After lunch at Suisan we headed back to the Kilauea Lodge and took a short break. I also made late dinner reservations at the restaurant, this would allow us to spend more time revisiting Kilauea Caldera. We decided to head back out before sunset so we could easily find parking and relax and watch the "show". Before heading back there, I had one more stop in mind. It was Thursday and Volcano Village has a local food and crafts market at the Cooper Center. So, we headed there first.
It's a quaint little market and it seems that a lot of the folks there were locals as folks were having fun socializing.
Food and craft booths were set-up thru the community center.
It was a nice little stop.
Volcano Thursday Market (At Cooper Center)
19-4030 Wright Rd.
Volcano, HI 96785
We then headed back to the Kilauea Overlook and easily found parking adjacent to the lookout. There were folks just arriving to check out the "show".
Folks even brought beach chairs! We chatted with a few folks and they were all locals; some driving all the way from Kona!
Several folks brought offerings for Madame Pele.
We just stood and watched Halemaʻumaʻu doing its thing.
As the sun slowly set the bright red colors became the star of the show.
You could even make out the spatter cone!
We just loved this! We stood our eyes fixated on the crater, just as amazed as we were the night before. Heck, if we stayed another night, we would have returned again!
As it was, we felt blessed to have been able to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience twice!
More folks started arriving and the parking lots were closed. It was time to head back for dinner.
We just wanted to take things easy on this evening and had made dinner reservations at Kilauea Lodge Restaurant again.
The staff here are wonderful, so warm and friendly.
This time we started with the Coconut Brie which came with the bread made inhouse.
The coconut crust was a bit too sweet for us. There were also spots where the coconut was burnt, adding a rather unpleasant bitterness to the dish.
We enjoyed the bread.
The Missus had the same main as previous night, Crispy Tofu.
Again, we thought the star of the dish was the cauliflower and mushrooms.
This time around, I kind of went against my better judgement and got the Seafood Risotto.
The risotto was the standard par cooked version and some of the arborio rice was under cooked and hard in the center, it was also on the salty side. The Kaua'i Shrimp was outstanding, sweet and briny, cooked perfectly. The mussels were overcooked and dry; but the clams were nice and tender.
Overall, based on our dinner the previous night, we got what we expected. Of dishes, made better by the fantastic staff.
Kilauea Lodge Restaurant
19-3948 Old Volcano Road
Volcano Village, HI 96785
And most of all, we got to witness the glory of Madame Pele and nature!
The Missus loved Her coffee and wanted to buy a bag. So, we went in and took a look around and could not find the coffee. So we asked Brian who told us he had two bags left behind the counter. He sold us one. It was $95! The Missus just absolutely loved this coffee.
We were interested to see what effect the "time of Covid" had on Suisan and it was soon evident. Gone are the tables out front. You wait in line in front of the shop, there's a limit to the amount of folks they let into a shop at any one time.
And to be perfectly honest, I was interested to see what the price of the Gyro Combo was these days. And the sign said the combo was now $15. In case you’re keeping score, in 
Upon opening up the Gyro, I quickly noticed that things had changed. This was no longer marinated pork cut from a spit into thin slices. This was more like chunks of marinated grilled pork shoulder. Along with being chunks of pork, the meat was a lot darker in color than what I’d had previously. It was also tough and dry. In terms of flavor, this was on the salty side.
On this morning the parking lot was empty. I walked on over and took a look at the posted menu and noticed the opening time was noon. I also noted that there were donburi and ramen lunch specials going for as low as ten bucks! In these days that's a bargain. I decided that I'd return on another day and check the place out. As I started walking away the "open" sign came on and the really friendly gentleman who runs the front of house waved me in. My lucky day I guess.
I would go on record to say this was more sausage than tsukune. It was hard, rubbery, tough…..I'm sure there are more synonyms I could come up with given time. Not much flavor at all….I guess that's why salt was provided.
And my worries were well placed. Ok, so since the ownership is under Olleh, my expectations were low, but this was even below that!
The chashu wasn't bad, nicely marinated, tender, decent porkiness. The noodles were standard issue, curly, a bit overcooked and mushy…which did nothing to enhance the dish. It had me thinking….at ten bucks what should I have expected?
I loved the presentation. And overall, I enjoyed this dish the most. Nothing fancy, just a by the book beef bowl. The beef was on the chewy side, flavors were quite typical, soy sauce – mirin – sake, which is not bad at all. A generous portion of rice….I wish there was more egg, but this was a decent donburi.
Nothing fancy mind you; but for a ten buck for lunch…I wouldn't pay $15 to have this for dinner, this might work out fine for you. After all, how much is a bento from Nijiya these days?
I was surprised to see construction going on and the note to the right. Well, I just 
I'm sure if you ordered online things would work out fine. And that guanciale looked really good.
So, the wings usually come tossed in sauce, be it buffalo, BBQ (what was recommended here), or mango habanero. Well, I just wasn't a fan of these. While the wings were of decent quality and prepped well, it was kinda soggy when it arrived. I prefer my wings to have some textural contrast that doesn't include mushy. Plus, it was over sauced for my taste as well.
And I guess I take direction fairly well. The wings not being drenched in sauce was much better. There was still some crispness to them and I got to determine which sauce I enjoyed the best. The habanero edges on a bit too sweet, but there's a bit of spice. The ranch will quell that. So, I will order my wings simply "salt and pepper" with habanero and ranch on the side.
The wings looked lightly battered and fried. In fact, it had a decent light crispness. Until I really bit into them. Man, these wings were seriously freezer burnt. The wings were so gross and bitter. I mentioned this to the folks behind the bar and was told, "it looks perfectly fine to me….."
First off, the bread was as I recalled from the "old school" location, crusty and fairly dense, with some yeastiness.
I did find the ratio of Bi (pork skin) to be kind of small compared to the amount of pickled veggies and even cilantro. And of course, I think that it's all about ratios when it comes to these sandwiches. Strangely, I found that the Bi had an almost sweet-sour flavor? Though those jalapenos did a good job of clearing my sinuses.
Much like the Dac Biet, this version had quite a bit more meat than what I've had from Paris Bakery. In terms of consistency, Paris scored well as the bread was crusty and yeasty, those jalapenos nice and spicy, and the pickled veggies nice and refreshing.