‘ULU Ocean Grill + Sushi Lounge

Ambiance: Excellent. Party of 14 seated beach side. Hearing the waves gently crash on the sand.
Service: First-​class. Very attentive to the table’s needs.
Food: Delicious. Snapper on coconut curry was phenomenal.

Fine dining on the big island overlooking the water. Whole experience here was excellent. Started with oysters and kanpachi with truffle Ponzi — delicious. For mains we had lobster tails which were fabulous and my favorite and the charred hapu’upu’u which was also delicious. You got a lot of lobster for the price — we ate at most of the other fine dining options within 50 miles and this was by far the most delicious and biggest portion. We got a side of mushroom fried rich which was nothing special and could probably do without — seemed like it was just sitting in the kitchen. The view is great and they light up the sea which really adds to the ambiance. Would certainly go back.

This place is very fancy. The beach view is absolutely beautiful. It was too expensive, though. My sister got the Miso Glazed Kampachi and all she could taste was miso. The miso was overpowering. The place is beautiful, though and the dishes were quite small-​average but overall, they were pretty good.

Amazing food with great wine selection. View is breath taking. Always my go to when I go to Kona.

Awesome service and great view! We went in late for sushi and drinks. The sushi is really not great sushi as far as craftsmanship and quality but it was decent enough given the atmosphere there.

The food here matches your expectation considering it’s a restaurant in Four Seasons. I had one open table dinner here the day I caught a tuna myself.

Wow… this restaurant is top-​notch! If you want to have an unforgettable experience come to this place. Our waiter, Bronson, was awesome and so was the entire staff. We got there late and they still put us at a table on the beach no problem. Views were amazing; waves crashing as we dined. We had the spicy shrimp and tuna sushi rolls, asparagus, and a few other things. Drinks were great as well and the price was no problem. The resort is absolutely amazing and we walked the beach afterwards; it was a perfect night.
Go here!!!

Absolutely loved this place. We went once for dinner and twice for breakfast during our stay at the four seasons, and loved it all three times.
For dinner, we arrived a bit early and grabbed drinks at the bar. The whole restaurant is kind of inside/​outside and has awesome ocean views throughout. I really don’t think there is a bad seat in the house, whether you sit inside or outside, as the large pocket doors were open the entire time. Bartender was great, went in the back to get an extra ingredient to make my wife’s requested drink, and poured me a nice, stiff bookers on the rocks. We grabbed the last two seats at the bar on what was the busiest night and place of our entire stay at the four seasons, but it was in no way packed. We started with a sushi roll to share, and both had delicious pieces of fish for our entrees. She had the pineapple Mahi and I went for the special, can’t remember what it was called but was the consistency of a good steak, interesting but delicious piece of fish. Pretty sure we had corn as the side, and they brought a special dessert for us as we were celebrating our honeymoon. They say us at an awesome table outside, where we were about 20 feet from the ocean surf washing up on the lava rocks. They illuminate the ocean at night with large lights on top of the restaurant, and the view was breathtaking. Service was great, and we sat right on time for our 8pm res. Don’t miss the firepits at the front of the restaurant for a drink before or after dinner.
For breakfast, we chose the buffet twice, and it was great both times. With our room the package included breakfast, and the alotted dollar amount covered the buffet for two, which was great, as otherwise it would’ve been $ 100 after tax and tip. The buffet is comprehensive, featuring many pastries, breakfast staples like eggs, sausage, bacon, an omelet station, oats, toast, quiche, fruit, and even traditional Japanese items. Juice and water are also included. The view was actually even better during the day, panoramic Pacific Ocean views with beach and lava rocks from inside and outside. Even the buffet had nice touches, like lamb sausage and applewood smoked bacon. Everything seemed like it was well thought out. Now the service was slower during breakfast than dinner, but we didn’t care as we were relaxed taking in the view. Did not order off the breakfast menu, but it looked pretty good as well. We got a smoothie from the special smoothie menu one day, and although good was unnecessary due to all of the many other items on the buffet.
Liked the dual entrances to this place too, walking over the bridge above the pond was nice and the back entrance almost on the water was great too.

Oceanfront elegant dining nestled on the coast of Kona/​Kohala at the luxurious Four Seasons Hualalai. Live music. Tasteful décor of koa and blown glass. Live music breezed through the tiki torches and swaying palms. My family (my husband, two girls 9 years and 7) and I thoroughly enjoyed the poke, shrimp noodles, salmon /​tuna sushi, penne wih butter sauce and beet salad. The waiter added the toppings of the poke at the table which was a nice touch. Coming in from California earlier that day, we were exhausted and relieved the service was quick, warm and friendly! Mahalo Ulu!

