Hilo Burger Joint

Checked in on Unilocal & saved 10% always a plus ;)
Had to try the fire & ice fries, nice kick in da butt! Bacon cheeseburger was pretty tasty, unfortunately the bacon was undercooked ;(but the burger meat was moist with great flava.

Had the burger with goat cheese, beets and balsamic and one with bleu cheese. Loved the house cut fries and da secret sauce.

So its unfortunate that I must finalize my opinion of the Hilo Burger Joint with the statement that we will not be returning. I really tried to like this place. When the food is good its really good but when its bad its also really bad. I have patroned this establishment 8 times in the last 12 months. 5 out of 8 times there have been significant problems with the food. The inconsistency is why I will not be returning anymore. I cannot count that my order will come out without the need to send it back. The other day I order a basic bacon cheeseburger (from past experience I ordered it well done as a precaution), I received my order medium rare which worked out because that’s really what I wanted but found it disatisfying that I had to order it wrong just for the cook to get it right. My fries were also significantly below pair, if there is an expeditor he needs to be fired. If they don’t have someone checking the food as it goes out then they need to hire one. I would not have the audacity to serve these fries to my own family. It had the appearance of shiny soggyness that you get when the fries have been cooked once and then rested out and then dropped in the fryer again later. I am certain of this with my background working in the fast food industry. Not saying I am a know it all but its typical knowledge for anyone who ever worked in the food industry.
The waitress credited the bill for the fries but I was saddened that I had no fries to accompany my burger. If you decide to eat here be prepared for anything and inspect your food thoroughly. When I personally go out to eat I am not looking to find something wrong. Its a breath of fresh air if I can just sit back and just enjoy myself. I realize that I cannot do that at Hilo Burger Joint. So consumers be aware.
Mahalo

This place is wholly mediocre. The service here blows, food comes out of the kitchen at a frequency that resembles coincidence, the beer is is pretty weak especially for local brews and the parking situation is nonexistent. The ONLY reason we’re here is that EVERYTHING is closed on Sunday. You’d think this city was run by Mormons…

Great place to eat a hamburger. Big island burger stuffed with cheese was awesome!!! Diffenitly work checking this place out

Lots of options here to choose from. First impression was the place could use a deep cleaning and a slightly more friendly staff. On second look the poor waitress seemed overwhelmed. It was really busy and she was the only waitstaff other than the bartender. We ordered food first because we were waiting for a drink menu. Finally I had to go get one myself. Food arrived before drinks which was odd. Waitress warmed up and thanked us for our patience. Overall a fair experience. The burger was juicy but the sweet potato fries seemed over cooked. Large beer selection on tap from Oregon and the islands. Beer could be colder.

This place was fun! The selection of cocktails and food has great variety. I went with a vegetarian, a vegan, two meat eaters and a gluten free person. Everyone was able to find something that suited their tastes. We all left happy!

Really awesome friendly fast service and their bartender is amazing. Went in on my birthday and got a free meal had the blue cheese burger it was delicious! Throughout the meal our server was on top of it.

This restaurant has the worst service in my opinion one of the worst restaurants in Hilo. The owner is rude and obnoxious as well as the wait staff. The food is awesome but very over priced. Plenty more restaurants in Hilo to chose from. I’ve been living in Hilo for years now and it continues to get worse. Please don’t wait your time folks

Hilo Burger Joint is on the outskirts of downtown Hilo. Unfortunately parking is a little scarce but luckily we found a stall in the back. Walking into this bar gave an Irish pub vibe which is nice! Cool thing is they had board games you can play with. But they didn’t have the pieces for scrabble :(! It was pretty empty for a saturday night, which I heard is unusual. But that led us to find a seat faster.
There is one thing that made me want to give this place a try when visiting Hilo… Fire and Ice fries! Those pictures of fries made me want to try them soooo bad! We ordered a patty melt and bleu cheese burger both with fire and ice fries (bleu cheese, ranch, hot sauce, and bacon). I was not disappointed it’s great! And both the burgers were awesome, I actually preferred the patty melt over the bleu cheese burger, the patty melt does just melt in your mouth!
Overall I would come to this bar again! The vibe and food is great! They did have a good selection of local Hilo beers as well as a lot of hard alcohol. Get the Fire and Ice fries :)

Stuck in Hilo with the family due to unfortunate circumstances and just needed to stop thinking about life for a night. Though I had to DD and couldn’t drink, I feel lucky we stumbled upon this place. A good old burger bar in the middle of a town where everyone seems to excessively play up the Hawaiian shtick.
Burger selection and execution was awesome; the highlight was open mic night with a local kid covering Taylor Swift’s «Wildest Dreams.» Would recommend for the ambience if you happen find yourself in this town.

Make sure you get here before 6pm for half off drinks! We made it here 15 minutes before 6 and got our drink order in during happy hour. The burgers all looked great, but we were excited that there were a couple of local style burgers. We decided to get the «fatty burger» which was seriously the motherload of all burgers! The burger had two beef patties, spam, cheese, POTATO CHIPS, mushrooms, KIMCHI, and basically the entire kitchen sink (aka as everything under the sun) covered in gravy! Since we’re not real fatties, we split it and got a salad so we wouldn’t feel so guilty.
Parking is a bit tough so we had to park down the street in a metered lot next to Long’s. ALSO-​If you love Unilocal and check-​in, you get 10% off!

