Apr 21st, 2008
How to Find the Best Kauai Restaurants
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”
- Frommers.com has a useful list of Kauai Restaurants that’s free to use. Note that you can sort the list by several different methods.
- Fodors.com also has a free list of Kauai restaurants that you can sort for your needs. One advantage the Fodors’ list has over Frommers’ list is that it includes user ratings, so it’s a bit more interactive.
3. Other Resources
- 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 and the Bali Hai which are both located in Princeville with views of the beautiful Bali Hai. The view is better at Cafe Hanalei, but the food is better at Bali Hai. (Note that Bali Hai will be closed until June 2008 for renovations. Cafe Hanalei will close September 19, 2008 are reopen in April 2009)
The restaurant that never disappoints is Roys in Poipu. If for nothing else, you should stop in to Roy’s for dessert and try Roy’s Melting Hot Chocolate Souffle.
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 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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