Ulu is the epitome of upscale dining on the gorgeous kohala cost. The sushi and service was outstanding! Our table was perfectly positioned to see a beautiful sunset view. We tried the Hawaiian roll, fresh ahi poke and shared the curried fish — I believe it was a Kona kampachi locally caught. All the flavors were perfect. The ahi poke had the very freshest tuna that my husband and I have seen in a while — the color of the fish was a deep red and it tasted phenomenal. It was great that they made the poke fresh at your table side.
They also really focus on using fresh and local ingredients for all of their food. Even the butter was locally produced! This was a great touch that we truly appreciated about Ulu.
Overall 5 stars all the way. Wonderful dining experience including service and beautiful setting.
:) :) :)

Amazing View, very dramatic in the evening with the shoreline brightly lit up by flood lights!
Food was good, but the View makes up for any shortcomings there!

We had a lovely night at Ulu. We were seated at a table on the edge of the deck with full view of the ocean. We split a salad, which was delicious. I had the lobster shrimp pad thai. It needed a lot of spice, but they give you an eye dropper to add as much as you like, it was bland without it. The wife had a steak, which she liked very much, but I found a little over the top with the caramelized glaze. We had the c4 dessert, which is chocolate four different ways. It was very small. If you’re not staying at the Four Seasons, as we weren’t, take some time to stroll the grounds because they are beautiful.

4 stars for the ambience and service. My fiancé and I had a good time… so then why 3 stars?
A star off on the wine… i ordered a glass of white… but after tasting two different types of white, they both felt stale… as if the bottles had been sitting around for days. but i didn’t want to not order anything esp I had tasted them… but then wine by the glass wasn’t cheap here…
I felt like if I were about to pay for a glass of wine that cost almost as much as the whole bottle in retail at a wine shop, maybe they should put a standard in how long they would keep an open bottle around? =/​
A star off of the kona coffee soufflé… it was sorta tasteless… don’t even bother spending like $ 20+ on the soufflé + icecream… I couldn’t taste much of the coffee, it felt like it’s just a sweet brown hollow cake… Roy’s has better soufflé for less…

Ulu Ocean Grill at the Four Seasons Resort on the Big Island is simply overrated. When I found out I would be celebrating my birthday on the Big Island, I chose Ulu to be my celebration dinner because it looked like the fanciest and best place on the island. And I really just felt that you can’t go wrong with the Four Seasons. The reviews on Unilocal and Opentable were generally positive so I was pumped for the experience. I am truly sorry to say that I was extremely disappointed in both the food as well as the service. I was in Hawaii for 2 weeks and I hate to say it but the only dinner that I was not happy with out of my 28 meals on these islands was this one :-(
I dined at Ulu with my mother and I started off with the heirloom tomato gazpacho with avacado, mac nut, and Big Island summer fruit. This soup was not bad and the macanemia nuts added an interesting Hawaiian twist. My mom tried the beet salad with goat cheese yogurt, radish, and snow peas and she felt the same way, a pretty average appetizer.
The disappointment was primarily with our main courses. We tried the lobster pad with local tofu which sounded different and interesting. The noodle to tofu to lobster ratio was off and the dish simply lacked flavor. I tried to add the house hot sauce to somehow fix it so that I could actually take it down but was unsuccessful. We also tried the daily catch with bok choy, snow peas, lemongrass chili sauce. The same issue with this dish where we could not taste any of the lemongrass chili sauce. It was the most bland fish I have ever tried, also a bit fishy plus overcooked. We normally send fish back in these types of situations but since we were satisfied with the appetizers, we decided not to cause a scene during my special birthday dinner.
That brings my to my last point about the service. Our server Steve was snobby and disingenuous and we really did not enjoy his presence. He didn’t say anything inappropriate or rude to us but he reasonated a pretentious aura, which made both my mother and I feel uncomfortable and unwanted. I asked him to take a couple photos of us since it was my birthday dinner and he seemed annoyed but took my phone and clicked 10 times without even looking at the camera. He outwardly put in zero effort and each and every one of his 10 photos were blurry. We simply wanted one nice picture which could have been done in 5 seconds if he actually looked at the camera while taking the shot. But that would require him giving a darn about us, wouldn’t it?
I have to add the good with the bad and I have to say that the ocean view restaurant is breathtaking The restaurant is basically on the beach and provides an unobstructed view of the ocean, so there’s that. A great rule of thumb is that most restaurants that are in a good location, like on the beach have subpar food. I decided to make an exception this once since I figured the Four Seasons knows now to do it right but I decided wrong.
I am disaapointed that I chose to celebrate my special day at Ulu and at the Four Seasons. I ended up doing a second birthday celebration the next day in Maui to make up for this terrible night. I celebrated at Ko Restaurant on Maui and it was the best birthday experience I have ever had. The service was five star and the food was amazing. If you plan to celebrate a birthday in Hawaii, choose your islands and restaurants wisely my friend. Please refer to my Ko Restaurant review to see what a five-​star birthday experience looks like! Aloha!

