It’s a busy Friday night and we are at Splashers Grill in Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i. Set across the street from Kona Bay and Kona Pier the feel of the place is great. It is open air. It is noisy, but in a fun busy way. The restaurant is upstairs with no windows so you feel the Kona breezes which are relaxing and soothing. While waiting a short 10 minutes we opened with a virgin piña colada and strawberry daiquiri which were tasty.

We start with Crab Cakes appetizers. They are made in-house and served with a roasted bell pepper sauce. The crab cakes are not gourmet. The individual flavors are not distinct and kinda muddle together.  They do have good flavor though. The roasted bell pepper sauce tastes very fresh. I am loving it. Leise says there okay.

For the main course I order the Catch of the Day, Machong grilled. I love Machong. I’m so excited. For side dishes I ordered the fire roasted corn and the clam chowder. Leise ordered the New York Strip with the corn and mashed potatoes. She says the steak is really good. The clam chowder is very creamy. They used a lot of flour as a thickener and it tastes and has the consistency more of a gravy than a soup. It would be great for biscuits and gravy. The flavor is good but not amazing. I wouldn’t order the chowder again. (I didn’t finish it). The fish is wonderful. The corn with roasted peppers is delightful. Just enough spice to make it pop and it tastes quite fresh. The mashed potatoes have great flavor and consistency. Interestingly, the cheese on top didn’t melt. I don’t know if they used a low quality cheese or the dish was cooling when the cheese was tossed on top.

The steak is divine!!!! The steak is grilled to perfection, juicy, full of flavor. It is a nice thick cut. To say anything more would detract from the wonderful experience.

The grilled Machong is fantastic. There is a sauce which came with the fish that tastes like 1000 island dressing. It will never touch this fish. The dish also came with lemon wedges. The fish is so good on it’s own that it would be an offense to the gods to use such training wheels. It is impressive to me that the fish was prepared so wonderfully that I became lost in the flavor and almost forgot to mention how well it was prepared. If I were to be critical I would say it was a touch dry. Whereas driving an hour north to Waikoloa Beach we could have Machong at Roy’s where the flavors would dance on your tongue and it would be twice as good, but it would also be twice the price.

We are both full. Leise even has about 1/3 left over but we did not want to disappoint you by skipping dessert. So we ordered the Harvest Carmel Apple Cake. With fresh pieces of apples, cinnamon, and spices baked into a cake and topped with cream cheese frosting, caramel, and toasted pecan pralines it is pretty good.

The outdoor atmosphere here is so very relaxing and the food is good quality and thus we will be back again. For ambience I give Splashers Grill 3.5 out of 5 surfboards. For food quality I give 3.5 out of 5 surfboards. For service I give 3.5 out of 5 surfboards. Overall I give it a 3.5 surfboards.

Aloha,

James Christopher

ThruJimsEyes.com

http://www.tripadvisor.com/members/ThruJimsEyes