My Life Blog

We aren’t gone yet, but a recap seems in order since I haven’t written about our visit since arriving.

We had no real plans other than a few dinner reservations on a couple of nights, so its been a relaxing, low-key visit. Considering this is our fifth trip to Kauai, there aren’t too many must-see sights, so most days we’ve slept late and slowly made our way out to a beach or into town.

Ke’e Beach was as pretty as ever. After being pummeled by sand and wind on Maui beaches, it was refreshing to visit this scenic beach. It never gets old. We also visited SeaLodge Beach which you must hike into. The hike was relatively easy, but still served to reduce the number of visitors. We were two of twelve on the beach at any given time. It was a small beach, but delivered huge returns for its beauty and privacy. And today, we drove the quarter mile or so to Kepuhi Beach which is the beach we were married on, though we were probably a mile East of the exact point. Its a nice beach to read, listen to the surf, and watch the crabs do what they do.

We’ve had mixed luck with our restaurant excursions. Postcards in Hanalei was completely forgettable — extravagantly priced, but unremarkable food, lackluster service with no personality. The Mediterranean had phenomenal food, but our waiter was largely unattentive. We went to Sushi Blues last night, but didn’t think we needed reservations. As a result, we found ourselves sitting at the bar with some of the locals and listened as they told disparaging stories about the tourists they had served earlier in the day. The food was good, but the experience would have been better out on the floor. We also sprinkled in Tropical Taco (Hanalei) and Olympic Cafe (Kapa’a). The former is a favorite of mine and remains so. The latter was a new place we found and it had good food and service.

We visited the Hanalei Colony Resort Day Spa on Monday to enjoy a beach-side couples massage. It doesn’t get much better than that! The only thing disappointing about it was when it was over…and maybe when paying for it — such luxuries are never inexpensive.

When we arrived, it appeared that it had been pretty dry for a while, however since arriving its rained quite often. We are enjoying a nice shower right now and its very relaxing to hear the rain as it finds its way through the trees. We’ve also become reacquainted with Chu-Chee, the cat that considers this property home. When we first arrived, she kept her distance, but has become friendlier by the day. At this moment, she’s on her fifth hour curled up in a ball on the loveseat. She reminds us of our own kitty who is surely dearly missing us.

We have had our disappointments with the River House this year, but those have mostly to do with its management. Its still a beautiful place to stay, but there are reasons why we will probably not stay here again. If anyone is contemplating a stay at the River House, email me and I’ll tell you why this is the case. In part also, we know of more consistent alternatives, so these weigh in when all things are equal.

Still a couple of days left, so the vacation is not over just yet!

Dining at Keoki’s Paradise

Originally uploaded by bill_eisenhauer.

The picture you see is of us at Keoki’s Paradise — this is the kind of picture you get when you ask a waiter to take it. To be fair, my own camera skills aren’t much better, so I cannot say I could have done better.

While on the island this trip, we’ve had the opportunity to sample several restaurants. I wanted to give a quick review of those we’ve gone to in hopes that it might help others.

The Good

Bali Hai at the Hanalei Bay Resort in Princeville. We have had consistently good food and service here and the view is quite spectacular.

Keoki’s Paradise in Poipu. Historically, this restaurant isn’t rated as highly as others, but we have always liked it. We had a particularly good experience this time because our waiter, Tony Brun, was superb. He was great with helping us match the fish with appropriate preparation styles and sauces. We enjoyed his island stories and perspectives. If you have an opportunity to eat there, ask for his section.

Duke’s Barefoot Bar in Nawiliwili Harbor. The best burger and waffle fries combined with the best view. We usually get two lunches in here if we can.

Mediterranean at the Hanalei Colony Resort in Haena. This was a new one for us. Its not far off the beach and they play live Hawaiian music most nights. The food and service were great.

The Beach House in Poipu. We haven’t eaten here yet this trip, but this remains one of our favorites. If you time it right, you can see the sunset off of the grounds prior to dinner. Here the chocolate souffle dessert is awesome.

