Lihue Barbecue Inn

For the last couple of decades, whenever I get to Kauai I always stop at the Barbecue Inn. This is a local joint serving local food. It isn’t fancy but the folks running the place are friendly.
On this last visit we went for lunch where I had the Mushroom Burger and Daughter #2 had the Spaghetti with Meat Sauce. The Wife had the Tempura Shrimp and although she didn’t share (as she never does with shrimp) she said they were excellent and I noticed that they were not oily at all. My burger was as good as any on the island and #2 said the spaghetti was great.
Lihue Barbecue Inn. Always worth a stop.

Nice place, good food. Definitely a locals diner. THERE IS NO FULL BAR as the review says there is. Important to us but ate there anyway. I’d go there again — for lunch.

Tempura! Tempura! Yay for amazing tempura! So crispy, just the right amount of batter, nice big shrimp and good variety of veggies. Man is my tummy soooo happy right now. Check out my picture can you say huge portion, not like pricey Japanese restaurants. First bite in I realized how long it’s been since I had really good tempura!
The ladies that work here are so sweet. I felt like my Aunty was serving me. I really cannot see them being mean to anyone let alone tourists as other reviews have mentioned. I’m so glad I got to stop by here on our way to the airport for our flight home. This place has got history, est. 1940. The BF was confused when we sat down because I called it a diner, but to me that’s what this place is.
There’s no BBQ brisket or ribs, or pancakes and country fried steak but there are most of the local favorites I grew up with. They do have hamburger steak with onions and gravy and come on who doesn’t like that! Comfort food in a place that took me right back to childhood after a maitai infused vacation.
I pray this plays stays open and stays the way it is, I sure know I’ll be back everytime I make it to Kauai.

Japanese/​Hawaiian/​American Cuisine.
Think of it as a place where you can get lunch-​wagon/​box-​lunch quality food, in a diner setting.
It’s not bad, but there isn’t anything that’s particularly good.
There is nothing on the menu that can’t be prepared better, and cheaper, at home.
Come here when you need to feed the family and aren’t up for cooking anything.

If you want good comfort food this is the place. Almost all of the dinners come with choice of soup, green or mac salad, dinner and dessert! Vegetable soup was addictive! I know most people would have ordered the miso but I wasn’t disappointed. The spaghetti was great and the pie was the perfect end of a wonderful meal. Aloha is abundant. Felt «at home».

…a good old Hawaiian style diner! We ordered a Ahi salad… fresh and awesome… the meals are reasonably priced… its a very good place!

The service is very good and attentive. My BF & I shared 2 platters. The Panko Mahi & the mixed plate (kalua pork with cabbage & teriyaki chicken) the chicken had skin on so wasn’t my favorite but the flavor was good. They give u plenty of food… plus comes with dessert? Or they gave us coconut cream pie & apple cobbler. If you want a quick bite and local food… this is the place

I love this place. We ate here 3 times on our visit to Kauai. Casual diner where you can get great food, and the service was always excellent. My favorite dish was the teriyaki meat. The pies were so delicious! Order the macadamia pie! SO good!

Horrible service, horrible food I am a chef and found a hair in my food. The cleanliness of the establishment is not up to par. There is nothing actually barbaqued there on a real bbq.

Came here on a recent visit to Kauai. Good restaurant for families to dine at. Looking at the menu, I couldn’t resist the temptation to order Da Stacker (hamburger with bbq pulled pork, bacon, coleslaw, fried onions, cheese). For dessert I ordered the mint chocolate ice cream pie. Great comfort food.

My favorites are their fried chicken, spaghetti, chicken tofu, japanese style teri meat, or chicken with watercress and noodles. Homemade bread and desserts! For Valentine’s Day, I tried the blueberry cream cheese pie and it was amazing! Their homemade soups are tasty including corn chowder, vegetable and miso soup. Breakfast and lunch are also very good. Opens at 8:00 am for breakfast.

