One of the 100 best sushi restaurants in the country sits right in downtown Hilo, according to a leading online review platform.
Business review site Yelp published earlier this month its 2024 list of the top-rated sushi restaurants in the U.S., based on its user ratings. Among that list is Hilo-based Dragon Kitchen Brown Rice Sushi, which rated 60th on Yelp with an average score of 4.7 stars out of five based on 232 reviews.
Dragon Kitchen owner Hiroshi Sawamoto was unfazed by the news Friday, saying he hasn’t seen any change in his customer rate since the list was published two weeks ago.
“I’m not sure how many customers we get through Yelp these days,” Sawamoto said. “I think people are checking Google more now. … Our priority is local customers, anyway. Word of mouth is strong.”
The restaurant, which is only open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., generally serves about 20 to 30 customers per day, Sawamoto said, although he wasn’t sure how many are residents or tourists.
He added that he expects more locals might visit the restaurant because of the publication of this article, rather than any bump from Yelp users.
Sawamoto opened Dragon Kitchen — located in the food court on Kamehameha Avenue — 12 years ago, one year after moving to the Big Island with his wife, Hikaru, who also works at the restaurant.
Before that, he said, he lived in Honolulu, working in other sushi restaurants, and before that, he was training on the East Coast in New York and Philadelphia.
While Dragon Kitchen is the only Big Island restaurant to make the Yelp list, it isn’t the only Hawaii establishment. Six other Hawaii restaurants are on the list, including the top-rated location: Lihue-based food truck Kauai Sushi Station.
That No. 1 restaurant has received 653 reviews on Yelp, with an average rating of 4.8.
According to a statement from Yelp, the rankings were determined “using a number of factors, including the total volume and ratings of reviews.” All restaurants on the list also were marked as open and had a passing health score as of April 4.
Compared to some of the listed restaurants — which offer unconventional variants of traditional sushi — Dragon Kitchen has a relatively no-frills menu, save for one twist.
“The biggest difference is that we use brown rice,” Sawamoto said. “People say that’s healthier. But we mill the rice more than the brown rice you think of. In Japan, we mill the rice a lot so it has a softer texture. So, the rice we have, we mill it fresh every day. It makes it easier to digest.”
Other than the brown rice, the menu offers an assortment of sushi favorites at an affordable price, as well as poke bowls, salads and soba noodles.
One of the restaurant’s top Yelp reviews called Dragon Kitchen “understated but world-class” with sushi “among the best (the reviewer) have ever had.”
The other five Hawaii restaurants to make the list are Tane Vegan Izakaya in Honolulu (ranked 27th), 22Kailua in Kailua (29th), Hihimanu Sushi in Honolulu (34th), @Sushi in Honolulu (59th) and OAO SUSHI GO in Kihei (90th).
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.