Kiawe Roots — Restaurant in Kauai

Food was excellent. We ordered the crispy pulled pork and the wasabi pea crusted fish. The fish in particular was unique and delicious. It was served on rice and with a small pickled cantaloupe & cucumber salad. The crispy pulled pork had a delicious citrus twist and was elevated comfort food. And the price point here is excellent for the quality of food. Go at happy hour and drinks are half off.

Now to service! I think the people who are complaining about service in other reviews, have never worked at a restaurant before. When you arrive at the entry, there are plenty of signs that are clear about the process. You pick up a menu and decide what you want to order first, drinks & food for your whole party. Once you’ve decided, you go up to the counter and the person there will note how many people are in your party and also what you want to order. If there is a table available, they will seat you immediately after. Then you get a server for your table to assist you through the rest of your dining experience, ie add drinks, dessert, etc. Our server was great! Attentive but not intrusive.

I can’t claim to know why they’ve chosen this process. But having worked in the restaurant industry for 15 years, I can certainly see the perks of it. People essentially can’t have a table until all of their party have arrived and are ready to order. This prevents people from hogging a table for 30min while they agonize over what to order or while they wait for that one friend who is always 45min late (you know who you are!) It ALSO allows the restaurant to have a lower server to table ratio because the person at the counter takes the initial order. This achieves a number of things: it allows them to keep a more accessible price point on their menu & prevents you from having to flag down your server to get your order in & you know right away if an item is sold out.

SO basically, their service is a hybrid between counter service and traditional sit down service. If you’re the kind of person who is willing to sacrifice a certain degree of service to have great food at a savings, then you’ll be just fine. If you’re the kind of person who NEEDS to have everything your way all the time, get a...

Kiawe Roots is a local favorite, must go to restaurant now located just off the highway in Lawai. They offer amazing modern twists to island style dishes. Easy for pick up meal but very much a treat to dine in. Prices are fair, dishes are unique and quality is high.

Drinks – The Trace of Sour was an absolute treat. When often all that is offered is more touristy “island style” drinks its very refreshing to have something different. The single barrel Buffalo Trace bourbon definitely shined and name another place on island where egg white is used in a drink (don’t let that scare you, just try). I had several. The rest of our party tried the Black Hawk & Kamikaze Smash. Both received good reviews. For any non-alcoholic drinkers the Kauai Organics Hibiscus Olena Tea (a mouthful to say) was very delicious.

Pupus – Every meal should start off with a tasty appetizer. The Fried Brussels Sprouts are something we almost always order. Based on the online menu it looks like it’s only available on Friday so if you go on a Friday you should get this! Our table also heavily recommends the Kiawe Chips. We originally ordered 2 but upped the order for 1 more after the first two disappeared quickly. The chips come with a white BBQ dipping sauce that complimented them perfectly.

Entrée – You cannot go wrong here. Our table had Wasabi Pea Crusted Fish, Kalbi bowl, and smoked plates of Huli Chicken, Brisket, & Prime Rib. The Kalbi (beef short rib) bowl is the favorite of our group. This often gets ordered. Kiawe knows how to smoke and the Chicken, Brisket and Prime Rib were all amazing. The Pepper quava sauce was a favorite choice. For fish lovers they have the Wasabi Pea Crusted Fish dish. The spice was noticeable but not at all overpowering. Very nice dish.

Quick To-Go Picks – My quick To-Go picks would have to be the Crispy Pulled Pork Sandwich or the Kalbi Bowl. The sandwich hits the spot and the Kalbi is a favorite for both dine in our out.

Parking – Unlike most places on island, parking here is very easy. Both in front of Kiawe and next to the Lawai post office you will find...

Kiawe Roots is perpetually one of the most recommended restaurants in this area, and it's easy to see why! Although they have a small dining room with limited seating, they have a reputation for delicious food (for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!) which makes them very popular.

Although I had originally wanted to try breakfast here the timing didn't work out and instead we made a 6pm dinner reservation on our final night in Kauai before heading to the airport. As the dining room is small, reservations are highly recommended, although they do offer takeout as well.

They are known for their smoked meats, so we both had our eye on the huli huli chicken. Unfortunately, they have a limited supply, so even though our dinner reservation was for 6pm, they had just run out of huli huli chicken (we could see a gentleman at a nearby table with the very last order). Keep this in mind if you have your heart set on that, and plan to arrive and eat earlier than we did.

Instead, our server recommended the Jawaiian Jerk Pork Ribs. We were not disappointed. The ribs were tender and juicy and flavorful. The side dishes were gandule rice, grilled vegetable (in our case it was zucchini) and this pickled vegetable thing which I can't remember the name of :)

The flavors and textures of all the components of the meal were really lovely together. Even though we missed out on the huli huli chicken, we were very satisfied by our dinner!

We finished with a scoop of Kauai pie ice cream. It's Kona coffee ice cream with coconut flakes, dark chocolate fudge, Hamakua macadamia nuts and vanilla cake crunch. What a delicious finish to a great meal (and a great trip!).

We will definitely plan to visit Kiawe Roots on a future trip to...