Tiki Iniki — Restaurant in Kauai

Best cocktails in Kauai (that we had). We went here for my birthday, for lunch. No reservations. Was a long wait but who cares? We were on vacation! Admittedly I was on an unofficial Mai Tai/Tiki Bar tour of Kauai while we holidayed and I declare Tiki Iniki the winner, amongst many places that advertised having the best Mai Tai. I wouldn't claim to be a Tiki Bar aficionado, but I'm pretty hopeful that somewhere exists a truly great and authentic Tiki bar, and have put more than a little effort into looking for it wherever we are. Is this it? No. The music catered to modern America (oh, Todd... come on), but the cocktails were complex, thoughtful, well executed, and delicious. Fresh fruit/juice, nutmeg, cinnamon, clearly house-made orgeat - details...! There is love in these cocktails. Unlike other places which were just fruit-punchy, watered down and pedestrian (some pretty good!), these were just great. We had the Tiki Classic Mai Tai - best Mai Tai in Kauai (According to me), the Tiki Iniki - more please, and for a flaming birthday treat the Famous Flaming Zombie. the flame of the Flaming Zombie was underwhelming in the day light, but SO good. What's more, my ten year old declared the Shirley Temple the best she'd EVER had. Fresh juice! This was not red-dye #?grenadine and sprite. There was love in the Shirley Temple as well. Based on the Shirley Temple, I'd recommend this place for good zero-proof cocktails as well. There were three of us, including a very food-averse ten year old. We had Ahi poke, Kalua pork and the sticky sweet ribs, and we all loved all of it. Ten year old loved the ribs, I loved the Kalua Pork (so tender! so good!) and the poke was fresh and substantial and delicious. We had a lot of overpriced and underwhelming food on Kauai and we get that. The economy has been hit really hard and there is a massive labour shortage on the island. There are also throngs of tourists who rate restaurants on speed and quantity above all else. Also, everywhere we went we saw groups of 8+ struggling to get seated. if you are a large group make sure to make reservations, and expect closures and limited selections and service during the downtimes between lunch and dinner. Always expect to have new wait-staff, long wait-times and some weird service in Kauai. Tiki Iniki wasn't entirely free of these issues, but it was worth it. I'll say it again, there's love in this place. Great food,...

The first 1 star review I've ever decided to leave.. I'd highly recommend you dine in or take out at a different restaurant unless you know people who go to Tiki Iniki regularly.

Owning multiple restaurants and other businesses, it's hard to understand how Tiki Iniki has an average rating of 4 stars of 900+ reviews based on their fundamental practices (unless the reviews were gained unethically). Ive never left a negative review, however I feel that this review will prevent the Island of Kauai from gaining a bad reputation to the many people that visit.

I was able to visit Tiki Iniki around 9pm on a Thursday, and was immediately told that there were only 2 items on the menu. Upon asking why there were only 2 items on the menu, the greeter/host told me that the restaurant was closed, although the google listing showed 11pm closing time. I told the host I would order take out for whatever menu items the kitchen has to offer, and after coming back from talking to the chef, he told me that the chefs were too tired and unwilling to make more than 1 order. I told him I would buy whatever I can get and handed him $60 for a $42 bill. When the food was ready, the host handed me the food without change. Upon asking where my change was, he said "you want change?" and acted as if giving change to a takeout order was unusual. Opening my takeout order, they topped the experience off with hair in my food. I did not eat the $42 meal.

I have no clue how this restuarant is still in business whilst having the wrong hours up, providing no change for orders, having chefs that do not want to cook (perhaps because of my skin color), sending orders out with hair in them, and displaying overall sloppy business practices. These are the most common sense basics, yet somehow the owner of the restaurant has failed to check any of them. The experience was very disappointing to say the least.

I would hate to leave this review up for a local business. Please send me an email if these problems are fixed and I will remove this review. Please prevent honest customers from having a distasteful dinner experience. Aloha is the opposite of discrimination and it is not tolerated on the...

Had a reservation tonight at 8:30 for three people. We wanted a table, because we were going to get drinks and have an app. They brought up to the table, waited a bit for service, but not a big deal. Ordered drinks and wanted to wait to order the app, the server then said “mind if we move you to the bar since you’re just drinking” fine whatever. got sat in a super secluded area, had to sit on a bench next to each other, couldn’t hear anyone talk. started getting annoyed. Mind you, I am a server, and I completely understand stressful times, long days, and annoying customers but this was terrible. Server was Meagan, TERRIBLE SERVICE. Super bad attitude, didn’t seem to want to be at work, and super bratty. Got our drinks, WAY TOO STRONG. Couldn’t even drink them. Disgusting. Asked for our tabs, we wanted separate tabs and to split to the fries.I asked kindly if she was able to split the app 3 ways, she replied with “no, one of you has to take it” with an attitude. okay fine. we said okay that’s completely fine! then she proceeded to go over to the server station, and talk crap about how we wanted to split the app (I heard it with my own ears, and they kept looking at us. Not okay) . I’m sorry, I’m able to do it at my restaurant, my bad that I didn’t know that. we then got the tabs, one paid with card, the other two paid with cash. we wanted change. She laughed and said “fine”. Our tab was $17.80. I gave a $20. She gave back $2.00. I understand it’s only .20 cents, but shorting customers is illegal, and not okay. We then walked out, made eye contact with Meagan and said thank you (because I know how to be polite), she completely ignored us and looked away. She also never came back to ask how are app was, or drinks were, if we needed anything else. Nothing. TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE, will not be back because of Meagan. Again, I am a server and understand long days and annoying customers, but since I am a server I know how to act towards other servers and my own customers and be polite so this is...