Smiley’s Local Grinds

Worst service we’ve ever had! It is clear the waitress/​hostess does not like tourists. She was very rude and she puposely avoided our table. We waited an hour to receive our food and she never once checked up on us while we waited.
We understand made to order food does not come fast but this was ridiculous, especially when diners who arrived after us were served before us. Too bad because the food was good. We are very disappointed.

A must try! Amazing Smileys chicken spicy garlic. Small place great local food and great prices. Won’t leave hungry.

Delicious food, love the Smiley’s chicken and my wife is a big fan of the Kalua Pork. Some nice inside seating but easy takeout, just call ahead to order!

Awesome grub!
Had oxtail soup and smiley chicken!
Great food, good price, big portions.
Nice staff! :)
Recommend taking food to go, there is limited seating. And call ahead, they make everything from scratch. ;)

Excellent local food! We really enjoyed the garlic chili chicken and chicken teriyaki, though it was saltier than we would have liked. Really great place to enjoy an affordable and tasty meal!

Great food! Definitely a hole in the wall but it’s got charm! During our visit there was only one waitress and service was SLOW but yummy home cooked Hawaiian food made the wait, worth it!

We were looking for local food on the island and stumbled on this place. Our waitress was super friendly and advised us in what was the best local fare. We had kailua pork and chicken. It totally hit the spot as for local cravings. This is located on the off beaten tourist path but totally worth it if you are looking for a great local spot that doesn’t specialize in the touristy selections that most of the other popular restaurants cater too. Just go!

This place is not fancy by any means. The restaurant is located in a small shopping area. When you walk in, it’s like walking into your auntie’s kitchen. The server recommended the chili garlic chicken and the short ribs and yes it was DELICIOUS. The grinds were tasty and one of the more affordable places to eat during our trip.

Of course my last meal on the island of Kauai has to be one of the best! Was craving some local Hawaiian food, and didn’t want anything in the usual tourists area. Went to Unilocal and found Smileys. We had a few hours to kill before the airplane so we were happy to find this place. Just what I was looking for. Local reasonable priced Hawaiian food. Ordered the plate special which had a little bit of everything. Great pork, and even better sides. Some of them I’ve never tried or heard before. Was perfect but a lot of food! Wife ordered the small bone chili chicken. Was really good too. Best thing about it was the price, no tourist sticker shock. Also looked to be family run. Next time I’m on Kauai I’ll be coming here straight from the airport not on the way to it! Also don’t expect anything classy its in a strip mall and your not coming here to be impressed with the restaurant your coming here for the food!

I love to find these hole in the wall places because they always have the best food and service, I had the hamburger steak with kalua pig combo and it was goooood. The price didn’t matter to me after I ate, it was well worth it cause I was full and happy.

Great find thanks to Unilocal.The food here is amazing and great prices. The island is full of great places to eat but nobody does it as good as this place for the price. I took my wife here we had soup and main dish each and the total was only $ 29.
The food was amazing and the service was great. If your looking for a great meal stop by this place.

Awesome local food place, we ordered garlic chilli chicken, Lau Lau and kalbi, it is great portion and taste great.
Highly recommend!

The food here was so good that it upsets me that we’d wasted money on our other dinners at the larger, touristy restaurants on the island featured in the guidebooks. We split an order of the the Lau Lau Pork and Garlic Chili Chicken with a side of macaroni salad and lomi — I would’ve eaten my boyfriends portion if he hadn’t and that’s saying a lot since I usually don’t eat a lot in one sitting.
Smiley’s is very much hole-​in-​the-​wall and we would’ve missed it had it not been for Unilocal but if you want authentic local fare this is THE place to go. It felt like we were guests at someone’s Mom’s house for a casual bite to eat (being Filipino this is reminiscent of my idea of comfort food).

Ordered the mini loco moco & mini chicken katsu with mac salad. Super good with just the right portions. We made the mistake of getting loco moco from JJ’s down the street and left after barely eating two bites… Came here to get some legit Hawaiian food and walking away super happy and full!

If you want some good Hawaiian food and don’t care about ambiance this is the place to come. A small place located down the street from the Marriott in a small strip mall with about 5 tables. Eat in or pick up. Delicious food and good size portions. We ordered the Kalbi Ribs combo with the Chicken Katsu which came with two scoops of white rice and a scoop of macaroni. So good. The 2 combo orders are generally around $ 13.95 depending on the sides, and they also have daily specials. I also ordered their signature Smiley’s garlic chili chicken, which was definitely one of my favorites. Be sure to get bone in. So delicious. So much flavor. Overall excellent food and very friendly service!

