Since I was in Hawaii, I wanted to try as much fish as I could here so I opted for the Ono (also known as Wahoo) Fish sandwich ($16). The waitress asked me how I liked my fish, so I said medium rare and I thought it was going to be thick like a tuna steak sandwich. But instead, it was just a thinly grilled piece of white fish. The fish was still tasty and fresh tasting but I don't understand why they would ask me how I like my fish, when white fish is generally just grilled until it's cooked. I don't believe they would serve rare white fish. The sandwich also came with a potato salad - which turned out to be mashed purple potato. It was good but when I read potato salad, I was envisioning the typical mayo based salad but this was literally just cold mashed potatoes. Deanna got a pasta ($16) that I didn't try but she said was totally fine and hit the spot. All in all, there wasn't anything amazing about the place but it was the right spot at the right time in the right place (there's really not much going on in Hilo). The total bill was $23/pp including tax and tip.
Norio's Japanese Restaurant - Fairmont Orchid, 1 N Kaniku Dr, Kohala Coast, HI 96743
If you haven't been to Hawaii before, you should know that there are tons and tons of sushi places. It's almost like you're in Japan but it makes sense with all the fresh fish they have and all the Japanese influence on the culture there. So I was excited when the group dinner was at Norio's - it was supposed to be one of the better sushi places on the island. It's inside the Fairmont and it was definitely priced as if it was in the Fairmont. It was a huge group of us eating there so we shared a bunch of different plates. We started with a sushi appetizer which was totally fine. Honestly, I prefer sashimi or rolls to actual sushi because I usually think there's too much rice in sushi. But the fish was fresh and flavor was simple as sushi should be. Our table ordered last, so as we waited for our food, we tried the other table's leftovers. One of the dishes was the crispy Macadamia nut coated asparagus ($8). The asparagus was nicely cooked with a great crunch and the macadamia nut crust gave it a nice local flare to it. For my main dish, I split a bunch of rolls with the CEO of the company (that was a bit awkward). I ordered 4 rolls since I figured 2 per person isn't too much to ask for. We got the Red Dragon Roll ($24), Spicy Hamachi Roll ($13), Spicy Scallop Roll ($14) and the Rainbow Roll ($22). The dragon roll and rainbow roll were both priced ridiculously at over $20 but I will say that they have a LOT of pieces and they were very big as well. The Red Dragon Roll consisted of shrimp tempura, avocado, green onion, tobiko, and sweet mustard aioli and wrapped in raw big eye tuna. I generally don't like tempura rolls and this one didn't really convince me that it's worth the money. The roll was totally fine (and very filling) but to me, it's just not sushi if there's something cooked in it. Next I tried the hamachi roll and this was disappointing. It was served with habanero masago, spicy aioli, sesame seed oil and kaiware. The habanero and spicy aioloi made the roll beyond spicy and you couldn't even taste the fish at all. Mark and I both commented on how crazy hot this roll was and to me that detracts from the actual fish. The spicy scallop was roll came with chopped up scallop, green onions, tobiko, cucumber and kaiware. The roll was good but again nothing to write home about. Strangely enough the star of the platter was the rainbow roll. I usually find rainbow rolls kind of a cop out because it's just a California roll with fish on top. But for some reason I just decided to go for it. The avocado in this roll was amazing and so creamy and delicious. The roll was huge and probably would have filled up one person if they ate it on its own. My main gripe with all these rolls was that they were so poorly executed. Many times, the roll just completely fell apart once I picked it up with my chopsticks. It felt like the rice wasn't of sushi quality because it it didn't seem to have that stickiness that the rice needs to bind everything together. I really had a hard time finishing my portion of the sushi, but like a good trooper I powered through it but thought that I was going to throw up at the end.
All in all, the dinner was totally fine but I wouldn't say that it's even close to some of the best sushi I've had in NYC. I find most of the sushi places in New York to be much better than Norio's but maybe of all the places on the Big Island, it is the best place to get sushi. Total bill for the entire group of people $2,100!
Photo Credit: Yelp
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