Tina's Garden Cafe

Tina's Garden Cafe is a hidden gem! From the moment you walk in, the service is warm and welcoming. The staff is attentive and accommodating, making sure you're comfortable and well taken care of. But what truly sets this place apart is the flavor and care put into every dish. The spices are beautifully balanced—enhancing the natural flavors of the vegetables, meats, and broths without overpowering them. This is a fantastic spot for vegetarians, yet they also offer delicious chicken and meat options. I tried the green curry with medium spice and was blown away. The subtle hint of coconut milk added depth without being too rich. The Tom Ka Ga was comforting and fragrant, the seafood noodles were perfectly cooked, and the mango sticky rice was the perfect sweet finish—everything tasted homemade and fresh. Portion sizes are generous, so you’re definitely getting value for your money. I left full, happy, and already planning my next visit. Highly recommend!

Delicious food beautifully presented. Portions were large enough to have leftovers for lunch tomorrow. The big green tortilla with the crust of cheese is the Thai Pizza. Not like anything I’ve ever had, and I loved it. We also had the Garden curry and it was one of the best things I’ve ever tasted!

I would start by saying they are friendly towards meal choices for vegan and vegetarian. What i didn’t like was I found a long black hair in my food, which is a major red flag for hygiene. I ordered to-go, and it was quite off-putting. On top of that, the curry was uncomfortably spicy with red chilli flakes in it. The place feels rundown and quite old. The only positive note is that they did adjust the spice level for my second dish. Overall, I would advise avoiding this place if cleanliness is a priority for you.

Tina makes the food here with skill and love! FRESH and LOCAL produce deliciously prepared in the summer rolls and the pad Thai. Super yummy tamarind flavor along with basil made for the perfect pad Thai sauce. Great service and ambiance

Food was amazing, vegetarian and vegan friendly as well! We kept coming back to this place 2-3 times during our stay in Hilo. We tried thai curry and this spinach tortilla with veggies and cheese, very filling good portion size, must try

Best green curry i have had in a really long time. Very hearty and cutting of the vegetables added a tantalizing structure to it. Plus, the pumpkin added to the curry made it extra scrumptious. We started of woth the cup of Tom Kha which was good starter portion.

We came to this place purely because if the reviews. The food and the presentation were awesome. Sticky rice with mango was the most impressive we've ever had.

Absolutely delicious! Such a unique menu and everything is so fresh and nourishing. Wish I had found this place sooner! I will definitely be back. Customer service is also stellar and love the family style portions. Loved the asparagus salad and the mango sticky rice is to die for. Yum!!!

Glad we found Tina's. Excellent menu and the food was very high quality. Very relaxed atmosphere soft music playing in the background nice cool gentle breeze made for a wonderful lunch. I ordered the panaang curry with chicken and a side of rice and it did not disappoint. Panaang Curry was very very mild, would have liked a little bit more heat but it was great. My husband ordered the Summer mixed fruit salad which includes lychee, mango, watermelon, shredded carrots, cucumber, fresh lilikoi, roasted peanuts, garlic, Thai seasoning sauce, brown sugar, lime. A little spicy but most excellent. A very good experience at Tina's garden Cafe!

I was in a rush and really really hungry and needed some good food. I was in this area and decided to get something from here. I needed fast takeout and the restaurant said they could do something. They were super friendly and helpful and the food was absolutely delicious!! Fresh, healthy, and really flavorful. I'll definitely be back.

This restaurant is located downtown right across from the beach. The restaurant is cluttered with Knick knacks everywhere but that's their chosen style. It is clean, has natural lighting, has a bunch of booths and tables and the employees greet you right as you walk in. It's a very healthy restaurant with minimal spices and sauce. We ordered the spring rolls with peanut sauce and a wrap. We would go here again. It always feels good to eat healthy by the beach.

TL:DR vegetarians can skip this restaurant. Below Average food, no ambience, inattentive staff. As vegetarians we ordered Thai burrito and Pad Thai noodles. Thai burrito was missing tofu even after requesting to add tofu. Coconut curry was not good. Some veggies on top were grilled but cabbage was raw. And it had a lot of cabbage. Pad Thai tasted super sweet. They charged $5 extra to add tofu in pad thai. Quantity was enough for 1-2 person.

