Kenichi Pacific

Worth service ever.
Waitress didn’t listen and brought wrong food and up set. Since then big time bad attitude!
This restaurant is Japanese food but they don’t get training what is important for service!
I guess owner don’t care because he can get always new tourist or who don’t care cold hot tea.
Food was good but service was tooooooo bad!
I will go back to see how they gonna improve.
I told manager so we see how they care there business!

Sushi was excellent, especially the rainbow roll. Dynamite shrimp was excellent as well. Taste and presentation do not fit description on menu. Crab cakes in bird nest phyllo dough wonderful. Amber our server was pleasant, personable and very charming. We went for the happy hour, sauvignon blanc wine, crisp, cold and perfect. We dined outside, quiet, comfortable and pleasant. Highly recommend Kenichi for Sushi and fine Asian dining lovers.

It was my kid’s 17^th birthday and the only thing she had been bugging us about while in Hawaii– sushi. So… what the birthday girl wants, the birthday girls gets (within reason).
Noticed this place the first night in Kona and saw their daily Happy Hour sign. I’m always down for some discounted food and drinks. ALWAYS.
First up: miso soup. OMG, it’s good. Rare to the day do I rave about miso soup cause it’s usually watery, flavorless, and not memorable… but Kenichi’s is so damn good– so flavorful and not too salty. Our kids ordered two each. It was that good.
For starters, we got the Tenderloin Carpaccio and the Firecracker Shrimp. YUM!
Then came the rolls– we ordered like 6 or so. Our favorite was the Kenichi Special-​snow crab, tuna, cucumber, avocado, and smelt eggs on top. Second fave… the Rainbow Roll. The Tempura Shrimp is always a family fave of ours because everyone in the family will eat it: it’s like little kid approved.
We also tried the Hawaiian Roll-​Yellowtail, Serrano Chili, and Pineapple… not gonna lie, not a fan of mixing pineapple with meals but the b-​day girl was feeling adventurous.
They also have a pretty good chocolate lava cake… that is, if you have enough room in your belly.

Food is excellent. Service is excellent. We had seared ahi tuna with yummy spinach and mushrooms all over mashed potatoes. We also had the avacodo salad. The avacodo was creamy and delicious. The sushi roles were ok. Service is excellent.

We came across place due to its upscale look and outside seating. On the positive side, amazing atmosphere, friendly staff, indoors outdoors and bar seating are available. On the negative side though, we did not like the sushi dinner we ordered. Sushi menu is kind of limited but we just chose salmon skin roll California roll and spider roll. The sushi was pretty thin and loose. The seaweed tasted weird and the soy sauce was too salty. We always say you can’t go wrong with sushi but that’s the best place honestly. Hawaii supposed to have the best seafood selection and sushi taste very different in a weird way at the place. Look for another restaurant or come here just for drinks!

Wife’s meal arrived 10 minutes before mine, bland Ono and a very small serving. I had the Lamb, mostly chewy fat. High price and low quality!

Absolutely awful service. The franchise should salvage this place by firing the entire staff and management!!! Disgusting!

We had the dynamite shrimp appetizer a salad and the cod which were excellent. As a main course we choose the lamb, it was the best lamb we ever had. We decided on the chocolate soufflé for desert and it was amazing. The service was awesome. This is one of my favorite restaurants on the island.

We were so disappointed with our visit this time. The service was slow. Everyone had their food except me and I had to wait 5 minutes more before they brought my house special sushi roll! My son and his wife ordered the country dinner with the tempura. The tempura arrived 10 minutes before the rest of their dinner, instead of all together, very strange. The tempura was okay, not nearly as good as Teshima’s and way more expensive. Just one shrimp, a few small veggies and a blooming onion. My husbands avocado mac salad arrived looking very disappointing, a glop of mashed avocado dropped in the middle of some greens with no dressing. We won’t be returning, the quality here has deteriorated.

Best Happy Hour on the island! Good fresh sushi, 50% rolls, $ 3.50 beers, and beautiful presentation!
The ambiance is casual but nice. Great to go on a date or bring the whole family.
I highly recommend this spot! Aloha :)

This place was really good. We had the steak carpaccio, pork belly apetizer, duck confit and 2 sushi rolls. We went later so it wasn’t that busy

This is really two restaurants, so you have to take that in to account when you read these reviews. I wasn’t there for happy hour; I went to the regular restaurant, and I didn’t have any sushi. For starters, I had an amazing avocado and macadamia nut salad. Delicious. For the main course, duck — get it! You won’t regret it. Dessert — tempura fried ice cream. Get it! — you might regret it from a calorie perspective, but it was delicious. I was extremely hungry after a full day of hiking, and I really appreciated how quickly the food came out, but still made to perfection. Plus, I had forgotten my wallet, and the restaurant was totally cool about it. Went back to my hotel to get the wallet, and they were very gracious when I returned. I think this place is really underrated by other reviewers. I thought it was amazing.

