So you can’t go all the way to Hilo, Hawaii and not go to the Volcano National Park! We stayed about 45 minutes from Hilo city center to be near the lava. From what I remember this was about an hour drive from our place to the national park. We had a 4PM lava hike scheduled so minimal time at the park. We took an extra hike and after leaving realized that we had not eaten with a 6 hour hike ahead of us we had to stop somewhere!! When you are driving out in the middle of no where that’s not as easy as you think missing one single turn can take you miles out of your way before you can turn around and you’ll be lucky to get a phone signal here. Battling through all of this we discovered Cafe’ Ono!
It turned out to be really organic and vegan friendly. I think it was completely vegetarian actually which made me feel good because I knew we would be getting feel good food! When you pull in it’s a little confusing to park because there are art tents everywhere and private dining parties so we did not know where to go at first. The restaurant is around back, the dining room is very small about 4 tables and they have a small menu. Outside they have about 6 tables you can eat at as well. It’s an order with the cashier and pick a table on your own type deal. While we were waiting for our food we went shopping the local arts and jewelry. I found a bracelet I really liked it but I bought these really cute earrings made out of local nuts! I love them!
I ordered the Spinach Quiche at about $15 and got all of this. Everything is homemade and locally grown you can taste it. The garlic bread was very tasty and flavorful! The Quiche was also on point. However this soup was a little weird. It was some kind of tarrot root soup and it tasted like nothing even after I added salt and pepper. The salad dressings were good I got some extra and dipped my bread in it. I think I had the Tahini dressing made from ground sesame seeds.
Jay got the spinach vegetarian lasagna (even though he swore it had meat in it) He had a mushroom seaweed soup and it tasted more like sea weed than mushrooms! He had a garlic herb dressing on his salad and it was also very good.
Bottom Line– I think this was a great stop! I got a new pair of earrings and a full belly even though neither of us really cared for either of our soups we were still full. I am sure if you asked them for more bread instead of soup or more salad that would be fine but we were trying to be adventurous. The staff was friendly and informative and the atmosphere was boutique and peaceful. We were lucky to find this little gem and still get to our hike on time!! The lava post is coming soon! Stay tuned!