I stayed at the Four Seasons resort last month where your main dining option for breakfast with table service is Ulu. We also dined here for a work-​related dinner so I will write reviews for both experiences.
Breakfast is a choice of buffet for $ 39 or you may order off the menu. I had their stuffed French toast for my first breakfast which was very satisfying (4.5÷5), a POG mimosa (⁴⁄₅), Bodum mini carafe of Earl Grey tea and my boyfriend had a breakfast quesadilla which he liked and a double espresso to wake himself up. The next day, I had eggs benedict (⁴⁄₅), Earl Grey tea again and my boyfriend had Hualalai rancheros which he said was pretty good (⁴⁄₅). Service on both days was pretty good, (⁴⁄₅).
The reduction of one star is related to our large group dinner which took up the second floor. We had a special menu, but the corn & coconut soup that I chose was reminiscent of a Thai style coconut soup, with no taste or appearance of corn, so I was disappointed. The flavor was meh. I had the heirloom tomato salad which was ok, but nothing to rave about. The biggest disappointment was the entrée where I ordered the Daily Catch, sea bass, which was overdone & dry. My co-​worker had the Opah, which was very overdone & she struggled to eat it. My boyfriend had the rib eye steak, which he was very happy with. All of the diners in our group of 45 who had either fish entrée did not have a good experience. I chose pineapple poke with Meyer lemon pound cake, which was dry. Dinner was a disappointment and was very pricey. It’s a semi-​outdoor environment so you will be very warm due to Kona winds, high humidity & no cross breeze.
Overall service was ok for a large group.

Wow wow wow. Epic location at the islands nicest resort with an amazing menu and great service. Not a single complaint or suggestion for improvement.
We made reservations for our anniversary and made a special request to have a table by the ocean. They gave us the best table right on the beach with an amazing view. Lobster and fresh fish catch was amazing and the dessert was a great finish.
Will be back next time we are on the island… by far one of the best restaurants we have ever been to.

‘Ulu Ocean Grill, the Four Seasons Hualalai, the BIG Island,
Hawaii, USA.
Hard to find a better spot to dine than out where the Four
Seasons meets the Pacific Ocean. Breathtaking sunsets, a brilliant menu and a
nice cold ale, or two, or three.
I could not go past the Lobster pad thai with extra chilli.
It went down so well I forgot to take a photo — you will have to use your
imagination.

The best part of the place was the ambiance and service. At night the lights on the ocean still let you see the waves wash in which is very nice and relaxing. We also had a greater server who was so very friendly and knowledgeable about the menu.
The food was good but I wasn’t blown away. I have to admit that I am not huge on very contemporary food that comes in small portions and mixes a lot of flavors. This may be for people that appreciate more bold and unique dishes than I am.

What better way to start each day of your vacation, then with breakfast overlooking the ocean at Ulu??? The Hubs and I were fortunate enough to get to start each day with the amazing breakfast at Ulu, where you can choose from ala cart of buffet. During our eight night stay we did both and each were fabulous. If they are doing the made-​to-​order pancake station, definitely get the buffet.
The service and view each morning was so nice and it was great to just have a leisurely morning breakfast before starting our day of relaxing (lol).
We also had dinner one night at Ulu. Though it is expensive it is worth every penny. We had a great table near the water and watched the sunset, which is a nice touch. The food was great, my Husband really enjoyed his Mahi Mahi and I loved the noodle dish I got. The bread basket was above expectations and the dessert was surprisingly VERY good and unique.
If you are staying at the Four Seasons, definitely get the breakfast at Ulu built into your package. It’s great… better than most hotel breakfasts and worth the added cost.

Breakfast at ‘ULU Ocean Grill each morning was definitely a favorite experience during my weekend stay. The food is delicious, service is wonderful, and the view is amazing. I didn’t rush through breakfast as I usually do. Instead I relaxed and got lost in the view while committing it to memory.

There are two breakfast options at ‘ULU. You can opt for the buffet or order ala carte. The first morning we chose the buffet and feasted on hot items and made to order omelets and crepes. There was an abundance of fresh fruit, pastries, and even a gluten free corner! We left totally stuffed.
The next morning we decided to order off the menu. We chose the Meyer lemon ricotta pancakes and the Shellfish Moco (crab​cake, two fried eggs, shrimp fried rice, Ali’i mushrooms, lobster sauce). Both were amazing. I liked ordering ala carte because it gave you access to more quality dishes.
We also celebrated our 11^th wedding anniversary at ‘ULU for dinner. The beef tataki was really good and I liked my lobster pad thai. The highlight had to be the chocolate soufflé! Awesome stuff!
While the hostess wished us a Happy Anniversary, I was a little disappointed they didn’t make it feel like a special occasion. The table next to us had a candle in their dessert for a birthday celebration. Just writing Happy Anniversary on the soufflé plate would have been really nice.