If you want the greatest challenge you open a restaurant in a location where many others have failed. Your hurdles are a very busy, very noisy highway and an economy that really sucks. You compound that with a location on a curve with very little signage. How do you overcome such formidable obstacles? The answer is really good food. If you have the staying power the foodies will, eventually, find you. Such is the case with the Strawberry Patch Restaurant in Kealakekua.
My friend, Gay, and I stopped there the other day for lunch (dinner is served from 5-8p with a slightly expanded menu). We found parking spots that would not be too difficult to exit, given light traffic. We entered the restaurant to find a table that was a bit soiled but was in a good location (I mention this because you might experience the same thing and you must not let it put you off). A cheery, very helpful and attentive server, Stephanie, immediately greeted us.
We decided to share our selections from a nicely varied menu. There was a small but nice selection of appetizers, salads, sandwiches and pizzas on the standard menu as well as an interesting choice of specials listed on the chalkboard. Gay selected the Papas Pizza Pie from the standard menu and I selected the Pineapple Chicken Quesadilla from the specials menu. We had a very nice lunch.
The Papas Pizza Pie from the standard menu was baked on a small, light crust topped with mozzarella cheese then covered with their house white herb sauce, a bevy of fresh garden vegetables, chopped garlic, chopped mushrooms and a light salsa fresca topping. The light crust, the delicious sauce and the crunchy vegetables produced a very tasty lunch.
The Pineapple Chicken Quesadilla was very good, too. The serving was fresh pineapple; finely chopped chicken and jack cheese on a grilled tortilla topped with habanera salsa and freshly chopped cilantro with a guacamole and chipolle sour creams side. Also, there was a side salad. This serving was perfectly spiced and an excellent combination of textures and tastes. The salad had a very nice dressing and was beautifully presented but, unfortunately, had lettuce that had been picked too late and, therefore, had a slightly bitter taste. Most importantly, the quesadilla was excellent.
We finished with a very large slice of cake. The cake was very sweet and too large for the two of us to finish. However, despite the noisy traffic, we had a very good lunch and will certainly return to see what owner/chef Amelia Antonucci-Fisher has to offer from her obviously varied culinary areas of expertise.
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