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    Kuoha Culinary

    4.9 (109 reviews)
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    Updated over 3 months ago

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    Thomas R.

    The company I work for ordered catering from Kuoha Culinary and it was beyond amazing! I recommend ordering from here when it comes to any type of events for work, family or party. We had the Kabayaki bacon, steak, chicken and salad. Everything that was ordered tasted yummy!!

    Such a nice guy.  Mahalo Chef Ed!

    5 Stars plus! If you're not a fan of long reviews, please stop reading and just book Kuoha Culinary right away...there are so many wonderful things to say here. We selected Kuoha Culinary for a small family Celebration of Life for our dad. Chef Ed is so kind and easy to work with. He's busy and he secured our date upon initial communication and assured me he'd provide a preliminary proposal within a few weeks. Here's how I described our catering goals for Ed: Hoping for a fusion of local style comfort foods in an elevated style, fine restaurant quality but "not overly fancy" with several protein options and several veggie options. 2 vegetarian guests, not sure if we need dessert catered. Having never booked catering before, I based our budget on previous restaurant celebrations and gave Ed a very, very wide price per head range and told him I'd prefer if we didn't get too close to the higher end of our price range. As promised, Ed returned with a preliminary proposal and it was lower in price than I expected and included more dishes than I had thought we'd get. Ed recommended drop off service as being the most cost effective and easy option for our event. I requested changes to all three entrees and added a few vegetables and the price remained excellent due to my changes balancing each other out. In our phone consultation, Ed answered my questions clearly, concisely, and confidently. For each case where I asked Ed which of 2 or 3 dishes he recommended, he was able to understand my question and kindly offer his recommendation and he was spot on. Never once did he say the dreaded "it's a matter of personal preference". He just knew what would work best and humbly shared his knowledge and experience. I told Ed my mom doesn't really eat Lup Cheong and he said, trust me she won't notice it and it adds so much to the dish ("Local Boy" En Papillote). Sure enough, mama raved about the fish. I asked him a question about 2 different beef dishes and he explained why the dish he recommended was a better fit for drop off catering. I debated to myself about going with Ed's desserts or getting/making our own, I'm not a big dessert person. Ended up going with Ed and requested an assortment of 3 desserts rather than one, great decision because Ed's desserts were a hit. I was so impressed with my initial interactions with Ed that I was referring people to Kuoha Culinary before I even tasted the food! Fast forward to event date: Ed arrived 15 min ahead of his proposed arrival time. He texted my contact friend and me of his ETA. He politely declined our guests' offers of help and he got everything set up beautifully! Received the most compliments ever on our food! We've had many get togethers with the same people and this food experience surpassed those at previous restaurants and event venues, even the fancy ones. Guests were exclaiming raving about the quality and variety (not exaggerating) complimenting every single dish from appetizers to main dishes to veggies, to the rice to the desserts! Yes, even the humble corn and Hapa rice got rave reviews...seriously! People were scanning chef's QR code and reading aloud about the business at the table (a first) and were so grateful and genuinely wowed. The dishes that were most complimented were the Local Boy Fish En Papillote, Ahi Tataki and the mini tart desserts: Lilikoi Crème Brûlée, Ube Cream, Chef Ed's Chocolate with Haupia The quality was better than the type of restaurant where they give you a deck of cards-sized protein on a plate, with quantity being better than places where you need 2 hands to carry your plate lunch. Best combination ever! Our guests made generous plates to go. I even scraped the sauces into ziplocs to freeze for helping with my own cooking. Hours after the meal and into the next day, people were saying how much they enjoyed everything. The next day, my cousin expressed for the second time how impressed he was with Ed's ability to keep all food at the perfect temperature, texture and consistency. Kuoha Culinary surpassed our goals going beyond merely "impressing" our guests and achieved something even more meaningful: Our guests felt honored, grateful, and joyful. Thank you, Chef Ed, for helping make our celebration so special!

    Professional looking catering but all disposable!! Easy clean up!!
    Jillian B.

    Working with Chef Ed was amazing. He built a custom menu for my 40-person work party at my house. We live on a military base and he was really receptive to working together to getting him onto base. Would love to work with him again!

    Wedding Reception Menu

    Chef Ed was amazing! He communicated right away with calls and emails, arrived on time, and set out a very delicious and impressive meal. His ingredients were very high quality and beauifully presented. Everyone present loved his food. We highly recommend him for any event you are hosting.

    Sturdy upscale catering with serving utensils and signage.
    Cherie I.

