Brown's Beach House

It was a blustery day! Even though we sat "inside" we had to constantly manage our napkins and glasses. Food cooled right away.

We got a coffee old fashioned and a Brown's G+T to start. Then we got a bottle of our favorite, Ridge Zinfandel. We liked the sweet potato bread. We had the clam appetizer. This was so good that my spouse drank the broth (using a spoon of course). The clams were very fresh.

Then I got the filet and he got the ribeye. He thought maybe they mixed the orders because his was extra rare and mine was sort of medium. I sent it back, and wow, was I happy with the replacement. Such soft, flavorful meat. And, the server (Rohan?) also refreshed the local mushroom side dish because it was cold by the time my new steak came. Very thoughtful! The mushroom side is generous, too, with a wide variety of mushrooms. The cheddar mashed potatoes were yummy. The grilled broccolini was perfect. You have to get really fresh broccolini to do it this way and get just the right amount of char on it. Loved.

At the end, we were given a mini mud pie to celebrate our upcoming 38th anniversary. Very nice.

The experience was really only marred by the windiness of the night.

It's been awhile since writing a review, but I felt so compelled to do so bc it was just an awful experience and I wish I could have the ~$300 back.

First and foremost, as others have called out here, the waiter for the most part was attentive. However, his counter part that was filling water was judgy and rude when he'd come to fill water. Don't know what that was about, but looked past it as best I could.

The real issue with this place was two-fold - the location that we sat and the extremely over priced, honestly just not good food. Starting with the first point - we were by the kitchen hallway. So loud. Literally so loud. Could hear nothing but pots and pans banging the whole time. That would have been something I could look past perhaps, too, but the combo of the truly awful steak - overcooked, overpriced and sat next to a bed of burnt and dry asparagus - was too much for us. My tuna was also very much average. Just not okay in my mind to price something at $60-$80 and miss on execution so incredibly badly.

In conclusion - I can't believe this place has the gall to call themselves a "premium" dining experience. I've had better food at our local dinner for literally - truly - 1/6 of the cost. Will never be back here again and I wish I could have had the $300 go to any other end than this.

First time at Brown's in a lonnnng time. Food, service and ambience still up to ultra premium standard.

Guests especially loved the watermelon salad and the coconut shrimp. My Caesar was very good, with tempura anchovies that I loved. Excellent coffee!

Except - newer item on the pu'puus menu is a pork belly bao bun. Maybe I'm spoiled by years and years of steamed bao dim sum. Their bun is cold and gummy. I didn't eat my second one; just scooped out the filling.

Still love the place and it won't take as long for me to return this time. Many menu items are calling to me.

All stars go to the atmosphere and sunset view at our 5:30pm reservation. All the servers work hard and are very friendly. The menu items all sound delicious. Unfortunately, there just seems to be a bit of a comedy of errors in both delivery and execution.

The first food to arrive were the rolls, with a butter & likely honey dish to be added, if desired. Yes, please. Honestly, this was the absolute best part of the whole meal, hands down. Warm, rich in flavor, and little pieces of ube baked in.

Next were salads. I had the watermelon salad, hubby had the roasted & pickled red beets salad. You can spy the ingredients on my menu photo. I got 3 squares of watermelon. I'm appreciative that they used Kamuela tomatoes and Hawai'i Island Goat Dairy Feta Cheese. It was good...but check the plate presentation in my photo...um...hubby says it's all about negative space on a plate. I'm more about food on the plate. Ah well. His beet salad was good, and the Big Island Creamery Mac Nut Cheese really made it. We also ordered the Kona Prawns as an appetizer, and after receiving our salads, hubby said "thank goodness we also ordered the prawns" in respect to the amount of salad portions. The prawns were good and had a nice sauce, dipped up by a teeny little piece of ciabatta.

Main course: hubby asked if the prime ribeye was from the Island (I mean, Waimea...paniolos...) but no. The meat was okay...slightly overdone...the chimichurri sauce was salty and over oily...just really should have been better for $89. The twice baked bone marrow potatoes were not very flavorful. Maybe he should have thrown the chimichurri sauce over the potatoes! :-) I had the special swordfish. It was fine...not a lot of flavor in the preparation. It came with some parmesan discs surrounds potato...I think...and they were way too rich to finish.

We had panna cotta with yuzu foam and lemon-ginger cookie and crème brûlée which I think had lilikoi for desserts. They were just okay.

