when we checked in, we were immediately shown to our seats.
We order drinks and appetizer to start. With this being Christmas Day and the joint packed with big groups I’m not expecting much in the way of service. But, to my surprise our server Christine was top notch. She was attentive and simply amazing.
So I order my vodka martini extra dry. It shows up «extra vermouth». Um, not even close. Christine apologizes and in seconds she brings a correct cocktail.
The calamari appetizer arrives and it’s fantastic. Served hot and cooked perfectly. Good size portion too.
My big prime rib and the Mrs salmon make it to the table right on time. Both dishes were cooked perfectly and were delicious.
We rounded out the meal with a bread pudding and ice cream. This dessert was very tasty and quite unique. Not the usual bland bread pudding we’ve previously encountered.
Overall we agreed this was a perfect restaurant for a special holiday meal.

The good:
* Old school local restaurant
* They serve aholehole!
* Friendly, attentive service
* Nice, unique view
* Quirky facilities
The bad:
* Some food taste store bought
* Quirky facilities
* Unpolished service
When on the Big Island for a quick getaway mid-​2015, the wife and I paid a visit to the Seaside Restaurant and Aqua Farm. She wanted to try it based on the recommendations of her coworkers, while I think I did try it about a decade ago on a family trip.
The restaurant is located in Hilo town near the airport. As the name implies, the restaurant has it’s own aqua farm, which contributes to the nice, unique view. The interior of the restaurant consist of multiple dining rooms with different themes and looked like converted house rooms. It could get a bit warm and there were some flies flying around, but it was nice enough.
What we ordered:
— Shrimp tempura + avocado sushi
— Salad with house dressing
— Soup of the day
— Fried Aholehole
— Pan Seared Kona Kampachi with lilikoi butter sauce
The sushi was tasty, but it was kind of hot… Not spicy hot, temperature hot, which to me is a little unusual, but not a deal killer since it’s cooked shrimp anyway. The salad and soup were unmemorable with a dressing and soup tasting like they were store bought. The best things were definitely the Pan Seared Kona Kampachi and the Fried Aholehole. The Aholehole, for me, is a nostalgic dish. It’s something my grandfather and I used to go fishing for every weekend and fry up when we got home. This version was a little drier than I’d like, but it was still good! And while we didn’t try it, we have heard good things about the prime rib here too. Perhaps next time?
Would I return here? Sure! It is a bit pricy, especially considering what you get, but hey, what would you expect from the neighbor islands? Honolulu fine dining it is not, but I certainly appreciate that old school places like this still exist.

Very disappointing. Ordered the Queens Cut Prime rib medium rare and it was rare beyond rare. We also waited such a long time to be served yet the place wasn’t busy. Sorry not going back. For such a high price I expected much better service and food quality.

Was ok good service, comparable prices food was cold but the server corrected it quickly

My husband and I had dinner reservations for the evening of Sept 4. When we arrived, the hostess acknowledged our name, looked at her reservations list and disappeared into the dining area. We thought we would be seated shortly. A few minutes later, a gentleman asked our name and we repeated our information. Meanwhile (15 min timeframe) two other parties walked in and were immediately seated. It appeared our name may not have been listed in error. Regardless, staff left us standing in the entry area and did not communicate anything to us. This was to be a very special dinner; however, we walked out and will not return as we live in California. This could have been remedied if someone would have just said something to us.

Quick lil jot before we leave ,
delicious, low key, distinct, soo ono the cooking and preparation of our main entrée dishes … My lady had the fresh Mahi encrusted with macnut, I had the Chinese fresh steamed fish (which was Kampachi
). . she says ~~ all of the flavors of the plate were very lite and rich at the same time. all the flavors provided a nice soft backdrop to the fish, everything was cooked perfectly ~ even the vegetables, with the right portion size to satisfy :). I guess I would repeat her comments. as all she said held to be true.
Atmosphere was very gentle here, a sweetness to sit by the pond around sunset. .with all the egrets landing in the tress during the changing light.
Our server Malia was very kind, hospitable and respectful ~ had a depth of knowledge as to the dishes and wine (the CF Riesling is delish). She was attentive with very good timing, and was not overbearing or pushy in any sense. display of a practiced and professional server.
we really enjoyed our time here ~~~
5’stars

This restaurant is unique because the catch the fish fresh from the pond surrounding the restaurant. You can’t get fish fresher than that. Everything is Ono including their steaks. The view overlooking the pond is just gorgeous!

Every time there is a hair on the plate you lose a star! My husband and I tried this place based on the Unilocal reviews. Overall the food was okay (average at best). The real problem we had was that we found three separate hairs during our dining experience on three different plates. We started with sushi which was fine except that I found the first hair on top of the spicy tuna roll. Next we had the shrimp bisque which was blah and also had a hair. Finally for our entrée my husband had the fried aholhole with a side of hair and I had the very over cooked macadamia crusted mahi. Now I know the hair thing may have just been a fluke but the manager or someone should have come over and apologized at the least.
In all this was a very disappointing meal. I will definitely skip this place next time I’m in Hilo!

Pros: Food is great and the sushi is reasonably priced. Air conditioned
Cons: The rest of the food is a bit over priced.
I was extremely happy with the service. Our waitress was so smiley and kind. It was the perfect way to start our vacation.

Overpriced and overrated. There was a hair in our sauce for the appetizer. The prime rib was tough, scallops we’re over cooked, (white) wine was warm, glasses we’re dirty, and the service was poor. I am not overly critical or picky, but I am shocked at the poor quality from a restaurant that charges $ 30 – 40 per person.