    Amazing service, delicious food and incredible communication!! I cannot highlight Ed enough! We met up with Ed for a sampling of his work, all of it was delicious and I HIGHLY recommend his kabayaki bacon (candied bacon)! Then he put together a proposal for our event and we paid our deposit. Ed was quick to respond every time, jumped on a call with us to answer all of our questions, and extremely flexible with our menu. Long story short, we had to move our event and he was very accommodating and let us transfer our deposit to a different event. This meant so much to us and we have a lot of appreciation for Ed that he let us do this! The event (our engagement party) was successful and a HUGE highlight of the night was Kuoha Culinary. We went with his upscale catering option where he drops off the food with warmers, fancy disposable plates and utensils, and everything worked out great! Guests told us several times how good the food was and we even got to enjoy it a few more days because we had a lot of leftovers. We plan to continue to go to Ed for any large party catering needs in the future. I hope you know how much we appreciate you Ed! Thank you for helping us to plan and celebrate our engagement.

    Opa with tomatoes lomi and lime, wow!! I dont eat fish myself, but the flavor of that sauce was amazing!!
    Lorilynn L.

    Since COVID, I imagine many people have gone without celebrations, family gatherings and a variety of social engagements, we were shut down by an invisible terrorist, telling us to mask up, glove up and its need to "flatten the curve". We have been forced to think outside of our routine boxes; however, as human beings, we require the social aspects of our lives, it helps us to manifest feelings of love and being a part of a community. I say this because my daughter was turning 35 and watched her work so hard, her company closed down, she was was pregnant, struggled in silence, had her baby in a hospital where we couldn't be there with her and do her best for her children every single day, despite the significant life changes. Anyways, I dont mean to go on and on, long story short, we wanted to give her something special this year, as she embarked on 35, quite a milestone age. In comes Chef Ed Kuoha, I found him here on Yelp. The idea of bringing a fine dining experience to my home, im sure im not the first to think of it, what a great idea. I reached out and he returned my message, very clear and available. He asked about our dietary restrictions and immediately came up with a solid menu plan. Unfortunately, he ended up not being able to do the party for unforeseen circumstances and notified me 2 days before the dinner. I was a bit nervous, not gonna lie. Everything was scheduled and set up, I know it was a family dinner at my home and Chef Ed was super generous to reschedule, but it would be too much of a hassle. I started to search for another replacement, I was not very hopeful since we are now down to one day before the party and still no replacement. Chef Ed texted me and said he found another Chef!! He worked so hard to accommodate, despite the crisis he faced himself. He put my situation my ahead of his own and I cannot possibly express adequate appreciation for this. Now the food, we were literally paralyzed with satisfaction. The menu offered was not only exquisite flavors, but paired with excellence to accommodate our very different dietary needs. I will leave a brief description of the food items with their pictures. Lastly, we also want to thank Chef Ed for sending Jacob to service our dinner. He was the icing on the cake, such a humble and respectful young man, who truly enhanced our dining experience. He was efficient and he left my home cleaner than it was before he arrived. Thank you for Chef Ed for creating a memory that will place a shining bright star on our dim memory of these difficult times. I strongly recommend you to everyone I know and will be coming back to you for future events. Your business will definitely thrive with impeccable service that you provide!!

    I had Kuoha Culinary for my private ceremony dinner (seafood & prime rib) and the next day he was my caterer for my reception dinner (local food). Chef Ed and his team are very professional, punctual, and the food was ONO. My family and guests kept telling me how good the food was. If I had a change in the menu or question about the set-up, I felt comfortable to call him and he'd explain everything in detail. I highly recommend to use him for your next party or up scale event!

    THANK YOU CHEF ED and KUOHA CULINARY! Much LOVE & ALOHA!

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    26 days ago

    Chef Ed is awesome. Super easy to work with and customized to meet our budget and vision. For was ono and exceeded my expectations

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    Page 1 of 3

    Ask the Community - Kuoha Culinary

    Review Highlights - Kuoha Culinary

    Being from NYC, I do feel like my standards for food are very high, and Chef Ed met our expectations.

    Mentioned in 75 reviews

    Read more highlights

    The Guarden

    The Guarden

    (47 reviews)

    I attended an event by The Guarden and it was so beautifully done. It was for my best friend's baby…read moreshower. The menu was so delicious and the decorations and details were exquisite. Felt like I was transported into a dreamy fairy land. Sabrina and Kevin were so professional and delivered the best service. Highly recommended booking them.

