Hey everyone! With spring break coming to an end, I wanted to share some delicious food I had during my travels, first stop: Hawaii!!! I spent a week on the island Kauai and ate a lot of good food, and I wanted to share some of the great meals I had. Unfortunately, there are a lot of restaurants I was unable to try, but out of the ones I did go to, there are several I would recommend. Whether you’re traveling to Kauai soon or just want to hear about some great meals, this article should (hopefully) be a good read!!

I’m just gonna talk about each restaurant for about a paragraph and add pictures of the specific meals I ate.

Hanalei Poke

You can’t go to Hawaii and not get fresh poke. I happened to be on the north side of the island when my craving for poke hit, but there are several food trucks all over the island with similar menus and equally fresh fish. This specific poke truck was in a really great spot, near other cute shops and restaurants–which is perfect if you are with picky eaters–and has a gorgeous views of the mountains.

The poke wasn’t too expensive, especially considering how much fish they give you per plate, and had such good flavor!!!

We got two different bowls and one of their spicy tuna rolls. The Mac Bowl had 4 different types of fish plus their 5 included toppings: red, white, and green onion, seaweed, and tobiko. The Hawaiian Girl only had one type of fish with sesame seeds, avocado, and the same 5 toppings as the Hawaiian Style. Both had such amazing flavor and was such a great ratio of fish to rice to toppings (they use half a pound of fish per bowl!!!) and for $15 each were definitely worth it.

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If you can see in the first picture, directly across from Hanalei Poke is an açaí bowl stand, which I had to get despite how full I was.

Hanalei Acai

This has got to be one of the prettiest açaí bowls I’ve ever seen. I got their classic bowl and added bee pollen, honey, and coconut. Their bowls come very simple–just açaí, banana, and granola–so you probably would want to add toppings, but for $1 each it can become a super pricey snack. I think in total mine ended up being around $12, which is far more expensive than a typical bowl. Despite the price, it was probably the prettiest açaí bowl I’ve ever seen and was super delicious, so I would recommend going at least once!

Kauai Coffee Roasters

Another amazing place I went was Kauai Coffee Roasters, which is a coffee farm on the South shore of Kauai.

This place was adorable. They had a cute little shop right out front selling everything from chocolate covered coffee beans to souvenir cups and also had self guided tours, freshly brewed coffee on the lanai to try before you buy, and a coffee stand serving amazing lattes, mochas, frappachinos, etc. I got the vanilla latte, which was delicious, and I was able to try several different coffee roasts before I bought some coffee to bring home!

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Da Crack

Next up is a restaurant that cracked me up… hahaha… get it. Okay sorry for that, but this place was actually really freaking good. It is very Cabo Bob’s esque, delicious food served a a bowl, burrito or tacos. I got the fish tacos, which was marlin, their fish of the day, and it was super fresh. I have to say, it wasn’t nearly as good as Cabo Bob’s, but it’s a pretty inexpensive, really yummy eat.

Another perk is that right next door is a shaved ice food truck which was ridiculous. We got a lime shaved ice with pinapple, cream, and vanilla ice cream in the bottom! It was so refreshing and really hit the spot.

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Duke’s

Dukes is a really great spot in Lihue near the south side. I actually ate their twice, once for dinner and again for lunch, so clearly this place was pretty good. It’s a great outdoor bar with a surfer theme dedicated to the famous surfer Duke Kahanamoku. For dinner, we had the ribs, which were falling off the bone and had great flavor. Along with the nachos, which were super cheesy and crisp and had a good ratio of meat to cheese to chip, we also had ahi tuna as well as sashimi, which legit melted in your mouth it was so fresh.

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For lunch, the standout dish was the fish sandwich, which had iceberg lettuce, pickled cucumbers, caper aioli, and was served on a hawaiian roll… uggghhhh it was sooooo good. Super fresh and light but also served with some amazing french fries.

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Lastly, but most importantly, I have to talk about hula pie. If you’ve been to Hawaii, you’ve probably seen or hopefully tried one of these babies before, but if not i’ll try and break it down for you: It’s a huge bowl filled with ice cream and topped with a cookie crumb crust, then refrozen, flipped right side up, coated in chocolate sauce, and a huge (I mean huge) slice is cut and served. Idk if I even need to explain how good this “pie” is, the pictures pretty much sell how great it is. They’re sold at many restaurants all over Hawaii and come in several different flavors—I have to say the macadamia nut pie was my favorite.

Keoki’s Paradise

Last but not least, this nice restaurant had to be mentioned. The atmosphere is so cool in here, it’s located in a shopping plaza in Poipu, but once you walk inside, you would think you’re in a tropical garden, because you are. There’s a more casual side with a large tiki-hut bar, then the nicer side with a more formal menu where we ate. The entire restaurant is facing the gorgeous garden and is also in eye’s view of the live music and hula dancer. I only took pictures of my meal, but I had the fish special served two different ways and the ahi tuna for an appetizer. Both were extremely delicious! The fish had two very different flavors that contrasted well—one was a miso glaze and the other had a more tart, lemony sauce. The ahi was super fresh (as it’s been all trip haha), so really no complaints there. I would definitely recommend coming here for a nice meal and some great ambiance—plus they had hula pie… so even more of a reason to go!

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All in all, I had a really great trip and ate some really amazing food! I honestly think it’s hard to go wrong and have a disappointing meal in Kauai, but I hope my recommendations can still help you out if you’re visiting!

Thanks for reading and let me know if you’ve been to Kauai and what good food you enjoyed while you were there!

-Ari