Plantation Gardens Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Kauai

Go to a different restaurant. I don't write too many reviews and very rarely do I write negative reviews, but our experience was regretful. Overall, for $50+ a person in a major tourist destination, avoid this restaurant.

Food: I ordered the dry rub steak, cooked medium. It came out rare. I have serious doubts the steak even hit 130° be on the grill. When the waitress saw it, she laughed and said they'll "reheat" it for me. After 20 minutes of waiting (most of my party already had finished their food), a new steak came out, but cooked well done. The other plates were cooked fine, but none were noteworthy. The cucumber mojito was the only thing positive about the meal.

Service: Change is needed. Our waitress was either brand new or did not care for customer service. There was very little empathy for the quality of my steak; she was more amused than apologetic. After the steak came out raw, it took her 10 minutes to come back and check on us - we had to call a different waiter to get her attention. When the bill arrived, she just placed the bill on the table - no apologies, no "good night." When we were displeased with our experience, we asked to see the manager and he was indifferent to our experience and plain rude. He didn't apologize once for any of our complaints nor did he provide any explanation - he heard what we said, removed the steak off the bill, and walked off. In fact, when we first arrived, I walked passed him several times and not once did he greet us; I assumed he was just an angry customer.

Facility: The restaurant has a beautiful garden yard with a pond and a lit up plumeria tree that's easily accessible from the balcony dining area and the hotel. This was, by far, the best part of the experience. The good news is that you don't have to dine there to walk...

We chose to have our wedding reception at Plantation Gardens, and we cannot say enough wonderful things about it. Planning a destination wedding from afar would give any bride anxiety, but from our first communications with Plantation Gardens (Mona at first, later transferred to Gina) we felt completely at ease. We were so impressed with Gina. She promptly responded to every email and went above and beyond, catering to our needs beyond what we requested. She has impeccable attention to detail. When we arrived, she had thought of and taken care of everything, which was such a relief for us. She is the sweetest person, and we loved working with her.

Plantation Gardens is not only beautiful, but the food is fantastic. We compared menus and prices between several reception venues, and by far, Plantation Gardens was the best value in terms of offering a high-quality event for a very reasonable price. The venue itself is very intimate and private, a former plantation house surrounded by an orchid garden on one side and a manicured lawn dotted with flowers and overhead twinkling lights leading to tall trees on the other. One guest said to us he felt like he was standing in a garden in Beverly Hills. We had cocktails and pupus on the lawn followed by a plated dinner on the open lanai. The waitstaff was very attentive to all of our guests throughout the evening. The food was great - steaks cooked to perfection, fresh-caught local seafood, and a delicious passionfruit vanilla buttercream cake.

We would highly recommend Plantation Gardens to anyone looking for a reception venue, and we certainly plan to dine in the restaurant every time we come back to the island...

We had our ceremony and wedding at Plantation Gardens. Planning a wedding from thousands of miles away can seem totally overwhelming; however, Amy made the planning process so simple. Plantation Gardens works with the BEST vendors--and made the process so easy. It felt as though we were able to just show up and enjoy the day--they took care of every detail, which was exactly what we wanted. Amy is well respected on the island and a joy to work with. She kept me calm as the ring bearers became a bit rowdy right before their big moment. The orchid garden is an amazing location for the ceremony--and seamlessly transitions into the cocktail hour, dinner, and dancing. The food was unbelievable--many of our guests stated the food was rated among one of their best meals they have ever had. They were sensitive and proactive for our guests with food allergies. There are many different options from the menu and it was so hard to narrow it down as everything looked so amazing. We ended up choosing the tuna, rib-eye, and surf and turf and all three were perfection. The service was just the BEST--they were so proactive and anticipated our every need. We received so many positive comments about how awesome the service was at our wedding. When my husband I were looking back on the day, there is literally not one thing we would have changed. Amy and her team made our day perfection. I cannot thank Plantation...