Jack "Eat til I'm in the poorhouse" N.'s Profile

Authentic... and good.

Just like Mark's Place, you will find 5-0 eating here too. They sure know where to eat.

Both my wife and I got a pho, it is a nice big bowl and very delicious. But one thing they have that I don't see too often is along with mint, basil, and bean sprouts, they also have a couple of slices of jalapeno. I know they use jalapeno quite often in banh mi, but jalapeno in pho is a nice combo too.

This is one of those places that cures homesickness, or more like prevention in my case. No, I'm not Vietnamnese, but as a New Yorker, there are so many various cuisines, it was nice that Kauai offers at least some of that.

Food is easily 5 stars, but its a take out joint...

...which means, where do you eat? There's couple of benches outside. But who likes eating lunch outdoor in 80+ degree weather under the hot sun?

If this place every invest in a indoor seating area, I will have to find a way to add a 6th star. Simple food, but very delicious, and very inexpensive.

I got Mark's famous mixed plate, and I shared that with my wife. For $8.50, that was enough for the 2 of us, so yeah the portion is huge. The stew is probably the best out of the 3 type of meats, but they are all authentic and delicious.

A couple of notes about this place. It is literally inside a industry park. There's like factories, and tractor trailers all around. Even though I knew my way when leaving, my GPS got confused probably by all the industrial equipment. Surely an odd place for food.

The other thing is I noticed that in Hawaii, where ever you see 5-0 eating, its probably a good place to eat. There were 4 cops having lunch on one of the benches when we were there.

If only their Kalua pig was served in Luau...

This place has chickens everywhere! Decorations anyway, but there is a small chicken farm outside. My wife often misspoke and calls this place "Kountry Chicken". I almost made the same mistake myself. But with chicken everywhere, one thing I don't remember seeing is chicken being on the menu.

We came around 9 something in the morning and didn't quite know where to park as there's no parking lots for this place. So we ended up parking about 2 blocks away and then had to wait another 30 minutes to get seats. This place is very popular. And the food is the reason why...

French Toast, eggs, hash - this is pretty good. I probably should have gotten pancakes but I guess I had pancakes 3 days in a row so I needed something else. This didn't disappoint.

Papaya - So sweet and delicious. Can't get much better than this

Kalua pig - BOOM! This was insanely delicious. Think of all the flavors of pull pork, the juiciness of the meat from the slow cook process, and then placed that on a griddle to get it crispy! Wow, you are crazy not to get this.

The Kalua pig alone was reason for a 5 star rating, but then I remember their service is at best mediocre. They forgot to get my pineapple juice until after multiple attempts to flag down one of their waitress. Would I come back? In a heart beat, but if only their service was a little better...

You call this sushi??? I call this crap.

I honestly don't know why people even recommend this place. My guess is that they have alcohol with their food and everything taste better with alcohol (even bacon). I had better sushi (keyword sushi, not sashimi) in a all you can eat sushi place in NYC.

We came here for a really late lunch (like 4 PM) because we kinda got lost looking for this place (thanks Google maps). Fortunately the Yelp address is correct. When we got here, they said their dinner menu don't start til 5:30 and all they have at the time is pupu (snacks). We checked out that menu and saw there were enough variety that we stayed (although we probably shouldn't have).

Here's what we got:

Ceviche - Its not bad, the taro chips give this dish the texture it needs

Grilled chicken - overcooked, dry, drowning it in sauce helps

Seafood Chowder - Pretty good, better than some places in Maine

ahi poke - tuna, that was pretty good

Alaskan King Crab roll - the crap that I referred to earlier

Okay, here's why I'm skewering them in this review. The rice in the roll is disgusting. Overcooked (each granule of rice was bursting), and then (probably due to what time we came in) were put back in the fridge and taken out as they literally taste like they came from the fridge. Yes, the portion was big, but I would have prefer 1/2 that if the rice tasted a lot better. But it wasn't only the rice, the crab meat had no flavor, (probably cuz it was also from the fridge).

We finished the chowder, the ceviche, and the tuna. No amount of sauce can help the chicken after it was cold. The king crab roll was just plain awful. We probably had more than 1/2 leftover when we left.

Lesson for this place - Don't make sushi rolls from rice that you put in the fridge. A simple, "No, its not available at this time." would have been fine. I still can't vouch for how it would have been if it wasn't taken out of the fridge as it was still overcooked, but it certainly can't be worse than what I had.

2 star restaurant bumped up by the pie

I'm not going to dissuade you from trying this place, as any adventurous foodie out there will try a place that is hyped up like Hamura Saimin.

