After having attended the Friday night art crawl in Hanapepe, on the west side of Kauai, Hawaii, our group of eight searched for a comfortable place to dine. Clearly, there are not as many restaurants on the west side of the island, as in the south or east sides. So we referred to our Fodor's guidebook and landed on a Thai restaurant minutes away in a strip mall. This was, unfortunately, a bad choice. I have eaten in many Thai restaurants prevously and have not had a bad experience. However, Toi's Thai Kitchen managed to change that. While there are not many bothersome insects in Kauai, the few that exist seemed to find their way through the open door (no air conditioning) to our table. While some of our group were being bitten, others were watching the two Gecko lizards on the ceiling directly above our table, placing bets as to whose dish they would drop into. It was safe to bet against me because the selection I ordered didn't come for the half-hour we endured these conditions. In other words, there was no plate to fall into. The server's reply to inquiries was to say each entree is prepared individually and she can't control the timing. Fortunately, my companions shared a bit of their dinners with me ( I urged them to eat instead of politely waiting until everyone was served), and since I had the dubious pleasure of sampling several things on the menu, I can verify there is nothing I tried deserving of special mention in a travel guidebook. Other than the biting insects and Geckos on the ceiling, this is not a particularly distinctive Thai restaurant.
Review of restaurant recommended by Fodor's-not positive
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I love love love geckos!
Welcome to Fodor's forums. Sorry your meal sucked.
A one-post wonder.
Amazing that you chose to create an account at Fodors and this post slagging a restaurant is your first post.
These derogatory posts are usually troll posts from competitors.
Based on that, I would assume this restaurant is great and doing a whopping business.
The most recent reviews on TA are good ones. I agree that this person-who-registered-just-to-slam-a-restaurant is probably scamming for some reason. Placename's competitor theory makes sense.
Who are you or I to assume the OP's reasons for posting? Everyone has an individual reason to make a first post. It's not like they said, 'don't go there, go to this place in Kapaa which has excellent thai food and no geckos. It's people like you that push people away from posting.
So, how was Art Night in Hanapepe? I've always wanted to do that!
I've never seen geckos drop off from a ceiling - into food or anything else. I suppose a lot of people lost their bets.
We went to art night in Hanapepe last time we were in Kauai. Although we enjoyed it for a half hour or so, mostly it was underwhelming. There is one excellent artsy-craftsy store with beautiful hand-made jewelry, though, and a good store with historic maps and such.
Speaking of geckos, here's a happy ending.
"A gecko had fallen out of the boat with her, and one of the six men with her found it, so she kept it on her shoulder.
“This little guy’s in the middle of the ocean, so we got to save him,” she said.
Read more: http://thegardenisland.com/news/local/rescued-at-sea/article_fb852f3a-8d31-11e1-8d66-001a4bcf887a.html#ixzz1sugnDrWl
I heard on the radio the Gecko saying he was traveling the USA. That must have been him and his date.
I NEVER get restaurants recommendations from guidebooks. Just by the nature of printed publications, they can never keep current. I get my recommendations from forums like this one instead, where the information if more up-to-date.
<Everyone has an individual reason to make a first post.>
Sure that is true. But it's not normally just to slam one particular restaurant. Usually people join this forum to plan a trip.
I also never understand complaints about things the business can't control. Like a bad hotel review that complains about the weather. Or a bad restaurant review that complains there are bugs in an open air restaurant in the tropics.
So, should they have just brought a crockpot instead?
"Sure that is true. But it's not normally just to slam one particular restaurant."
I agree with suze. Even when people stumble on this site for one reason, they usually make more than one post. So far, the OP's only post is one to slam a particular restaurant. So far the reasons not to eat in this restaurant are tropical bugs and geckos. I loved the Waimea Brewing Company and it had a few of each of those, as do most open air - or open to the air - restaurants in the tropics. The delivery of the meals was poorly timed. Wow.
In any case, tosee has shared his/her POV - and that's rarely a bad thing. His/her review wouldn't steer me away and may make me even more likely to visit Toi's Thai Kitchen to see what the fuss is all about.
Good. You go and report back.