Paid $120.00 to get sick on the drive home. May have been the worst steak I've ever had. It was $36 which would be fitting for a filet however this was a cut I've never seen before. Almost 2/3 of the whole steak was all fat and inedible. It was paired with a bed of vegetables/mushrooms that I couldn't tell if they were under cooked or over cooked but no less so bland that one bite was a battle to chew much less swallow and I dare not taste again. My GF got the short ribs. Same bunk veggie mess with a couple dry pieces of meat. Also almost $30. In addition, she ordered a mixed drink; the coconut breeze I believe. It wasn't a breeze but tasted like NOconut sun block which was sent back promptly upon a quarter sip of its rich lotion like texture. It was so bad that I was looking for the hidden camera; thought someone was just messing with us at this point. On the way home I had to pull over on the freeway and violently expel this horrific evening in one exuberant heave. *(insult to injury) never to return. I was compelled to actually create a Yelp account to warn my fellow hungry Americans. First post; wish it was happy times.
Review Source:This is probably the most reasonably priced restaurant at the Turtle Bay Resort. However, its heavy-handed treatment of its cuisine doesn't really make for interesting dining.
I had the fried calamari, which was actually prepared fairly well, with an interesting tomato sauce underneath. This was followed by the mushroom-stuffed ravioli drenched in a chicken and bacon heavy cream sauce, which was difficult to finish given its richness.
This Italian restaurant is for those visiting Hawaii with a less adventurous palette, but don't really expect a refined treatment of Italian food here either.
I was a bit surprised by the bad reviews here. Â We had a very nice dinner here.
We started with antipasto and calamari - both were good portions and decent. Â Sangria - Good stuff! Â We had steak, pasta, and risotto - All were good, but nothing to write home about.
So why the high rating? Good service (especially for Hawaii) and very good price! Â A lot of other places at Turtle Bay really gauge you... But Leonardo's was good value for the price.
AS I was led to the table I felt I was walking into a convention CAFETERIA or something: One big room with many circular tables. There is no ambiance, it is way too lit up and the whole vibe is just BLAH. The round tables are so big, you have to practically CALL your friend ACROSS from you to ask her how is her food!
Aside from all that there is a mostly blocked view of the ocean, due to the hotel's layout and other buildings!
Dinner was so blah. That I ordered FOUR different shooters of DESSERTS just to excite my palate!
My wife and I spent one month in Hawaii and our dinner here was by far the most disappointing of any of them.
There is a lack of decor and atmosphere at this restaurant.
Service left much to be desired. Â The table next to us received their appetizer after the entree arrived.
My wife ordered the lasagna, which we found out later was made with cream cheese instead of ricotta. Â A unique taste we never hope to repeat. Â When we questioned the waiter, we got ""Oh yeah, we use cream cheese, a lot of people don't like that"."
A statement that would have been appreciated when we ordered.
My chicken parmesean was a lovely frozen piece of breaded chicken with a splash of sauce. Â Edible, but not what I expected for the money.
In the end, if you are contemplating eating here, Don't.
Drive the 20 minutes to Haleiwa and eat at Opal Thai, the best restaurant we found on the North Shore (if you like Thai food).
What is Turtle Bay Resort thinking? Â They 've had an awesome breakfast/ brunch buffet at the Palm Terrace forever. Â Great food, great service till 11am everyday. Â Today we noticed they had an Italian Restaurant at the same location so we thought we would take a break from Lele Restaurant's 5 Star dining during a spring break stay with the family and an extra kid.
Whoops, Â should have read the reviews here first. Â Â Sporting Italian flags and dimmed lights does not make an Italian Restaurant. Â Our 2 kids plus the buddy discovered a live bug crawling around the focaccia bread which we didn't mention to Scott, our waiter. Â Our antipasto platter was dismal with microscopic veggie bits, 1 olive, 1 little square (2 cm x 2 cm) of cheese, a couple of sliced meats and some unidentifiable stuff. Â Assagio's is less than the $17 we were gouged for and a hundred times better. Â Steamed clams were good, thank you Costco.
All five entrees we ordered were tiny portions which really didn't matter as no one was interested in finishing them. Â We ordered another batch of clams to fill up da tummies. Â Scott tried to peddle dessert and when we passed, fessed up that the restaurant sucked and was going to change again this summer. Â We scolded him for not beaming us out of there before spending $197 on junky food, more than we have spent the last few evenings at Lele's. Â Turtle Bay is blessed with good restaurants but this is not one of them.
This place is pretty tasty and I'm pretty picky when it comes to good Italian food. Prices are pretty standard. Pizza was awesome, caprese was delish! And that mix of tomatoes, fresh garlic and basil they give you with the bread is to die for, it's an appetizer in itself. Panna cotta was yummy for desert as well.
Don't go by the bad reviews, place must have just opened or something when those peeps ate there.
Only thing that lacks is the decor. Looks like a standard hotel restaurant, not italian, but the location and view fully makes up for it.
First thing our waiter said in regards to their dishes was that he only gets a couple  dishes since most times the rest are either  over or way under cooked. To no surprise, our calamari appetizer was under cooked, to the point where the batter was still gooey and the rest very oily. I gagged when I ate one of them. I brought to the attention to the waiter by showing him the uncooked batter and he rudely ask me "so what do you want me to do? Cook this little piece?" needless to say, I will not be going to to his place again.
