Kalapawai Cafe

Review summary

1. T

   Thomas

   New York City

   2 reviews

   5.0

   2 reviews

   Dined 3 days ago

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 4
   4. Ambience 5

   Been going to Kalapawai for many years. It has maintained its consistent good quality over the years in spite of the high employee turnover. Seems fewer and fewer times we go do we run into staff that remembers us. Was a nice quality but cannot expect young people to not move on to better opportunities despite our outrageously high tips to keep then there.
   

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2. V

   Victor

   VIP

   Orlando

   165 reviews

   2.0

   165 reviews

   Dined 7 days ago

   1. Overall 2
   2. Food 1
   3. Service 2
   4. Ambience 2

   Our dinner started off with delicious onion soup. Then our dinner arrived as soon as our soup did. We were very disappointed with the dinner of the three fish. It tasted like vinegar. I could not eat it. Very disappointed. My husband had the gumbo, it was not good.
   

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3. J

   Jessica

   VIP

   Seattle

   19 reviews

   5.0

   19 reviews

   Dined on January 13, 2025

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   Wonderful as always :) Thanks to the terrific chefs & servers!
   

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4. J

   Judy

   VIP

   Hawaii

   4 reviews

   3.0

   4 reviews

   Dined on January 5, 2025

   1. Overall 3
   2. Food 3
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 4

   The service is friendly but the food has been “just okay” for years.
   

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5. W

   William

   Charleston

   14 reviews

   5.0

   14 reviews

   Dined on January 4, 2025

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 4

   Great food and service . Outside dining was a little noisy .
   

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6. A

   ART

   Hawaii

   11 reviews

   5.0

   11 reviews

   Dined on December 25, 2024

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   We are supper diners and we recommend making reservations. They get busy. With reasonable expectations anything you order will be satisfying. I wouldn't say that they are a budget venue, however, fair for what you receive. They always have a chef special for steaks and seafood as well as a catch of the day entee. Their cheese and salumi platter is a great start for 4 guests with cocktails. Hope you enjoy!
   

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7. T

   Teresa

   VIP

   Hawaii

   48 reviews

   5.0

   48 reviews

   Dined on December 23, 2024

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   Love their food and casual local atmosphere. "Don's favorite" is our favorite too. Their fish is always done just right. Desserts are yummy too!
   

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8. I

   Irish

   Hawaii

   6 reviews

   5.0

   6 reviews

   Dined on December 23, 2024

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 3

   Food and service was excellent. The traffic made it a bit noisy
   

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9. C

   Carol

   VIP

   Greater Boston

   14 reviews

   5.0

   14 reviews

   Dined on December 16, 2024

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 4

   We once again had Rocky as our server. She is outstanding! She is very knowledgeable about the menu. The Airline chicken was amazingly good (we pictured getting those little plastic trays...) it was moist and very, very tasty. My husband loved the lamb. We were able to reserve a berry crumble that was excellent. Kalapawai cafe is one of our favorite restaurants!
   

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10. M

    MNG

    San Francisco

    13 reviews

    5.0

    13 reviews

    Dined on December 9, 2024

    1. Overall 5
    2. Food 5
    3. Service 5
    4. Ambience 4

    If you used to only think of Kalapawai for just lunches and sandwiches, they are far more than that. Their dinner servings are sophisticated, delicious and quite reasonable for the serving size and creativity. The atmosphere remains very casual since seating is either outdoor (along Kailua Road) or in the back area of the cafe. Noise levels can get a bit high as the night gets busier and I really appreciate Kalapawai keeping the restaurant music-free. Don't get me wrong - - I love music - - but unless it's a concert, I prefer comfortable dinner conversation over having to yell across the table to my companions. One of our friends does not eat meat and he was impressed and thrilled that he had so many options available for him. Service is stellar and every single item we ordered on a recent visit was delicious. - traditional bruschetta to start - nice mix of fresh and sun dried tomatoes - lamb stew - - rich and tender - ahi with scallop & shrimp - lobster sauce was beautiful - portobello burger - - yum - Beyond Burger burger - - just as yum - apple crisp for dessert - - with cherries ala mode - - I could have had this for dinner alone Added plus that not only was our server great, but you can tell that the staff all like each other too and work well as a team. I've been in the service industry for my entire career, and from a workers as well as a customers perspective, if you have a crew that gets along, they always work better together and that automatically transfers to a much better customer experience as well. This was our evening and a few nights later we went back. Our cooktop went out on us that afternoon and we were forced to ditch our plans to cook at home. My husband immediately said he could go for that lamb stew again so we called in an order for that and for the mushroom bolognese. They did a beautiful job packing these up for take out too.
    

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