Kauai dining highlights/lowlights from a recent trip. I came in with a low bar, expecting restaurants to be worse than Maui and Oahu, but was still very disappointed. Absolutely loved the island and all it has to offer for recreation and relaxing (we did not want to leave), but damn are the restaurants phoning it in…
The mediocre/bad (there’s a bit of a theme)
Keoki’s - Beautiful space but average and overpriced food
Merriman’s - Great service, cocktails and wine, but average and overpriced food
Tidepools - Beautiful space but average and overpriced food
Red Salt - Ugly, cheap hotel lobby vibe with average and vastly overpriced food. The worst of our dinners
Porky’s - Goopy, lackluster roasted pork sandwiches
The good
Ishihara Market - Great selection of poke
Stevenson’s Library (Grand Hyatt) - Great cocktails and spirits selection, pretty good sushi, expensive, but it didn’t seem overly so for the setting.
Island Tacos - Great fish and shrimp tacos. Long wait but a really nice family-owned vibe from the folks working there