Kalapaki Joe’s

Drove by here today and it is closed, there is a for lease sign out front
This location has closed!

Fish and chips was horrible, they burned it and it’s so hard to chew.
We asked GRILLED onion in sandwich, they served RAW.
Very rude bartender, customers can complain about bad food, if you don’t wanna hear that, well, guess it’s not her appropriate job.
Is there any zero star? 1 star is too generous for this place.

We stopped here after picking up the whole family at the airport and you can tell it’s a local spot because they all looked like what are you doing here? However they were very nice and seated us 30 min to kitchen close. The atmosphere is fun and casual.
The fish tacos are AMAZING (could be the 24 hour travel day but still) and do NOT pass up the nachos with kulua pork– OMG.
Eat up.

I wish there was an option for negative stars for this place. My husband and I went here on the last day of our honeymoon and can’t believe the treatment we got. We were about to pay and leave when a stupid local ran his mouth about respect, which followed by his Amazon girlfriend punching my husband in the face. This ended with three to four people trying to jump my husband at the same time, but yet we kept getting asked to leave. Never spend ur money here or in Kauai period. Hawaiian locals R super rude and have an ego about sharing an island that survives off tourists money. Do the locals not get that concept?!

Best Mai Tais, good food and a great price. Cecilia is the best waitress, Cody is the best waiter. Good times and good food, just one complaint… Keep the country music before or after restaurant hours, keep it island style while open.

So tasty and friendly service. We just landed from Chicago via Minneapolis and Los Angeles. Long day: no meals on flights. They’d closed 10 minutes earlier at 8:30 (not 11 on Saturday like help said) but they didn’t hesitate to make us something. They were out of ramen but made fried rice. Friendly welcome to the island.

Slow service. Took about 10 minutes before anyone took my order, and another 30 minutes for my order to arrive. I ordered a Swiss mushroom burger with side salad. Wasn’t that good. Patty was dried out, and the bread was oddly crumbly. Overall, wouldn’t eat here again.

Worst service I ever had. Burger too much bun can’t taste the burger. Jody is or was a personal friend but wouldn’t even come over to say hi. So much for a friend. Will not be back.

Food was good and worth the price. Jason was our server and kicked butt. He was friendly as he was running around getting everything done. The rest of the servers had attitude and made it a little awkward to sit at the bar.

Thi place was awesome! The service was great, but most important we didn’t feel like tourist we felt like locals! Live music was on hit, shout out to those tree guys. The food was to die for, my wife and shared the loco moco while our Kids had the nachos and artichokes! Large portion and true aloha vibes! Thank you so much for the hospitality

We had to take most of our food home because we didn’t expect the large portions. Aside from that, the food was delicious — we ordered the baked brie, whole grilled artichoke, the seared ahi tacos and one of the burgers. Service was great. I would’ve expected a much larger selection of beer but they do have a fully stocked bar.

Excellent. The food on the new menu is much better than the old location. First class, large meals and great pupus. Large beer selection including a variety of great microbrews and great Mai-​Tais too. Breakfast is great too!
Service is usually very good.

Wow. Talk about horrible service. We put our name in for 2 people. Next couple in line behind us gets seated right away inside. She just told us inside was full! Ok, whatever. we see there are two tables that are being cleared so we figure couple more mins… 30 minutes later the same girl who has been on her personal phone and talking to her sister who has dropped by to say hi while she is at work, finally decides to tell us she can seat us (at the table that has been empty in the back the whole time!) But we will have to be fast because they have a party for 20 coming in half an hour and they are going to need the table.
Save your time and money go somewhere else.