Yikes is this sushi bad. They take the prize for worst sushi I have ever had. We came for the happy hour as a local recommended it but they could give me their sushi for free and I would not come back.
First red flag was no sushi bar and sushi maker preparing the sushi for you to see. Everything is done in back kitchen. First sushi place I have ever been to with this setup.
Second red flag– edamame served ice cold and hard with no salt on it. Gross!
Third red flag– no iced green tea and the hot green tea tasted like burnt popcorn. How they managed to ruin green tea amazes me.
We ordered 5 rolls and all were from bad to terrible. Aspen roll was so salty it was inedible. Rainbow roll served with a gross mayo based dressing inside. Who makes a rainbow roll w/​mayo in it?!
Don’t make the same mistake as us and waste a meal on this beautiful island at this place.

Very good, and very fast. Only a modest selection of rolls, but a huge selection of sushi. Nice wine list, too
I saw several people around get tempura, too, and they said it was good also.
40% off sushi ‘happy hour’ in the bar and outside from 5 to 6:30 everyday, too. Packs the people in.

I came during happy hour which was from 5 to 6:30. Lots of the rolls are 50% off and very good. I got the rainbow and Hawaiian. I tried some of the shrimp appetizers and they were all very good

The good bits:
— Our server, Natalie, was nice, attentive and did a very good job
— The Dynamite Shrimp was tasty
— The restaurant is located near our complex
— Open until 9pm
The nasty bits:
— We ordered the nightly special roll. It contained tempura sweet potato, which sounded interesting and creative. The roll, specifically the ingredients inside the roll tasted like they had been made the day before, stale and soggy. The nori on the exterior of the roll was soggy and chewy
— The rainbow roll was ok, except that the salmon tasted a day or so pasted it’s prime
— We ordered Toro, which, at every other of the hundreds of sushi restaurants I’ve been to, is assumed to be Maguro Toro. Without mentioning it, they brought us Hamachi Toro. It was good, but Hamachi Toro is not even in the same class as Maguro Toro… they should have let us know
— The salmon and avocado roll was not great. The salmon was not the best and the nori was stale and chewy
— The Austin roll was decent, but still tasted like the ingredients had been made way ahead of time and did not taste fresh
My advice to staff, do the extra work to make every roll fresh and amazing. Short-​cutting does not go unnoticed.

We’re sushi snobs but this place was decent. The mac nut salad was too salty, needed a little sweet maybe? The rolls were good.
The tempura veggies were good, the poki was salty again but still good. Maybe we were just starving.
The gentlemen next to me got the mac nut crusted lamb which looked amazing and he cleaned his plate!

Not a big fan of how these guys run their business. They have two locations attached by a single door. ONE has rolls and appetizers for half price for happy hour but only if you can find a seat. 30 minutes after opening all the seats on the cheap side are full but there is plenty of seating 20 feet away if you want to pay 2x as much. This setup strikes me as deceptive, dissapointing and very baitnswitch.
While the food is ok, it’s nothing so special as to be worth feeling manipulated.

This is an excellent place to eat. There is a limited selection of restaurants in Kona and most are overpriced and poor quality. This place is convenient to town and does not disappoint. I had dinner here three times within 10 days. I had the lamb, fresh catch, and steak– all meals were outstanding. The portion size was generous and appropriate. The flavors are inventive and hip, but not strange. I tried some of the sashimi, it was also excellent. Really on point! The service was friendly, accommodating, and prompt.
The price point is about $ 50 per person for a complete meal. We shared appetizers and salads and ordered cocktails. The cocktails were slightly disappointing as they didn’t live up to their descriptions on the menu. (Not as fruity and flavorful as I expected, and tending to be weak pours) However, that may be my personal preference. I was completely satisfied with the wine and beer selections the other evenings.
I hope this place continues on as they are, they have a good thing going.

Returned Jan 2015
Good but not exceptional
Tako sunomon ordered with octopus was good
Calamari was ok
Avocado macadamian nut salad with duck confit although not bad didn’t seem like a good match/​combo
Avocado macadamian salad by itself was tasty (very rich feel)

Pros: Very good sushi and pretty good avocado macadamia salad. Nice sushi bar style ambiente. Friendly staff.
Cons: The one time I went, the staff was not capable of handling all guests, the place was quite busy. Although not during happy hour. Bring time to wait for food about half an hour; my salad came 10 minutes later than my sushi. Also kind of pricy.