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.
Before I list the restaurants that we 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.)
We spend a lot of time researching the restaurants we choose for our own Kauai vacation. We read tons of reviews. Where possible, we like to find restaurants with ocean or other special Kauai views. We also focus our attention on restaurants that serve Hawaii regional cuisine. We can get great Italian or Mexican fare at home on the mainland, but we can’t get Hawaii regional cuisine. That’s why our recommendations are very much focused on Hawaii cuisine.
If we like the restaurants where we dine, we share them on the following lists that we’ve tried to neatly organize by category.
Most romantic Kauai restaurants with excellent Hawaii-regional cuisine, fine dining and ocean views:
Other Kauai fine dining restaurants featuring Hawaii regional cuisine, but without ocean views
Best family-friendly and casual dining restaurants
Best restaurants for local grindz (food)
The quirkiest restaurant with cheap eats (for Hawaii standards) would have to be the Puka Dog (Poipu). We like the puka dogs with mild garlic sauce, lilikoi mustard, but add relish on the side.
Future Go Visit Hawaii picks?
We continue to keep this page updated with each visit to Kauai. In the meantime, we keep a running list of restaurants we’d like to try for next time. Here are Kauai restaurants that we’ve got our eye on.
OpenTable.com – From OpenTable, you can search restaurant availability, reviews and book a table. One good aspect of OpenTable is that each review is written by a verified customer. Here’s a link for Kauai restaurants on OpenTable.
TripAdvisor.com is an excellent resource for finding great restaurants for a vacation because the reviews are generally written by people who are/have been on vacation. You can read reviews and in some cases book a table. For TripAdvisor, 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
Yelp.com – From here you can read restaurant reviews and in some cases you can book directly from Yelp. Here’s a link for Kauai restaurants from Yelp.
I have always found the Ultimate/Revealed guides to be fairly trustworthy for restaurant recommendations. The Kauai version is called The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook.
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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.
As you are making your dining plans, be sure and check out our article for the best food experiences for first-time Kauai visitors.
We aim to keep this list updated as often as possible. We have most recently updated in January 2024.
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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: https://www.govisithawaii.com/hawaii-photos/album/kauai/page/5/photo/sunset-dinner-view-from-princeville-resort
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)
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.
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!
@ 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! :-)