Kauai North Shore Restaurants
 

Has anyone been to Sabella's restaurant in the Princeville area? We are looking for a few dinner spots on North Shore in addition to cooking in. Also considering Sushi & Blues and Bar Acuda. Any opinions/reviews would be appreciated.

Mahalo.

The poke stack at Sushi/Blues is very onolicious!

Our best meal in that area was at Postcards in Hanalei. Make reservations if you don't want to wait for an hour getting a table.

-Bill

Sabella's was so good when we were there this summer, we ate there twice!
And we loved Bali Hi too (at Hanalei Bay Resort). But I agree with Bill, our best meal on the north shore was at Postcards.

Another thumbs up for the poke stack at Sushi/Blues.

I have to give a thumbs down to Bali Hai, though we only ate breakfast there. The Happy Talk lounge, also at the Hanalei Bay resort, had pretty good "bar and grille" food, and live entertainment some nights.

We also liked the Hanalei Dolphin. The poke and ceviche at their fish market is great for the nights you want to eat in.

Bill, haven't you tried Sabella's? I vaguely remember you recommending an Italian restaurant to me before my trip.

Polynesia Cafe in Hanalei is good for more casual dining.

We really enjoyed a sunset dinner at the Bali Hai restaurant. The food was good and they had a wonderful open aired atmosphere with beautiful views.

Also liked Zelo's for a tasty happy hour. The helpings of nachos & burgers were good size and value but probably would not eat there at the regular menu prices.

lvk,
Never been to Sabella's. If I recommended it, it's because auntie loves it and I love everything auntie loves, especially the deep fried terriyaki chicken nuggets at the Pono Market! ((L))

ditto the Cafe Polynesia thumbs up. Great seafood at a reasonable price.

-Bill

Ivk, don't let billyboy get you confused. Pono Market is not on the North Shore. But, it is a great place and you can get your marriage license there!

((r))i'2

Sabella's -- yes (dinner only)
Zelo's -- not on my list anymore
Hanalei Gourmet -- burgers, salads, fish
Mediterranean Gourmet (Ha`ena) -- yes!
Sushi Blues -- yes! (dinner only)
Dolphin -- yes!
Postcards -- service too slow & haughty
Polynesia Cafe -- awesome food, be prepared for slow service (it's worth the wait); BYOB (no liquor sold)
Village Snack Shop -- chili pepper chicken for lunch...yum!
Prince Golf Clubhouse -- shhhh...don't tell! :-)
Foodland deli -- fresh sushi daily, Hawaiian plate lunches, fried chicken, whole roasted (huli-huli) chicken, and the usual deli fare (meats, cheeses, salads) to go
Subway -- inside Big Save (Hanalei)
Baracuda -- high prices, small portions (but their panini get raves)
Papaya's Natural Foods -- great "all natural" deli, plus fresh soups, salads daily

Princeville Hotel:
La Cascata -- great food, service, views
Cafe Hanalei -- killer views; okay food
The Living Room -- pricey, but views and
new bar menu make up for it 8-)

Hanalei Bay Resort -- no, no and no!
Breakfast is now buffet-only ($20 for nothing special...no way!). Bar menu is nothing special; but drinks are good and view is lovely. Lunch menu gets raves, though.

Thanks to all. This is exactly the information I was looking for. We'll undoubtedly visit the Dolphin's fish market so we can grill some yummy dinners on our own...staying at Secret Beach cottage, but I'll pick one or two from the suggestions here for a few nights out. We thought we might like Sushi & Blues for the live music, too.

Mahalo and keep 'em coming.

Postcards was, by far, the best meal(s) we had on the north shore. We ate there twice. Didn't find the service slow or haughty.

Sushi Blues was "good". I guess I should have ordered the poke.

Our meal at the Dolphin was totally mediocre.

We're in the minority here.

My husband and I were unimpressed with Sabellas. The service was great. Our waitress was very friendly. The food was fine. I had pasta and my husband had fish. We thought it was good but not great and overpriced (I'm considering Hawaii standards when I say that).

