Tex Drive In

Our wonderful friends, Marz and Justino, made sure we didn't miss out on this drive-in and it's epic malasadas of awesomeness. How awesome are they, you ask? Awesome enough that we went twice, within 2 days, even though we were staying about an hour's drive away. I hadn't had fresh malasadas in a while and I remember them as being very similar to sugar donuts, but square shaped, and roughly larger than the palm of my hand. When I saw Tex Drive-In's malasadas, piping hot, sugary, and roughly the size of BOTH of my palms, I instantly knew why our friends would drive an hour for these puppies. They were fluffy, perfectly fried, and oh so ono! And they still tasted good the next day! On our second trip out, we also tried the french fries and onion rings, but our fondest memories are of the malasadas. Someday we will return!

Fresh baked malasadas!   Can't speak to the other food here but being able to watch as the malasadas are being made is well worth the visit.

There aren't a lot of options for malasadas on the Big Island (at least, not that we were aware of based on Yelp and Google searches), so Tex Drive In was definitely on our list of destinations.

It's in Honokaa, about an hour-long drive from our villa in Kailua Kona, but close enough to places like Waipio Valley that it was easily incorporated into a tour of that part of the island. And there are touristy gift shops along the main drag in Honokaa so it makes for an interesting half-day.

My family ate malasadas (with cream, chocolate, mango, pineapple, and guava fillings), roast pork, curry stew, kalua pork+cabbage wrap with Hilo-made tortilla, burgers, teri beef/fried chicken plate lunch.

Everything was good, and reasonably priced... and you know it's local but still tourist-friendly - not part of a chain, although I think they want to expand and franchise locations on other islands.

There's a window inside through which you can watch them hand-make the malasadas to order. In Hawaii, the Bavarian cream filling is popular, but my family liked the GUAVA filling the BEST. A little tart, and true to guava fruit flavor. And the malasadas are big, about 3"x4" and 2" thick. Covered in granulated sugar, so they get messy. So delicious. I think they were like $2 each.