If I could give 0 star, I would’ve gave this awful restaurant 0 star. I was on vacation in Kauai island looking for a good Hawaiian restaurant to dine in. Found this place on Google and decided to give it a try. And yes, I have read other Unilocal reviews before our visit.
I saw this Unilocal review that mentioned about if you are not local, you don’t get good service/​good quality food and thought to myself, maybe that Unilocaler just went there and got unlucky with their orders. WHAT A MISTAKE!!! I still beat myself for not believing what she said.
Service was okay until we complained of how awful our foods were. After our complaints, it got worse. Maybe waitresses here never heard of «service recovery». I ordered chicken Katsu. Portion was tiny-​not small but tiny. I don’t eat much but wow, there were barely anything to eat on my plate. And on top of that, my katsu were burnt on the edge. Looked like they recycled pre fried Katsu instead of making me a fresh new katsu. My bf ordered this combo plate that came with fried chicken, bbq ribs and fried shrimp which was not edible. Bbq ribs had 90% bone/​cartilage and 10% meat. Fried chicken was 95% fat 5% meat. I am not exaggerating btw. 3 pieces of small fried shrimps were only things that were somewhat decent. Oh, before he ordered his plate, our waitress confirmed that fried chicken was breast meat and his chicken still came out like that!
Of course we complained. I almost didn’t say anything because I did not want to ruin our vacation but I could not bear not saying anything about my bf’s dish. Waitress apologized and offered to take one meal off the check. Now what gets me really upset is that she did not bother to offer desserts that were included with our meals. She wanted us out asap and that was it. At that point, we were upset, we just left. I left 15%tip (for 2 meals) and my bf who usually is a big tipper was bothered that I left any tip. Service and quality of food was THAT BAD.

Awesome.

What a great find. Enjoyed some beer around the corner and went looking for BBQ, and found this place. We all had Japanese plate dinners (teriyaki beef and katsu chicken for me) and it was so good. Includes miso, salad, rice and you can get many varieties of cream pies for dessert. Service was cheerful and attentive. Will definitely go back for more.

Barbecue Inn is Kauai’s version of a diner and I love it!
Almost all of the meals are served with soup or fresh fruit, a small salad, AND PIE!!! PIE!!! And not just pie but good pie, I usually get the chocolate banana!
The staff here have been here for a while and are friendly and quick, the food is local and well priced, and if I didn’t say it before I love the pie :)

This is a restaurant that cares about the quality and taste of its food as well as the satisfaction of its diners. It has been around since the 1940’s.
This place is on a side street across from a Salvation Army building. It is worth finding it.
Most items on the menu are full meals. Included are salad, soup, bread, a side order and dessert. The prices are quite reasonable anywhere, but especially in expensive Hawaii.
First, the bread is baked homemade by the owner and tastes delightful. My wife asked for another two slices of the bread and we each received an extra helping at no charge.
My entrée was chicken katsu. The chicken was somewhat small but tasted good and was a good value, combined with everything else that was included. This was a lunch order, not a dinner order.
My wife had fried shrimp and seared ahi and thought it was good.
I had fried rice, as a side order and it was all right. Maybe a bit below average.
My wife had miso soup and it tasted very good. My beef soup was also good.
Additionally, I ordered a side of French fries and considered them a bit above average.
For dessert, had a good size slice of chocolate cream pie. Yummy. It was good. Wish I bought a glass of milk with it.
This is not a problem for me because I eat food luke warm, but most of my food came out of the kitchen warm, not hot. I am not used to being able to eat without a wait for the food to cool.
The waitress was warm and helped us by guiding us through the menu for the best meal that we could have.
As I said, for Hawaii, this place had good prices and good tasting food.
They take Master Card and Visa but not my Discover Card.