Finally, the service was attentive in the beginning, but as the night wore on, became less so. I had a cocktail that I didn't drink and not once did anyone ask if I liked it and would like another instead. We waited and waited and waited for the waiter to come back to the table after dessert to get the check but he never did. Truly - never. Hubby went to the front to give the hostess our credit card so she could find our waiter. Hubby came back to the table and we waited and waited. Our waiter went to the large table next to us but we still couldn't get his attention...so we left the table to go to the hostess stand and he said to them "oh - they paid" and then another guy had hubby's card to give back and said "oh - they paid" and yet no, we didn't pay. So we explained that and then the waiter said "oh - I got confused - I thought you were at the big table and another guy paid." They're lucky we're so honest. It was something that can happen...but normally not at a dinner that cost almost $400 for 2 people.

We had to walk out repeating to ourselves...they're human...it's beautiful here...we saw the sunset... But we definitely would not return.

My wife and I watch White Lotus and wonder, who eats at the hotel restaurant? Well, if that restaurant is anything like this one I can understand why (if I was wealthy enough to eat here more than once on my trip haha).

The view and the service are impeccable (and you pay for it). The pork belly was delicious - meaty, a hit of sweet and sticky - a great starter. My Kampachi was quite good - it paired well with the creamy risotto and the bokchoy which had a good hit of acid but the crab topping was stone cold and a bit off putting combined with the warm elements from the rest of the dish. My wife's steak was fairly unmemorable (which is bad when it costs what it did here).

Overall, this is a great one timer for the ambiance, service, and that view. The price doesn't match the quality of the flavors though so not sure id be back on the next trip.

If you're staying at the Fairmont Orchid, highly recommend having dinner at Brown's at sunset, it's beautiful to be right on the beach with live music to set the mood.

Some of us opted for the 3 course meal, but I ordered a la carte since I wasn't too fond of the dessert options
--ube dinner rolls: complimentary, AND delicious!!! I wanted more but had to save room for dinner
--prawn appetizer / ahi poke appetizer: i liked the ahi poke with the taro chips!
---kampachi fish over coconut rice pudding: fish was perfectly cooked and paired well with the rice pudding
---venison: the hubby absolutely loved this dish

NOTE: If you're staying at the Fairmont Orchid, call down to the restaurant to make your RSVP! As hotel guests, we were able to get an earlier time that was not available online

The views and ambiance are the reason to book your reservation as they are the stars of the show and what make the experience memorable. The wine list is also lovely with a nice variety of selections from beautiful regions like the Pinots from the Willamette valley of Oregon , and Sancerre from France.
I enjoyed a beautiful sunset dinner listening to live music The service was attentive and friendly; the food was OK.
We ordered the tempura ahí; I was disappointed in that grade of tuna served given the caliber of the restaurant but given most patrons are tourists, they must figure it's ok to pass it off but unfortunately for them, my partner is an experienced fisherman in these waters and quickly recognized what he was served. C'est la vie.
I opted for the chef tasting menu and was not wowed. My fish dish was also ok. It was topped with some fishy smelling crab which I had to scrape off to the side of the plate as I couldn't get past the scent to eat it.
My favorite items were actually the ube bread rolls, and ice cream dessert. The shrimp appetizer and main fish dish were fine but not worth recommending.
If you come to Brown's, you're here for the experience of dining in a beautiful setting with an ok meal.

Considering the price of the meals, the food was subpar. The husband got the $90 rib eye which appeared to be overcooked. It was well done to the point my (frugal) husband passed on bringing the leftovers home. I had the mushroom risotto ($45) which resembled the quality and taste of your regular boxed risotto at the market. However, their taro/ube dinner rolls and honey butter were exceptional. Our server was attentive. Live music was excellent with the sunset as the backdrop. Sadly I won't be returning.

We stayed 5 nights at The Orchid resort and really wanted to try this place. It wasn't until the last night that we realized they had a vegan menu (they didn't post it in the resort but it was right there on the website the whole time). We were fortunate that a reservation opened up a couple hours before and got a table.

The food was really good. They really seem to care about the food they cook, including the meat-free options, which we really appreciated.

The service was also great. The waiter we had was very knowledgeable about the food and wine list.

The location can't be beat! We had 5:30 reservations, so the sun was in one of our faces for a little while, but dining during the sunset was wonderful.

A tad bit pricey, but we expect that when dining at any resort restaurant, and we usually plan for one pricey meal a trip.

This is a VERY OVERPRICED restaurant that I would go back to because of their amazing sunset view. The entrees are about $100 a plate. But they do have the MOST delicious Kona coffee mud pie which I am dreaming about as I write this. Definitely dine here right before sunset and you will enjoy a good dinner with the best mud pie.