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Manuela Malasada - Big Island

4.3 (734 reviews)
ModerateFood Trucks, Donuts
Closed 9:00 am - 5:30 pm
Updated 2 months ago

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Malasadas: lilikoi, guava cheesecake, & cookie butter
Isabelle V.

Had to stop by this malasada food truck in this area. Got there at 9 in the morning on Wednesday and it wasn't busy at all. They take Apple Pay which is super convenient! We got three special filling malasadas which were around $16-17. Super yummy and fit the spot for my sweet tooth! The cookie butter filling was super rich and decadent and lilikoi flavor was a nice fruity balance. Definitely stop by if you are in the area!

Hanaah F.

Stopped by the first time around 4pm, and they were completely sold out. Stopped by the 2nd time around 2:30pm, and they were still in business. Minimum order is 3 malasadas. We ordered the Dubai chocolate, guava, and banana cream fillings. They were made fresh. It does take awhile to place the order and also get your order served for this reason. It's a food truck too, so need to be patient. They are located right off the highway, and some other food trucks are there too. The banana cream and guava fillings tasted more artificial. The malasadas weren't out of this world. I've had better. Good service though.

So excited for this
Reetu P.

Hidden gem on the big Island! This famous malasadas truck did not disappoint. Freshly made malasadas with so many different options to choose from. They do have peanuts but they do take care of cross contamination for those with nut allergies. Team is so friendly and accommodating. There was a long line for orders which shows how good this place is. Malasadas were huge compared to the normal size you would get at other places. 3 for $11 we went with sugar coated ones and they were SO good. Perfectly cooked where you couldn't taste raw dough. You can go behind the food truck and pick your order and eat your malasadas. Better to eat outside than inside your car with all the sugar from the donuts dropping everywhere. Definitely a must then on the big island. I believe they have few trucks spread across the island.

Allyson G.

Absolutely delicious Malasadas. We got 6 not stuffed and 6 stuffed and they were so so good. We waited about 20 minutes for them. The line was long but it was worth it. They were off one of the main roads on the west side of the island. There was also a coffee truck there too!

Christine D.

We stop by every time we visit the island. For one, it's convenient and right off the highway. The flavors are great but I usually just get the basic Bavarian crème. They make it where you have to purchase 3, so you will have to pay the high price. Prices have gone up the last few years. Their malasadas are good but I don't feel it's worth the price. I did not interact with the employees. My husband was the one who ordered. When I have ordered, they are always very nice. They serve it fresh every time. We ordered 2 Bavarian and husband got coconut filled for the 3rd one.

David H.

Sweet, Simple, Unmissable If you're on the Big Island and craving something warm, sugary, and straight-up comforting, Manuela Malasadas is your move. The malasadas are legit--crispy edges, fluffy centers, and fillings that actually taste like something. Service is fast, friendly, and no-frills. You order, you wait a few minutes, and boom--hot malasadas in hand. Eat one before you drive off.

Lilikoi, Dubai chocolate, plain
Emma W.

These are THE BEST! Theres so many flavors it's hard to choose just one so anytime we drive out Waimea way we stop by and pick up a pack of 6 I haven't had a flavor I didn't enjoy but so far I tend to get half chocolate/ half fruit and my go to's are s'mores or Dubai chocolate, and lilikoi They can be a lil messy so have some napkins prepared as there's no proper benches/ outdoor seating to eat you'll be eating in your car or taking them home if you can resist ;)

Malasadas
Anisya N.

Little roadside establishment where malasadas are made fresh. Got three: 2 filled with mango and 1 filled with haupai. They were out in a few minutes and were crisp, fluffy pastry that paired well with the fruity flavors. Just wished they were filled a bit more since some bites were just dough. They're not cheap by any means but good to dip your toes into a bunch of different flavors. Also got their banana bread which was so moist and yum!!!

Breakfast Before Beach ;)
Frances L.

Pros: They are cooked fresh to order They are locally owned Best hot donut I've ever had light and fluffy inside and the perfect crunch on the outside. Cons: Making them from scratch takes time (worth it IMO) 15-20 an order depending on size They have no shade set up and they are located in a barren dirt field. Price is a tad high I recommend getting a half plain half stuffed mixed dozen.

Carla I.

Dubai chocolate malasasa?! Say less. Deliciously hot and flavorful donuts although $7 for a Dubai one is A LOT!

Strawberry, Ube cheesecake,  Nutella, chocolate PB,  strawberry, chocolate haupia
Amanda L.

