Island Naturals - Pahoa

The restaurant has very few vegan options and focuses heavily on meat dishes, which made me uncomfortable. I'm not sure why so many people enjoy this place, except that it is the only natural food store in Pahoa.

Like many others, I find that this store doesn't offer as many excellent vegan options as most natural food stores do. Compared to places like Mana Foods on Maui, their selection is significantly smaller, and prices seem to be at least 50% higher, and Mana Foods is not exactly cheap either. Island Naturals used to stock vegan sweet bars from Go Max Go, but I haven't seen them there for over a year. Unfortunately, some of my favorite items tend to disappear. On the plus side, they do carry a good variety of local products, including some exotic fruits that are hard to find elsewhere. They also offer more types of bananas than I've seen at any other store in Hawaii. Years ago, they had a fantastic vegan carrot and lemon poppy seed cake, but when they stopped offering that, my reasons for visiting dwindled. Some of their baked goods are still good, and their vegan focaccia bread is amazing when it's fresh. However, nowadays, staples like Daiya and Earth Balance can be found on sites like Safeway for much less.

We stopped at every Island Naturals on the Big Island. The staff in Pahoa were incredibly great in helping with choices, and taking time to recommend area highlights. The hot- and salad bar was very small but very good compared to a bigger location store. We took the vegan German chocolate cake from the takeout cooler, it was decadent, what a treat.

We stayed at Kalani Honua Ocean retreat in a recent visit to Puna district, Hawaii and were not satisfied with what they provide for vegans and vegetarians. This store in Pahoa which is now named Island Natural Foods, a market and deli, saved us a lot of trouble for finding out delicious vegan meals. We found it by accident, actually. We just roamed around and decided to come in. During our visit to this area (Hilo and Puna district , I think, we went in this store for about 5 times to get vegan ready-made. Every time we shop from their del/hot and cold bars we got DELICIOUS stuff. They open at 7 am and at the hot bar, they provide warm baked vegan stuff such as vegan scones (pineapple vegan scone, lilikoi (passion fruit vegan scone, almond, scone, etc. that are so yummy. They have warm vegan blueberry muffins that are sooo goood. They have vegan breakfast burrito with potatoes and black beans. Their organic coffee is so delish. Come early or you'll not find any. For lunch they have vegan wrapped sandwiches and desserts that you can bring to a picnic on the beach or volcano national park. They also have hot deli for dinner (the deli is closed at 5 pm such as chana masala, brown rice, quinoa, couscous, tofu curry, thai tofu, etc. that are all vegan and so yummy. We bought tofu teriyaki sushi rolls for trip back home (for in the plane . I love their pad thai with tofu that is even great at room temperature. They also have tasty vegan desserts (haupia with lilikoi , vegan choc chip cookies, vegan carrot cakes, etc. Amazing! We quit eating at Kalani and spend less bucks in this store and were very satisfied. The staff is friendly and helpful also. To us, this is a gem for travelers to find. We also visited their store in Hilo (located at the shopping center where Wal-mart is . If you are traveling in Hawaii, I really recommend that you stop by this market and deli and get a cooler to bring to the beaches.

This is now Island Market Deli, sister store to the one in Hilo. seems to be a newer building, large gorcery selection, fantastic hot food bar and grab-n-go deli case. We went every morning for coffee and got many food items there. Interesting and unique little town, but we felt at home in this Market