How to Find the Best Kauai Restaurants
Posted on Mon, Apr 21, 2008 by Sheila
So, you’re going to Kauai and you’ve reserved your hotel and now you’re trying to pick out some good restaurants for your vacation. So, where do you start? Where are Kauai’s best restaurants? How do you make your selections? Let me help take some of the pressure off you by providing you with some great Kauai restaurant resources.
1. TripAdvisor
In my opinion, TripAdvisor may be the single best resource for finding restaurants. Most people know TripAdvisor is useful for finding hotels, but don’t know about the all the restaurant reviews. I have faith in the wisdom of the crowds and I think TripAdvisor is an example of that.
Now, I’m not naive enough to believe that every word of TripAdvisor’s reviews are 100% accurate. From time to time, I suspect that there are some fictitious positive and negative reviews. That being said, I still feel like it is still a very, very useful resource.
I’ll save you some of the leg work and organize the Kauai TripAdvisor restaurant reviews by geography, which will help you find restaurants near your accommodations and sight-seeing plans. Here are the major towns as well as a few quaint areas of Kauai:
East Kauai Restaurants
North Kauai Restaurants
South Kauai Restaurants
West Kauai Restaurants
Take a look at this page which provides the list of TripAdvisor’s top 10 Kauai restaurants regardless of geography.
2. Guidebooks
- I have always found the Ultimate/Revealed guides to be particularly good for restaurant recommendations. The Kauai version is called “The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook“
- Fodors.com has a free list of Kauai restaurants that you can sort for your needs. For your reference, Frommers has a list too, but it’s not nearly as good as the Fodor’s list. The major advantage the Fodors’ list offers is that it includes user ratings, so it’s a bit more interactive.
3. Other Resources
- Yelp.com is a very useful service that we’ve recently started using with our mobile phones on vacation. Here’s a link to Yelp in Kauai.
- Garden Island News surveys it’s readers for the best of Kauai in many categories, including restaurants. This list will give you more of a local’s opinion. Here is a link to the most recent version, Best of Kauai 2007. There are many categories including best shave ice (Jo Jo’s Shave Ice), best plate lunch (Mark’s Place), best Hawaiian (Da Imu Hut Cafe), most romantic, etc. It’s a bit of a challenge to quickly access the useful restaurant information in this list, so I’ll just summarize a couple of the restaurants that won in multiple categories:
- Dukes (East) Won for best Outdoor dining, best cocktails, best seafood,
- Bali Hai (North) Won for best view and best romantic. (Note that Bali Hai will be closed until June 2008 for renovations.)
- I’ve mentioned Kauai menu online in a previous article. It is particularly useful for taking a look at the restaurant menus (as the name suggests) and prices to make sure it fits what you are looking for.
4. Go Visit Hawaii Picks
Before I list the restaurants that I particularly like, I just want to remind you that I’m not compensated in any form for recommending these restaurants (or anything else that I write about, for that matter.)
I think the most romantic Kauai restaurants are Cafe Hanalei in Princeville with views of the beautiful Bali Hai. I don’t believe there is a restaurant in Hawaii that can rival the outstanding view. (Note closed September 19, 2008 are reopen in September 2009). Another romantic restaurant is the Hukilau Lanai in Kapaa. Their Food and Wine tasting menu is an exceptionally good value at $28 for six courses and $40 including wine pairings. Make a reservation and request a table on the lanai.
I think the best sunset view restaurants are Cafe Hanalei (Princeville) and The Beach House (Poipu). Here is a previous article on The Beach House.
The best family friendly and casual dining restaurant with a local flare is Duke’s (Lihue). This restaurant serves the delicious Hula Pie.
The best beach hut style restaurant for cheap eats is Kalapaki Beach Hut in Lihue.
The quirkiest restaurant with cheap eats (for Hawaii standards) would have to be the Puka Dog (Poipu).
I’m sure I’ll think of more categories and winners, so keep checking back for updates.
I sincerely hope that this comprehensive list of Kauai restaurant resources will save you time and be a big help as you select your restaurants on your Kauai vacation.
Which Kauai restaurants are your favorites?
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If I could combine the view of Cafe Hanalei with the food at The Beach House, I’d be a happy Kauai camper.
Sitting at Cafe Hanalei and watching the many waterfalls off in the distance, combined with a great sunset, makes it very romantic.
This photo doesn’t even do it justice: http://www.govisithawaii.com/hawaii-photos/album/kauai/page/5/photo/sunset-dinner-view-from-princeville-resort
[Reply]
Andy – I agree that the photo of Cafe Hanalei doesn’t do it justice. I’m not sure there is any camera that can truly capture what a great view it has. We should try to get there before it closes for renovations September.
(It will be close September 19, 2008 through around April, 2009)
[Reply]
Wow! So much information. Sheila,thank you for that! Andy, that picture is gorgeous. If that doesn’t do it justice, then this is definitely a place I want to check out.
[Reply]
I think your listing of TripAdvisor as #1 was a good one, sometimes it’s just good to get a list of names so you can do your own research. I think some areas Trip Advisor does a good job and other areas it’s a little spottier but you can always get a decent list. For the life of us we couldn’t find the Hamura Saimin Stand though… we ended up eating at Garden Island BBQ & Chinese Restaurant that night entirely by accident. Garden Island was craaaazy packed with people with coolers of beer, haha, it was quite a scene.
We must have gone to Dukes four times in our two weeks at Hawaii. Once for lunch on our first day, twice for dinner (on Kuaui) and then once more on Oahu before we left. Even though it was a “chain,” it didn’t feel like a chain. And that Hula pie is ridiculously good.
And add another vote to Roys, we hit up the original on Oahu and the one in Poipu too. They opened up one a year ago in Baltimore, which was the first one we’d gone to, so we had to visit Roys in Hawaii!
[Reply]
@ HR – I’m glad you find this information to be useful, because that is what it was intended to be!
@ Jim – I very much appreciate you sharing your list of restaurants that you liked on Kauai. The Garden Island BBQ place sounds like a fun experience! I agree with your comment about Dukes not feeling like a chain. And, oh yeah…hula pie is a must!
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