Kai-Joe's — Restaurant in Oak Island

Had such high hopes for this place as it was recommended by a good friend and most reviews were pretty good and I'm always looking for an awesome taco place. First off, the wait was ridiculous! When I arrived there were maybe 6-8 people in front of me in line. It took 30-40 minutes before I was able to even put in our order. This was mainly due to the fact that they would close the order window every 3-4 orders so the kitchen could catch up. I've never seen a place do this. Maybe they were short staffed? But, I saw at least 6 people "working" in the back. Finally, I was able to put in our order and waited another 40 mins for our food. Meanwhile, I watched at least 15 people come, they would wait, and then they would leave because the wait was so long. We finally got our food and I made sure everything was there, which it was, which was good. But, I mentioned to the guy how long the wait was and all the people I saw abandoning ship in line and he just gave me a weak smile and said “thanks.” He didn't really seem to care so, home I went with our food. I wouldn't have cared so much about the arduous wait if the food was at least decent. It was not. The Kai-Joe beef taco was dry and lacked any flavor or toppings for that matter. The Papa Joe fish taco was mushy and, holy cow!, so fishy that you couldn't taste anything else, plus it lacked the fruit salsa and slaw it was supposed to come with. The shrimp was weird, like it was microwaved or something, not nicely grilled, and the slaw was limp, no crunch or freshness to it. Now that I think of it, they mixed up the fish taco and the shrimp taco and put the fish taco toppings on the shrimp taco and vice versa. The side of chips were soggy or stale and also had no seasoning to them. The only thing that was any good, and the reason for 2 stars, were the side of black beans. We wished we got of those because none of us finished our food. So, long story longer, we will not go back here. Do not recommend until many things improve. You can't blame it on them being new because this place has been open now for many years. Kind of seems like they've done what every other Oak Island restaurant does, start strong, then apathy or burnout occurs and it goes way down hill. So, disappointing. I love tacos and was very much looking forward to having a go-to taco place in Oak Island but, this is not it...

Unfortunately, we had a terrible experience trying to purchase food from Kai-Joe's, then the quality of food did little to improve our visit.

When we arrived, the window for taking orders was closed, and it took 23 minutes for them to take the next order. After another 32 minutes (I was timing it) I reached the window, only to have the young lady tell me that she needs to help bag up orders to clear the queue. The window then closed for 25 minutes this time. Being at the front of the line, I could observe everything happening inside. Sadly, the lady taking orders disappeared to the back and wasn't seen again the entire time; she certainly wasn't helping bag orders. There were 2 young men and another young lady preparing orders, and when the window closed, the 2 men soon disappeared to leave the individual young lady to prepare all the orders in the queue. What was most infuriating was the fact that it took 5 minutes from the time the family that ordered in front of me received their food until the young lady taking orders reappeared at the window. I guess they needed a rest? I will applaud the young lady preparing the orders, as she was hustling.

By the time they took my order, I observed at least 8 families/groups that left the line. I imagine if the owner focused on work ethic and efficiency (why not have the prep set up as an assembly line??) of movements, they could serve many more people, and as a result make a lot more money. They lost a ton of business during my visit, and if this is the norm, they are bleeding money as a result.

The food was ok, but certainly no better than your average tex-mex restaurant. The cilantro crema was a nice addition, but they were light on meat (my wife's shrimp taco...

Let me clear the air first and foremost. My wife and I have been going here for over a year now, as well as her family. We love this place and always have. Not once have we ever had a bad experience, well that changed today. Honestly, me giving 2 stars is being generous. It started off by us calling them to place an order. We called more than once and neither time were we put on hold or even told they were to busy to take call in orders, they simply just hung up on us. Then we drove to the location to put in our order... the line was very long (it normally is... not a big deal). We got all the way up to the window and were told they did not have burritos anymore and they weren’t giving out chips and queso because they were saving the queso for the nachos. I understand this is Memorial Day weekend and everything just began to open up because of Covid-19, it happens. My issue is that not once did the girl at the window even apologize for the inconvenience. She had a nasty attitude and was rude throughout the entire experience. The girl who is normally at the window is pleasant and sweet and is always a pleasure no matter the circumstance.... the girl with the yellow ECU hat however.... I would rather not say much because I do not have anything nice to say about her.... she was extremely rude and unprofessional and unapologetic to say the least.... we also got home to find out they didn’t have any red salsa today, there was only green... granted this is something we should have checked before we left but we also feel like this is information you need to disclose to your customers. Overall we still love Kai joes and will continue to go back but the young girl at the front window has left a sour taste in our mouth to...