Japanese Grandma's Cafe

Jordan Montoya

2024-05

The food was excellent at Japanese Grandma! The green bean tempura was to die for. We also got the sous vide New York strip and a sushi roll, and yum! No complaints anywhere!The restaurant is a cute outdoor space with covered seating for the rain, and when we were there, they had a live musician! It was well worth the drive from Princeville to eat dinner!

Hawaii Travel with Kids

2024-05

If you're looking for a tasty place to eat in Hanapepe, it doesn't get much better than Japanese Grandma's Cafe. The food is fresh and delicious. We enjoyed the atmosphere, too. They have garden seating just behind the restaurant and it's quite lovely.Kid-friendliness: My kids had no problem with the food options. The outdoor seating was great for families.

Missy Walker

2024-05

I wish I weren’t by myself so I could have tried more things. I had homemade lemonade and a mixed tempura bento box. Salad tasted fresh and I loved the sesame dressing. Tempura was delicious (especially the green beans). The rice was cooked perfectly, and I liked the Teri glaze. I’ve heard from friends the sushi is amazing, so I’ll have to try it again.

Jenny Xu

2024-01

Very solid Japanese place to go!Good:- This place had amazing sushi! I liked the grandma roll the best, it was very unique- The ambiance is really nice! It’s covered and outdoors- The Tamago was so so good! Nice and sweet- Staff were really nice, and the vibes were goodBad:- There was a decently long wait timeOverall I liked this place! I was sad it didn’t have poke but the sushi made up for it

Andrew

2023-10

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alexandria jude

2024-05

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Cc H

2023-11

The food is surely a one star, especially considering the high price.The photos are all the dishes we got for the dinner, and one bottle of sake ($48). The total price is over $150. Nigiri fish and uni are fresh, but honestly you can get the same or better quality with much lower prices in most places on this island.The yellowtail sashimi portion is so small. Six thin slices for $27. The interesting part is that we ordered it because it specifically says "thick slices" on the menu.All the fried food is terrible-ish. Karaage is soft and some areas aren't even fully coated. The shrimp tempura is more like normal deep fried shrimp, and has nothing to do with tempura.The place has live music and good vibes. We came in for the atmosphere and had relatively low expectations on the food. But really the price plus the food quality is a real "down" for our day. There are lots of good food trucks on the island, and we love many of them. Could be a good idea to save 100 dollars for those local small businesses :/.

Dustin Stratton

2024-02

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Helen Scotch

2024-04

Food & service were excellent! I should have taken photos as presentation was lovely but I was pretty hungry so I just dug in! We had the mushroom tacos to start, then a mini green salad with avocado- both salad dressings were so tasty. Then we shared the Red Dragon and the California roll. Plenty of food for 2 hungry adults. Our severer was great and attentive. Atmosphere was lovely. I thought overall it was good value for money.

Hikari Nim

2023-11

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Joe Leavitt

2023-06

This is the best restaurant that we were lucky enough to come across on our entire trip! Yes, the food can seem a little pricey, but not for Hawaii standards, and not for that high quality. It’s a beautiful patio and we had great service. The live entertainment was perfect too!

Caiqian Cropper

2023-10

BEST shrimp tempura ever. So light and delicious! We got the shrimp tempura bento bowl and the chicken karaage bowl (+ avocado), and both were delicious, but the shrimp tempura was just SO GOOD.There is only patio seating, but there is shade for when it is hot and sunny out. Really clean bathroom as well.

Tami Saner

2024-03

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Vincent Mañara

2023-10

The best sushi we had in Hawaii! We came here for dinner on our last night in Kauai. Every dish we tried was simply delectable, with the fish being exceptionally fresh and practically melting in our mouths. Here’s a list of our favorites:1. Yellowtail Jalapeño2. Sashimi Salad3. Eel Bomb4. Spicy Hamachi5. Hamachi NigiriI can’t recall the name of the refreshing drink we enjoyed, but it was the cocktail of the day. The Yuzu cheesecake also left a positive impression. The live music added a delightful touch to the ambience. It seems like it’s only outdoor seating. I would suggest to make a reservation before going. The server Talia was great. She was very attentive and gave great suggestions.

Heidi

2024-02

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S S (SS)

2023-07

Ordered the Spicy Poke Bowl, edamame, and a California roll. Poke bowl was okay… not even close to one of the top on the island though; and the California roll was just okay. The minced crab in the roll was a bit pungent, like it was a few days older than fresh.Service was not good. After we initially ordered and received our drinks, the service was downhill. I finished my mojito in 10 minutes and never once did a server come back so I could order another. The food took too long to come out. Others that arrived and ordered after us, received their order first. I asked about the long wait for the food and the server’s response was “it’s coming”… I don’t expect an explanation but some level of nice and genuine customer service would have been nice.There are much better places on the island to eat. Don’t waste your time or money here;Get better food, better service, and a better atmosphere somewhere else for the same money.

Julie Ray

2023-08

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Tony Smith

2023-10

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greg a

2023-08

Must try the build you own Bento Bowl by choosing your choice of protein, sauce, and additional add-ons. It comes with your choice of rice: white or brown and side mix green salad. I had the bento bowl consisting of vegetable and shrip tempura with spicy yuzu kosho eel sauce, which was delicious. I also had their in-house special guava lemonade drink, which was refreshing. The outside dining area was pleasant and well presented, despite the high winds. Overall, one of best restaurants in Hanapepe, Kauai.

Connie Trinh

2022-06

Went here for dinner and had a lovely time, beautiful setting and live music. Didn't know what to expect because the town was quite dead and dark at night, but the seating area at the back was great. Food is great for Kauai standard, solid flavors. The crispy rice was the most unique dish. The hamachi sashimi is pretty thinly sliced for $23 but food cost is high on the island. My only complaint is there are mosquitoes at night (got bitten quite badly) so maybe spray yourself before you sit down, or the restaurant should have some ready for guests. there's also a cute store as well. Go and support this beautiful local business!