    What can I say except the whole experience was just fantastic. From booking, crafting the menu, and…read morethen eating said menu, the whole experience was pretty stress free. My friend and I wanted to have a special birthday dinner for our hubs, so we scheduled them on a Sunday night. We provided one main dish which they then crafted a wonderful, balanced menu to complement. They are arrived on time with everything they needed and even though we didn't ask for any special decorations, the simple place settings were a lovely addition and really elevated the whole experience. Dinner started with an arancini crab cake (le amuse bouche). Buttery crab rolled into a crispy ball with a hint of yuzu to awaken the palate. Truly a unique dish the entire party enjoyed. First course was my favorite and consisted of Kona kanpachi carpaccio. Oh my sweet little tastebuds danced for joy as this was one of the best things I've ever eaten. Crispy garlic added a fun crunch, but the magical melding of the flavors in the sauce made everything just melt in your mouth. Second course was a ribeye ochazuke with a mushroom risotto that was so rich and flavorful it almost felt like it hugged your tongue and whispered sweet nothings as you chewed. We opted to upgrade the beef to wagyu so it was beautiful and as someone who doesn't eat red meat, I swapped for scallops. The ribeye was hella tender and the scallops were sheer perfection. A brief intermezzo of li hing calamansi sorbet cleansed the palate and signaled to our stomach to get ready for an onslaught of flavors. The main entree was beef Wellington (ahi Wellington for me) with a potato gratin that was a rich foundation. Everything was cooked to perfection on site, and they even provided a bit of background into their home garden which provides for the herbs and veggies used in most of the dishes. Anyone who knows me, knows I love locally sourced foods (I even buy big island beef for my dog's food), so this was a much appreciated addition. Dessert concluded the meal and while I was sad it was over, the sticky toffee pudding with toasted marshmallow ice cream sent me to cloud 9! If you want to make a special memory for any occasion, book them ASAP! You won't regret it. Chef Kevin and his fiancée are so kind and warm, it felt like family cooking for us. Even though they offer sommelier services, as a practicing oenophile, I crafted the pairings for our party and if I say so myself, I killed it. Looking at the pictures from other events, their decorations are classy and tasteful. Next time we will definitely include more courses and perhaps may splurge on a specially crafted cocktail.

    Course Hawaii

    Course Hawaii

    (31 reviews)

    Kalihi

    I would 100% recommend Course Hawaii for a catering experience. My family was just on Oahu and…read moreCourse provided two wonderful meals for a family of 12. Everyone I worked with, from Louise to Chef Marceau, and servers Genevieve and Lauren were wonderful.

    We were looking for someone who would cater our wedding at a secluded beach on Labor day weekend…read moreand found Course on IG as they have done some great work and they had great reviews on yelp as well. They have even worked for celebrities such as the Rock. The reason why is that Chef Andrew and his team are absolutely fantastic! We had a party of about 70 guests, and the Course team helped serve all the food and drinks. Everyone praised their professionalism and great attitude throughout the night and to this day. Best of all, everyone is still raving about the food. Some people have told me that "it was the best wedding food they have ever had." The appetizers were sliders and garlic shrimp. The short rib and fresh white fish were showstopper entrees and all the sides garlic noodles, rice, potatoes and veggies really completed the meal! Chef Andrew also offers a oyster bar and that was a huge hit! FYI order more than less as folks were destroying these oysters and Chef was putting in work shucking them to order. We really wanted to thank Course for making our special day extremely successful and would definitely recommend them to anyone hosting an event in Oahu!

    Picnics From The Vine - Grazing table

    Picnics From The Vine

    (17 reviews)

    Booked Kelly's amazing catering service for my daughter's 1st birthday! She was absolutely amazing…read morewhen it came to the planning, menu selection, and theme! She purchased cute decor for the grazing table. The other selections we chose were Spaghetti and meatballs (both adult and kid friendly), Jasmine rice, lemon chicken, truffled deviled eggs (so good), Tator tots, chicken tenders, portobello mushrooms, and a salad. Caramelized onion and apple tarts, and strawberry cupcakes! The set up was perfect! Unfortunately some of the chaffing dishes were on the small side and we ran out of food. Kelly was very gracious and gave my husband and I a complimentary picnic on Vday! That was very nice of her. Everyone enjoyed the food. I recommend her services!