Green curry was super flavorful. I like that they did whole peanuts instead of crushed in the papaya salad. Really good portion for the papaya salad too! And the mango dessert was amazing ! Plus everyone was sooo nice . Would definitely come back

We had a very nice lunch at Tina's. The atmosphere is great and the music is just the right volume. Everyone is nice and very accommodating. Now as for the food. We started with papaya salad which was good but not on the same level as other places we have had it. A little hard to chew but still good. Next is the curry, Penang curry and Red curry. They are similar with the Penang having different spices. One was ordered spicy and the other medium. The difference I think is in how much chili paste is used for topping. Ordered brown rice which was great. The portions are very generous and it's hard to think of finishing it. There is a $1 charge for a take out container but it's a really good one. All in all a very nice place with pretty good and reliable quality and service. Recommend.

Service was great. The food was incredibly fresh. Everything is made to order if I lived here I'd wanna eat her every single day.

Have previously been here and the food was great. Went today and everything was terrible. The bitterness and tang of the food and drinks tasted spoiled. We walked out with a table full of food and drinks, after paying a $60 bill for lunch.

The food was great. We enjoyed this place a lot. Tina checked on the table and made sure our one picky eater was happy.

One of the best meals we've ever had. We ordered the Yellow Curry, Fresh Rolls, Papaya Salad, Mango Sticky Rice and the Thai Pizza. One of the best food experiences we ever had. 10/10 recommend

Some of the best Thai food I've ever had! The service was also exceptional--we had a toddler and the provider toddler dishes for her. The restaurant smelled great and was very clean and inviting. Highly recommend the Cara Cara Orange Salad and the Tom Kah. The Masman Curry and Drunken Noodles were also really good! The rice in the Mango Sticky Rice wasn't my favorite, but it was still an impressive dish.

Great selection of salads and vegetable dishes...with meat/seafood protein options too. Everything was fresh and flavors were bursting. A definite revisit next time I'm in Hilo - I can eat the CaraCara salad weekly!

Service is great, and the quality of the food was phenomenal. I would highly recommend the Thai pizza.

Excellent Thai at reasonable prices. Offering avocado as an option instead of protein made the Garden Curry ($16) extra delicious. The Pad Thai ($20 Sunday special) was also outstanding, chicken was tender, vegetables were flavorful and cooked just right. Their "mild" is very mild, you may wish to go one step up, or do what we did and add a little soy sauce. Portions were healthy, enough food for lunch and dinner for both of us. The service was friendly. This place appears to attract locals. We were very happy to find Tina's Garden Cafe.

Attentive service. Great option for my friend whose diet is plant based and has a low tolerance to spicey heat. Next time I'll order for myself at a heat level and add an animal protein.

Wow. Delicious! Husband had yellow curry (yum!), I had the mushroom salad (crunchy, tart, fresh and very delicious). The star was the Tim Kay soup. Tina's Tim Kay soup was outstanding - famous for a reason

Wow. I haven't had food this delicious from any restaurant in a very long time. Organic as much as possible, all fresh food and incredible flavors, made with skill and care. Our baby was cranky and staff knew exactly what to do and they were wonderful. Cute atmosphere- it is a little cafe by the beach so don't have too much expectations about ambiance - but is cozy and pretty. It's all about the food, kindness and the hospitality anyway. Highly recommend the Garden curry with organic local mushrooms and brown rice! Each curry has such different flavor. Also loved our appetizer and the limeade. Major respect and appreciation to this place; in a world where restaurant quality is decreasing so much, this place takes a stand for organic fresh food that makes you feel healthy and satisfied. A highlight of our trip to Hilo Hawaii!

The people who work here are so nice and the food is delicious. So many restaurants to choose from while walking around downtown. Choose this one. Nothing fancy. But it is fresh, made to order and reasonably priced. The summer rolls had good flavor and a nice peanut sauce. The Tom kah was outstanding. Seriously, go!

Wandered in here because of all the positive Yelp reviews, and I concur. I had to get the Thai pizza because of what I read on it. This was such a unique dish and I'd highly recommend anyone coming into Tina's to get this. The crispy cheese on the ends is so delectable. I got mine with chicken, but really anything would work and be delicious. It is a LOT bigger than I expected from the photos I looked at. No complaints on that but I got three meals out of it. They were busy during lunch time, but we got seated in a short amount of time. The curry was also very good, I would have liked a little more spice with it though, which can be adjusted.

They charge $1 for one Togo box which they did not let us know ahead of time. No other restaurant charge extra for Togo boxes. Curry is watered down, not much flavor, more vegetable than chicken. Special pizza was decent but dry.

Mindblowing delicious food, we had the curry, chicken wrap and papaya salad. It was all super good!

A very light meal a must in Hilo. We had the papaya salad and the chicken spring rolls. They were out of the mango sticky rice but would go back to try it! Service was great and the restaurant was chill Thai vibes!