It has been years since I had as last here. I used to come for special dinners or birthdays and order the furikake salmon (sooooo onto). My husband and I decided to visit again for our last dinner in hilo town. Its still good.
I ordered the pan fried aholehole (my favorite fish) that was served with finely grated daikon and a lemon with the usual choice of rice or pasta and cooked veggies. It was good but the only suggestion I have is to give more lemons for the customer to make the ponzu sauce.
My husband ordered the blackened seared ahi. He enjoyed it. The only suggestion he had was to have the ahi sliced after searing as using a butter knife that was provided made it difficult to cut and eat.
The bread pudding was awesome! Great portion and very delicious.

Was told by the locals to go to Seaside. Sorry to say we were pretty disappointed. For the price we paid for our two meals it really should have been much better all the way around. I ordered bacon wrapped scallops which were very over done. The pasta that came with it was very good though. My side salad was so so. My husband ordered one of the market price fresh fish ($ 30!) and he spent the entire meal picking bones out of his mouth.
The server didn’t seem too thrilled to be there and provided service that one would expect at a diner not at a restaurant that totaled close to $ 100 for two after tip. One of the table assistants that seemed to be helping our server asked us if we wanted to go dishes when we had barely just revived our food and had practically full plates. Seemed that she was either rushing us or just didn’t pay attention to where we were with our meal.
The atmosphere and décor wasn’t very impressive including a very hot entrance way/​hostess stand area. The hostess wasn’t overly pleasant and mumbled so badly that we didn’t know whether to follow her or not.
The view out the windows along the back was on a water way of sorts but had rickety looking walkways with ugly wood and PVC pipe. Opportunity missed there.
One or two of these items alone we would have just let it slide, but there were too many issues to let this one pass with out some constructive criticism.

As others have said, the building is old and a bit run down, but after living in Hawaii for a number of years, I have learned not to let this deter me. Often the best food on the islands comes from the most dilapidated of buildings.
My family and I hopped over to Big Island from Oahu and decided to eat dinner at SeaSide on our way to Volcanoes National Park based on the reviews and the recommendations of friends. Living in Hawaii has spoiled us to good fish, and this restaurant did not live up to our expectations. We started with Ahi Poke, and it was a bit tough and pinkish in color. Good Ahi should be deep red and basically melt in your mouth. I ordered the catch of the day (mahi mahi) grilled, with the chef special– pesto macadamia sauce. The sauce was fantastic, but the mahi mahi was tough and flavorless. My husband had the NY strip steak, and that was excellent. My son had the grilled ahi, and it was so chewy that he couldn’t finish it. His keiki plate came with Mac and cheese, and it was just Kraft Mac & Cheese, and dried out at that.
Unless the restaurant goes through some major updating, in the dining room and in the kitchen, I would guess that we’ll see the end of this Hilo icon within the next decade.

This was my wife’s and I, first experience at seaside. I have to say, I really enjoyed my self. Highly recommended to everyone. They will be seeing us again. Thnx seaside for the Ono food and killah service.

Great food and great service!
The reason why I can’t give them 5 stars is because I ordered brown rice with my entrée but got white rice instead (didn’t bother to say anything cuz the plate presentation looked pretty). Aside from that minor thing, the food was delicious, fulfilling, and decently priced and servers were very kind and always on it with refilling water and checking on u

Great place to share a special dinner. The staff was very friendly and made us feel special. Menu choices were excellent!

This place had delicious meals — fresh fish done right! I don’t recall what all we specifically ordered but truly everything was perfect! Prawns dish, scallops, sushi, ono dishes — all good!

It’s been 3 years since we’ve been back to the Big Island, but we made it a point to have dinner at the Seaside after a day of hiking down at Volcanoes National Park. Fresh fish is their signature, since they have a bunch of saltwater fish ponds in the back. I don’t know how much fish they actually get out of there to serve in the restaurant because the catch of the day don’t seem to be the ones in the back. Today, they were ahi, mahi mahi and ono, which I didn’t see in the ponds without snorkeling. The view is quite picturesque though, so come here at dusk, order a cocktail and enjoy the sunset.
For dinner, we started with the clam chowder, ahi poke and warabi salad, all very tasty. At first I thought they misspelled wasabi, but apparently warabi is a fern that can be poisonous to certain animals. I’m still alive, so I guess the chef prepared it well. Chalk off another one on the dangerous cuisine menu. What’s next, fugu sashimi?
Among our entrees, the butterfish was the star at this dinner; flaky, smooth and flavorful. Too bad it was on my son’s plate and I was only able to steal just a bite. My grilled ahi was overcooked and tough, a disappointment. My wife’s grilled mahi mahi was cooked very well though. She charitably pushed some onto my plate and I pushed some of my ahi onto hers to share my misfortune. I might have to just order the prime rib next time, which goes against my every fiber in eating at a seafood restaurant, but I heard that it’s pretty good, so what the hey. Too bad we didn’t have room for dessert though. The Volcano cake looked killer.

Beautiful view and excellent food, but I can’t say it deserves a full 5 stars… I would give them a 4.5 stars If I could.
Location in Hilo is great. You can get there in about 5 – 10 minutes regardless of where you are staying.
I guess my number one negatives was I did not get the warm and fuzzy feelings from my server or the other people working there. Some place like Seaside could be spot on perfect if the waiters connected more with us. They were not bad, but they were not gushing with enthusiasm either.
I also made the mistake by ordering the Salmon, which was yummy, but I think a steak would have been better.
The GFF loved her dish.
Interior was slightly dated, but not bad.
Loved the fish ponds but once the sun had set, we could not see outside because of the interior lighting of the restaurant.
A few tea-​tree lights would make the lake stunning!