Overview
Tommy Bahama Restaurant & Bar at Mauna Lani is a polished, resort-area casual restaurant with a strong bar program and a clear “sunset dinner” pitch. The official listing places it at The Shops at Mauna Lani on the Big Island’s Kohala Coast, and it is currently shown as operating with reservations recommended and walk-ins accepted. (tommybahama.com)
For a traveler, the appeal is straightforward: this is a dependable, broad-appeal dinner stop that pairs ocean-view seating, live music, cocktails, and crowd-pleasing seafood and grills. It is not a small local-only find; it is part of a national lifestyle brand, but the Mauna Lani location is one of the chain’s island-facing dining rooms and is treated by many visitors as a convenient, scenic option in the resort corridor. (tommybahama.com)
Cuisine & Specialties
The menu sits in the Hawaii-regional / American seafood lane, with a lot of emphasis on fresh fish, grilled proteins, tacos, shareable starters, and tropical-leaning cocktails. The takeout menu and official restaurant page both show a familiar Tommy Bahama formula: seafood and steak mains, a happy-hour-friendly bar, and dessert/drink items that lean fruity and island-adjacent rather than highly technical or chef-driven. (tommybahama.com)
- Overall menu style: relaxed upscale-casual, seafood-and-steak heavy, with island-inspired sauces, grilled preparations, tacos, salads, and bar snacks. (tommybahama.com)
- Notable dishes/specialties: macadamia nut crusted fresh catch, blackened mahi mahi tacos, Thai shrimp & scallops, tamarind pineapple glazed mahi mahi, Kona coffee crusted ribeye, coconut crusted crab cakes, and grilled baby back pork ribs. (tommybahama.com)
- Drinks/desserts that show up repeatedly in review sources: frozen mai tai, coconut martini, grapefruit basil cocktails, piña colada cake, and pineapple crème brûlée. These are supported by review summaries and customer-favorite lists, though the exact cocktail lineup can drift. (opentable.com)
- Price range / spend expectations: OpenTable labels it $31–$50; that aligns with a mid-to-upper casual dinner bill rather than budget dining. The takeout menu also shows entrees mostly in the low-to-mid $40s, with steaks around the low-to-mid $50s. (opentable.com)
- Dietary usefulness: there are visible vegetarian and gluten-free labels on the takeout menu, and Tripadvisor lists vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options. That said, the core menu is still centered on seafood, meat, and rich sauces, so strict plant-based diners will likely find choices limited compared with the seafood/omnivore audience. (tommybahama.com)
Notable Features & Ambiance
The Mauna Lani location is built for the resort-dining experience: a spacious lanai, sunset views, live music, and a lively bar scene. Official copy and review patterns both point to a place where the setting is a major part of the draw, not just a backdrop. (tommybahama.com)
- Service model and seating style: full-service dining with table service, bar seating, indoor dining, outdoor/lanai seating, takeout, and reservations through OpenTable; walk-ins are also welcome. (tommybahama.com)
- Atmosphere and decor: tropical, upbeat, energetic, and resort-casual rather than formal; live music and sunset-facing outdoor tables are recurring positives in both official and third-party descriptions. (opentable.com)
- Amenities / practical features: full bar, happy hour, live music daily per the official page, takeout/order-online options, and free off-street parking listed by Tripadvisor. (tommybahama.com)
- Best fit: sunset dinners, vacation meals, cocktails, small celebrations, and groups that want a lively but approachable resort restaurant. The official site also actively positions it for group dining and events. (tommybahama.com)
- Weaker fit: travelers looking for quiet, intimate, highly local, or deeply chef-forward dining may find it too polished, too branded, or too busy for that purpose. Noise during peak dinner hours is a recurring theme in reservation-platform descriptions. (opentable.com)
History & Background
Tommy Bahama’s restaurant business grew out of the broader Tommy Bahama lifestyle brand, which launched its first restaurant in Naples in 1996. The Mauna Lani location fits that larger model: retail plus dining in one destination, with an emphasis on a branded island-lifestyle experience rather than a standalone local restaurant story. (tommybahama.com)
