Tasting Kauai food tours are always the highlight of our visits to Kauai. Susan is a delightful guide, bringing her island style, friendly and inspiring perspectives, and excellent storytelling to each stop. She is also extremely accommodating to all the guests. The food is always incredible - excellent dishes at wonderful eateries supporting local, family-owned businesses. Portions are generous and the food is top quality! Susan offers great recommendations for other eateries and local activities that are worth the price of admission alone! We highly recommend Tasting Kauai - all of the tours are fantastic and well worth the reasonable cost. read more

ZERO stars to this company!!! We (4) signed up and prepaid, was at the meeting place as requested 12:45 in Kapa'a. Stayed there for over 45", hubs called and texted at least 4-5 times. No call back, no text back. What a sham, no customer service, call back your damn customers. I'm sure we'll never see a refund nor explanation!! Bye bye $500 bucks. Reporting you to the BBB and TripAdvisor!!! What a rip off, do not book with these clowns!!!!! Oh, and there was "no refunds" stated on our vouchers! read more

We had a Great time yesterday with Tatiana in Hanapepe. It wasn't the original tasting we desired but we were willing to change due to not enough people signed up. Tatiana was so informative of the history of the area and island and had great recommendations all around. She has a great personality and sense of humor! Would totally do this again in another area of the island for sure. Gives you a sense of the culture and Hawaiian way of life. read more

Great way to spend a lazy afternoon. The food was delicious, great choice for the dishes. So much food we really couldn't eat it all. Susan our guide is/was spectacular. She keeps the day routine running smoothly. Mahalo Much! read more

You could refund my money after you cancelled our tour for 3 for $378. 11 days and counting....no refund. I wouldn't trust them again. read more

We did the south Kauai food tour with Tatiana and it was fun and informative and we explored a great town on Kauai Kōloa town. The food experience was top notch. Highly recommend the tour! read more

Let me start off by saying my husband and I are well traveled and we frequent food tours in places that we visit. That being said, the Tasting Kauai Tour is geared for those that are unfamiliar with Hawaiian food and maybe first time visitors to the islands. Our guide, Susan, is fantastic. She shared with us the rich history of Kauai and her passion for the island. We started out strong at Kickshaws Food Truck. The owner made us one of the best burgers I've ever had. He said it was 36-hour brine! Whatever he did, it was delicious. He also made a miso corn sidedish that was unlike anything I ever had. Our next stop was the Monster Sushi and Thai Food Truck. Unlike the other couple on the tour with us, my husband and I are adventurous eaters. We would have preferred being given the option to choose sushi, poke or a sashimi dish that we had never had before instead of a basic salmon, tuna, and hamachi roll. The couple we were with didn't care for raw fish and they didn't eat their food. Our next stop was Porky's, where we had a Porky's Grilled Cheese Sandwich. It was Kalua Pork with Cheese and Pineapple sandwich with the sweet and sour like bbq sauce. It was ok but again, I probably would have preferred something that was new to us. Our last stop was for ice cream, dole whip or hawaiian shaved ice. Again, it wasn't anything we hadn't tried before. I love Hawaiian Shaved Ice. This tour would be good for the newbies to Hawaiian Food. They should really have a separate tour for the more seasoned foodies that want an aunthentic taste what the island has to offer, but Susan made it a good time for us. read more

See all

I really want to give this a higher rating, because Abie our guide, was a sweetheart and she did a great job of working us through what turned out to be an awkward and disappointing tour. We chose the Hanapepe walking tour, because we thought that would be cool to walk from restaurant to restaurant. We did one in Key West, FL, which was awesome. "Walking tour" is quite the stretch in this case. We started at Grandma's Japanese, and right out of the gate, there were 4 people who had canceled, so it was only me and my wife. Per the literature I received on the tour, they cancel if there are only 2 people. Almost wished they had. The noodles and dragonfruit sushi were good, the ahi tuna, not so much. While we were at Grandma's, our guide told us that one of our restaurants in Hanapepe was actually closed for maintenance, so we were not going there. So we've now gone from 5 stops, to 4. Next stop was Midnight Bear Breads, across the street. We had a caprese croissant, and a mac nut cinnamon roll. The cinnamon roll was very good. While we're eating those, the guide gets a call from her boss, that another one of our stops is closed until 4:30pm (it's about 2:30 at this point), so we're not going to be hitting that one either. So now we're from 5 down to 3. Our guide tells us we can pick out 2 free pastries from the shop we're in, to take home for breakfast tomorrow, as compensation for losing yet another stop. Our last stop is Salty Wahine. This is a salt & seasonings store....not a restaurant. To be fair, Laura & David (owners) were great, and David grilled up one steak in back with some of their seasonings rubbed on it, with a cut up tomato with some different seasonings. We had a few bites of each, and they were very good. We were also very entertained by the stories of both Laura and David, about the history of the business, etc. And yes, we did buy some seasonings to take home (they're very good). But in the end, this was very disappointing. $220 for 2 stops at restaurants, and 1 at a seasoning store, when we were supposed to have hit 5. This tour should have been canceled before we even showed up. The tour gets 2 stars, and that's only because we enjoyed the ad hoc visit with Laura & David. Otherwise, it would have been 1 star. And 4 stars for Abie our guide, who really tried hard to make the best of a broken tour. read more

Great food tour! Our guide, Susan, was quite accommadating. We were given a tour of a number of different ethnic foods at some interesting food trucks and restaurants. She certainly brought the small group together for a good time, historical background, variety of foods, and suggestions for the remainder of our vacation. Truly an interesting and enjoyable afternoon. read more

