Born and raised on Kauai, Food was okay, but the service from the male host was so very rude. I never had a restaurant tell me that I had an 1 1/2 to eat my food, he wanted to make a clear before we sat down that we understood we had only an 1 1/2 to eat. After we waited an hour to be seated. He told us that we had to rush to eat but not to rush too much so we will not choke on our food. I was shocked! very favoritism., I noticed people was there before we came in and they was still there after we left. I guess they didn't have time limit. I will never go there again. Small Island, that male host is the owners husband. read more

It was a bad first impression. We walked in knowing reservations were "recommended" yet not required as it says so on their website. My other half and I risked it hoping we could walk-in. Host asked "Did you make a reservation?" I replied saying no and that I tried calling a few times in the afternoon but walked in to see if we could get a seat. He responded with "Well as you can see I'm the only one here and I won't answer. Best time to call is after hours." I had no knowledge of being able to call after hours and when I told the host that, he responded with "Well now you know." He offered a table but we had 1 1/2 hr (until 7pm) because thats when the next reservation would come in I'm assuming. To me, I didn't appreciate as a customer, with the tone of his voice and it came off as a negative vibe. The place didn't look busy but in respect, I didn't make any comments, nor did I complain or yell or anything. The cooks were all staring at my other half and I, making like we were making a scene. Mind you it was our very very first time there, but the greeting did not make us feel welcome. I've heard such great things about the food and all we wanted to do was try but there would always be a next time if they were booked/had no open tables. Because of this situation that could've been handled in a more respectful way, I would not go back anymore. I'm not going to apologize for my review. Nor will I care if they bash out on my opinion. I worked in a restaurant and I know how it feels, both local and visitors but I would never make them feel like how they made us feel as residents of Kauai. read more

Food and service were both very good. The place is relatively small and it was busy with a large group table, so it was very noisy. Minus one star for not being able to hear each other at our own table. Several of us had a "Donburi" bowl that came with a nice miso soup and shredded cabbage salad. Generous serving enough for leftovers (for our Senior appetites). Other entree was broiled Saba ( mackerel) that was very good. Tried their "agedashi mochi" which we've never seen before....interesting but not earthshaking. This is really "down home" Japanese food. Nothing fancy. No fru-fru sushi rolls, etc. read more

We were looking for authentic Japanese food & this place reminded us of Japan as the sukiyaki dashi & it's ingredients were excellent as my oldest son has his favorite homemade sukiyaki sauce so he is very picky & loved it! The cabbage & carrot salad was meticulously finely chopped with a delicate dressing! The miso soup & tempura were what my youngest son was craving as we are Japanese & are very particular in what Japanese dishes we like. The tempura batter was very well prepared as it was very light & crispy, even on the variety of vegetables that my daughter enjoys. The saba shioyaki was excellent, reminded my husband of the old days when his parents use to grill saba outside due to the odor & the fish was very fresh with rarely seen grated daikon which was original & on point! The waitresses were highly attentive, making sure we had everything we wanted & at the end of the meal, my oldest son has green tea ice cream with his meal & we were given 5 spoons plus she brought us a pot of green tea, which was a pleasant surprise as we did not order tea! Everyone we came in contact with were very friendly & I must say, their bathrooms, even though they were outside of the restaurant, they were clean & beautifully tiled! We are glad to support these local businesses & wish them well for a long, prosperous future! read more

Perfectly ok. First, I should mention that there were quite a few items (maybe 1/3) on the menu that were not available. They do not offer substitutions so if any meal had a missing item, they did not offer the item. Secondly, I used to come to kiibo when it was under previous ownership so my views may be biased toward what I expect it to be or knew it as. Overall, staff was nice. They were very apologetic for not having all the menu items. The food was okay; not something i would rave about but it was still yummy. The only part of my meal I didn't enjoy was the eggplant tempura. It was so hard that I couldn't bite through it. The shrimp tempura was good. I also got a zaru soba. The noodles were slightly clumpy but it tasted good so I didn't mind. My parents got the chicken. It was a mixed review. My dad and sister liked it but my mom said there were some uncooked parts in hers. The timing of the meal was a little off as well. There was one person who didn't get his meal or dessert until way after the rest of us. On the other hand, they gave us some free green tea ice cream so that was cool. read more

If you had enough Japanese food in your life I do NOT recommend this place. We ordered ton katsu and tempura udon. First of all they did not use the right part of pork so the texture seemed a bit off. For the sauce tho it was straight from the Asian market. No authenticity at all. And the soupbase for Udon didn't taste right. Overpriced and bad taste.. knew Hawaii has pretty bad restaurants but this was below my expectations read more