Dinner on the Beach with Heavenly Creations on Anini Beach. We have treated ourselves to a privately-catered dinner on the beach in our last three visits. These are typically a lot of fun because the host is always so interesting. While friendly, our host this time wasn’t quite as interesting as those we’ve had in the past. That said, the food was good and we were well-served.

The Bad

Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion in Poipu. We love the restaurant in Plano and we’re looking forward to the on-island Roy’s experience. However, it was dramatically below expectation. It started with the service being pretty slow. Over and above that, the wait staff were a bit scary-looking — if I hadn’t been at a nice restaurant, I would have been nervous to be among some of them. I know this is a strange observation, but I believe its very fair. We also found the food to be sub-par by comparison. Roy’s has been the most expensive meal we’ve had yet and yet has delivered the least satisfaction. I must also point out that the tableside view was of a pathway in a shopping center. Suffice it to say, we will never dine at the Poipu location again, though we look forward to our next visit to the Plano location.

Tips

If we could offer one tip, it would be to make reservations in advance. Consider even doing so in advance of your trip. We’ve seen some people wait as long as an hour and their frustration is unfortunate since a simple call could have prevented this.

This is Hawaii. Men need only wear a nice shirt and shorts. I brought slacks again, but haven’t needed them. Your choice, though, I have seen slacks, they just are not expected or required so far as I’ve seen.

…it would be perfect (in my opinion).

Many of the weblogs that I read daily discuss how easy websites are to use.  And I’ve read many books on the subject as well.  To me, its almost an art form to anticipate perfectly how to build something so easy to use.  So since this is an interest of mine, I tend to notice things that are easy to do.

Pei Wei is an Asian diner prevalent in the Southwest.  Its one of my favorite restaurants mainly for the food.  However, in my most recent visit, it struck me that its designed perfectly. 

To begin with, there are two entrances conveniently market for their purpose; one is for Dining, the other is for To Go.  When you enter for Dining, you are presented with an aisle that leads you past three tall vertical menus which enable you to determine what you’d like on your way to place your order.  It should be mentioned that as you enter, you could also take an alternative path into the seating area, but a sign encourages you to place your order first.  So basically, you know exactly the order to follow.

After you move past the menu displays, you get to a twin set of registers.  Over the registers is a big sign that says "Orders".  And along the backs of the registers sit miniature menu displays to enable you to refresh your memory for what you had decided to order.  The entrees require some choices (e.g. beef or chicken, white rice or fried rice), so its handy to have the menu right in front of you again. 

If you entered through the To Go door, you would enter right at the cash register station and thereby have bypassed the standing menus.  After all, you’ve perhaps called your order in and don’t need those menus.  There’s a single register for you and chairs available while you wait. 

Back to the Diners path.  Once you’ve paid, you are given a numbered token which identifies you for order delivery.  You then follow the path to the drink station where you get your ice, choose your drink, and select any utensils or straws you may require.  You also can select your fortune cookie here.

Thereafter, you are now ready to find a table.  Once seated, you insert your token into a wire tower so that it can be seen and you wait for your food. 

You then leave through the pathway you were encouraged not to use upon entrance.

I call this pretty much a perfect restaurant design.  And oh by the way, the food is awesome too.

A short rant here. And one could argue that I get what I deserve when I subject myself to fast-food.

I love Chic-Fil-A’s offerings, but I do not like their policy on ketchup. Ketchup is made available only in those small little packages — even to their in-store customers.

So everytime I go there, I spend the first 5 minutes working through a few ketchup packages. This is one of those little annoyances that cheats me out of a truly good experience. And I wonder how they haven’t received feedback to that effect.

I much prefer Wendy’s approach where you get to blast ketchup into a cup. Unfortunately, Wendy’s food is slightly less healthy, so I avoid it most of the time.

As Seth Godin would say, Chic-Fil-A has chosen an “edge” to exploit, but that edge does not include providing convenient ketchup.

Man…I can complain about anything. What’s next?