Stop and grab a breakfast treat on your way to beach 69 - our favorite sweet stop. Opens around 9am and only takes about 10-15 min to get your order when it's busy.

Peach Pineapple Malasada

Had so much fun ordering malasadas and waiting to eat them hot off the truck. We tried Guava, Lilikoi, Nutella, Haupia & Peach/Pineapple. They were all amazing. They were ready super fast and the owner is so friendly. The goats wandering around in the field behind the truck were very fun to watch. We enjoyed seeing the mothers & kids. Also the roadside jam/fruit stand was very nice too.

malasadas
Katie S.

Roadside food truck with made to order malasadas. Add $1.75 for about a tablespoon of filling. The dough was pretty dense, so eat them while they're hot. The fillings were overly sweet (lilikoi & haupia) and lacked the actual flavor of the fruit. Really bummed about that! We really like the li hung mui best (salty & sweet). Cold brew was great! If we went back, it would only be for the li hung + a cold brew.

crem brulee filled

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Manuela Malasada - Big Island Reviews in Other Languages

Ask the Community - Manuela Malasada - Big Island

How do I contact you directly for a refund?

808-747-5531

What brand of "Li-Hing (Sweet & Sour Plum Sugar)" do you guys use? When I flew home I wanted to dust some local donuts the same way, but the one powder I tried buying on Amazon (described as "Li Hing Mui Powder" was not sour so much as salty...

We blend our own li hing - try to add sugar to your powder and it may turn out amazing too

Hi; we were there Sunday morning after 8:30, but only the espresso truck was there. We'd like to come by this morning & try again...what time will you be open today (Tuesday) & tomorrow?

830

What time are you open until today? It says 5:30pm, but I just wanted to confirm since I am making a bit of a drive.

Yes

Are you open today? I can't find your truck on 1 Puako, we can come back later but I only saw a bunch of cars and police cars there on the lot?

Yes

Do you do catering or we can pick up a large order? We are looking for malasadas for our wedding instead of cake. With much advance notice of course.

Hi, thank you for considering us yes we do. We would just need to know your quantity and the date that you were thinking about because we have become extremely popular for weddings and catering. I just need to make sure that I have the availability… Read more

Are you always there at 8am?

No. 830

I'm visiting Hilo on vacation. Are you on the Hilo side anywhere? Thanks

Sorry - only in Waikoloa

Are y'all open today?

I think they are open 7 days a week. We had to find their "temp home" while we were there due to the Ironman race.

Drove by today, are you going to be there today?

Yes. We had 3 employees call in sick today so it’s going to be 10.

Are you at the same location ? We drove by a few times and only saw a shaved ice truck.

We are here - yes, since we are so sought after we have a ton of folks that pull up on that spot…

What are your timings on the Fourth of July?

What oil do they fry the Malasdas in?

Coconut/ canola blend exclusively for our trucks

I read that your location is hard to find. we're visiting and not totally familiar with the area. Is it really just 6.3 miles coming from Waikoloa beach drive (hotels)? One address says 1 and half hour drive from here.

1 Puako beach drive

Hi there :) Do you take debit card or credit card?

She does take both along with Apple Pay. Hope that helps .

What days of the week are you there? Are you still off highway 19? We haven't been to the leeward side in a while and are craving your amazing malasadas!

We are open 7 days a week. 8- until we sell out- this happens between 4-5

Can you pay with credit card?

Yes

Are you guys still around at the Big Island? We were looking for the truck last week but to no avail. 😕

Yes- more popular then ever… Puako beach drive

There is a storm today, are you open during heavy rain?

Yes

Where will you be today?

Only location we have on the big island - Puako - we are there 7 days a week

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We came to Honokaa on a whim for some site seeing…read more Decided on a little treat for our drive back home. So we got a dozen original malasadas. They were made fresh, some of the best malasadas I've ever eaten. Their dough was light and fluffy. It wasn't greasy at all. And when we ate it a few hours later, it warmed up well! We will be coming back for these! (For those that are from Oahu, these are much different than Leonards. I'd say from my humble opinion, better)

The very first malassada I ever had was many years ago at Tex Drive In. I just remembered how…read moredelicious these were, and if I ever came back to the Big Island, I'd have to come back to Tex. So it's been about 20 years, and the place is no longer the "hot spot" (maybe because we came on a weekday). There were a few locals having breakfast outside, but we were able to walk right up and order several different malassadas. We tried strawberry and guava filling, and they were quite good. It does make the malassada a bit overly sweet, though. I still prefer their plain malassadas. They are like sugar donuts without the hole. Now that I've had other malassadas to compare to, I find Tex's to be on a breadier side. I've had others in Oahu that were lighter and fluffier, which I now prefer. But no where have I found any malassadas as big as Tex's. So maybe Tex's has lost it's charm a bit, but they still serve up some pretty yummy malassadas.