Went there last night for the first time. I had no idea it was even there and im born and raised here,, service was good, and the food was amazing. If you have time or just thinking abt trying something different I recommend kiibo read more

Incredibly good Japanese restaurant, fast and very attentive service. Portions are significant! They are just getting rolling in this new space but overall are getting it going and carrying on in tradition of positive energy. Mahalo! read more

Just ate here and had to leave a review! We are visiting from Santa Cruz and are super picky about our sushi/Japanese food and this place was just what we wanted! Very simple & delicious! We had a few ahi rolls, the tempura udon, mixed tempura & tuna nigiri ~ everything was soooo good! So happy we stopped here! Thank you Kiibo! read more

Restaurant Kiibo - Get the tempura udon! The broth is the tastiest !!! - Japanese Near Me - Lihue, Hawaii

If you want traditional Japanese food this is a good place to go. No fancy dishes but simple dish like udon and Tempura don etc.

Fantastic! The combo tempura was delightful, perfectly breaded and crispy. The miso soup was delicious, and the pork loin katzu definitely satisfied my husband. Even the tea was great. Atmosphere was pleasant, but we went just before closing (got there at 8 and they close at 9). If busy it could get noisy easily. Would absolutely recommend this place and would visit again. We cleared our plates entirely. The Aloha spirit was definitely abundant as well, and it was filled with locals. read more

One word- AMAZING!! The sushi was fresh & delicious, the service was really good & the atmosphere was quiet & cozy. My only complaint- I don't live here so I can't enjoy it often! read more

Restaurant Kiibo - Jumping Jack roll & Hanelei sunrise roll - Japanese Near Me - Lihue, Hawaii

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We found this place on yelp from our iphones, after a long day of adventuring. Kiibo is a very traditional, family-style Japanese restaurant. I was so happy we got to eat here! I ordered a Jiro, which was basically a miso-based rice soup. I had them add tofu to it, and it was absolutely incredible. The soup portions are huge, and its served in a cast iron bowl that had been grilled over a fire. The sushi was really good too. The half moon bay roll is what we got; it was a baked crab roll. Super yummy, but tiny. (we actually came here looking for curry, which they didn't have) They have a few low tables you can kneel at, which I love. The waitress was super nice too. Highly recommended. read more

A friend dragged me here (okay I'm embellishing) and while the ambience is great, I was very skeptical on the pricing - especially when glancing through the menus at the bentos. However I was completely converted once my Pork Jiru arrived in a beautiful cast iron bowl! The sushi was good but the jiru was unbelievable. It is seriously the most amazing and delicious food I ate during my four day trip to Kauai. If you are in Lihue you must go there and eat - I highly recommend the Jiru. It's basically stir-fried vegetables in an amazing miso broth with delicious rice. This is a very old-school ma&pa traditional type of place where the chefs can barely speak English but the results are amazing. There is tremendous attention to detail in the food preparation which really comes out. The ambience is great too with it served in a rustic cast iron bowl that warmed up my entire body and a beautiful earthy scent that made me want to eat every last grain of rice soaked in that delicious miso broth. Would definitely go again. read more

This place is my home. I love it. It is my soul food. The nabeyaki udon is delectable. My favorite is the chicken katsu donburi. Everything is always cooked so perfectly. I have never had an unpleasant experience in all my years of going here (22!) My mom would likely add that that the butterfish portions could be bigger (a liiiitle stingy.) The sushi is also wonderful. I personally like the set up/ambiance of the place. It is a little dark and most days/nights there is only one server. But that is down home Kauai cooking for you. I don't mind it, people need to loosen up a bit. The food is too good to pass up, I can't say enough about this place! read more

We ordered the child plate, spicy tuna roll, California roll, mauka roll, tekka maki, and the roll with ahi avocado and Mac nuts (forgot the name). Everything was really good. The kids plate came with one of the best miso soups that we've had and the teriyaki chicken and shrimp tempura was really good too. All of the rolls were excellent with the perfect amount of rice. The atmosphere is quiet and comfortable. read more

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A local recommended this place to us and since we were stumped on what to eat our first night on the island, we decided to give it a try. We were definitely the only tourists in the joint, but fortunately, people often mistake my hubby for a local, so we didn't stick out like huge sore thumbs... They get their tofu fresh from a local tofu shop, but they were out of it when we were there. I was VERY disappointed, but what we did order was fantastic authentic Japanese food. I mean, how often do you get FRESH made tofu in a restaurant on the mainland?!?! The sushi was super fresh, the sukiyaki my hubby had was flavorful and fiilling. I had a chicken and tofu and eggplant miso stew of some type and I couldn't stop eating it. If we didn't have so many other places we wanted to eat at during our vacation, I would have gone there at least one or two more times. Super reasonable prices, friendly service and AWESOME Japanese food!!! read more

