The Eastside

Super chill, local spot for great eats. Food was delicious and the staff & owner were super friendly. Evening banjo/​guitarist/​singer was a great treat as we had some beers and felt the ocean breeze. Definitely worth a shot if you’re in the area… best Calamari I’ve ever had!

This place is awesome! I went there my first night on the island to order the Huli Huli chicken, as recommended by my guidebook, but it wasn’t available. I ended up having one of the best dinners in my week-​long stay! They have the freshest fish, with delicious combinations of flavor. My wife and I liked it so much we went back on our last night, and had another delicious meal.

This place is great! Live music, good music, and reasonably priced beers. Had the burger and my wife had Mahi Mahi with a curry sauce (a special) that was very good. We’d been frustrated with our Hawaiian dining experiences and this was the first place we ate out where we were satisfied with the food and the prices.

Unfortunately, this was one of our least favorite places to eat in Kauai. It was a bit pretentious and felt like they are trying to hard to be a «nicer» restaurant. It has a casual feel to me, but it didn’t feel warm and welcoming, and rather more stuffy when it has no right to be. The food also was just okay and over priced. Other than this restaurant and one other, we had mostly eaten at little hole in the wall places. We immediately regretted trying to do a nicer sit-​down restaurant and vowed to stick to the hole in the walls.

Food was mediocre at best. Service was poor, our waiter was not very friendly. If you don’t have a credit card with a chip they won’t accept your card. Challenge is understood with all the fraud activity but his attitude was really poor. The bartender was okay. Drinks were just average the Lychee Martini was too sweet for my taste. All in all not worthy of some of the comments we read

The Only reason why they get 2 stars is because the pork belly app was decent and so were the sweet potato fries. Everything else was awful.
I really hope the owner reads the poor reviews and tries to make improvements. I forced my significant other to come here because of the fabulous reviews and I feel really bad about it. We seated ourselves in the back of the restaurant because we were the only people in there (besides the 2 people at the bar) and the gentleman playing guitar had his amp up so loud we couldn’t hear each other speak.
I ordered the Huli Huli chicken but they were out… Their oven broke last week?
I asked the waitress what to order and she suggested the ribeye. I ordered it medium rare. My bf ordered the burger and we ordered the pork belly buns as an app.
Pork belly buns came out about 20 min after her taking our order but they were pretty delicious. Crispy on the outside, moist on the inside, great dipping sauce.
Now on to my ribeye…
I should preface this by saying this is the most expensive item on the menu, so I had high expectations. What I received was NOT a ribeye… It was more like a strip steak. I cook 4 nights a week back home and live close to Boston and nyc so unfortunately I know my cuts of beef and this was nowhere close to a ribeye. I cut into the middle of it and it was medium-​well. I was already annoyed it took 40 minutes to get the steak out– I was hoping that the waitress just forgot to put the order in, but in reality they just overcooked the shit out of the steak.
My boyfriends burger was thankfully edible, and so were the sweet potato fries (prob the best thing on the menu), but even that was cut short after I saw several cockroaches and large bugs on the floors and walls.
All in all, a disgusting and disappointing experience. Take the ribeye off the menu, or call it what it is– the shittiest cheapest piece of beef you can buy with cooks that can’t cook.

Amazing food, drinks, service and live music!
Burger was fantastic. Mai tai and beer selection were great. Lilikoi cheesecake was divine. Staff was entertaining, engaging and provides great service. Live music was talented!
Very highly recommended.

First off I have eaten at many places for all sorts of prices and this was a complete let down. I ordered pork tenderloin and my girl had a ribeye. Total was $ 78. Pork tenderloin was not good… It was dry and had no flavour. The ribeye was ok but definitely not worth $ 35… But she wasn’t satisfied with the food so it was disappointing. Seriously would’ve been more happy with Steak Chalupas from Taco Bell than come here again. I’m sorry, for those prices, we expected more but it didn’t come close. I strongly suggest you go else where…

We had read great reviews of this place and were excited to try it for lunch. The place was quiet and the owner was working the tables and taking orders. Although he was friendly at first, it was clear that he was not paying attention or sincere in his interest in customers. We ordered drinks while we looked at the menu, which he never remembered to bring (This should have been a sign for things to come)
He rattled off a ton of specials, which we ordered — although we had explained allergies to him, he obviously did not understand nor was he listening and served us food we told him that we were allergic to – when we discovered this, the owner was not apologetic at all. In fact, he told us it was our own fault and immediately became RUDE and AGGRESSIVE. At that point he walked away and would no longer deal with us. His staff came over and tried to help and quietly apologized for their boss – it was clear he is rude often. They were clearly embarrassed at his behavior, and did their best to help us (I needed to quickly find antihistamines to stem an allergic reaction).
The food we were able to eat was average, and everything was WAY overpriced. We are on the island often, and this place is definitely OFF the list. Anyone who wants to avoid rude business owners who have no clue what customer service means should avoid this place…

My new wife and I wanted to find a good local restaurant on Kauai. We accidentally fell upon The Eastside Restaurant. The Czech owner was super friendly. Greeted us, got us a place to sit, told us the specials…
After enjoying a Maui Brewing Company «Mana Wheat» beer, I was greeted with a fantastic Togarashi Seared Ahi Tuna. It looked like it was straight out of a 5-​star restaurant.
While eating, I really don’t think that I’ve ever looked forward to the next bite as much as this Ahi. Let’s just say that there is only one thing better than that tuna, and we all know what that is.
After lunch, the owner came and chatted for about 30 minutes. Nothing special, just about life and whatnot. By far, the best, chillest restaurant ever.

