Oki's Box Lunches & Omiyage — Restaurant in Kauai

We barely made it to a shopping place nearby before they closed, and by the time we got out, we were hungry. We looked at the menu at Oki’s and we’re tempted by exotic looking choices. We ask the proprietor for recommendations. The proprietor recommended the Neal’s chicken and loco moco. We would have never guessed that this unimposing tiny food court diner would be hiding five star food. The proprietor was so kind! He not only recommended excellent choices for our food tastes and dietary restrictions, he unexpectedly brought the food to us, much faster than we would have thought possible for such delicious food!

I knocked off one star on atmosphere, because I think there were two tables that would fit inside that storefront, but there was so much dining in the open court area of the food court but that really wasn’t much of a negative.

I don’t know what other drink options might have been good, but after looking at them we chose the bottled water. They offered one dessert: either strawberry or orange sherbet. The orange was delicious, like an orange Creamsicle. However, it has been frozen so long that it had developed that icy feel that over-frozen ice cream has. It was still delicious, but not the expected texture for sherbet. Overall still a five-star meal. I can’t recommend highly enough.

Oh, why is it called box lunches? Each meal will be delivered to you as if you had ordered a restaurant to put it its meal in...

Wow wow wow! This place is such a hidden gem tucked inside a food court.

Came here at 9am before we catch a plane back to CA. There wasn’t any lines, and I was shocked given long lines at other places.

Oba-chan was sitting down, and stood up to greet us with such warm, and told us her Loco Moco & Hawaiian plate are the best in town — so we’re super excited to give them a try after checking out the consistent glowing reviews on here & Yelp.

Let me tell you… THESE TWO plates did not disappoint AT ALL.

First of all, I’m a stickler on rice — I’ve been on the island for ~6 days, and many places we stopped by have overcooked rice eg spam musubi, poke bowls, etc. but THIS place has PERFECT AL DENTE RICE. I teared up a little inside 🥲🤤🥹 in happiness.

Then let’s talk about the Hawaiian plate - they’re big portion. What a value! It tasted and looked like home cooked meals, and the pork was so tender and juicy — seasoned perfectly!

Lastly, the loco moco… my husband is a picky eater and he said it was one of the better Loco Moco plates he’s eaten on the island! Eggs was also oozing with perfect golden yolk 😋

In any case, this place deserves more recognition and I can assure you…...

Oki’s is my usual lunch spot on Thursday or Friday. Unfortunately during my last visit the gentleman working the counter(never seen him before, not sure if he’s new or just never there, but he should continue being out of sight) was less than helpful. I ordered the Neal’s chicken with pancit and rice, the exact same thing I always get. Usually you get a nice double scoop of chicken and a scoop of rice and a scoop of pancit. Today I was handed a box with a tiny scoop of chicken and two massive scoops of rice. Upon pointing this out to the man he offered me more rice, more pancit, their cucumber salad, then more rice again, but refused to correct the chicken portion, which was the only thing that there should have been more of. Whether this was out of his inability to speak proper English or just him being cheap, it was extremely...