I went here with my family, freshly rolling out from the humid airport, hungry and exhausted. We meant to go the restaurant across the street, but didn't realize it. When we walked inside the restaurant had four bad D's: dark, dingy, dusty and kinda dirty. I immediately wanted to turn around because this place looked like it belonged in Chef Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares. I got sushi, which didn't look very fresh and the rolls were so small considering they were about $10 each. It was by no means amazing. My brother got the fried chicken, which was so greasy and slippery that it was almost inedible. It was not a good place to welcome my stay in Kauai and I am so surprised this place has four stars because I could have easily gotten something better and cheaper at the local L&L barbeque. read more

My favorite Japanese restaurant on the island! Try everything on the menu you won't be disappointed. Sashimi is melt in your mouth fresh!

wow! Hawaii is known for it's fresh fish especially it's ahi. The ahi tuna in all the maki's we had was incredible, melt in your mouth, not fishy, super fresh. We loved the rainbow roll and new york roll! We got 5 rolls to split off the specialty menu and our bill came to $52. Rolls were $6. -$13. each, some rolls were much larger than others. We sat at the sushi bar on a tuesday night, place was empty, but I couldn't believe it, for sushi that good where is everybody? The sushi chef was hilarious had us laughing, happy and full. ambiance- well I'd usually knock a star or 2 off, because this place has no windows, isn't very attractive, and bathroom is outside....BUT the sushi is so good I say screw the ambience my mouth is happy! read more

3 at best. Miso is VERY salty. Tempura batter was too thick. No way to know about the rest. Arrived 1 hr before close and they had no noodles, no fish, not even sukiyaki. Pretty much if you didn't want teriyaki or tempura you are out of luck. It was really odd because you would order, they go away and come back, 'sorry, we don't have that', you order again, rinse & repeat. Only after you did the drill 3-4 times they tell you they don't have x, y, z, a, b, c, or any letter in between. From there you can work out what you can order. Pretty much avoid this place. read more

We found this restaurant through yelp and were looking forward to it because of the 4 star rating. It was a Thursday night around 7 pm. There were 2 other couples in the restaurant and the waitress was reading a book at the sushi bar. Yelp reviews said that the sushi was great and so we thought that we would give it a try. To our surprise, the sushi bar was closed. We decided to go down the road to the "Sushi Katsu Japenese" and had delicious fresh sushi there. read more

Im so happy that they are finally OPEN! The restaurant looks great and the food is delicious! My grandma loves the tempura and I love the katsu & sukiyaki. we tried the Agedashi Mochi for the first time and it is now a must have appetizer along with the Nishime. read more

This place was delightful. Clean quiet and good food thoughtfully prepared. I had the combination tempura meal and everything on the plate was delicious. read more

A hole-in-the-wall Japanese place that's really quite good. I had the yosenabe, the bf had tempura, and we shared the sunrise (or was it sunset) roll, and the baked crab/scallop roll. Everything was fresh and delicious. Lots of locals. I think we were the only tourists there. Only one waitress, so service was a little slow at times, but it wasn't bad at all. Kind of hard to find since it's a bit tucked away. Definitely recommend! read more

Wow. I cannot say enough about this place. Easily some of the best Japanese food I've ever had. I ended up getting the beef sukayaki, and my boyfriend got some seafood platter. Both came with literally the freshest tuna I've ever eaten. It melted in your mouth, and had the most beautiful color to it. The meal also came with complimentary green tea, awesome!! This places decor is nothing to write home about, but I do not care. I would eat here weekly if I were a local to this place. This place is also definitely a local joint, and not an overpriced touristy joint like most places in Kauai. If you're in the area, definitely give this place a try. If you are looking for sushi, they were not serving sushi at the time we went (1/14/14). read more

Cute little Japanese restaurant. Parking was really easy to find. We went pretty early around 530 pm and got a table right away but as people came in pretty quickly after us it felt up fast. Only downfall is there is only one waitress/hostess/busser/cashier. This lady did it all. So it took a long time for us to order and even longer for us to get our food. While we were there a guy came in to make reservations for 8 for 45 minutes later, she put a reservation sign on a table but as people came in she pushed the table to the back end were they would have to sit on the floor, Japanese style. When they back she didn't acknowledge them for almost 15 minutes so they left. I know she seen them because a few minutes later she went to look outside and they were long gone. When our food came it was good and worth the wait... So overall I guess it was ok... But they need some help! read more

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I thought this Japanese place had sushi rolls but they didn't. The food was ok-good but it didn't have a lot of flavor. My significant other got the Unagi Don which is Eel and that was the best. read more