We came here towards the tail end of our honeymoon as they were closed for over a week when we landed in mid September. The area seems a bit shady, but shady for Kauai is like normal for NYC. For a tourist trap, that is a bit odd.

I do say its a tourist trap because its listed in every travel book, hence the hype, but what's so good about it? You walk in, plop down on any empty chair and they give you the menu. Menu is just "saimin" (aka noodles, don't buy the definition from the guide books) with various toppings. BTW, we spotted shaved ice listed on one of their walls but it wasn't available. We did see hundreds of skewers piled on top of each other. Didn't look very appetizing. Odd that they try to sell us on them twice... maybe they thought we will eventually relent and just help them get rid of that stuff. Anyway here's what we got:

Special Saimin (large) - my wife got the regular, which is quite a bit smaller. but mines have dumplings, ham, char-siu, 1/2 egg, plenty of veggies, and couple slices of Japanese fish sticks. The noodle is way overcooked, apparently "al dente" is not in their dictionary. I think my grandpa would like this. Otherwise, its okay.

Lilikoi Chiffon pie - Wow, this was good! Fluffy and sweet and yummy! Definitely worth it.

Here's my verdict on this place. Try it if you are staying in Kauai for over 4 days. The pie alone is worth that. If you are island hopping, don't bother. I'm sure there's way better ramen places in the main island and no one can fault you for missing out on a place that really doesn't live up to the hype.

Good Food, Good service

Came here for a late lunch after finding out that Hamura Samin was closed for a week. The parking is a bit tricky as you literally pull in from the road and stop in the parking spaces that are right next to the road (It was even harder to pull out to leave) There's like 5 (didn't count) parking spaces so I wonder where people park when this place is busy during dinner.

So while we are pulling in, Jackie, the waitress at KP already had our table setup with water. That is a bit surprising but very nice. I guess she knows once ppl finally pull in, they most likely won't put in the effort to leave unless they really didn't like the menu (which we had no problems with).

We ordered:

Bruschetta - Nicely plated, taste good to me, but too much vinaigrette for my wife

Pasta w/ meat sauce - Delish! I have to admit I wasn't expecting this quality level of Italian food in Kauai

Pizza panini - Its okay. My wife didn't like the olives so she only had 1/2. I had the other half for a late night dinner in the hotel and it was horrible from the microwave (but that's not their fault, should of used the stove),

I wanted to go back to KP, not this one, but the one in Kapa'a as I heard they have some amazing cheese truffle fries (served from their lounge in the back?), but never got a chance to. I would definitely recommend KP if you have a craving for pasta in the Garden Isle.

I expected more... and make sure you make a reservation if you plan to have dinner after 6 PM here.

We came here twice, the first time we expected to walk in and wait for  seats, but the wait turns out to be over an hour. For 2 ppl? Wow! Anyway, we ended up sitting in the bar and got spotty service for the following:

Cheesy topped bread (free) - Really delicious! We can snack on them all day.

Lobster Curry Bisque - The curry flavor overwhelmed the lobster taste

Gazpacho (soup of the day) - I like it, done well

BBQ Ribs - Delicious! I liked it but my wife loves it!

Opah (Hawaiian Moon Fish) - Not tender enough. As my wife described it,  "the fish around here swims too much" so its meat is overworked and chewy.

Prime Rib - While the fish was a hard swimmer, the cow this prime rib came from was a lazy cow, chunks of fat lined this prime rib. The chunks of fat doesn't go well w/ the medium rare cooking temperature. I definitely had better.

Dragonfruit Ginger Sorbet - Delicious, but the ginger was a bit strong. Makes me wonder how it would taste w/o the ginger.

On our 2nd visit several days later, I was still recovering from food poisoning earlier in the day (not from here) but this time, we came here early for their Happy hour tasting menu.

Sweet Potato Ravioli - Unique white color pasta, but taste was not memorable

Swiss Chard & Mushroom tart - Pie crust and mushrooms are good, but vinaigrette overwhelmed the delicate flavors of the ingredients in the tart

Sausage & Warabi - sausage is too spicy, veggies too oily

Fresh catch - I think we got the Moon fish again...

Vanilla Creme Brulee - I didn't dare to try this as I was still sick. My wife finished it.

The service this time is a lot better. But while I was waiting for dinner, a mosquito came by and got his from my arm. Remember to wear mosquito repellent everywhere! My wife ordered the ribs again and this time I couldn't even have one as I just had zero appetite.

There's definitely better restaurants for dinner in Kauai, but in Kapa'a, not really.

