World Traveller 73 
Restaurant Review: Café Pesto Hilo Bay, Hilo, Hawaii, USA
With one night in Hilo, Hawaii, USA, we looked to get the most out of our dining experience. With a top rating on Trip Advisor, we called in at the Café Pesto Hilo Bay restaurant located in downtown historic Hilo, Hawaii. Café Pesto Hilo Bay has been operating for thirty years and would turn out to be a popular space on a Friday night to enjoy a nourishing meal. We would be impressed with this casual dining experience, and would come away feeling really satisfied with our visit.
This post is one chapter on my trip to the Big Island of Hawaii, United States of America. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan and Hertz Gold Plus Rewards. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
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✈️ Read more from this trip:
- Introduction: Hawaii Five – Oh. A Fiftieth Birthday in Kona, Hawaii, USA via Alaska Airlines First Class
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Bellingham – Seattle
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Seattle – Kona
- My Experience Renting with Hertz President’s Circle: Kona, Hawaii, USA
- The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort, Kona, Hawaii, USA
- Climbing in Hawaii’s Volcano National Park, Big Island, Hawaii, USA
- Exploring Nāhuku Lava Tubes, Hawaii Volcano National Park, Big Island, Hawaii, USA
- Restaurant Review: Café Pesto, Hilo, Hawaii, USA
- Restaurant Review: ‘ULU Ocean Grill, Four Seasons Hualalai, Kona, Hawaii, USA
- From Sea Level to 13,845 feet: Driving Up to Hawaii’s Big Island Observatories
- Swimming with Manta’s: The Big Islands’s Manta Rays up Close
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Kona – Seattle
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Seattle – Bellingham
Restaurant Review: Café Pesto Hilo Bay, Hilo, Hawaii, United States of America
We stumbled upon Café Pesto Hilo Bay as a result of spending the day at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and needing a restaurant before the two hour drive back to the Westin Hapuna Beach Resort and Cafe Pesto met all the requirements. With a high Trip Advisor rating, it begged a visit.
About Café Pesto:
The Café Pesto Hilo Bay has been in operation at this location since July 10, 1992. The restaurant is situated in the S Hata historical building that was initially constructed in 1912. The building is on the US National Register of Historic Places. Surprisingly, the S Hata building has even survived several tsunamis’ crashing against it’s doors over the years; all of which add to the intrigue and charm of dining in this establishment that has seen its fair share of stories over the years.
Locating Cafe Pesto:
Café Pesto Hilo Bay is located on the main street of Kamehameha Ave in historic Hilo, Hawaii. There is plenty of free parking in the area out front of the restaurant, in addition to in lit parking lots across the street.
With Hilo’s straight forward street orientation, I had no issues locating the restaurant. It was really easy to locate a parking spot and made for a minimum of fuss when arriving.
The historic neighbourhood itself adds to a bit of the charm of visiting this older part of Hawaii. I would have enjoyed spending some time exploring this area, if I had arrived earlier in the day.
Getting a Reservation:
I turned up on a weeknight at 7 PM without a reservation. The lobby is located in the S Hata Building Lobby just to the right of the restaurant. After a short five minute wait, we were seated in the dining area.
Reservations are available through the restaurant’s website powered by Yelp. I’d admittedly learn about this after the fact, so I didn’t get the opportunity to test feature this out.
Inside Café Pesto:
After we were seated in Café Pesto, we had an opportunity to appreciate the surroundings. The restaurant takes advantage of its older historic feature with a classy but casual dining space with high ceilings.
The space was buzzy, vibrant and full of locals of all ages there to enjoy a solid meal. This is always a great sign when approaching a restaurant for the first time. It usually means that there is quality food with a solid customer base.
The restaurant featured a full bar for those looking for a little fun. While it wasn’t over the top, it served a functional space as many appeared to be enjoying themselves.
On the Café Pesto Menu:
The Café Pesto Hilo Bay menu starts off with a historic narrative of the restaurant. The menu highlights the building location as the historic 1912 S Hata building that has survived two tsunamis. The menu also highlights that the restaurant has been in operation for thirty years; an incredible milestone for any restaurant.
The menu itself is a simple two pager. Despite it’s plain café styled presentation, there were some gems in the menu that were well worth exploring. Skimming through the menu, I almost missed the Blue Ceasar Salad featuring Hirabara romaine lettuce, along with the Hāmāuka Caprese Salad with Kawmata tomato.
Café Pesto also featured Wood Fired Pizzas that were cooked in a wood burning oven. It was pretty hard to get MrsWT73 off pizza once it was determined that there was a wood burning pizza oven in the house.
The drink menu contained many local beers from Hawaii and a limited wine list. I enjoyed a Kona Brewing Pa’akai Pilsner which was more than perfect after a long day of walking.
The Meal: Perfect Traditional Hawaiian
Café Pesto uses quality ingredients in its food items which really popped out on the plate. For dinner tonight, I ended up going with a traditional Hawaiian Dish; a Loco Moco.
The legend had it that some local youths after school were looking for a quick filling meal. The Loco Moco was the result of that creation. A traditional Loco Moco was an cooked egg overtop of beef, rice and beef gravy.
The Café Pesto version of the Loco Moco consisted of a local egg and crispy onion crown on island beef burger, fire roasted demi glace with bacon and furikake rice. It was exceptionally tasty as all the flavours came together; absolutely perfect nourishment after spending a day out doors taking in all the sights.
MrsWT73 went with a Luau pizza dressed up with a kalua pork, grilled pineapple, smoked mozzarella, onion and marinara sauce pizza that had high marks. The quality of the kalua pork meat on the pizza was excellent and MrsWT73 wished she was able to enjoy more of it.
The check came to around fifty eight dollars, which was pretty reasonable for the amount of food that was served. It was a substantial break from bland food and elevated resort food pricing we had been experiencing from the resorts.
My Thoughts on Café Pesto Hilo Bay:
Café Pesto Hilo Bay really hit the spot in what we were looking for with a stopover restaurant in Hilo, Hawaii.
The charming nature of the historic S Hata Building set the stage for an authentic meal at Café Pesto. The restaurant offered a number of regional ingredients on the menu that were presented with quality in mind in an understated but wholesome way.
I’d highly recommend a visit to Café Pesto Hilo Bay if your travels take you through Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii, USA.
World Traveller 73 
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