Don't be frightened by the random location of this place or the dim lighting that makes it hard to read the menu or the pictures on the menu with bad lighting. This place needs a serious upgrade to some T8's all around, that might help with the reading...it would also help if I had my glasses. This place has BOMB nigiri, the fish is so fresh it just melts in your mouth - you barely have to chew. I hate chewing I just want to eat. We had chicken katsu, udon, soba, chicken don, katsu don and the sukiyaki. Everything was awesome, especially the chicken katsu surprisingly moist and juicy. The agedashi tofu was just okay, it was hard to cut through the skin and I wasn't sure if that was normal or not. The daashi and broth were very flavorful but I didn't like the difficulty of eating the tof. read more

This restaurant has an authentic Japanese flavor. Found out the cook is from Tokyo. Not only the flavor but how crisp and light the tempura shrimp is not at all doughy. Thank you for a delicious dinner was worth waiting every minute for! We will be back in our next visit! read more

Restaurant Kiibo - Sukiyaki with shrimp tempura - Japanese Near Me - Lihue, Hawaii

Kiibo was a favorite restaurant until this evening!! I made reservation for my mom's birthday dinner and reconfirmed 3 hours prior to dinner. Got there and there was a "closed" signed on the door. No call was made to say that it was closed for whatever the reason may be. Left me in a bind and a very disappointed birthday mom!! Major fail for a very long standing restaurant... read more

Good Japanese restaurant with good service. We used to come here on family vacations 20 plus years ago. I'm glad they are still here. I ordered the Tonkatsu and sahimi combo which came with miso soup. All was delicious. read more

Restaurant Kiibo - Japanese Near Me - Lihue, Hawaii

I don't know how this place stays in business. Went for dinner the other night. Average meal was $30.00 per person and the portions were very small. I ordered the Ume which was 4 pieces of Shrimp tempura. 1 teriyaki chicken thigh and 1 bowl of rice and miso soup. With the 4 of us the bill came out to $155.00. The restroom was out of order (probably hadn't been fixed in a while) and when you left the place, your clothes smelled like tempura. I won't go back. Probably go to Sushi Katsu right down the street. Better meal for the price!!! read more

MUST TRY! I think it's very authentic (not Hawaiian but Japanese :) ). We sat with my husband on the tatamis area. Just that it' so cool. We took, it's wasn't a bento but sort of, a course included a miso soup rice and dessert. The main course was composed by beef (or pork or chicken, but beef was the "authentic" recipe), with cabbages, caramelized onion, soy bean. They cook it with a homemade sauce that is crazy delicious. With all of that, you have choices of another side: sashimi (what i took and it was very fresh), tempura or teriyaki meat (your choice of meat). Enjoy! read more

Looks like a dump, and service wasn't the friendliest, but the food makes up for all the shortcomings. They also have unconventional hours (opened at 5:30 PM for dinner) and they don't accept credit cards (cash only), which is a HUGE pain. I recommend the Katsu Don and Volcano Roll. The prices are very reasonable. Will definitely come here again. read more

Restaurant Kiibo - Entrance - Japanese Near Me - Lihue, Hawaii

Love this place! Authentic Japanese food - tempura is awesome; small portions on certain dishes, but for the price I can't really complain. Average bill here for two people: $25. I try to go there at least once a week for the eggplant and potato tempura...yummy! read more

Waited for 1 hour after ordering a butterfish plate. 2 other customers who walked in after me got served and I was told it was coming up soon. I finally asked to cancelled my order after an hour. Poor customer service. read more

Restaurant Kiibo - Japanese Near Me - Lihue, Hawaii

AMAZING! My mom and me floated up to heaven and enjoyed the most amazing bowl of sukiyaki EVER. Life would not have been complete here on Kauai if we did not find this place. We lucked out...no joke. everything down to the miso soup and rice was perfect. A young man (in his early 20's) served us our food and he was a fox. All and all...amazing food AND eye candy? Hah. Heavenly to say the least. read more

One of my favorite places to eat. I haven't gotten one thing I didn't like here. The aunties that work here are so sweet. Great food great price. read more

We randomly saw a restaurant sign while driving by, made a u-turn into this parking lot, cruised by the bar and parked in front of Kiibo. It is definitely a "hole in the wall" spot that probably only locals know. The waitress was very friendly. I ordered a sukiyaki with beef and it came with rice, miso and a little bit of cabbage. The beef was so tasty as well as the broth. I would have to rank it as one of the best I've ever had. My boyfriend ordered the vegetable tempura with soba soup. He even had a taro tempura, which I've never seen. My only complaint is that the ventilation was poor and I left smelling like Japanese food. read more