Indian Food in Kona

Indian food is uncommon in Hawaii, so the recently opened Shivalik Indian Cuisine  in Kailua Kona Village stands out among the other Asian, Hawaiian, and American restaurants  in the Kona area.  But we were more enticed by the restaurant’s excellent location, upstairs with a commanding view of Kailua Bay, than its Indian food.

Shivalik has as an extensive menu of vegetarian and non-vegetarian Indian foods including popular Indian favorites from the tandoor (clay oven cooked), paneer (Indian cheese), dal (lentils), breads, samosas, pakoras, curries, and specialty deserts ranging in price from $12.50 to $21.95. For those that are not into Indian food, the menu includes Asian and American selections.

Owners Naresh and Sunita Chand opened their first Shivalik restaurant on the island of Kauai in the Waipouli Town Center, before expanding to Kona on the Big Island. The Chands, originally from New Delhi, India, owned a restaurant in Michigan before they moved to Hawaii to start a chain of restaurants.

If you're in a hurry, you may want to go with the daily lunch buffet, available from 11AM to 3PM.  We opted for the buffet so we could sample a variety of the dishes and to shorten the wait. The all-you-can-eat selection included vegetarian curries, chicken, rice, and breads. The food was great, but not as spicy as we are like. The $15.95 price tag is steep for lunch, but the view is really fantastic.

Shivalik Indian Cuisine is located above Whaler’s General Store in the Kona Square building on Ali’I Drive and open daily from 11AM to 3PM for lunch and from 5PM to 9:30PM for dinner. They don’t have a liquor license yet, but you can bring your own bottle for no fee. We parked across the street at the King Kamehameha Beach hotel and there is also parking at the Firestone center on Kuakini Hwy.