“Holuakoa Gardens, a slow-food restaurant with a seasonal menu and an adjacent coffee shop, is among the best on Hawaii Island. I enjoyed several meals: locally sourced beef brisket and locally caught monchong (deep sea pomfret). The brunch-time Holuakoa Eggs Benedict with smoked-out-back kalua pig and a mango juice mimosa made with the fruit of a nearby tree were showstoppers.”

“For those of us who did not grow up in a Barbara Kingsolver memoir, we must settle for eating at Holuakoa Gardens. … The portions are hearty, large enough to fill up a farm boy. But delicate touches present themselves throughout, reflecting this farm-boy chef’s French Culinary Institute training in New York: a careful brunoise of carrots, gnocchi paired with a turmeric cream sauce threaded with preserved lemon peel for pops of brightness (though the gnocchi are more like flour dumplings than potato clouds).”

“The brisket, though, is what floors me. Similar to the eggs Benedict, it looks much like you’d expect it to look: cuts of meat with potatoes and two eggs on the side, ‘cause, well, it’s brunch. But, don’t be fooled. It’s the tender pieces of meat and its wonderful flavors filling your mouth with each bite that take your senses to another world and back. I couldn’t stop eating it, that is, until I was challenged to by the French toast set down in front of me.”

“Holuakoa’s open-air garden dining area is an oasis of rich flavors, like the homemade potato gnocchi with Hamakua mushrooms, Hawaiian pumpkin, and summer squash served with sherry cream and parmesan.”