I did not find a distinct local-founder story or island-specific origin tale for this Mauna Lani outpost. The more meaningful background here is the chain’s expansion of restaurant-and-retail concepts across resort and lifestyle markets, with this location serving as one of the brand’s Hawaii dining rooms. (tommybahama.com)
Review Sentiment Snapshot
What People Love
Review summaries consistently praise the sunset lanai setting, lively atmosphere, cocktails, and signature seafood dishes like coconut shrimp and macadamia-crusted fish. Many guests also single out the restaurant as a solid choice for vacation dinners and special occasions, with good service commonly mentioned in high-level review summaries. (tripadvisor.com)
Common Gripes
The downsides are more about price, chain-restaurant feel, and crowding/noise than about severe food problems. OpenTable’s own FAQ-style summaries suggest it can get loud and busy, especially around dinner and sunset; some travelers frame it as better for happy hour or a scenic meal than for a quiet, value-driven dinner. That criticism seems moderately supported across review summaries, while food quality complaints are more mixed and less universal. (opentable.com)
Practical Visitor Tips
- The official site lists daily hours of 11:30 AM–8:30 PM, with happy hour 3:00–5:00 PM and live music 5:00–8:30 PM. Tripadvisor’s listing shows a different meal/hour structure, so the official site is the better baseline, but it is still worth checking day-of because restaurant hours can shift. (tommybahama.com)
- Reservations are recommended on the official site, and OpenTable shows active reservation traffic; if you want a lanai table at sunset, book ahead. (tommybahama.com)
- If you want a calmer experience, lunch or an early dinner is the safer bet than peak sunset hours. That pattern is reinforced by reservation-platform guidance and review summaries. (opentable.com)
- The location is inside The Shops at Mauna Lani, so it functions as a convenient resort-area stop rather than a standalone destination off the beaten path. (tommybahama.com)
- Takeout/order-online is supported on the official site, so it can work as a flexible backup if dine-in timing is crowded. (tommybahama.com)
Verification Notes
- The Google Places record and official site agree on the core identity: Tommy Bahama Restaurant & Bar, 68-1330 Mauna Lani Dr #102, Waimea/Kamuela, HI 96743, (808) 881-8686, and the Mauna Lani location page on Tommy Bahama’s site. (tommybahama.com)
- Google’s place types include a clothing_store signal and the editorial summary appears to describe the retail store, not the restaurant; this looks like a Google category/summary mix-up rather than a true identity conflict. (tommybahama.com)
- Google hours show 11:30 AM–9:00 PM daily, while the official restaurant page shows 11:30 AM–8:30 PM daily. That is a small but real hours discrepancy worth treating as a possible stale-signal issue. (tommybahama.com)
Sources
- Tommy Bahama official Mauna Lani location page —
https://www.tommybahama.com/restaurants-and-marlin-bars/locations/mauna-lani— retrieved 2026-04-01. Best for official identity, address, phone, hours, reservations, happy hour, live music, and the brand’s own description of the setting and food. - Official Mauna Lani takeout menu PDF —
https://www.tommybahama.com/content/dam/tommy/restaurants/mauna-lani/MaunaLani_To_Go_Menu.pdf— retrieved 2026-04-01. Best for concrete dish names, menu style, and price signals. - OpenTable listing for Tommy Bahama Restaurant & Bar - Mauna Lani, Big Island —
https://www.opentable.com/tommy-bahama-restaurant-and-bar-mauna-lani-big-island— retrieved 2026-04-01. Best for traveler-facing positioning, price range, reservation posture, seating/ambiance summary, and crowding/noise inference. - Tripadvisor restaurant listing —
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g60588-d1056417-Reviews-Tommy_Bahama_Restaurant_Bar-Waimea_Island_of_Hawaii_Hawaii.html— retrieved 2026-04-01. Useful for review-pattern sentiment, feature list, and special-diet claims. - Restaurantji listing —
https://www.restaurantji.com/hi/waimea/tommy-bahama-restaurant-bar-and-store-/— retrieved 2026-04-01. Useful for recurring customer-favorite dish names, general review sentiment, and the fact that the place is often discussed as a combined restaurant/store listing. - Tommy Bahama brand history page/article on first restaurant —
https://www.tommybahama.com/en/blog/30th_anniversary/fan_favorites— retrieved 2026-04-01. Used only for the broader brand-history context that the first Tommy Bahama restaurant opened in Naples in 1996.