This is one serious hole in the wall.
One waitress, cute local girl, but sassy and overworked.
The garlic chili fried chicken is the bomb.
Was so Ono, we were able to ‘aloha’ the sassy waitress.

Pros
1) Lau Lau… Ono!
2) Lomi salmon
3) Garlic chili fried chicken
4) Service
Cons
1) prices a little high, $ 12 for lau lau
2) soda flat, didn’t get a refill.
3) chicken rice noodles… should be thin noodles, not thick udon-​like noodles
4) difficult to find

Small, but packed diner.
You know it’s gotta be worth the meal when the locals are coming in and out constantly to get take out.
Server was smiling (maybe because it was close to closing time), but then again, Hawaiians are just so darn nice! Now let’s talk about food.
Garlic fried chicken — sooo good. Tastes similar to some of the best KFC (korean fried chicken) that I’ve had. Goldenly fried with a great crunch, and that garlic adds that kick you need.
Lau lau — wrapped in a banana leaf. Meat very tender and that herby flavor. Authentic.
Teriyaki chicken — awesome char with a little bit of teriyaki sauce. Would have liked to see more sauce to mix with the rice. But, can’t have everything in life, amiright?
Kalbi Ribs — another meat that tasted akin to korean style. Love it.
Authentic to the core. Great staff. I’d come back in a heartbeat.

If you have never visited Kauai before, make a note when looking for places to grub, the hours for a lot of these restaurants vary. So to find a place at around 7PM, you may discover your choices are slim. Smiley’s is one place where the hours aren’t bad, but be sure to come through and grab some food here. Everything we saw looked really delicious. I ordered their special chicken with garlic chili sauce. It was spicy and had really good flavoring! The mac salad was ono as well! Their homemade custard pie looked delish but I was way too full! My girl got the loco moco and had a few bites and was very pleased as well! It was easy to find, clean establishment, and the staff was very friendly!

Smiley’s put a big SMILE on my face today! Whaaaaaaaat? Yes sireee Bob! If you had Smiley’s Chicken, you would be smiling too!
I remembered my Unilocal buddy Amy C., as well as my friend’s — Chi & Lin had gone to Smiley’s and mentioned to me that the grindz was good over here.
As I made my way back to Lihue from Hanapepe, I was able to stop by Smiley’s today. Smiley’s is located a few doors down from Po’s Kitchen & Daylight Donuts. The easiest way to find this place is to just look for the Ben Franklin on Rice Street. And behind the Ben Franklin is another small strip mall, where you will find Smiley’s, Po’s Kitchen, & Daylight Donuts.
As I walked into Smiley’s today, the 1^st thing I notice was that the restaurant is very small with only 6 tables. Lucky for me, a little table opened up so I sat myself down to the last open table. Although there were only 6 tables, the place was still pretty busy, as there were many walk-in’s for takeout orders, and there was only one waitress. More people walked in later to dine, but had to wait outside till a table opened up.
After sitting for a while, the waitress finally comes by my table to drop off a water, napkin & fork. From there she takes my order.
The menu at Smiley’s in simple, not extensive… but it has all da local kine grindz that I like!
Upon scanning the menu, I decided on the Smiley’s Chicken. You can get this chicken made two ways — Regular or Garlic Chili. I opted for the Garlic Chili, which I am so glad I chose that!
With my Smiley’s Chicken ($ 10.85), you get two scopes of white rice (sorry, brown is not available), & a toss salad. I also noticed on the board today, that they had a homemade custard pie for ($ 3.00).
So how was the grub?
I gotta tell you gangies… the Smiley’s Chicken with garlic chili sauce was «OFF DA CHAIN!» BOOYA BABY! I GET DA GRINDZ!!!
As for the rest of the stuff — the toss salad was nothing to write home about, and I do more brown rice than white rice now days. After eating my meal, I had to try the homemade custard pie, as I am a total custard fiend! But after getting my slice of custard pie, I must say it was pretty disappointing, as it tasted bland, wasn’t creamy, and it was a bit grainy in texture. :(
It’s definitely not Ani’s custard pie to me… I had high expectations because I saw it as «homemade», but it was a total let down for me.
Well, I really didn’t come here to eat dessert, but if it was good… it would have been the cherry on top of the sundae! Lol!