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Amazing service, delicious poke. Kind workers and just an…read moreoverall great Hawaii store Go there if you are in the area

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My wife and I got last minute reservations to Canoe House on a Sunday evening at 8:00 p.m. Despite…read morehaving missed the sunset, we still had a very lovely dinner. We saw from Yelp photos that Canoe House offered a tasting menu at some point in time, but during our visit, it was more of an impromptu tasting menu of sorts -- created by our server, rather than an official one with a set beverage pairing. In any case, we still had a wonderful experience ordering items a la carte. Before diving into the food, I wanted to call out the outstanding service at Canoe House. My wife and I were celebrating our anniversary and our server started and ended the meal with a round of congratulations. Throughout our meal, our server was super attentive and there was never a moment when our water cups were empty. Empty plates were promptly cleared, cutlery was refreshed when it was needed, and whenever a dish was brought over, he would carefully slide things around on the table so dishes were accessible and not overcrowding. Friendly, professional service of this level is honestly hard to find these days outside of Michelin dining establishments. My wife and I started our meal off with the large loaf of pull-apart milk bread ($18). The milk bread was incredibly fluffy and the outside was finished with some honey and sea salt. The sweet cream butter was rich and had the perfect spreadable consistency. As tempting as it is to want to finish the loaf, you'll definitely want to safe your stomach for the rest of the meal. The next items that we ordered were two chilled oysters ($7/piece), and a hamachi + uni citrus salad ($14). Since we were dining as a couple, our server informed us that we could actually order half-portions of some of the dishes. This was a perfect way to not fill-up before our mains arrived, so we did that for both the salad and the gyozas. The uni in the salad was melt in your mouth tender and had a delicious sweetness to it. I thought the hamachi in the salad was a bit unremarkable: it was certainly fresh and there were two generously sized pieces in the dish, but the fish definitely needed a bit more salt to it. Our next and last appetizer to arrive was the beef and foie gras gyoza ($7/piece). The chili garlic ponzu sauce the gyoza is resting leans towards the sour side, but that's my personal preference when it comes to dumpling sauces so I really enjoyed it. The filling inside the gyoza was on the leaner side compared to your typical pork and cabbage dumpling, but I didn't mind this too much since there was so much sauce in the bowl to accommodate the dumpling. The next four items we ordered all arrived together: the garlic fried rice ($32), the Kona kanpachi ($67), the Iberico char siu pork ($65), and the side of sugar snap peas ($22). Of these items, my favorite bites were the Iberico pork followed closely by the garlic fried rice and the sugar snap peas. If we could've ordered one fewer dish, it definitely would have been the Kona kanpachi. While the fish was flakey tender and the the skin was cooked to be perfectly crunchy, the portion size was far too large for two, and I thought the coconut ginger sauce felt a bit diluted and not as flavorful as advertised. I wish our server warned us that we had ordered way too much food, because we brought 85% of this dish home as leftovers. While I don't necessarily mind having leftovers, having leftovers on vacation -- with less than ideal heating methods available (i.e. hotel microwave), is not great. Overall, I couldn't help but feel this dish was somewhat a waste of money for the two of us. On the other hand, the Iberico char siu is a dish I'd order again and again if I were to come back. The pork was lean and grilled to perfection. The charred end pieces were some of my favorite bites of the night. I didn't miss the fatty bits that are typically present on a piece of char siu pork, and the mustard that accompanied the dish was not over the top spicy like some of the mustards you find at dim sum restaurants. The garlic fried rice was packed with so much garlic flavor. One criticism I had with the dish though is I wish the hot sizzling plate the dish was served on was even hotter. The rice that was in contact with the plate didn't crisp up in the same way that it would with a Korean bibimbap served in a hot stone bowl, or the socarrat at the bottom of a Spanish paella. Nonetheless, the dish was well-seasoned. If you want to save a bit on carbs and not fill up, you might want to skip this dish. Overall, the dining under the stars experience at Canoe House is hard to beat. The service is incredible, the included validated valet parking experience is seamless, the ambience of the hotel where the restaurant is located is breathtaking, and Chef Rhoda has really done an wonderful job with the vast majority of the items we tried. I would not hesitate to recommend Canoe House for celebrating a special occasion if you're visiting Hawaiʻi.

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Manuela Malasada - Big Island - foodtrucks - Updated May 2026

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