Kona Bistro

Foodies beware! I ate here with three regional chefs for a large food service corporation (real chefs with degrees and experience. Not little pipsqueaks that wears a white chef coat at the local Applebee’s). All were impressed with the fare. I ordered the sirloin special with delicious lobster corn chowder. Will be back!

Paid $ 15 for a pre-​made burger that was still half-​frozen. Sent it back and left. I will not return to Kona.

I have had consistently good experiences here. Try the apple pie.

Good food, but the experience had there was terrible. By the signs on the bar, I was led to believe there was happy hour this Sunday with deals on starters and drinks. It was vague enough for me not to realize those deals only applied if I sat at the bar. My girlfriend and I would have gladly sat there had we not asked our server, who said the deals were good to go where we sat.
The server was new, so I won’t put blame on her. But the manager handling this situation (this was Sunday ⁵⁄₁₇ at 4:30pm) showed zero remorse for the confusion. When I told her what our server told us, she simply said, «She’s new, she didn’t know». Apparently then, the best she could do was take 25% off. As we continued to talk she said she would ask the other manager, but frustrated, I said, «No, it’s fine».
What happened next blew my mind. She brings back the check and my card WITHOUT the discount she proposed. When I approached her about it, she said «Oh I thought you said it was fine?» For all the trouble she gave me, why wouldn’t I want the discount proposed? Her attitude was impatient and annoyed as we brought up these issues. This whole ordeal took 25 minutes after we received our first check.
It’s a shame because the food was great, but the lack of courtesy shown after a clear mistake by the restaurant warrants no more of my patronage.

At first glance, Kona appears to be a trendy, hipster-​like establishment, which would lead one to assume that the food they serve would be on the more healthy side– and that’s the catch. What they serve has a very west coast feel except it’s not as good as west coast food simply because they dowse everything in butter or salt. Food that appears to be healthy on the menu, ends up being much more fatty than expected. If you go, ask for light to no butter or salt. That is, if you like taking care of your body.

I went here for my birthday and was pleasantly surprised. I had the BBT bacon sandwich and my date had the bean burger. I would not say this was «fine dining» by big city standards, but for Oxford it was pleasantly surprising. I would categorize this as more upscale trendy, definitely above chipotle, but below real upscale fine dining. Honestly the prices were fair for what they are selling, and the service was the best I’ve had in Oxford, but again not up to true fine dining standards. The dessert, the cheesecake, was a nice way to end a good meal. Best I’ve had in Oxford and most people will enjoy if they don’t set unrealistic expectations for it. And there are cheaper options for broke students like myself, so I would definitely recommend trying it if you want a good meal.

The problem with Kona is that it tries too hard to be something it is not. Kona is not a fine dining place, no matter how hard it tries to sell itself as one.
While that in and of itself would not normally take a review down to 2 stars, what happened on my visit definitely put this restaurant solidly below average for me. I ordered their mac n’ cheese casserole. Now, a fine dining place (say… MIA) would make it fresh. But no, not here. When it was put in front of me, while the edges were warm, the inside was cold and hard.
In other words, it was microwaved.
How can any place that bills itself as a fine dining establishment serve food straight out of a microwave? On my visit, Kona wasn’t even busy. There were two other tables in addition to ours. Where’s the chef’s pride in his food?
I have not been back since, nor do I intend to.

Kona… the place your parents take you when they’re in town because you’re saving all of your personal cash for booze. There’s a reason this place is popular and successful: it’s one of the few places one may actually categorize as «fine dining» in oxford. The food is always fresh, the service always good (not really great), and the atmosphere… well, what you would expect from a cutesy european looking bistro in an upper class college town: sorority girls, their moms, and guys trying to make a good impression on their first date.
Kona is good option if you are out in oxford looking for more than just a fun time and some bar food.

I’m honestly very obsessed with Kona. Hands down has the best food in Oxford, and I’ve never had a bad meal, or bad service here! I love that the menu is a little different, and everything I’ve tried has been fantastic! The servers have always been friendly and very knowledgable about everything on the menu, and it makes for a great experience!

Kona bistro is one of the nicer restaurants that uptown oxford has to offer. I went with a group of friends and had a fun time. The food was good, but also really expensive. While I enjoyed my meal, I just don’t think it was worth the price tag.