We had lunch and the food was wonderful. I had the red curry and my daughter had Tina's spaghetti with the peanut sauce. All the dishes tasted so fresh and wasn't over salted, which I am sensitive to. I really enjoyed our lunch! The decor I would describe as eclectic, but fun. It wasn't crowded but a steady flow, including a number of people who came in to pick up takeout. That's a good sign of local support! I would like to try their other dishes too and recommend the food highly.

Food: was aahight! Compared to New Chiang Mai! No Pad Thai! WHAT ????? If you don't have Pad Thai, you're not an authentic Thai restaurant! Service: better than food. The place is okay.

One of the finest meals we've had on the Big Island. We ordered quite a few items for our party of ten and enjoyed everything (no left overs for us). The cafe is small but has a lovely ambiance. Visit if you can!

This hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Hilo was a lovely little surprise! They have some creative Thai Fusion dishes and some classic curries. Make no mistake; this is not a rainbow curry restaurant. This is true art! The yellow curry was perfectly balanced with a little added spice and a generous helping of veggies. It was truly the best I have had with the coconut flavor coming through without overpowering the rest of the dish. The flavors are so balanced! The mango desert with purple sticky rice and coconut milk was out of this world! Very much worth the trip.

If you are eating here, beware: This place is a tourist trap and will borderline rob you. tip included in the bill. What if the service is trash and I think you don't deserve the tip??? $1 extra for the white cream in Thai tea, $1 for to go containers, what's most crazy is we had an elder lady with us, who needed hot water to take her meds, hot water cost $1. And now, the food? You might like it if you never had Thai food before and have nothing to compare to

The food was fresh and the portions were HUGE! There were 3 in our party and we could have been fine ordering just 2 dishes. Instead we ordered 4 and were stuffed. We had the tofu, shrimp and avocado spring rolls, chicken spring rolls, pizza and papaya salad with coconut rice. We were satisfied with everything. This place is worth stopping in!

The food is great. My only wish is that they make pad thai, but otherwise one of my favorite places to get Thai pizza and mango rice. Didn't have to wait at all and our server checked in on us throughout our meal. I felt so relaxed and entertained by the music and artsy things inside the restaurant.

Healthy looking Thai food? Count me in! Looking at the menu, Tina had some really interesting dishes, and I heard Tina uses the freshest ingredients! It's located next to on the "strip" in Downtown where a line of shop and restaurants are located. Parking is difficult to find on the strip during busy hours (around 11am - 3pm?) especially during the weekend. There are lots of street parking nearby but may require a bit of a walk. I chose the most talked about item on the menu: the Thai pizza. I got it with chicken which contained red curry mixed with shredded chicken, pumpkin, spinach and cheese. I didn't realize how BIG this dish was until I went and picked up my order which contained TWO medium sized takeout boxes. I thought they had thrown me an extra something for free... but NOPE. The Thai pizza took up two entire boxes for a cheap price of $15 (as shown in my picture). That's crazy! This is definitely, definitely a two person meal. I thought it was a really unique dish. I could taste the flavor of the curry and pumpkin with all the cheese. The ingredients used were definitely fresh. But it seemed a bit... bland...? The chicken that was mixed into the dish tasted bland and only certain parts would taste really flavorful. I thought it was super weird. I added a bit of pepper and mushroom seasoning for my second meal with it and definitely had no complaints afterwards. This is the first time I've ever felt conflicted on my rating LOL. It was between a 3 and 4 because of the flavor... Some parts would taste delicious with the seasoning mixed nicely while other parts would taste really bland. The lady who helped me talked story with me and was really nice, so 4 it is! Recommended for something different than the usual Thai styled foods. I do want to try Tina's other creations since she has a variety of unique dishes.

My family and I have been enjoying Tina's Thai Pizza for the past decade or so. Last night will be my last purchase. Ordered one Thai pizza for take out. Whoever was in the kitchen had no idea what they were doing. The flavor had little to no resemblance to what the item has been historically. Apart from the squash there were none of the typical vegetables (no broccoli, no asparagus, etc). It was mush. It tasted as if was was salt free, spice free, flavor free. There was basil, but not enough to taste it. It was $20, including tip and it was not at all worth it. We've enjoyed Tina's over the years...but we'll be moving on. It appears as if they either sold the place or handed the kitchen over to inexperienced individuals who don't have training or recipes.

Food average not great, Didn't have many classic Thai dishes on menu, mostly salads and curries. No noodle dishes.

Had a quick lunch at this small Thai fusion restaurant. Very healthy food and well prepared. I had the spicy tuna roll and my wife had Tina's wrap with chicken. Both were very good. Next time we will go the more traditional Thai food with curry or Tom Yum.

