Duke's Kauai — Restaurant in Kauai

When we landed in Kauai, HI a week ago to celebrate my birthday weekend, the missus was on the lookout for a nice place to have a celebratory lunch. We're so glad that she decided on the original Duke's (first of its name, literally!) because the place was all about embracing the Aloha spirit, and tasting the real Hawaii!

Location (10/10): We used Google Maps to get here from the airport, but it took us to the Marriott entrance instead. The kind valet there informed us that we could use the free parking and take the short down hill path to our destination. En route we passed by Duke's cheerful and helpful valet who pointed us in the right direction. When we arrived at the beachfront entrance, we were blown away by the beautiful view of the blue ocean and the green hilly coast!

Service (15/10): We received jovial Alohas from the staff and, though the tables with the best view were taken, were promptly escorted to a table which had a lovely view. Jake L served us for the remainder of the afternoon, and what a delight it was to converse with him! When we were struggling with narrowing down on drinks and food to order from a menu filled with yummy offerings, Jake came to our rescue and recommended the most delicious items. He was also my wife's partner-in-crime when it came to surprising me with a huge complimentary Hula Pie as a birthday treat (the same way I had surprised my wife during her birthday dinner at Duke's Waikiki 3 years ago - what goes around, comes around!). Jake and the valet (my bad that I forgot the nice chap's name) enthusiastically shared helpful tidbits for our camping plan at the remote Polihale State, and pointed us to Ishihara Market for shopping local (where we found some really yummy poke). Mahalo, folks!

Food and drinks (12/10): Everything that we drank and ate was yummilicious, I kid you not! The lip-smacking drinks that we ordered were La Pina (Fresh pineapple, coconut cream and hana bay gold rum with a dark rum float served in a locally grown pineapple) and, on Jake's recommendation, Kalapaki Mai Tai (Koloa spice, coconut and dark rums, fresh squeezed passion and pineapple juices). The pupus (appetizers) of Crispy Coconut Shrimp and Macadamia Nut Crab Wontons with plum sauce were both scrumptious. We decided to share the delicious entrée - Fresh fish of the day, and Jake kindly split it for us. The complimentary Hula Pie was rich, creamy, chocolaty, and might I add overwhelming! This is the only item that we couldn't finish and had to take to-go!

To summarize, of the three Duke's that we've been to so far (Oahu, Seattle and Kauai), this one takes the top spot hands down. True that the visit left us with a decent dent on the bank balance, but the entire experience (not to mention how it got our trip off to a fantastic start) was...

Worst food of the trip! Not even close. We walked in pretty nice casual wear... Got asked by the hostess if we were going to eat tacos or hamburgers or order off the steak and lobster menu.. found out this dictates where they will sit you. So pretty much if you're eating tacos and hamburgers, you can count on sitting somewhere where you can't even see the ocean. We ended up getting sat pretty far from the view of the ocean as expected even though there were more seats available by the window and a whole lot less where we were, which was 5 ft away from the hostess desk. I was hopeful that at least the food would be good so I hit the Sunday surf and turf menu... Got the filet and petite fish. That was the most tasteless filet mignon I have ever had. No flavor in the meat at all, and it had zero seasoning, it needed it. The rest of the dish was very soupy and bland. We opted for the salad bar as well and that was not any better. In fact it was worse. The broccoli salad was rancid and people complained about it and it got taken off the salad bar line right in front of us... The salad tongs for most of the options were so far back that you had to reach across the whole thing to get a hold of one so you can serve yourself. Then we watched one of the employees adding new plates to the salad bar with her bare hands as she fixed her hair. So you'll have confidence in knowing that whatever was on her hands or in her hair is now on your salad plate. This is with no gloves. The service was not any better as I asked for a refill when my food was arriving and I was able to eat my whole meal before it showed up. Then in the middle of dinner it started to rain really hard and customers along the outside edge of the restaurant were getting soaked... The customers ended up being the ones that had to lower all of the shades so they didn't get wet. Nobody that worked there helped at all. I'm super disappointed to say the least. I had high hopes for this restaurant as I have heard good things but man it is absolutely terrible here in many ways. The food didn't even save them and usually that's what does. If you're looking for quality, this is a hard pass. There are a lot of good options on Kauai. I'm not a picky man but this is terrible....

My wife and I are here for our honeymoon and staying at the hotel attached to Duke’s restaurant. We decided to eat at Duke’s for Sunday surf and turf. I ordered the fresh fish and filet mignon. My wife ordered the lobster and prime rib. I was given two options for fish, either the sword fish or grey snapper. Grey snapper was described as the lighter flakier option to the more lean swordfish. I chose the snapper.

When he sat our plates on the table I immediately said I ordered wrong. The waiter made no comment or effort in any way. The fish was 1/4” thick at its thickest and was the dimension of a playing card. The filet was a thick generous 8oz but was charred black on the outside. The inside of the steak was medium as ordered although I had to fight through the burned flavor on the outside. The snapper was dense not flaky and was dry to the point of needing a drink of water to get each bite down.

My wife’s meal was an amazing lobster tail she could not stop talking about. Her prime rib was a generous portion. She ordered it medium yet it came out grey all the way through which most people would call well done. There was no pink at all in a 3/4” thick cut.

The waiter did not reappear until the end of the meal to ask how it was. I informed him of my fish and my wife’s steak. She did not have more than 2 bites of her steak and I had three bites of fish. The rest remained. The waiter made a comment about us being full. I advised him we were not full it was not good. He asked us if we wanted a box. He made no attempt to make it right and took the plates away. We ordered the hula pie and it was amazing.

Beware this restaurant not only cannot cook a steak accurately, but then will make no effort to rectify their error. The meal was approximately 225.00 before tip for a great lobster tail 4 drinks and the rest was barely edible. I wish I would have photos...