Restaurant Scams in Kona

Watered-Down "Local" Restaurant Upsell

Several restaurants along Ali'i Drive and near Kailua Pier present menus in Hawaii-themed decor and use locally evocative names but serve non-local ingredients at premium prices while implying a farm-to-table or catch-of-the-day sourcing. Common tactics include verbal claims of "fresh local catch" for fish that is imported and frozen, charging $4–6 per piece for macadamia nut items made with mainland nuts, and adding a mandatory 20–22% "service charge" buried in fine print that is kept entirely by ownership rather than distributed to servers.