Skip the namesake item and get the pancakes

Giant big fluffy pancakes that at my hungriest, I can only finish 2. Its awesome with chopped macadamia nuts and slices of banana. Then drizzle with coconut syrup. Foodie heaven!!!!! *drool*

We came here twice, on our first morning, and our last. Tried various items, like the hamburger patty (burger w/o bun, bland and tasteless), hash (okay), Portuguese omelet (good, but eggs was flavorless while sausage had too much flavor).

So the four star rating is for pancakes only. I should really drop 1 star since they ran out of macadamia nuts on our last day.... that was really upsetting. But at least we brought enough pancake mix from Hawaii to make several batches at home!

P.S. While its not on the menu, chickens do like visiting inside the restaurant.

If you hate mosquitoes, you might as well take 1 star off this review now

Paradise...

...soft grass that you can walk in your bare feet...
...beach within steps of your room...
...a place that is bigger than my co-op...

Yup. The last one is true too, and the first time I stayed in a multi-room hotel. KCR has the charm of a boutique hotel, but with rooms that are at least twice as large.

Indoor:

We walked into a room that has a large round dining table that can comfortably seat four with plenty of room for dishes for family style dinner. The room is also the kitchen, with a full size fridge/freezer, waste disposal sink, microwave, toaster, coffee maker, mixer,  modern flameless stove (its not inductive, but I wasn't going to test that), and even a dish washer. Its pretty cool to have and its the first time I used one in my life!

Next to the dining room/kitchen is the bathroom. Its huge!!! There's a washer/dryer unit hidden away in the folding door closet. There are separate sinks for me and my wife. The only thing I wish was that they have a tub instead of a standing shower, which is as large as the size of a tub, so I don't know why they didn't have one. Anyway, there's enough room for a mahjong table in here. There's also another door that connects to the bedroom.

The bedroom is your standard 4 star hotel bedroom. Queen size bed that looks smaller than it actually is (its really wider than its tall). Long draping shades cover 1 side of the room, and pulling it aside show floor to ceiling window with a sliding glass door to the soft grass that I mentioned before. There's also a TV here, flat screen, but only basic cable w/ no PPV.

The living room is almost a replica of the bedroom, replacing the bed with a couch and a coffee table. This TV has a DVD player, which we never used.

Outside:

KCR sits on the east coast of Kauai, about 20 minutes from the airport. I had no problem getting here, but it was a bit hard to spot inside Aleka loop at night. There are 3 identical size residential buildings and 1 smaller building which houses the front desk and the popular Hukilau Lani restaurant (which I will write about separately). To the right side of the front desk building is the parking lot. The parking lot runs the length of all 3 buildings. Each building is at least 50 feet apart, surrounded by well kept grass, plants, and trees. There's also a tennis court which looks run-down not because of overuse, but because it bakes under the warm Kauai sun.

Behind the main building is a little hill with the acronym "KCR" made from flowers. So beautiful. We took a photo w/ that as a background and sent it to my mom as a postcard. Behind that is the swimming pool with a nice small waterfall. Its not a big pool, but hardly anyone use it so we had the whole pool to ourselves in the morning.

But this is paradise, not heaven...

As much as we really enjoyed our stay, its not perfect. One of the main issue is mosquitoes. They do a really wonderful job of keeping the units free of all kinds of pests, but fail at keeping it mosquito-free. On our 1st or 2nd day, my wife was bitten twice on both of her legs. They left a nasty bump that lasted over a week. Then she would get a few more bites every other day or so. Mosquitoes usually don't bit me too often but even I got a few bites, a really big one when we were waiting for our seats for restaurant in the main building. While we knew about mosquitoes in Kauai, we certainly wasn't expecting to have mosquitoes dining on us inside the hotel. I recommend bringing citronella candles or the OFF mosquito fan, or start using the mosquito repellent like its cologne (and wear it to sleep).

The other issue is the dryer. It works, but even with a few pieces of clothes, expect to spend 90 minutes to get them dry. The last issue is you do have direct access to the beach, but its a rocky beach that is practically not swimmable. Heck, you shouldn't even walk on the rocks as I slipped and fell on the slippery moss covering these rocks. My camera bag broke my fall and fortunately my camera + lens are fine.

Will I come back? DEFINITELY! But expect me to bring an arsenal of weapons to deal with those mosquitoes.

Authentic enough for Midtown West

Just had the "Super Bowl" Pho for take-out. Even though it didn't look that appetizing because they separate the broth and the ingredient, it was really good. Tasted authentic compare to some other places in midtown (Dishes comes to mind). Will have to try their other stuff next time.