Federico's Fresh Mex Cuisine — Restaurant in Kauai

Right now, Hanalei is crazy busy on Sundays since that’s the day there isn’t construction to repair the hillside after the recent landslide. So all the restaurants are overwhelmed with people. Since Frederico’s just has counter orders (I’m not counting the 3 bistro tables available inside), they had a constant stream of people ordering lunch until at least 3:30. I get that they’re swamped and stressed, but that’s no excuse to be snippy as customers order. They were out of black beans and white rice, which happens, but the girl taking orders wouldn’t just say that most orders come with refried beans and Spanish rice. We snagged a picnic table in the surrounding area and went to the market across the street for sodas and a big bag of Doritos for our appetizer. We waited 50 minutes for our food, which ranged from bland to good, but not excellent. Refried beans were tasteless and the Spanish rice was ok. Crab tacos had more breading than crab, but the sauce was good. Our son liked his burrito, but he’s a hungry teenager who had just spent a couple hours at the beach. The best part of my lunch was the Doritos. Maybe you can catch this restaurant on a day when the staff is more polite, they aren’t out of basic menu items, and they season the beans...

Good location, fresh ingredients, salsa bar, good sauces, the rice wasn’t that authentic. We ordered the chicken enchilada (cubed chicken with great red sauce and topped with pico de gallo), fish taco (flour tortilla with cabbage garnish that needed more cumin-mayo dressing but had fresh fish); avocado salad (I replaced the dressing with pico de gallo, yum) and a dos tacos plate. The beans were good.

The red salsa in the bar was medium spicy. We didn’t try the salsa verde. There were also fajita veggies in the salsa bar: grilled onions and green peppers. Plastic cutlery and napkins sat atop the bar and a sign read:”Soda refills, small 25 cents, large 50 cents.”

There were about 9 high top tables in a little colorful room off the kitchen for diners. Low green picnic tables sat on the grass out front.

This meal was...

In our group, the fish tacos were OK, but they had very little of the chipotle sauce. The carne asada tacos were also weak in flavor and weren't comprised of much more than meat on a tortilla.

The regular burger was served on a brioche bun with French fries.The burger tasted fine, and the French fries were above average.The whole plate was served with one small cup of ketchup.The hamburger did not come with any sauce, so I asked for more ketchup and was promptly told that I was only allowed one cup of ketchup per plate. That is ridiculous considering the hamburger and bun came without any sauce and the small cup of ketchup was barely enough for the hamburger let alone enough for the fries. Paying the higher Hawaiian price for a burger and being denied some extra ketchup was the most irksome part of...