Grand Hyatt Kauai Luau — Restaurant in Kauai

We have traveled to Hawaii many times and lived on the Big Island for a few years so, as a result, I have been to well over a couple dozen luaus over the years. It’s a requisite thing to do when you have visitors from the mainland or when you are bringing friends or family with you on vacation to the islands, and this is their first visit to Hawaii. Let’s face it, the food at luaus is usually pretty uninspired. You don’t really go go the food though, do you? You go for the whole luau experience; the music, the hula, the story-telling and the history of Hawaii and Hawaiian culture. Unfortunately, this luau lacked in all areas. The music was awful; the 3 singers (consisting of a man, a woman and a very old auntie) could not sing on key at all. They were so flat that it was painful to listen to. There were only 4 female dancers who performed 90% of the dances, plus a woman who did two numbers and a solitary young man who performed several dances all by himself. The costumes were not beautiful or elaborate, the dances were weakly choreographed and the dancing was unimpressive, to say the least. The dancers seemed like beginners rather than professionals. All of the numbers were accompanied by the same awful band, which only added distraction to the already less-than-gripping dancing: One number, Rockin’ Hula, was a complete joke. At no point in history did true hula ever mix itself with rock, and at no point in history did native Hawaiians wear iridescent mylar for skirts or for hair adornment. I am surprised at the disrespect this number showed for the art and history that is hula. Every other luau I have been to had a group of male dancers, usually 4-8 men who danced powerfully and very physically while chanting and singing. There was no chanting, no power to the dancing; just a big fat bleh, In a failed effort to make up for the lack of creativity, skill and pageantry, the emcee tried entertaining the audience by having a group of high schoolers come up on stage, where he spent a good 30 minutes, that seemed like an eternity, asking inane questions about their GPA and then having them twitch their butts for the audience: it was ridiculous and not entertaining and it made kind of a mockery of hula. The food was as mediocre as you would expect it to be, I gave this luau two stars; one for the MaiTais which were quite delicious (although the alcohol content was quite low) and one for the sesame noodle salad and coconut cake...

It pains me to write a bad review, but am hoping that grand hyatt team will bring some change with their whole luau show experience for future guests who can have better experience.

Let me start with good stuff..

The only One star ratings belongs to the host for being the only entertaining part and for those dancers,especially the fire performance.

Now coming to the actual review why not to book this luau...

First sight,small basic stage and 5 women and two guys are the only performers. So you can imagine. Its super basic. Its better going to a random free luau or something.

super commercialized, I truely came this far to see the authentic tradition of this land , the story depiction etc. But ended up seeing a cowboy hawaii dance version, women with glitter skirts. Etc... the beauty of luau is in its story telling thru the authenticity which I can say was zero in this case.

15 mins in , we dint have anyone guiding us to what to do next, felt ignored most of the time. Dint get our drinks untill we asked them for. Oh! by the way get your water bottle, it would taste better then the drinks that were served.

There were dance teaching or something happening at the very end, which i wish they guided everyone to notice. Missed it because I hardly notice that was actually a thing for us.

For the most part of the show there were regular people singing songs... the actual luau dance lasted for 30 mins tops.

food: no comments. Best go eat at local restaurants...

for grand hyatt being the brand , this is worth nothing at all.

I have been to so many luaus, with my whole heart, please dont book this if you want the real experience of luau... its unforgettable and the most memorable one to experience and this is not ur deal.

Read the lowest reviews, They have said it better... dont waste...

I'm sorry to say that the Grand Hyatt Kauai Luau rates last in Luau's we've attended, especially considering the price. We would not recommend it. We were led to believe that it rated highly among the various events on Kauai but I do not understand how. Before we go on, I must say that the waitstaff were very attentive, helpful, and considerate. Good folks, good sports all. Tables were set out on the lawns which was very nice until the rains started. We understand that island weather events are unpredictable but, there were no effective contingency plans in place for rains on this, one of the wettest of the islands. We've been to luaus/events/dining venues where, when it began to rain, they immediately set up a covering for the stage and umbrellas for the tables. Instead we carried our soggy plates to sit on folding chairs, which we'd pulled from the tables, into a dry area off to the side where we ate with plates in our laps while the performers waited for the rains to stop. At least they gave us towels, so there's that. The food was pretty good but no Imu (Fire Pit) ritual. The beef was difficult to eat (kind of tough, really) since we had to cut it while balancing it in our laps. Intermittently the performers could continue. However, the performing troupe consisted of only four young women, one older woman, one young man, an emcee and small band. We've seen much more impressive free performances and much, much more impressive paid...