Adam F.
Yelp
Funny enough, when I saw a few months ago that Southwest was running significantly-discounted flights from California to Hawaii we had to take advantage of, visiting Ola was one of the main reasons I originally suggested to my wife that we visit the big island rather than just spending a week in Honolulu - I'd been wanting to try their locally-sourced hard juices and hard teas (which they don't distribute to the mainland) since they opened a few years back. I was *really* hoping their new 'okolehao spirit ready to try, sadly it's still in production (I'm sure it'll be ready soon, now that I'm not going to be back in Hawaii for years, probably. You can see their ti farm from the road, on the way to Akaka falls, though!).
Anyway, we just got back from that trip - though food-wise, writing this review is *slightly* bittersweet, in that, while I was, fundamentally, here for the hard juices/teas, I was also very excited to try their bao, especially the mushroom and the confit duck bao. When I saw they also had a separate Sunday brunch menu featuring confit duck and waffles, I made sure to put that on the list, as well as trying them for dinner the following day. So we get there for brunch, me and my wife split an order of pork belly egg benedict and an order of confit duck and waffles, both of which were truly excellent (great quick service, too). Then I arrive back the following evening, only to learn, by some freak coincidence, the previous day, we were there for the *literal* last day either the mushroom bao or the duck confit were on the menu (I've checked - it's not on the brunch menu anymore, either). So while I can say that the duck confit was some of the best I'd had, possibly *the* best I'd had... that doesn't help anyone very much. The pork belly, which they are still serving as an eggs benedict for Sunday brunch and in a bao the rest of the time, was also quite good, though I wouldn't necessarily say it was the best I'd ever had. Same with the shrimp bao - though they're not particularly large, for $6.50 each. My wife had the burger, which was a solid burger but also nothing exceptional - other than the optional upgrade to a side of curry fries, which I *would* strongly recommend. So at this point, I would certainly come back to Ola if I were back on the big island to see what new beers, juices and/or teas they'd come out with, but I probably wouldn't go out of my way to get food while I was here - unless they brought back the duck!
I was also somewhat sad to discover, when we got there first Sunday for lunch, then Monday for dinner, that they apparently only restock their beer once a week (sounds like it's all brewed at their other taproom in Kona), and that restock day, currently, is Wednesday, so they didn't have everything on their printed menu available. That said, I did indeed get to try several hard juices and teas (a couple were out of stock that day, though I was also happy to discover they're also available from nearby grocery stores, albeit only in 6-packs, vs draft and single cans available at the tasting room. Better prices per can at the grocery store though!) The hard juices tasted exactly like I expected - ie like juicy juices that happened to also be alcoholic. The tulsi berry hard tea tasted like a great tropical herbal tea, the lemongrass mint hard tea tasted like fresh-brewed lemon mint black tea... they also had a solid lilikoi-lime milkshake IPA, and a pretty solid porter (made with local kiawe mesquite!), though I get the impression some of these rotate pretty often. I do love how so many of their liquid offerings use local Hawaiian ingredients! Just wish they could figure out a profitable way to distribute them to California - I had high expectations for the hard teas and juices, and they *did* live up to those expectations. So, I stocked up, but I only had so much luggage space.