Last night at dinner Brett, YaYu and I came up with a list of local places we wanted to be sure to eat one more time before we left. We have enjoyed some wonderful food here on the island, but in the end we came up with just these three locations:
- Duane’s Ono Char-Burger: Located in Anahola, the Ono Char-Burger was the first place we ate at on our first visit to Kaua’i back in 2012, and their burgers are still our favorite. YaYu isn’t eating beef these days but plans to order their fish and chips which are also very tasty. I’m going to have one last Local Boy burger (my favorite), and Brett will probably have his favorite, an Old Fashioned burger.
Hamura’s famous saimin - Hamura’s: There’s no way we can leave Kaua’i without having one last bowl of Hamura’s famous saimin and one last piece of their lilikoi chiffon pie.
Food of the gods: The lilikoi chiffon pie at Hamura’s - TipTop Cafe: We’re planning to go out for breakfast at the TipTop the morning before we leave. YaYu says she has to have one more big bowl of their ox-tail soup, and Brett and I want one more of their big, fluffy macadamia and banana pancakes and a couple of big cups of their delicious coffee.
Tip Top’s ox-tail soup 
Plate-size banana-macadamia pancakes at the Tip Top.
I also want to enjoy one more TegeTege green tea shave ice, and we’re planning on going out for a special dinner down in Poipu, at Roy Yamaguchi’s Eating House 1849, on our last weekend, but otherwise we’ll be finishing up as much as we can of we’ve got here in the condo before we hit the road.
The Occasional Nomads 
Hamura’s is one of the strangest restaurants I’ve ever been to, but there was something oddly satisfying about their ramen. Unfortunately, we didn’t try the pie because we weren’t aware at the time that it was such a big deal!
Whenever I return from a trip, I go through all my receipts and keep track of what I spent and where I ate and what I thought of each place for future reference, so I went back and looked at where we ate on our Kauai trip and the only restaurant we went to that you listed is Hamura’s. I noted that we also liked a Korean BBQ place in Kapaa in the Kinipopo shopping village. We also liked Pono Market a lot, Kim Chee #9, Chicken in a Barrel and Keoki’s Paradise (even though we felt it was overpriced). I’m hoping to return to Kauai maybe in the next couple of years, but we’ll see. If I do, I will refer to your blog for places to eat!
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Going to Hamura’s is primarily for YaYu – she loves noodles in any form, and she especially loves the saimin at Hamura’s. I’m going for the pie ;-).
We’ve eaten at all the places you listed except for the Korean BBQ (our son ate there on their trip last April and said it was good) and Keoki’s Paradise – we just never got down to Poipu all that often, especially just for eating out. I’m not worried about missing Korean BBQ – we’ll get our fill in Japan next spring!
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We’ve eaten at that Roy’s in Poipu and it was a lovely experience. My actual first time eating at a Roy’s was in Palm Springs, when my sea bass came to the table so underdone I needed a steak knife to cut it, before giving up and sending it back to the kitchen. Sea bass apparently isn’t like salmon or ahi . . . raw/underdone doesn’t work! So I was somewhat hesitant to try another Roy’s while in Kauai, but it turned out to be an entirely different experience, happily.
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The old Roy’s in Poipu closed nearly two years ago, but he opened this new place in the Kukuiula Market and it looks fun. We said we couldn’t leave Hawaii without eating at Roy’s! We’ve got an early-ish reservation so we have time to stop at Lappert’s for one more taste of their ice cream before we go.
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Hi Laura,
What a familiar routine – as frequent movers through the years, the wind-down of “the last places we want to go before leaving” really resonates with us!! I also have great memories of the Tip Top from our visits in 1976 and 1988 – although I never recall hearing about the oxtail soup (maybe next time!). Glad to hear your exit is going as planned, and can’t wait to hear about your adventures on the road.
Greg
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Hi Greg! We were frequent movers too when Brett was in the navy, and have done this ritual right before we left each place – it is part of the “moving on” experience. I have never felt badly that I missed either eating at some place or go back though – I see those as reasons to go back!
The Tip Top is a very Kaua’i experience, and the ox tail soup is supposedly their most famous menu item. I still prefer their pancakes!
It’s almost hard to believe we have just a little over a week to go before the adventure begins!
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