Came here with my family on a Sunday late afternoon. The burger was decent. The problem was what appeared to be off the clock employees drinking and getting carried away. One in particular, a big cowboy fan, could not stop using the 4 letter word. He was a big Hispanic looking fellow. My family and I felt really uncomfortable and was hoping a manager would ask him to settle down but no one did. My kids kept looking my way every time he would drop the F-​bombs. There was nothing I could do. We all just ate as fast as we could and got on out of there. Felt like we were in some bad part of town. NEVER bringing the kids back to this place again. I probably won’t return either. BTW… Cowboys lost.
***I say off the clock employees bc I saw them going behind the bar and to the kitchen for some reason and only employees do such things.
***Manager or owner of Hilo Burger Joint– I hope this review does not lead you to fire some of these guys but only to recognize that there is a problem with their behavior when they start to have more than a couple of drinks. Maybe you should put up a camera to monitor bc it was really loud and a lot of their conversation was inappropriate.

Went here with a few friends. Started with a few appetizers the fire and ice fries (which they are known for) and the spinach artichoke dip (which was the best thing we ordered). We generally order spinach artichoke dip wherever we go and this was the best we ever had! Huge portion, but not many chips to go with it. We also all ordered burgers, as it was a burger joint. Burgers were amazing! The beef was cooked exactly how we ordered it. Needless to say it was a ton of food. I had my side of fries with gravy and cheese (not as good as fire and ice). The chili and cheese fries were good though. Place is a cute pub, definitely divey and has great service.

It is no secret that I am A connoisseur of gourmet burgers. This burger joint in Hilo will become my touchstone for all burger reviews from here forward. I had the burger it was called the fatty… With kimchi. It was the most delicious burger I’ve ever had bar none. I ordered my burger medium rare and it came out exactly as ordered…
My wife also had a burger medium rare and it came out the same temperature as she requested. This burger joint is simply perfect… Good beer great live music, and feel good local home food. We will come back here no matter what… A must visit while you’re in here if you want a fantastic hamburger.

I was craving a burger and my honey read in one of the to do magazines that this burger joint was the place to go. We both are devoted carnivores and love burgers. Lol. Walking into the restaurant it was dark and reminded me of a dive bar with wooden booths. We seated ourselves and were greeted by a sweet waitress. I looked up at a TV screen and they had a trivia game going on. Ooh that sounds fun!
Our waitress placed our waters on the table and handed us our menus. They have a ton of options with various condiments on each one. I settled on a 8oz big island burger with sweet potato fries. I did wish it was bigger once I took that first bite. It consisted of cheese being stuffed inside the meat patty, bacon, onion, pickles and franks mayo.
I asked our waitress for one of the game devices for us to battle each other in trivia. Needless to say we did not fair well on the questions:(. That’s okay the food made up for it. My burger was amazingly awesome! The cheese oozed out and the smokiness of the grilled meat patty made me think I was in burger heaven. The sweet potatoes were thin and crispy. My hubby made a good judgment call on this eatery. 5 stars in my book!

Great choice for dinner.
Simple, good atmosphere, love music!, good food.
The only downfall, the parking. It’s a real pain. Other than that, it won’t disappoint.

Solid place to grab some casual food since very few places were open on a Sunday night. Small place and was fairly packed with tourists and locals alike.
They serve a good selection of Kona and other local brews for around 6 – 7 bucks a pint.
The burgers are grass fed and apparently made fresh daily and never frozen, that’s definitely a plus. Tons of styles and toppings to choose from and averages 10 bucks a pop. Don’t go for a double unless you’re dying of hunger, they’re solidly sized and comes with fries or salad. The meat is pretty juicy and come served on a Hawaiian bun. We were quite hungry after our flight in and devoured them in 5 min!

Was in Hilo for a couple of hours and decided to find a place to eat… And ended up here at Hilo Burger. Don’t blink or you’ll drive right past it! Parking is sparse, good luck finding some. Not from the area, so I can’t really help you with that. Sorry.
But, I can review the items that I ordered! Which was the Wagyu platter, which is more or less a deconstructed burger on a large platter. A burger is a burger. Wagyu beef was okay. It was $ 28, and large enough to feed two people. It also comes with a salad (which by the way, my server forgot to bring out).
In addition to the burger, I ordered the Fire and Ice fries. It’s a heaping mound of French fries with Frank’s hot sauce and what I want to say is ranch sauce on top. It is definitely not for the faint of heart. Not bad. You really gotta enjoy the greasy foods though.
Ordered a couple of Guinness’ before my flight home. I love my Guinness and I love it cold… It didn’t come out as cold as I would normally like…
The establishment is really dark inside. We got seated right away, to a dirty table. Fortunately, our waitress quickly wiped it clean with her hands when she came to take our order…
I left full, can’t say I was satisfied though.
Enjoy.

Happy Hour until 6 PM… all draft beers half price.
Free burger on your birthday.
Darn it, it wasn’t my birthday… so I had to pay for my burger, but I got to drink twice as much beer as I originally budgeted. Winning !!
«Hilo Bay» burger with 8 oz Big Island beef, local slice of beet, and goat cheese, about $ 11.50. Really good… I had to seriously pace myself eating it because I wanted to just devour it and order another one. It came with a choice of fries or salad. Order the fries. They looked good on my friend’s plate; my salad was modestly underwhelming and a few pieces of the lettuce were verging on past their prime. The home-​made blue cheese dressing was pretty watery but actually quite tasty.
I ordered my burger «medium» and wouldn’t order it any more well done, it was pretty thoroughly cooked. In fact next time I’ll ask for medium rare.
Waitress was adorable and our burgers were served quickly.
It’s more of a dive than I expected, I had an image of it being more upscale. It’s a big open room, the bar is just one corner and there’s a lot of tables and booths, and a small stage where they have regular music acts at night. Even with no music it was quite loud.
I want another burger already so I guess that’s 4 stars !