Love this family owned business. Small diner like restaurant. Most meals come with bread, choice of soup or fruit cup and dessert after the meal. Very good deal for the price you’re paying.
Friendly staff and very small town feel. Their calamari is a great starter. See my pic. Crispy and tasty. Dinner specials vary day by day. Don’t ask me for a favorite theres lots to choose from.
Heres a tip: listen to fm97 (96.9 on the fm dial) around 7:30am on weekdays. Win the daily contest and get a gift certificate to eat here. Such a great deal! Certificate almost covers the price of most meals.

= RESTAURANT THAT CAN FEED THE HUNGRY FAMILY =
You don’t have to worry about paying big bucks and leaving a restaurant empty stomach anymore, because LIHUE BARBECUE INN will stuff you with quality local food for a small price. Like I said, this is a local restaurant. So, don’t come expecting anything fancy.
ORDERED:
— Kalua Pork & Cabbage with Teriyaki Chicken ($ 15.95). Soup, Salad & Dessert were included with this order. Good thing that my friend was willing to share my plate, or I wouldn’t have been able to finish this one my own. The Kalua Pork was juicy and flavorful, and the free pie at the end of the meal definitely brought a smile to my face.
PARKING:
Restaurant is on a small street, there’s not much parking available directly in front of the restaurant. I parked across the street at the Salvation Army, but not quite sure if those are private parking or public parking. Nevertheless, I don’t think anyone cares. People in Hawaii are usually laid back and friendly.

Came to eat twice here while on a one day weekend trip to Kauai. I was expecting a barbecue kinda place due to the restaurant name and was surprised to see that the it was a plate lunch/​dinner set up. Blame me for being a Singaporean coz we always associate places with what’s displayed on the signage ;)
However, they did not disappoint for both my meals I had there. My beloved Buddy was extra nice and had in fact did some homework on the best places to eat prior to the trip. We started out with dinner and it was comforting to see as you enter that the place was busy with locals. For me that is a major gauge on how well established and eatery is.
I had a teri steak and it comes with either a salad or soup, mac salad or mashed potatoes and a dessert. And I went to have the garlic mashed potatoes and salad. The portion was huge compared to back home and it was all for $ 12.95. Everything that I had on the plate was so YUM!!! And the macadamia cream pie was the thing that sealed the DEAL! It was sooooo onolicious! I loved dessert but I don’t fancy those that are so cloyingly sweet. This was just the right amount of everything. At the end of my meal everything on the plate was so clean I think they could just wiped off the plates if that was LEGAL! Lol.
The next day we were back again for lunch and I went for chicken teriyaki although I badly wanted to have that teri steak for the second time. Which I slightly regretted although the meal was satisfying. This time I had the coconut cream pie and it has become my second favorite dessert.
I wish I can go to Kauai again unfortunately but this will be the last. However, I will recommend this little gem to anyone who wishes to eat local food with da locals!!!

After hearing their ads on the radio recently, I finally decided to give this place a try on one of my Fun Lunch Thursdays. Greeted by some welcomed air conditioning, we were told to pick a seat wherever we liked. I went with the local plate, which had fried chicken, sweet sour spare ribs, shrimp, mac and toss salad, also came with a choice of miso soup/​saimin soup /​fruit cup, and also dessert jello/​pie. I opted for the saimin soup at first, but then asked what was in the fruit cup, and was shocked with surprise when they told me: sweetsop, star fruit, apple, kiwi, papaya, mango, orange, and plum. WHAT?! SOLD. Wow, best fruit cup ever!
My local plate was good, what you expect to get from fried chicken and shrimp and sweet sour spare ribs.
For dessert, the waitress suggested the peanut butter cream pie. Now, I’m not really sure what kind of cream they use, it might be a whipped cream substitute, but it was shinier than cool whip. It was rich for my taste, so next time I’m going to ask if I can get another one of those FANTASTIC FRUIT CUPS.
Try this place! On Kress street before Hamura’s (which IMO is really not worth the hype it gets.)