Good Place nice service. Yellow curry was great very good and choice of wild rice or white rice I chose wild rice. The curry is great for anyone who can't handle a lot of spice. Cool posters towards the back about local fruits.

Was looking for a spot that served fresh, light food after all those loco mocos! Got the Thai pizza ($14) with tofu, cup of Tom Kha ($8), and the Combo Rolls ($10). The Thai pizza was really unique - super filling and large. I love me a cheese crust :) But keep in mind, the tofu made it kind of soggy. Combo spring rolls didn't come with the thick peanut sauce I'm used to - pretty thin and runny. Tom Kha was chock full of vegetables and very rich in coconut milk and fragrant flavor. There was waiting for a table and the food took a while to come but it looked like it was only the owner doing all the cooking. Service was understandably hectic since it was crowded and there weren't many people. Love the decor and vibe inside of the place.

I was on a mission today to find a green papaya salad and I am happy I landed here for this! For $8 the portion is enormous compared to what we get in Los Angeles! So beautifully done, the perfect textured papaya, delicious vinaigrette mixture and perfect crunchy peanuts and tomatoes. I ate the entire thing over the course of the day ha. Just delicious! So much I want to try, my friend loved her tofu wrap and Thai tea made with coconut milk! Glad I have more time here to come back again. :)

A little place that looks like they used to have indoor seating but it looks like they didn't recover from the pandemic. They only have takeout. Pros: Food tastes good Fresh ingredients Decent sized servings Cons: Only takeout Food prices are on the high side

Chicken summer rolls are so delicious. I love Whole Foods. I had yellow curry and it was beautifully made, just lacked some flavor. Customer service was meh. There is a public bathroom for customers. Overall, I'd come again.

We were very lucky to come here as the last customers of the night before they closed early and before a long vacation We started off with spring rolls with avocado, and a huge mound of papaya salad. My daughter had the Tom Ka. Soup which was sweet and very full of ingredients . We ordered salmon and asparagus, Thai pizza ( almost like a masala Dhosa) with chicken and pumpkin , very messy but tasty. We also got panang curry with tofu which was spicy but good. The portions are huge and we should have ordered half ! We wish we had room for the mango sticky rice . Unusual for Thai restaurant not to have any pad Thai but it wasn't missed, and the server was so friendly and helpful ( Deb)

Tina is such a wonderful lady and so kind. Her staff is great and knowledgeable about the food and especially spice in dishes so we knew not to order things that were too spicy for us. Her pumpkin Tom LHS is to die for!

They were so accommodating to my weird dietary restrictions. The food was really good! Portion sizes were quite generous. The presentation with the plates and bowels they served the food on was nice also. Will definitely come back.

We LOVED this little cafe and had some amazing dishes including a mixed nut salad and a soup that I'm still dreaming about. I was surprised to find such incredible flavors from an unassuming little place. We almost ate here 2 nights in a row because it was that good.

long due review. amazing food, good service. be careful when asking for hot food, they mean it and you may not be able to handle it

The food is plentiful, excellent and fairly priced. Nick the server has a wonderfully funny dry wit. If you haven't eaten here yet, put it on your list. Eat well. Peace.

Yum yum yum! Giant proportions fresh Organic food! Must try the mushroom dishes. They're absolutely fantastic. I think the peanut sauce and pad Thai is a bit too sweet but a bowl that's me.

Portions at Tina's are always huge! I've had the Thai pizza and the papaya salad so far. The Thai pizza is enormous, but it lacked enough flavor for me. However, the papaya salad is super tasty! I've tried both mild and medium spice. I prefer the medium spice, but both really good if you want a non-spicy option.

We had the worst experience here! The waitress was inflexible from the get go. Our daughter didn't want to eat Thai food, but when we asked if she could join us and bring something from another restaurant, she told us this was against health codes. ?!! Even though we told her we are light eaters, she told us that an appetizer and a curry wouldn't be enough, and insisted we get the $40 MP salmon, which was tough and overcooked. We could only eat 2 of the 6 pieces, and because we came from Kona and had a full day ahead of us, we asked for 2 to-go containers so we could give the food to some homeless people we saw. Adding insult to injury, they charged us a dollar each for the containers!

The past three times i have been to Hilo I have enjoyed Tina's amazing flavorful incredible food and service. Energy in the restaurant is sweet and light. Everything I have ordered there has always been so above my expectation.

Food is great! The fresh heart of palm salad was amazing. Most places serve canned--not here! Curries very good: Penang and Musaman.