Review Source:Not sure why all the bad reviews...we thought the food and service were great!
We were driving around the island and decided to stop at Turtle Bay for dinner. Â Leonardos opens at 5:30 for dinner and no one was around at 5:15, so we made an online reservation through OpenTable...from the lobby of the hotel! Â We were kind of skeptical, so checked some of the reviews...bad. Â We almost cancelled. Â Hubby wanted to give a chance, though. Good thing we did!
As soon as they opened, our name was the first one called and we were seated at a nice table with a great view.
We ordered the calamari and the organic greens salad to start. Table bread came with a yummy tomato checca (?) We wondered when the experience would turn bad. Â It never did! Â Our entrees (spinach & goat cheese pizza and the gnocchi with chicken parmigiana) were both yummy and we couldn't finish it all.
For dessert we got the chocolate budino which came with strawberry ice cream. Soooooo good!
Apparently, they got off to a really bad start, but they seem to have ironed out the kinks now. Â Give it a go!
There where five of us and no one liked there food. First the waitress would not even stop long enough to listen to a question. When I ordered my eggplant the waitress asked me what side dish I wanted. I said I really don't want anything, she made me feel like it came with the meal. I finally said I will try the gnocchi. Well first my dinner came and I said this is not eggplant the waitress said it is and walked away. I called her back and said take it back, it was lasagna. The gnocchi was terrible and when the bill came she charged us $7.99 for the side dish I did not even want. We could not wait to get out of there.
Review Source:I was pleasantly surprised by this place after reading all the harsh reviews. Here's what we had:
- Shrimp and fettucini (probably sweet Kahuku shrimp). This was an amazing dish! Not too heavy and perfectly complimented with capers.
- Chicken parmesan combo with gnocchi. The gnocchi was excellent and the light butter sauce served with it was a great compliment to the heartier chx parm.
- Shrimp and diver scallops. These diver scallops were so tender. The shrimp were huge and just popped in my mouth. The dish was served with green veggies, asparagus and red peppers, but no starch. I stole some fettucini from my mom's plate to compensate for this.
We then each got a tiramisu and some of the shot desserts. So good! The tiramisu has Waialua coffee in it. My only complaint is I would have liked a Macaroni grill-sized portion.
Don't forget to walk around the beautiful hotel and take in all angles of the beautiful beach.
Altogether a nice place to dine on the north Shore especially since there are so few options.
Not to bad for an Italian Restaurant. It's a little pricey like all Italian restaurants, no surprise there. The service was wonderful though. We had a nice waiter that suggested a lot of good food and was very friendly. The food was delicious as well, they made the plates presentable for us which was nice. The portions were just a little small though, thats the only thing I can pick at.
Review Source:I'm from the west side of the island. I stayed at Turtle Bay for a wedding in Pupukea. The buffet was pretty small for dinner. There wasn't that much variety. If i chose from the menu, everythingw as ala carte. I got pasta from the pasta station in the buffet, some veggies, and sampled the dessert spread. In my opinion, overpriced low quality food.
Review Source:"Complete and utter travesty" is a good way to describe this "italian" "pizza joint." For being in a high-falootin' north shore resort, their food is worse than you'd find at an airport eatery. Â Granted, it's Hawaii, so I wasn't expecting five-star, mind-blowing Italian, but again I'm paying through the nose to stay here.
Their food SUCKS. Yes, I am a food snob but I would be okay if the food was moderately edible. I would be okay (albeit slightly put-off) if their pizza tasted like Domino's, or their wine was two-buck Chuck. But it's not. And that's wrong.
1) They have "mozzarella di bufala" on their menu (a caprese salad, really). The "bufala mozzarella" was not. It was prepackaged, chewy-firm mozzarella. Real bufala mozzarella is creamy and soft. Strike one.
2) Their house wine had been sitting out for days, probably. Cheap wine, fine. Cheap wine that's been over-aerated and starting to spoil, not so good. Strike two.
3) Their pizza was undercooked, and not just undercooked, the dough was done improperly. Thin-crust pizza should be nearly cracker-like, or at least a cracker/bread hybrid. I've never had a pizza that was RAW on the inside - like pure flour. Either they didn't mix the dough enough or there was not enough water. Even sending it back for re-firing just made it burnt and raw. Gross.
Finally, the service here straight-up blows. Despite the restaurant being 90% empty we rarely saw any waitstaff.
Avoid this like the plague.
I never in my life thought I would say this but I think olive garden is better than this place. Food was very disappointing. The clams with white sauce is not a white wine sauce that I am accustomed to. It is a creamy sauce which made me very disappointed. The chicken ravioli had such a weird taste to it, I can't pin point what the flavors were. The bread was cold and tasteless. The only good thing was the minestrone soup and the nice waiter. Would not eat here again = (
Review Source:I haven't eaten here personally, but my family went and they were raving about it for a while. Apparently they have huge portions for an ok price (I think around $15 dollars ++). They brought back half the order of vegetarian and meat lasagna for me to try since they couldn't finish. I thought it was great, and so did my coworkers who shared me with me. We will definitely be back next month!
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