    If you're thinking of going with Picnics from the Vine for your catering needs, do it! Kelly and…read moreher team BLEW my expectations out of the water with her grazing table!! I had my vision but Kelly took my vision, added her magic, and came up with an even better idea that I had and I am sooo grateful for her! There were many reasons why I am grateful I went with Kelly: 1) She's experienced. As far as I could tell, Kelly has done many catering gigs so she thinks of all the little details that I missed--things like food spacing, what matches on a table, and what elevates a space. For example, she tied lavender to the table and it gave the space extra aromatics that made the tasting pleasant! All of these things that I didn't know, she did--and she was so helpful! 2) She's creative! Our idea was to have a matcha-themed, grazing board with lots of greenery and vegetation. She listened to my ideas and added on hers (but asked me first!) which I loved! She took my idea and leveled it up. 3) Her customer service is top-notch! She was very professional, responsive, friendly, but also very relatable in all of our conversations. She understood my need to create something amazing and visually appealing within my means and made suggestions that made it worth it to spend a little more that actually made it easier for me as I planned the event. Kelly was early/on-time and had everything ready to go by the time we agreed on. She even patiently stayed for the duration of the WHOLE event just to help us clean up after (thank you so much, Kelly!). The event went a little longer and she did not complain (so sorry, Kelly!). 4) She's tentative. Throughout my conversations and planning with her, she asked me for approval for things and ran ideas by me. Kelly asked me good questions and really paid attention to what I wanted. In the end, she really took the heavy lifting out of catering and executed what I wanted (and MORE!). The results were stunning! 5) Her food was delicious! Kelly put flavors together that I have never tried before. There were hand wrapped dolmas, truffle oil egg tea sandwiches, matcha Lilikoi cupcakes, cheese spreads with balsamic glazes, toasted nuts, and so much more. I've had so many charcuterie boards but hers stood out from the rest. 6) She goes above and beyond. Kelly didn't have to, but she thought it would be a cool idea to have matcha cupcakes, so she baked matcha Lilikoi cupcakes, beautifully dusted with matcha powder on the top and they were a hit! It was sooo moist and delicious. Everyone was so impressed that the grazing table mirrored the matcha event. Overall, we were so happy with the results! I'm probably missed so many details, but that's how good she was and how pleasant she was to work with! I thought certain decorations were going to be the highlight of the evening, but EVERYONE took photos and videos of her grazing table because it was a work of art! If you're on the fence about how to cater with, don't hesitate. Call Kelly and her team--you WON'T be disappointed. I will definitely be coming back to Kelly for all of my catering needs. Thank you Kelly and team! You were amazing!!

    Private Dining Hawaii - Lobster katsu, aromatic vegetable potstickers and chicken satay!!!

    Private Dining Hawaii

    (20 reviews)

    We hired Chef John for our wedding dinner and he was amazing from start to finish. He was…read moreincredibly accommodating with all of our guests' dietary restrictions, which took a huge weight off our shoulders during planning. The food itself was just as impressive. everything was fresh, flavorful, and beautifully prepared.

    Wife and I was looking for a private chef for our wedding reception. She found Chef John through IG…read moreinitially I think. We did a bit of research and drooled all over the food pics. He was the one and we did not want to work with anyone else. We knew that having an out of state wedding would be a coordination nightmare so we reached out several months in advanced. He was very communicative and we both reached out to each other at the right time as we got closer to the wedding. (I honestly don't know what the 1 star review was about because we did not have this experience) He was really flexible with us for slight menu changes and updates to the head count throughout the process. We wanted this to be more intimate since it was just family and man did Chef John and his team deliver. Everyone was so impressed that they get to experience a professional chef cook on the spot, his team was so attentive and the attention to detail was very impressive. I have dined all over the world and have been to some of the nicest restaurants and I can compare the level of service to a Michelin star restaurant. I wish I had a second stomach that day so I could have eaten more. (Wish I got more photos, but will add more as I get them from family) If you are debating or looking for a private chef to host your next dinner event please do not look anywhere else, you will not be disappointed. Mahalo nui loa Chef John and team!!!

    Chef David Paul - David Paul's signature dish "Kona Coffee Roasted Rack of Lamb".

    Chef David Paul

    (7 reviews)

    We started to talk to him to figure out when we would like to him to come in and what kind of…read moredinner we like. We kind of know he is the right chef to cook for us. Here we are in Big Island. Chef David Paul made our dinner twice during our stay. We love the sophisticated setting, beautiful presentation, and surprising flavor and well combination material. That's what he does!! We love both nights. If we are coming back to Big Island next year. He is our chef without doubt! In addition, not only his team served excellent food. They clean the kitchen spotless and leave. What a professional spirit! Thanks to Chef David for the wonderful dinner experience. That makes our 2019 family trip special

    I cannot say enough positive things about Chef David. We had a recent trip January 2019 at Kona…read moreBeach Bungalows. I contacted David the week prior to arriving regarding drop off dinners and breakfasts. David was charming, professional and creative. His food was over the top. Truly over the top delicious. Everything was homemade, fresh fresh fresh and super delicious. Breakfast was the freshest fruits, fresh squeezed juices (pineapple, mango, etc.) beautiful home baked breads, jams and butters, fritatta and quiche. For dinner we had the most delicious green papaya salad, coconut shrimp, dumplings, Mahi-mahi, asparagus with lemon aioli that was to die for. and on and on and on. Super duper yummy. Desert was a chocolate macadamia tort that I cannot stoop thinking about. Truly the best desert I have ever been served. I want the recipes for the tort and the papaya salad dressing. I'm hoping my friend David will read this review and share his recipes with me. I highly recommend David. Highly.

    Kuoha Culinary - catering - Updated May 2026

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