Kailua Restaurants

Our go to for brunch and dinner. Their brunch is absolutely amazing, we ordered one of each main item and couldn’t decide what we loved the most. Everything was so delicious, I’m still craving the Gouda grits and kalua pork hash! For dinner we always over order apps and salads since you can’t go wrong with their cheese board, the various dips (go straight for the dip trio you won’t be disappointed!) ceviche, and bravas. Beet salad and Caesar are amazing, followed by the oxtail and lamb. Don’t pass on the smores either, perfect ending to a great meal.

Eggplant was not very good value for the price. Not very tasty. Brussel sporuts and cauliflower were good. Mains were nice. Server was great.

This place was incredible, highly recommend. Some of the best food and drinks I’ve had on the island.

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.

The service was very good and they had a unique but short menu. The setting is a kind of funky Kailua.