Trading off name recognition and providing terrible service.
I have been a regular patron of Kalapaki Joe’s, going on 3-​years. During that time, I have spent over $ 4,000 (yes, and that is a low side figure based on my average check) and tipped regularly 20+%. Unfortunately the customer service has dropped to poor and the food/​drink can be great too burnt or spoiled (yes, I have received a meal with old wilted (slightly slimy lettuce before) and burnt/​dried out hot-​wings.
So believe me when, I say there is no pleasure in this review, but There are MANY establishments on Kauai with great food, service, and appreciate their patrons (see «Kauai Beer Company» Unilocal reviews for one such recommend) .
Unfortunately, the KJ’s located at the mall does not appear to be such an establishment. It is usually packet with visitors (that have been given a poor recommend). There are often long standing waits outside. To their credit, the hostesses do their best to be pleasant (especially Natalia).
The food and drinks can be great at times (unfortunately there is little consistency in the product). It is common for standard menu items to «run-​out» for days, I presume from inadequate inventory control.
There are some bright spots, Happy Hour is usually good (if you can get a table) and the hot wings, have improved dramatically in taste and quality. The bus-​person/​food runners are far more competent and productive then certain full-​time wait staff (which I choose not to name).
If you must go here, ask for to have CeCe or Bella as your servers. They will do there best to take care of your. The bar staff is generally very pleasant. If CeCe, Bella or Kealia (named like the popular beach in Kapaa) are working the bar area your drinks, should be tasty and consistent.

Service is so bad, I don’t plan on returning. Our table only seen our waitress three times during our 2 hour stay: to sit us, take our order, and to pay. She didn’t even return our change and avoided our table after that.

Pleasantly surprised by the flavourful taste from the Cuban pastrami sandwich! Hint of pepper in the meat! Friend has ahi tacos! Delicious!

If we have to give 1 star oh well!
My Hanai mom and her hubby ate
Here about 3 weeks ago with a group of people. The Reuben sandwich was so small and had minimal meat and content
On this big plate with only a few (6) fries.
She spoke to the hostess gave her # ‚
Never got a call. Called for Jody the owner,
Never called back. Nachos had sat around to long. They were ruined .
The bottom line is Visitors beware !
The people that live here already know.

I hope this was a isolated problem because I do like eating here. We rolled in and ordered at 1 on a Friday. We already knew what we wanted so ordered 3 different burgers right when we sat down. 1:45 one of the burgers showed up. 1:50 the other 2 burgers showed. In 45 minutes we only ever got one top off of our drinks and that was when the first sandwich arrived. Ten minutes later we paid the check and were headed out the door when a server said «thank you» and without hearing my response yelled «you’re welcome» at me very sarcastically. When I turned around to see who said it, she was glaring at me like I wasn’t welcome.
Well, it’s enough for me to wait for the Poipu store to open because this is the second bad experience out of four that I’ve had at Kukui Grove. The rude comment will not be forgotten and I won’t take my family there again.
I have no complaints about the food but the service is awful. And it still is the best happy hour in the world.
Please get it together.

Oh my goodness! The best Loco Moco I have ever tasted in my life! The gravy, onions and mushrooms were out of bounds. A pleasant surprise element was the melted Swiss cheese at the bottom of the double beef patties. Take heed, Loco Moco Deluxe means what it says — «deluxe»! I’ll split this plate with someone else next time! I’ll also ask for my hamburger to be done at medium temperature.

we were celebrating a family birthday and they wanted to come to kalapaki joe’s for their great happy hour from 4−6PM.
we go there and the hostess seated us outside (no room inside). we failed to realize that there was a UFC fight that day and there actually was no happy hour. during special events, they do not host happy hour. what made me a little irritated was that the hostess did not mention it. once the waitress came, she let us know. but had we known from the beginning, we might have looked at our other options in the lihue area.
anyway, our whole party finally got there and we started ordering. our waitress whose name escapes me, was very nice.
we had quite a few pupus to share. they were pretty good. the artichoke dip was a bit on the small side for the portion, but tasty. i enjoyed the mozzarella sticks. my daughter loveeeed them and keeps asking for cheese sticks.
the burgers were very big and tasty. my dad got carne asada tacos and they looked really good. i ended up with the hamburger steak. it was okay, nothing too memorable.
i’ll most definitely be back, but i’ll make sure to plan it on a day where they actually have happy hour.