This is one of the better restaurants uptown, if you get the chance to go.
Short review: The service was great, the atmosphere was nice, and the food was decent. All in all, good experience.
Would I recommend to a friend? Sure.
Would I go back? Definitely.
Long review: My boyfriend and I went for a Saturday brunch. We shared an appetizer, the three-​cheese artichoke dip. It wasn’t anything to write home about, and I love artichoke dip. Quite honestly, it would have been better without the cheddar topping. We had the spiked coffees to drink. I had the Annie Oakley, just a coffee with a shot of amaretto. Definitely delicious, topped with whipped cream. Boyfriend had the coffee with Grand Marnier. It burned the heck out of my throat, but he loved it.
For entrees, I had the Caprese Grilled Cheese with apple slices. I really loved that they offered an option besides the chips. Given my recent diet, it’s hard to eat out and eat healthy. It was fresh, and delicious – the vinaigrette they used was excellent. Boyfriend had the Latin Black Bean burger. He felt it was rather dry, requested more of the aioli, which seemed to work. The kettle chips were great! He said that they tasted homemade, and of course I had a bit (don’t tell my diet), they were fantastic.
Our server was Sydney — super nice, very friendly and punctual.

i have never purposely gotten on a website to write a review, but felt I needed to tonight. I ordered the special, stuffed peppers. After waiting 30 – 40 minutes for our food, I found that what I ordered was a hollowed out pepper with some undercooked crunchy rice thrown inside and lots of pepper sauce thrown on top, My husband could hear me crunch on the rice. I couldn’t even complain to the waitress because she never came back to ask about our food. For $ 12, I really expected more. There was no bread and refills were filled by another waitress that noticed we needed refills.
It was extremely disappointed, I won’t go back

I haven’t been to Kona since their other restaurant in Oakley shut down. I went with the family expecting the same great food and service I was used to receiving. Sadly, this was not the case. We quickly learned one does not dine in on a Sunday, instead go for the carryout. The reason for this is carryout offers 25% off and the food and service suffers greatly for those that dine in.
Two of the four meals came out cold (not supposed to be) and it took over an hour to get the food. Disappointing to say the least. The waitress hopefully was new since drinks sat empty for upwards of 5 – 7 minutes.
The manager did come over and apologize and offer desert free so I do give them kudos for trying to make up for how bad everything was. I’d recommend going on any other day but Sunday!

Just took my family here last weekend during the Miami University Parents weekend. So glad we stopped in. The food was so good. Everything was tasty. I am gluten free, and they had a lot for me to choose from. Everyone at the table loved their food. It ranged from fish, steak, hamburger, salad and a few other things. I for sure will be back. I suggest you give it a try.

Very pricey. 3 small pieces of bruschetta $ 9. Cabbage soup very mushy. I understand you were attempting to incorporate the Local Farmers Market Organically grown products into your menu, however the portion for the bruschetta appetizer was so small you could not even share between two people. Also, it is far more appealing to be able to scoop the topping onto your own bread, as it is a good time passing activity and conversation piece as well.

This was my second time at Kona. We took a large group on a Sunday night without reservations and got seated pretty quickly. I liked the beer selection and recommend the Golden Monkey for a tasty, hoppy beer.
This place was a little expensive and the service was a touch slow, but everyone enjoyed their food. I got the Rosemary Cheddar Chicken, and it was excellent. The pancetta really made the dish, and I was quite full even a few hours later. We usually go for ice cream after our meal, but we were all too full.
It does look like this restaurant has a nice, small outdoor space as well, and I would have preferred to sit out there. I felt like the inside was pretty crowded and felt a bit crammed. This also may have had to do with the several large groups that were there. I can’t really fault Kona for this, because they were just trying to accommodate everyone. But I did feel like getting out of there right after I finished my food.
Almost forgot to say that we got the spinach-​artichoke dip as an app, and it was quickly devoured.

Yum Yum Yum!
I just had the best lunch at Kona… the mushroom bruschetta was AWESOME.
I love this little place. We’ll be back.

I’m bumping Kona up to 4 stars. I’ve been back many times times now and can say for certain that the food is consistently quite good. It’s still not a bargain — plan for a $ 15 lunch unless you drink water and get the $ 6 lunch special, which is sometimes great but sometimes… not so great.
The salads are always excellent. Try the Adobo, which made the cut and landed on their NEW MENU! Yum!

I was able to visit Kona again for the first time since college, and I’m happy to say that it was just as good as I remembered.
My staple here was always the BBT which is basically a glorious fancy grilled cheese on great bread with bacon. My two friends got that, but I decided to branch out and get an eggplant sandwich they offered. It was fantastic– fresh and flavorful. I am also happy to report the BBT was just as good as it always was.
No draft beer, but they have a pretty good bottle selection, and their specialty drinks and martinis are always really good.
Never been blown away by the service, but it’s never been bad either. It’s a college town with college kids working there so you can’t be overly picky when it comes to service. It can be crowded and a little tight in there when it is busy, but it’s never been so bad I was uncomfortable.
Overall, a great place to stop if you are passing through Ox-​Town!

Curry chicken salad sandwich memorable. Charming garden.