GIRL'S CRAB NIGHT! My Nieces and I have an annual(formerly bi-annual) crab night tradition dating back to 1994. It started with the eldest niece of the 2. Many years later, of school, then college in California, marriage, a master's degree, 1, 2, then 3 children, plane rides home, shopping, visiting family, etc... you get an exhausted mommy & an older aunty. So recently, instead of the usual crab night at my house, we decided to endeavor to search for the best place that would prepare the crab & more for us. This year it was Karai Crab, sister eatery to The Willows.

The search is over! We found it! It is now our favorite crab place, & where we will return to for our "Crab Nights"! Safe to say favorite eatery period!

The staff is so warm & friendly, from Kalani the host that greeted us at the door & seated us in the absolute coolest place in the restaurant! Outside where the ambiance was perfect! Open air covered seating area designed to look like it was mounted to a double hull canoe, floating on the water with tranquil little water falls. He lingered a little while to listen to our "Crab Night Tradition" story. He also came back later to check on us, talk story a little & say goodbye when the front of the house was no longer hectic.

Daniel our waiter was very nice & knowledgeable, answering questions & offering suggestions, checking on us to see if we were ok, or needed anything. John is very sweet & made it fun for the kids, engaging them with a "Who wants a surprise!?" question. To which hands flew up waving with excited "I dos!" being called out. John took them on a little excursion to the soft serve ice cream machine at the buffet in their adjacent sister property "The Willows". They got to choose from pineapple, raspberry, vanilla or vanilla swirled with either of the 2 fruit flavors, and he had no problem when one of them couldn't choose & let him have 2 choices.

Now, the FOOD! OMG! THE FOOD!! We all ordered King Crab. Different sauces, but all mild. I asked for my butter garlic sauce to be on the side, as I'm enough of a klutz already & wanted to try to prevent personal injury, (which has happened more than once at our once homespun "Crab Nights"). Plus, sometimes I like a bite here and there with nothing else but a crab's natural flavor unadulterated tastiness! Works for me & cleaner hands to boot!

We also got various sides. Love love love the sweet potato fries! Crispy flavorful sweetness of an orange fleshed sweet potato, with a perfect salty goodness & just enough spicy heat. Also ordered French bread. Very yummy & nicely chewy. Even better once I dipped it in my garlic butter. The French fries were crinkle cut & crispy on the outside & soft & warm on the inside. If you are getting them for your kids though, you might want to ask them for salt only, as it does have a bit of heat which might be too much for kids unless they are accustomed to spicier than normal food.

Oh btw... us big kids also got to go get ourselves some ice cream. I too couldn't decide & got to get 2 cups of the 2 swirled flavors! NICE!

The food was excellent. The staff so so spot on with making everything so 'olu'olu (comfortable) that you can almost feel like it must be your birthday! It was the perfect night, with my sweet precious nieces, meeting all of our hopes, dreams & expectations!