Koloa Pizza Kitchen + Bar — Restaurant in Hawaii

Ok so let’s clear up one thing quick before I get into this review, are they short staffed? Yes, clearly that is visible. But was the service so poor, and had so many mistakes that you can overlook the errors? We can’t.

Charlotte was great at first, but I can’t blame her for everything. This was a type of restaurant where ‘everyone fends for themselves’ type of vibe, and when a restaurant is short staffed, that’s the wrong way to go about the service. It should be a team service where everyone helps everyone.

For ex: We waited 15 mins for our first round of drinks, and when we were looking around for them, the bartender, (who had 1-2 tables) didn’t run the drinks when clearly our server (Charlotte) was super busy, then the drinks ended up sitting there, and dying, instead of him running the drinks to our table.

Once the drinks came, another 5-10 minutes went by, and then all of a sudden food started coming out, (awesome, super fast) but when we addressed to Charlotte that 1/5 drinks was missing, she immediately blamed the bar. Cool, ok, no worries, silly mistake we can look past.

But here’s where we don’t understand what happened, unless it was truly a server error. The food came out for the table, besides one dish. We’re almost at the end of our meal, and not one time did she come over to check on us, make sure everyone had everything, nothing. So I said something as one should.

I asked Charlotte, “hey, we’re missing a dish, do you know where the remaining dish is?”and now it’s the same story, but it’s the kitchens fault. She immediately blamed the kitchen that they forgot the dish, but how is that so? If it all got rang in?

Ok, I’m not here to bash anyone, I’m just here to bring awareness on a bad dining experience to anyone that reads these reviews.

Charlotte did not only take off the drink that was 20 minutes late to our table, but she was quick to ask our table when I asked why the missing dish was still on our tab? She said “you got the dish, right??” After all of us were done eating, and our 6th person had to eat by himself. (He literally saw his dish get microwaved from our table)

It’s just super disappointing, the food honestly was great besides these couple errors.

PS: since our party was 6+ she automatically got 20% gratuity, which we feel was very unfair. We were forgotten about, had errors, and didn’t even get an apology for said errors.

Thank you for...

Friday, 8/01/2025 - We decided to eat at KoLoa Pizza Kitchen & Bar. It's located in a little strip mall. Address is 5408 Koloa Rd, Koloa, HI 96756. We kept smelling this really good food/pizza smell and tried them. Parking is limited. Unless there's more somewhere else, I'm not sure. But we only saw a row of parking spaces in the front of the store. Then I saw people parked across the street in the dirt, off the street, too. Upon arrival...

Pros

1. hostess will seat you. She was very nice.
2. there were seating inside, on the back patio, and I saw a bar.
3. there was a little corner where a man was playing music and singing. He's pretty good. Nice entertainment.
4. they provided water and water tasted great. No funky or odd taste to it. They did provide lemon when I asked for it.
5. our server was very nice.
6. table had a jar of pepper flakes and parmesan cheese, utensils, & napkins. Table was clean.
7. our pizza and bbq chicken wings were great! Tasted really good. Thin pizza crust with the perfect crispy crunch. Not overly breaded. Love it!
8. there is one bathroom for women and one for men. Women's bathroom was cutely decorated.

Cons

1. parking was hard to find.
2. our poor waitress was so busy. I can see her running around trying to service all her tables. But we ran out of water and she wasn't able to check on us. We had to ask someone else cleaning another table across from us for more water. She says ok, but never came back. So I saw our server and waved her down letting her know we needed water. After a while, she finally came and refilled our water. They may have been short staff. IDK. But I don't fault her. She looked very busy. We were thirsty for a while tho. ;)

Conclusion We all loved this restaurant. Staffs were very nice. They have lots of tables to get seated at. They have a bar if you want to drink. They have indoor and back patio seating. There is singing entertainment. The man that was singing the day we went, sang well and played music well. Pizza and BBQ chicken wings were good. I'd go here again....

We stopped at Koloa Pizza Kitchen and Bar after a long day in the sun with my family and it ended up being a great choice. I do not remember coming here before and it looks like it has been recently renovated because it felt fresh and updated inside. The staff was super welcoming and our server was awesome, always checking in on us, keeping waters filled, and making sure everything came out right. I ordered the Garlicky White Devil but asked if we could do it with red sauce instead of the white and they were able to accommodate easily. The pizza was excellent. The crust had the perfect crunch, the arugula, garlic, and caramelized onions worked so well together, and I liked that the onions still had a little bite to them instead of being overly soft. The house devil sauce added a nice kick without being overpowering and the red sauce itself was flavorful and balanced. I also ordered the Caesar salad which was classic and tasted great, good portion size too. We started with the focaccia bread strips and marinara which were awesome and kept my little niece happy. My parents got the barbecue pork pizza and my brother and sister in law had the margarita pizza. Everyone was happy with what they ordered and the portions were generous enough that we all had leftovers to enjoy the next day. The Greek salad was another win on the side. If I had to note one thing it would be the prices. The pizza and salads are a little more expensive than I expected, but being in Hawaii that is pretty normal and the portions and flavor make it worth it. Overall this was a really good dinner spot for us and it is definitely somewhere we will be coming back to on future trips to Kauai. This was our 22nd year coming to the island and it is nice to add another go to spot...