Kilauea Fish Market — Restaurant in Kauai

I truly wish my wife and I hadn't made this stop on our way before going for a boat tour of the coast. You ask me why - well where do I begin? Here are some reasons: After I had placed my order, I casually asked what the wait times were and was told that the wait time was 35 minutes. I wish I could have been provided that information earlier because with that information, we would have chosen to go to a different place as we were on a somewhat tight timeline. For places that are popular (as judged by the reviews and wait times), you would think that they would have a system which lets people wait things out AND notify them when their meals are ready. Neither was true here. There are very few tables right next to the restaurant itself and those were mostly occupied and second, they did not have any system to notify patrons when their orders are ready. Unlike other restaurants which under these circumstances hand out buzzers to their waiting patrons, Kilauea Fish Market did not have any of those. No - that would be too high-tech for them; they instead simply call out names loudly which also means you have to be within earshot of that place. But that is not all - because we were in a bit of rush, when I checked in with the lady at the front counter to see if my order had been called out, she shooed me because (hear me out) she had confused me with someone else. Apart from the fact that I don't know of anyone else with my good looks and so that should take off more points, it's a little hard to imagine places that would treat its customers with such a cavalier attitude. What makes all of this even worse is that when we finally did get our orders, it had started raining quite a bit (it is Kauai we are in after all) and we had to have our lunch sitting on a table in the rain. Not exactly my (or I suspect your) ideal setting. The place also seemed quite dysfunctional. I saw the person who was interacting with customers and calling out orders (the one who shooed me) also involved in cooking if she had a few moments to spare in between. Likewise, rather than a very systematic process of cooks/ chefs seeing what orders had come in (think McDonalds' here), I saw one of their guys trying to strain his neck to see the orders coming in and then start acting on that. In a similar vein, even though it was not yet noon at that point, they were out of several items - the pork and the macaroni salad and this wasn't even a weekend. It was a Tuesday! As always, I saved the best for the end and so here's maybe the kicker - my wife found a dead fly in her dressing. As she emphasizes, it didn't fall in the dressing; it came with the dressing. I hate insinuations and so I am a little reluctant to throw it around here as well but I will note that at every other restaurant we have eaten at Maui or Kauai (see my many reviews of restaurants on these islands), we found a "Pass" certificate prominently displayed on the shop window. This is the only place where I do not recall having seen a "Pass" certificate in the window and while this is not to say that the place doesn't have it, the general dysfunction of this place + the fly in the dressing would be consistent with this place not being able to pass a basic health inspection. All in all, I would absolutely ask you to stay away from this place. I wouldn't eat here even if I were paid to do so. You have now...

We have been here for 9 days eating all over the Island, this was our last meal before heading back home tomorrow morning. We were at Anini Beach enjoying the water and needed to find a place to eat before going back to our Condo in Kapaa. Found Kilauea Fish Market in Google the pictures drew us here. Absolutely hands down, the best tasting meal we have had on the island. The Ahi Fish Plate was seasoned to perfection. I did it with green and Mac salad! 2 different types of sauce were included which is more than I got at many other restaurants around. I like my sauces! My 19 yr old son had the white fish plate and he said it was better than what he had at Sam's Ocean View Restaurant. My daughter had the Chicken plate and said it was juicy and delicious. Don't skip out on the Poke Nachos! Crispy, saucy tuna loaded pile of wontons, the best thing to complement the other dishes. Can't wait to come back next time we are in town. The wait at 6pm was about 45 minutes which gave us the perfect amount of town to browse the market in the same parking lot. Reminded me of a New Seasons back home. Worth the wait. Tables are...

it was a really underrated place that we found incidentally in Kilauea. We came to try some fish, tacos or burritos, and I found the tacos were pretty much the same size of burritos. You get two and the price and they’re generously filled with lots of toppings, and a good amount of fish. We also got the veggie burrito which was basically just a regular burrito with no meat in it (they called it a bean burrito basically). The flavors were so good and the sauces they used were amazing. They had some side condiments and furikake as well to add on top. They also sell their food by the pound if you’re just looking for that and have a couple different kinds of fresh poke as well as sides such as seaweed salad and potato Mac. There are some tables that are under covering outside to eat at and a wonderful market and shops around that you can wander in to. They give you a buzzer that signals when your food will be ready and they told us 15-20 min but it took under 10 minutes for us to get our food. I loved these tacos so much I could definitely recommend and come back! Two tacos were enough...