Garden Island Barbecue & Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Kauai

Ok, this was interesting. I was on my way to the airport and knew I wouldn't have time to get dinner after arriving back in Honolulu, so I looked for Chinese food on the navigator near the airport and found this place. I ordered food to go which may have been where some of the issues arose. So let me just say that if you are planning on getting food to go you may want to bring your own containers or at least a plastic bag. My meal had a fair amount of sauce and it was given to me in a clam shell Styrofoam box in a paper bag. By the time I checked in for my flight it was a little bit of a mess. One other thing is that if the person taking your order does not appear to speak English well, you may just want to confirm with them that they understand what it is that you want. My order was as follows: "May I please order tofu with mixed vegetables and an order of vegetable fried rice to go?" I believe the answer was something like "do you want mac salad or potato salad?" I was somewhat confused as I was in a Chinese Restaurant with what I thought were Chinese people so I a) had a hard time understanding due to the accent and b) had a hard time figuring out the question as it was seemingly out of place. Then I realized, oh, since we are in Hawai'i they must be asking me if I want potato or mac salad as it comes as a side with all orders. So I said "oh, I will have the mac salad" Then she asked me something else which I interpreted to be 'do you want like a full order or a half order', which I had never heard of at a Chinese restaurant, but I opted for the smaller version. Ok, so when I get to the airport and open my clam shell box and soggy paper bag this is what I find: Tofu with vegetables, good! steamed rice, not the vegetable fried rice I had requested, not good, and mac salad that is now warm due to having been in the same box as the hot food, also not so good. I must say though that over all if I had taken the time to eat in the restaurant these issues would not have really mattered, I could have reordered the rice, the mac salad wouldn't have gotten warm and I wouldn't be carrying around a paper bag with sauce spilled all over it. So there you have it. The food was quite...

I've worked in customer service many years & a few as a manager. My total experience from when i walked through the door was by far the best i've ever had!! I walked from my house in the pouring rain to pick up dinner for the family. We were late. Immediately after walking thru the door the very first waitress i saw, who was very busy) stopped, smiled & said hi. As i approach the counter, soaking wet, every worker running around said hi. The cashier was so polite & funny!! I apologized for being late & thanked her for keeping my food cuzz i did not wanna cook! She made me laugh. Maybe someone who never worked in the cust srvc field, especially restaurants, wouldn't appreciate it as much as i did. Not to mention how mouth watering good da food is!!!! I live minutes away & a lot of visitors ask for advice where to eat & even before this day i always send them there. Afforfdable prices & food this good proves you don't gotta pay $50 a plate to enjoy...

Summary: The best part was the steamed rice. I don't understand how this restaurant has 4.3 stars. It is quite bad and deserves maximum 3 stars. Don't waste time or money here. Just go to L&L or anywhere else.

Explanation: Service was fast. We got chow mein, sweet and sour spare ribs, lemon chicken, and bbq short ribs. The chow mein didn't have very much noodles, it was mainly vegetables with extremely dry duck. The sweet and sour ribs was made with a strange sauce which was not classic sweet and sour, the meat was very chewy and stringy and the whole meal tasted increasingly worse as you ate it. The short ribs meal cost $10 but had the smallest portion of short ribs I've ever seen, two small pieces with 7 bones. Meat was very stringy and chewy. And the lemon chicken was extremely overcooked and the lemon sauce tasted as bizarre as the sweet and sour. Hawaiian meals range from $10-12 and Chinese meals range from $11-15. Neither are worth...