Shells Steak & Seafood

Shells has been closed for over a year… Now Rumfire… Completely different experience.

Cruised in for a slow glass of wine, and to enjoy the view. I wasn’t disappointed.

We came here because we had a discount coupon for meals 50% off.
We ordered the pre-​fixe menu: $ 50 worth but got it for $ 25 each.
We scored a quiet ocean view but it was dark already by 7pm. (The sun sets around 5:30pm).
Prime Rib and Fettuccine was good. I think we overate though.
Since Unilocal cannot fix the problem with my login access to upload photos, there is no photos I can upload for now.

Three stars for the breakfast buffet, one for the dinners.
The breakfast buffet and the ocean view are the sole reasons to go to this spot. Even better if you use your free coupon (as Steve F. noted, the one you receive if you forego your room cleaning for a day).
I tried a mushroom pasta for dinner one night — the pasta was actually *crunchy.* Not because it was undercooked, but because it sat under a heat lamp for so long. Odd, because it came out five minutes after I ordered it. Ew.
I tried the cheese pizza another night, thinking this would be the safest menu option. It sounds harsh, but this was 7 – 11 quality pizza. At best.
A sad offering given the five stars I’d give the rest of the resort. Food is not their forte.

The food was awful, at least the waitress was sweet. Plantations is within walking distance, I would go there instead.

The breakfast buffet is a good deal if you are staying at the Sheraton. If you forgo a day of room cleaning, you will get a coupon for 1 free buffet or $ 10 off for dinner to use here at Shells, The Point (outdoor bar) or the sushi lounge.
The food was very fresh for a buffet, and there were tons of choices. You can also order off the regular menu and not go to the buffet.
Unbelievable view from the place, that made us go back for breakfast a few times.

While we stayed on the north shore, we stopped by the Sheraton to check it out and have lunch. As with most hotel restaurants, the food was expensive (~$ 18 – 20 for sandwiches). The view from the restaurant was nice over the water and there is a carp pond with a white swan which makes the atmosphere relaxing.
The food is dependably good and the service was friendly. There wasn’t anything particularly stellar, and I was a little annoyed by other people eating at the restaurant who were chatting on cell phones — seems taboo to do while in Kauai.
Walking around the rest of the resort the grounds are nice, and the pool area very cool for families since there are water slides and a pool with sand around it in case you don’t want to go in the real ocean. However, for those looking to really get away from it all, beware that at this resort its families that sit by the beach on cell phones (either chatting or texting).

We were staying at the Sheraton and made Shells our first breakfast for the trip as we got acclimated. The buffet was $ 22/​person and they had your typical Hawaiian breakfast buffet fare. There was nothing spectacular about the food prepared, but all of the food which we at tasted good and we were a fan of the mac nuts for the pancakes. The real thing that you are getting here is a great view of the beach as the waves come in. If there wasn’t such a great view, this place wouldn’t probably make it on the map, but with the view you can just sit, zone out, enjoy your breakfast and a cup of bottomless coffee.

Shells is the ‘high end’ restaurant in the Sheraton Poipu and although we didn’t eat there for dinner (the menu was identical to ‘The Point’ with a few additions, which was absolutely horrible) we did go there twice for breakfast.
First, the fruit is really good, fresh hawaiian papaya, mango and pineapple all the time, along with an assortment of juices.
The eggs and breakfast meats were really good, as were the daily specials like belgian waffles and pancakes.
My gripe here was that it was pretty expensive $ 22 for a buffet and more than often, some of the tins were just empty. By the time you notified the staff who notifies the kitchen, you might have had 20 minutes go by… No big deal there was plenty there but it just seemed odd for a buffet at a major hotel to have this go unnoticed.

Stayed at the Sheraton and this was their main dining hall. I only ate there for breakfast.
Here’s the thing, if you stay there and are willing to skip having maid service, they give you a coupon for 1 free breakfast buffet — valued at $ 22. So for the price, the location of the dining hall (which had an incredible open window backdrop of the beach — and especially gorgeous at sunrise) and decent breakfast buffet fare, than you are good to go.
The breakfast buffet spread doesn’t exactly look prim and pretty, BUT for what they got it’s pretty cool, especially:
Miso Soup Section — Miso soup, rice and all the toppings (e.g. tofu and green onions) you could want
French Toast/​Pancake Section — Every day, specialty flavored goodies, like Papay aFrench Toast and Blueberry Pancakes. Nice thing is the toppings are fab — powdered sugar, chocolate chips, FAT blueberries, maple syrup and coconut syrup
All in all decent breakfast food fare. Just watch out for the occasional bird or two that fly around in the restaurant.

This buffet is good. My favorite thing about it was the french toast. French toast with coconut syrup, mac nuts,
powdered sugar, strawberries on top. Also the various breakfast meats were quite delicious. Portugese sausage, apple smoked bacon, quieche… mmmm so full after this.

Breakfast… buffet style or ala carte.
Buffet: $ 20/​person…
Food: eh. Eggs tasted fake, miso was very salty, everything else pretty standard. Eggs Benedict with a slice of old turkey deli meat was awful… and overall the food was substandard for the price.
Would not and did not do it again. I think they hike up the price to $ 20/​person b/​c they give out free coupons if you’re staying at Sheraton and you don’t have your room cleaned, and they know you probably won’t go alone, so they at least get 2 people in for $ 20, which makes it worth their while. The coupon limits one person per room per table… so you can’t save up 2 coupons to go with a 2^nd person.
Even at free it was just OK… biggest positive = huge selection. Fruits, Cereals, Pastries, Eggs, Sausage, Bagels, Soup, Bacon, French Toast, etc.

