The Best Burger in Hawaiʻi May Be at This Movie Theater
The Bistro at the Waikoloa Luxury Cinema on Hawaiʻi Island serves a double-patty, mustard-grilled burger that rivals any I’ve had.
When I asked my friend, Melissa, if she wanted to come with me to Kailua-Kona on Hawaiʻi Island to check out a newly renovated hotel — I know, tough job — she quickly agreed.
Then added: “I need to eat the movie theater.”
Like, popcorn and kakimochi?
“I heard it’s really good.”
Uh… OK.
So, before dropping our bags at the hotel, we headed straight to Queens’ Marketplace at the Waikoloa Beach Resort to get lunch at, yes, a movie theater.
To be fair, this is a luxury theater — Waikoloa Luxury Cinemas, to be exact — with plush seating and plenty of leg room. And it’s not only theater in Hawaiʻi to serve more than just popcorn and hot dogs. Others, like Consolidated Theatres’ Ward location, boast craft beer, sandwiches and salads. (You can even order an Old Fashioned or margarita at Ward. The Kapolei location has shave ice!)
But there’s no other theater in the Islands — that I could find, anyway — with an actual restaurant attached to it.
The Bistro opened in December 2017, along with the opening of the cinemas, in a 20,000-square-foot space that sat vacant for 10 years, explained Hawaiʻi Luxury Cinemas president Tony Dalzell.
“The original concept was to be a movie theater with an adjacent restaurant,” Dalzell says. “The business has since evolved to become a restaurant with an adjacent movie theater.”
The restaurant is located in the theater’s open-air lobby (where the bar is) and extends into a 5,000-square-foot covered lānai space outside.
For all intents and purposes, The Bistro looks your normal restaurant. Except for the concession selling popcorn and M&Ms and doors leading to movie theaters.
The menu is pretty standard, too, with sweet-spicy edamame and ʻahi poke appetizers and entrées like hot pastrami sandwiches, 10-inch pizzas and mochiko chicken plates.
“It took over three years for people to finally catch on to our food quality,” Dalzell says. “After all, what kind of food could you possibly expect to get at a movie theater? Roller hot dogs and cardboard pizza immediately come to mind.”
But there’s one item that completely took me by surprise.
It’s called the CA “Cult Classic” Double 18 Burger.
And it’s outrageously good.
Like, Best Burger potential.
I grilled — did you see that? — Dalzell on the details.
He said the burger, which was introduced when the theater opened, is a copy-cat of the popular Double Double from California-based In-N-Out. (Hence, “Cult Classic.”)
The only difference is The Bistro’s patties are 1 ounce larger — 3 ounces instead of 2 ounces. The preparation, though, is similar: mustard-grilled patties with a slice of raw onion placed between to allow it to steam, and lettuce, tomato and a “special sauce” to round it out.
“The feedback has been phenomenal,” Dalzell says, adding it’s now the restaurant’s No. 1 seller.
One bite and I was sold, too.
Though the burger is its top seller, the restaurant’s other dishes, particularly the mochiko chicken plate and rib eye steak quesadilla, do well, too.
Can you bring the burger into the theater?
Yes.
But other, messier foods, like the French dip sandwiches and ribs, have to be eaten in the restaurant.
If the food makes it that far.
The Bistro, Queens’ Marketplace, 69-201 Waikoloa Beach Drive, Suite G1, Waikoloa, Hawaiʻi Island, (808) 464-3009, hawaiicinemas.com/the-bistro
