Kauai for first-time visitors

Best restaurants

Kauai is a small island with a short restaurant list, and the twelve rooms below cluster where the highway bends: the Hanalei strip on the north shore, the Princeville plaza a few miles east, then a long drive down to Kilauea, Lihue, Koloa and Poipu on the south. Nothing here is a scene; most kitchens close by 20:30, and a fair number are counter-service by day. The category is unfussy on purpose. You are on an island where the drive from Hanalei to Poipu is a real commitment, so a good sandwich, a fair pizza, a plate of huli chicken and a proper cocktail at the right time of afternoon all count as destinations. The list favours places open the hours a traveller eats, priced for a family off the beach, and specific enough that you would recognise them from the road. Skip the resort buffets chasing the captive-audience dollar; the kitchens below are the ones locals cross the island for, or would, if the drive were shorter.