I dined at Shells twice last week (once for breakfast and another for dinner) while I was staying at the Sheraton. I wouldn’t (and I didn’t) go out of my way to dine at Shells. The breakfast buffet is pretty impressive — especially if you’re in the mood to binge on carbs! They had a pretty standard selection of breakfast items (e.g. scrambled eggs, pastries, french toast, etc.) and everything I tried was actually pretty good.
My dinner experience was OK. I had a goat cheese salad that seemed to only have two little balls of goat cheese (and they didn’t even really taste like goat cheese). My swordfish was very fresh but was hardly seasoned — I had to pour a bunch of salt to even taste the fish. It was a shame that such awesome ingredients were wasted on such a mediocre preparation.
On another note — the Sheraton’s dining area is really starting to show its age — they really could use to renovate it. I also wasn’t super impressed with the huge signs indicating which restaurant you were dining at. What am I in a food court? Must I really know that this section of the dining area is Shells where as the other end is Naniwa?
Whether dining in the morning or evening, the ocean view is pretty nice and possibly the best part of the dining experience.

I don’t know about lunch or dinner, but the breakfast buffet here is fine, if way overpriced ($ 20). And you can’t beat the view, especially if you snag a table outside facing Poipu Beach. Lovely! Adequate service, I suppose, certainly no worse than lots of places in SF.
French toast — check. And with maple or coconut syrup. Regular sausage links, alas, not Portuguese sausage rounds. Bacon is pretty good. Loved the fresh pineapple, not such a fan of papaya, no mango present, alas. Can’t speak to much else.
Basically, eat here for breakfast if you’re staying at the Sheraton and don’t want to leave the premises, but otherwise, don’t go out of your way.

I just spent a week on Kauai and this was by far the worst dining experience on the island — and by far the most expensive mistake! Four of us heard about the views and so we arrived at 6pm on a Monday night to enjoy the sunset and some fine dining. We were two couples sharing some overlapping vacation time, and it was the last night for our friends who were leaving the next morning.
First the good news, the setting was lovely, we sat out on the lanai overlooking a small lawn with palm trees and then the ocean.
Regarding the food — not such good news here. The women opted for the $ 49.95 set price 3-​course dinner (they had their eyes on the dessert), and we ordered the Ahi Two Ways appetizer which we shared. This was a pretty good, fresh and tasty little appetizer.
After that, I had the Sabau, a seafood stew with a saffron-​perfumed tomato stock «French Press» style. The bits of seafood were fine, although there was no dungeness crab to be found, only a presumably substituted leg of snow crab. Unfortunately, the tomato stock looked and tasted exactly like ketchup — just seafood in a big red bowl of ketchup for $ 35, ruining all the fish, including the lobster. (all our dishes were around $ 35 each)
The other dishes we ordered, to keep this short, were the Pistachio Crusted Yellowfin Ahi — with absolutely NO Pistachio crust!!!
Another dish was a fish dish with a plum wine sauce — again, it arrived with NO plum wine sauce. I should also mention at this time that the restaurant was perhaps 20% full.
For dessert we opted for two orders of the chocolate soufflé (20-​minute wait time) which the waitress said was actually ready and brought right out — suspicious no? It was actually pretty good — so I suspect that maybe it wasn’t even made there.
At least the bottle of Pinot Noir and the Champagne were good!
We complained about the food and a credit was offered to comp one of the dinners (they should have comped the whole ghastly meal if you ask me, except the wine, we would have paid for that). But then, when the bill arrived, there was an extra $ 49.95 dinner ADDED, not subtracted! What incompetence! Service was not much to write home about either — our server tried to please us, and finally got things right on the bill, but was not terribly knowledgeable about the food — and the fact that she actually served incomplete, no sauce or garnish food was amazing — obviously she had seen the dishes before — didn’t she notice stuff was missing?!
Sheraton — this sucked — you can do much better! This was supposed to be a special, memorable meal with friends we see only rarely and who had made this trip to be with us in Kauai, but it was a mess.

I feel like this should carry a disclaimer. Even though I’m only giving Shells 3 stars, it’s important to note… you’re still in Hawaii. There is still an amazing view of the ocean, the weather is gorgeous, and you’re likely on vacation.
Of all the places we dined on Kauai, I felt like Shells was just average. There were others that we liked less, and others we liked more. The service was great (although getting sat took about 10 minutes… for no apparent reason, we just stood at the hostess stand while we were ignored for a few minutes).
The food was just ok. We had the crab cake and caesar salad to start, both were good. For our meals, we had the local water catch (I think it was ono) w/​shrimp, and the scallop stuffed chicken. The ono & shrimp were decent, the rice was kind of blah, and the chicken was dry. The desserts (the crème brûlée trio & the cheesecake) were not good.
I don’t think we’d head back here if we were visiting again, not that it was THAT bad, but just that there are a lot of other places we’d like to try, and that we already love. All in all, an average experience.