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Welcome to the InstantHawaii Reviews Department. This section of our website is devoted to reviews specific to Hawai'i and especially the Big Island.
We start our Review Department with two sections...
 | Restaurant Reviews Each month we will focus on a different Big Island restaurant ranging from the most expensive gourmet sensations to the everyday local plate lunches. These open reviews gauge everything from how clean the restaurant is to the quality of the service and food. |
 | Media Reviews
Our Media section focuses on video, music, and the arts and presents reviews of the various media that enhance or effect our everyday lives in Hawai'i.
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| RESTAURANT REVIEWS
Latest Review: 'Imiloa Cafe
HOW WE REVIEW RESTAURANTS:
In our Restaurant Review department we visit a variety of eating establishments here on the Big Island. The InstantHawaii team is, if nothing else, very fond of food.
Our restaurant reviews integrate a number of factors into our final choice. These factors are weighted based on the type of restaurant. We do not expect a local plate-lunch restaurant, selling lunches around $5, to have the same requirements as a gourmet restaurant with prices up to 10 times that much. All factors are weighted to reflect the type of establishment we are reviewing.
For example, take the "Cleanliness" category. A +5 rating for a gourmet restaurant means that it is so clean you can eat off the floor; a +5 rating for a local plate-lunch restaurant means that you will be pleasantly surprised.
Our Rating system goes between +5 and -5 for each category. A rating of 0 (zero) indicates the norm - what we should expect at the very least. A category with negative ratings indicates a less than desirable situation. A category with positive ratings indicates a more than called for result.
We gauge our restaurants in the following categories:
- TASTE - This rates how good the food tastes. Negative values here indicate that the food was below what we could get at most other similar restaurants. Positive values indicate that it is better than the average.
- QUALITY - Quality refers to a number of factors. First, quality refers to the basic ingredients used to prepare the food. Are the generally of high quality? Secondly, quality also refers to the ability for the restaurant to handle special request - such as lactose or wheat intolerance.
- SERVICE - The food might be wonderful, but the service might be terrible (or vice versa). The SERVICE category explains how the wait staff handles themselves. Are the friendly? Do they forget 50% of your order? Can they handle special requests? These and more specifics are factored into this category.
- AMBIANCE - Each restaurant either lacks, or has, a personality unique to itself. Whether it is an amusing mural at a local-plate lunch dive, or a fantastic view at an expensive gourmet restaurant, there must be a reason why this place is special. This category explores how successful the restaurant is at building an experience.
- CLEANLINESS - Regardless of whether or not you want to believe it... this is a tropical island and has many critter that are impossible to keep out of any kitchen or room. Yes... that means the cockroach and other critters. Just how clean is the restaurant? We do not expect a local plate-lunch to be as perfect as a gourmet restaurant - and neither should you! If we are talking about a gourmet restaurant and we gave it a -5 in this category that means we saw a cockroach "while driving to the restaurant". Likewise, if we gave a -5 rating and this is a local plate-lunch restaurant that means "a cockroach dropped from the ceiling into our hair while we were eating".
- CONSISTENCY - This category rates how consistent the restaurant is with ALL the categories in mind. The higher this rating, the more you can expect of the other categories. The lower this rating, the more 'luck of the draw' you get. In a local plate-lunch style restaurant, this might indicate that while the wait staff is pleasant and friendly, 5 out of 7 times the order isn't right and nobody realizes it (except you). For a gourmet restaurant this is fairly strict, in that each and every time must be near perfect, or this might be rated down a notch or two.
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| MEDIA REVIEWS
Latest Review: Taka, A Bio-terror Thriller - By Terry Fritts
HOW WE REVIEW MEDIA:
In our Media Review department we examine a variety of media that are Big Island specific. In this section we review each item with a thumbs up or thumbs down approach, simlar to movie ratings.
When rating media we take a number of factors into consideration:
- Revelance - We take into account how revelant what we are reviewing is to Hawai'i and the Pacific Community we live in.
- Audience - The scope of the auidence is taken into account. Is this for people only in the islands, or is this of interest to people interested in the island regardless of where they might be.
- Quality - What is the quality of the production. We weight this based on the local aspect of the piece. For example, a local video of a very good hula might rate very high, whereas a slick movie production of a non-interesting topic might rate farily low.
- Repeat - We look at the repeat factor, or... how many times would ou want to see this again. Are you content to one viewing only? Or can you not get enough of this, regardless of how many times you see it?
- Importance - This category is weighted towards the type of media it is. In general, we weight this based on how important to the immediate future this particular piece is, based on how important we thing that particular category should be.
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