So we got there as soon as they opened, so we thinking hot and fresh!!! WRONG! It was like the food sat in grease until the grease got hot, disgusting. And on top of that there was no season/​flavor on the wings. We asked for a side of sauce and the waiter bought something out, eventually, but it was completely different then what we ordered. Also the service was terrible, we had to actually find the waiter to order, get condiments, get our check, AND to pay! We will never be back!
The 1 star is for the cute location!

The food was decent, which is why it gets 2 stars. But judging by the lack of cleanliness in the dining room, I would be scared to see the kitchen. While we were eating dinner there last night, another guest across the room actually had to kill a cockroach that was under his table by stomping on it. And I was seated by a window, and noticed several spiders in the window sills mere inches from our table top. Our server was nice and had a sense of humor, but this place just didn’t feel clean. The food tasted ok but it was WAY too expensive for where we were eating. It had prices similar to Tidepools down at the Grand Hyatt in Poipu! Crazy.

We had the most delicious dinner at the Eastside café tonight. We had just got off a long flight and the owners were so nice to seat us even though they had just closed. The service was great and the cook, Eva, made us the best meal we’ve had yet!

Came here for lunch after my friend & I got into town yesterday. Great food, you can taste the freshness in the fish! I ordered the calimari & my friend ordered the sushi/​sashimi. Be both agreed the food was great, although he did charge her $ 9 for a drink that most bar style restaurants serve as a staple & what he gave her was probably enough to fill a shot glass.

This place used to be a lot better, but I was a bit disappointed with the actual entrée. The ahi nachos were fantastic, the ribeye steak could have been eaten at Denny’s, no offense. The marbling on the fat was not edible.
The service was great, but non-​repeat meal.

Food was delicious. I had the mahi mahi special with a curry sauce. It was delicious!
The steak was HUGE!
The music was perfect. The setting was nice.
It was a little pricey but definitely good.
I devoured my plate. Also ordered the cheese cake which was delicious.
The steak is large enough to share. Mashed potatoes were amazing.

Gayle and I came here several times during our stay in Kauai, along with her Sister Erin and her Husband Jim. The food was OK, and the music was excellent. We first wandered in during a First Saturday Art Walk in Kapaa and were treated to a kick ass performance by a band called The Quake. If you see anything scheduled for them, make it a point to go and listen to their distinctive lead singer and hot guitarist.
The second and third times featured quieter solo music, with a relaxing Island vibe that made the adult beverages go down so slow and smoothly. The owner (of Czech origin) was fun to chat with as was the waitress who knew how the place really operated.

Wow, my Ono was so fresh, I had to wait for the chef to clean it. It was worth the wait. The owner and his staff made us feel welcome. Loved the live music, loved the ahi nachos, loved the tangerine martini (thank you, other Unilocal reviewer), loved the bread pudding.
Hate that we’re leaving tomorrow and won’t be able to eat here again soon!

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. When my boyfriend and I first walked in, we exchanged some unsure looks before sitting down at a window table. The menu looked old and dirty and only consisted of a page of food (apps and entrees) and a page of drinks. Not very impressive. Also its really hot in there. There were 2 waitresses working, one (who I’m assuming was training. I really hope so or else she probably shouldn’t work there) and another who was really good who handled all the harder stuff like taking orders. There was an overwhelming number of specials that were unlisted on the menu. Which is a good and a bad thing. Good because I was relieved there was more to choose from besides the 10 (or less) things on the actual menu. But bad because the waitress has to read all 15 of them out loud and by the time she gets to the fourth special I had already forgotten what the first one consisted of. I had to ask her to repeat them several times.
We ended up ordering the pork belly sticky buns, mochiko dusted calamari, and the ahi burger. I am blown away by the food! At least by my choices. The pork belly buns were delicious, big slabs of pork belly on a sweet soft bun (the kind they give with peking duck) and a yummy pineapple hoisin sauce, ⁴⁄₄ stars (minus 1 star because there were only 2). I ordered the calamari for my main entrée and it was definitely big enough for one. I barely finished half. Good portion of calamari over a scoop of rice. The sauce is what made it delicious, I asked for extra, lol. The calamari was a teeny bit too rubbery, but I still enjoyed it. ⁵⁄₅ stars! My bf had the ahi burger and said it was okay, he’d give it a ³⁄₅ stars.
The live music that night was really awesome. ok maybe I was just in a really good mood after the good food, haha. They were locals and since there were only 3 parties eating, they got a little personal and asked where we were all from. To me, that was a great move. it made us feel very welcomed! The singer’s soothing voice and the ukelele music was perfect.
The prices probably should be rated at $$$ instead of $$ though. for the two of us it was over $ 60 and I only ordered an appetizer as an entrée too.

Walked into the happy hour time (5pm-​6pm). Ordered:
Ahi tuna poke $ 12: comes served on a bed of rice and poke (1:3 to poke ratio). Good portion! Hands down its the best thing we ordered. Smooth, velvety, flavorful delicious melts in your mouth. Mixed with sesame, avocado and seaweed.
Mochiko dusted calamari $ 10. It’s just okay, also served on a bed of rice. Big chunks, some parts are too salty, some are a bit bland.
Wings (teriyaki/​spiced/​bbq) $ 1/​each. Just skip it, not very good. It’s not crispy and lacks in flavor. Just lathered with bbq sauce.
Parking lot at the back, finding a spot was not an issue.