We didn't love Postcards either. I got the crab quesadillas. They were good after I scraped off the sauce that they poured over them. It was a sweet sauce that was not complimentary to the quesadilla IMO. They also had a mango salsa to go with it, which again, the flavors did not meld well. It struck me that they were trying to be creative.....but being creative for creative's sake is not always a good idea. I don't remember what R. had but it was just OK, he said. The waitress was sweet but perhaps had too many tables. Service was on the slow side.

My husband LOVED the chicken entree at Bar Acuda. We both LOVED the vodka mojitos! We also really liked the atmosphere dining outside. We ate there a couple of times.

I LOVED the tofu dishes at the casual Polynesian cafe across the street. One is Thai/peanut flavored and the other is orange flavored. You can get chicken instead of tofu with the two flavors. They also had an excellent vege enchilada.

I really liked Neide's vege quesadilla too. (Near Bar Acuda) I got that twice during our stay.

We ate many times (we were there two weeks) at Hanalei gourmet. I liked their vege burger.

My favorite desert was at Java Kai (coffee place near bar acuda). They have this delectable treat called the "Aloha Bar". I salivate as I type. If you love chocolate and coconut-GET ONE!

I'm surprised there are no votes for Neide's (Brazilian/Mexican) in Hanalei. It was definitely a favorite meal for us. We split the pumpkin vegetable (main course) pancake and a garlic steak dish. They were both delicious and reasonably priced -- but that pancake was FANTASTIC!

Check out my post positioned right above yours songdoc.

Oops. I'm glad it's got two votes :-)

Make it three. Neide's is magical. It may not have a killer view, but the cuisine and the margarita's are exquisite!

Just got back. We did the Cafe Hanelei in the Princeville Hotel. On Friday nites, they have a seafood buffet with very good food, great sunset views overlooking the bay from the terrace (reserve for 5:30pm to get an outside table), but very pricey ($65 per person and that's food only......). If interested, I'll provide more details on the buffet offerings.

DCD -- I'm interested!!! If you have a chance please post whatever details you have on the Fri night seafood buffet. We went to their Thanksgiving buffet years ago and it was EXCELLENT.

AUNTIEMARIA -- I love your posts. Usually I'm a lurker here, but today I'll just mention that the information and insight you provide is very much appreciated. I'm copying your entire post to store for my next Kauai trip....(several years off, but not to despair we're headed to the BI next month)

We just got back from 2 fantastic weeks in Ha'ena. I miss it so much already! I would also throw in votes for the Mediterranean Gourmet in Ha'ena (unfortunately we didn't discover it til the end of our trip), Neide's, and Hanalei Gourmet. Zelo's nachos were great but the dinners were so-so. Postcards was good but we didn't feel they quite succeeded with their ambitious dishes. We enjoyed our meals at Hanalei Dolphin, also. Didn't eat in Princeville or at Sushi Blues or Bar Acuda. We also really loved Mermaid's Cafe in Kapa'a and Caffe Coco in Wailua. Aloha!

Cafe Hanalei's buffet features about 5 stations of food. There's an appetizer one with nice sized shrimp for peeling and eating, calamari, mussels, a couple of different oyster options, grilled vegetables, dungeness crab legs, grilled salmon and tomato concoction, and several others. There were also stations for salad/bread and sushi. Since we don't care for sushi and don't believe in filling up on salads or bread, we didn't investigate these. The entree station featured about 6 selections: prime rib which was very tender, salmon roll with a light crust, seafood pasta, a clam and mussel with rice dish, fresh seafood of the day which was a snapper perhaps poached, and a fish sausage dish which was quite good. Outside there was a grill for chicken and beef teriaki kabobs along with a grilled white marlin tempura (quite tasty)and tuna (ashi) tempura. Finally, there was a long, long dessert bar with all kind of goodies, including a chocolate fountain with cut up pineapple, strawberries and 3 different cake cubes. But we liked the flourless chocolate cake the best. The whole ambience, which included an ice carving, was very special.

Oops, forgot to mention the coconut shrimp and breaded mussels on the entree bar, both very good.