Raymond J. Lee

2023-09

Loved this restaurant so much. Had dinner restaurants for my family of 3. Our 9 year old was so excited to order from the kids menu but ultimately ended up ordering sushi. My husband and I had the most amazing pork katsu and chicken karaage ever. Talk about tender! Also the passionfruit gelato was beyond delicious. Also love how the restaurant is laid out and decorated. Not ostentatious at all but comfortable and chill. Cannot wait to come back.

Brett Austin

2023-07

A wonderful eatery with everything from sashimi to nigiri to maki rolls. The food, service and environment was perfect. It’s a bit off the street, but there’s ample street parking. For those with limited mobility, the walkway is flat, but again somewhat of a walk from the parking area and the seating area is located in crushed rock…so can be difficult to walk in.

Darlene Fuhst

2024-04

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Samuel Shiao

2023-06

A must visit! We went here several times on our trip to Kauai, the ambience is so cozy and there was a talented live musician when we went for dinner. Everything on the menu was spectacular but we loved the Avocado Appetizer, the Eel Bomb roll and the poke sushi burrito! The karaage chicken bento bowl was quite good too.

sparrowmedrama

2023-06

This was a cute little restaurant/shop. The decor and ambiance were great! This place is clearly popular as there were many reservations. We didn’t get notified of our table being ready— we only were seated after we inquired how much longer the wait was, almost 30 minutes after our reservation time. We sat down and the table still had soy sauce spills on the table. However, we overlooked most of this as we love supporting small local businesses. Unfortunately, the food, specifically the sushi, was underwhelming as the fish quality was close to grocery store sushi that we ate earlier in the day from Costco (except the rice was better than Costco’s sushi rice). The salmon nigiri had lots of sinew (difficult to eat in more than one bite), and the other nigiri pieces were thinly sliced or falling apart. We were hoping that maybe this was an off night and maybe they were running low? The soft shell crab salad is the size of a side salad with a topping of soft shell crab and not dinner size appropriate. None of the fried tempura or the soft shelled crab were hot out of the fryer. The ikura came with one toppled over, which was fine, but indicative of the attention to detail— though I appreciate the waiter not trying to fix this on the way to the table. The staff were all friendly and they had live music, which created a nice ambience. The main reason this is getting a 2 star, unfortunately, is because the food quality to price ratio was ridiculous— our meal was over $100 and we left disappointed and hungry for McDonalds.

patty wheelock

2023-12

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Fiona Kaufman

2023-07

I wanted to stop in Hanapepe on our way back from Waimea Canyon, since Hanapepe was the inspiration for the setting in Lilo and Stitch, one of my favorite movies. The food here was delicious! Two of us had bento bowls and one a poke bowl. We all enjoyed the lemonade of the day (Guava Lemonade). Service was friendly and attentive, and the atmosphere is really cute (right down to local geckos) .Vegetarian options: I got the vege tempura bento bowl with added avocado and it was the best tempura I’ve had.

Kirsten Sakata Phillips

2023-09

We were so excited to try this place as my coworkers raves about it. We came on a Sunday night at 5:30pm. The hostess was avoidant as there was a long line and you could tell she didn't want to deal with each customer. We were told the wait was 30 min. Easy. We had 6 people in our party. We walked around and came back to check on our table since it had been 30 min. The same hostess was so hard to get ahold of and when I finally did she said she would check on a table for us but then never came back to update me. I'm okay with waiting but I wish she communicated with me. We got seated and I asked for a high chair. The same hostess said she would check on it and never came back with one. So I had to ask someone else and they brought it over. We ordered our food right away and our waitress was so sweet and attentive (tall blonde gal). We were all surprised at all tiny the portions were. It advertises family style but each dish is really for 1-2 people to share. We ordered the mixed tempura, karaage chicken with teriyaki sauce, Hanapepe roll, California roll with salmon on top, white rice and seared ahi Tonkatsu. We ended up having to order another order of mixed tempura. The food still wasn't enough for 6 people. The whole process to eat there took so long and was slow so we didn't bother to order more food. The bill came out to be $130 tip included. Food was actually tasty and wasn’t bad but it wasn’t good for the price that we paid…but then that evening-morning 4 out of the 6 people in our party got food poisoning, spent all evening and day vomiting and diarrhea. Triple whammy. Poor experience at the restaurant and then getting sick from the food.We also noticed a huge spider in a water pitcher inside the kitchen area as we were shopping in their store front. I thought that was pretty disgusting.Unfortunately, will not be coming back here.

Curtis C

2024-05

I’m writing this review 2 years after eating here because somehow I forgot to and I’m still thinking about the meal I had at Japanese Grandma’s Cafe. I had the Hamachi Kama which was amazing, but the strawberry cheesecake was mind blowing. I still think about it and now I just spent the last 2 days in Kyoto trying to find something that compares. It’s impossible! Someday if I ever get back to Kauai, Japanese Grandma’s will be one of the first places I go.

AJ Lamm

2024-04

Hands down the best restaurant on the island.We stayed at the Grand Hyatt stunning Hotel, incredible staff. The breakfast feast as we call it out of this world. But I did not find the dinners to be any where near Japanese Grandma Cafe’The food was so good here I found myself in deep intersection on how I would have to prepare food at home to get it here, found new flavors I hadn’t considered before, and Kate our server was delightful.If your on the Island of Kauai and your looking for something special to share with someone you love even if that person is just yourself, look no further.Could not recommend more highly 🙏🏼Mahalo