Loved the food tour and visiting/supporting the local businesses. Food was delicious and made from locally sourced ingredients. We had a great group of people and tour guide Susan was awesome. Come with an empty stomach as there's a lot of food to be sampled. read more

Tasting Kauai - Big Monster sushi, Cabana Bar & Grill fish taco, Anake Juice Bar acai, Kickshaws burger - Food Tours Near Me - Lihue, Hawaii

What a great experience. Our host Lexi was amazing. All the food was amazing. Lexi gave us history of Koloa and Poipu. I definitely would recommend it. Bring a empty tummy! read more

See all

SUCH a lovely afternoon! We did the Kilauea tour with Susan. We visited four businesses, and all four we plan to go back to - they were all so good. In fact, the first stop, Kauai Juice Co., we went back for seconds immediately after the tour ended. I am not a huge kombucha fan, but damn. Their stuff is amazing. With the pandemic, and all the staffing shortages, our tour was short by two stops. If anything, this made the tour better, because we had such a relaxed, easy afternoon. Also, we were STUFFED. I can't imagine visiting two more places to eat!!! Susan gave us lots of information, not only about the businesses we visited, but also about the history of Hawaii, Kauai, and Kilauea. Fascinating. read more

What a fun way to end our time in Hawaii. The tour was fantastic and the food was absolutely delish! What made the experience really special was hearing the stories from the chefs themselves. The " why & how " they got into it and the joys that keep them going. It was a treat that touched all the senses. read more

Great experience with our tour guide Susan on the north side tour! Would book again for sure!

Fun time and good food, our guide, Susan was great, lot of local knowledge and culture

Took the Coconut Coast tour yesterday with Susan. Great food in all the spots. What was really fun was that she took us to places we never would have found on our own and they were all fabulous. My husband and I had taken this tour before several years ago - there was only one duplication and it was delicious too. Highly recommended. read more

My husband and I did all three tours! NORTH We started with the North Shore tour with Susan, and had a fantastic time. We got to meet the owners of a few places and loved the passion they exude into their businesses. Especially enjoyed the Uncle with the dried fruit. He just might have inspired me to become a farmer! Be sure to notify them in advance if you have a special diet, we found this one to be heavy on the meat. SOUTH We were led by Jenn, an awesome guide with lots of fun facts about the restaurants and Kauai in general. Good to learn about businesses especially as as a lot of them are being bough out by corporations. We visited the people resisting that, like the awesome people at Kukuiula market. We sampled the preserves at Monkeypod Jam, but don't miss out on trying the pickled goods as well. Overall delicious food, however the food variety could be a little more diverse, we had two versions of poke for example. EAST Again led by the wonderful Jenn, This was probably my favorite in terms of variety of food. We had baked goods, kombucha, saimin, burgers (sushi burritos for the pescatarians), poke pupus, and finished off with a two course taster and drinks. My favourite was the Furukake Teriyaki Fries at Kenji and the Pineapple Orange kombucha at Kauai Juice Co - it tasted like a mimosa! As a local, it's easy to frequent you favorite spots, partly due to nostalgic reasons, but this tour was such an eye opener to what I've been missing out on. This food tour is great for visitors, but also important for local people as they have the daily impact on the island. Learning about responsible practices and how our island can sustain itself is vital for Kauai's future. read more

See all

Susan was our guide and she was awesome! We did this tour at the start of our trip and used it as the guide for where we chose to eat during our week in Kauai. Everything we tasted we great and Susan's recommendations were spot on. I even messaged her with a question during our visit and she was quick to respond. I highly recommend this company! read more

We did the South Food Tour and really enjoyed it. The food we tried was all really tasty and high quality. The thing I liked most was that businesses we visited are less interested in profit--although they have to make a living--and more interested in putting out high quality food that has natural, high quality ingredients. They support local farmers and are committed to giving back to their community. These people believe in high quality food first and profit second. You have to applaud that. The only thing I did not like, compared to the many other food tours that we have done in cities throughout the US, is that you drive from place to place and therefore the group does not integrate in the same way as with a walking tour. In the walking food tours, you get more history and time for Q and A. This was more straight up here's the food and a short presentation by the owner. It was fine, I am just saying. Overall, well worth the money. read more

We had an awesome time with Addison as he led us around downtown Lihue along with 12 others vacationing on the island. He chose 4 local businesses which provided farm to table selections for us to enjoy. This was actually our 3rd tasting Kauai food tour (north shore and south shore previously). Thank you again for a great time! read more

See all

We did a delicious walking food tour of Kileauea with Susan. Tons of food (don't eat before you go) and we also learned a lot about the island's history. We were limited to 6 people so it was intimate and easy to get to know one another. The tour's focus on sustainability and locally sourced product was perfect for us. If we were here longer I'd want to do tours in other parts of the island as well. Thanks Susan! read more

Took the Lihue food tour yesterday led by Susan. She was fantastic. Very knowledgeable and entertaining. Highly recommend this tour of you are visiting Kauai read more

Tasting kauai is amazing! You learn history and culture through food. They got great discounts so make sure you call them to ask! It's a great tour! Highly recommended and they have 4 tours running! Glad we can help local businesses and farmers! read more

See all

If you are trying to get a good feel for the local food scene on Kauai, look no further. Tasting Kauai Food Tours was by far the best 4+ hours spent during our vacation. Katherine took us to South Shore food spots we would have never considered, let alone found. From the jams and scones at Monkeypod, to Kickshaws, the best burger on the island, açaí bowls at the Kukui'ula store (one of Kauai's last mom and pop food stores), amazing poke at Makai Sushi, kombucha on tap at the Kauai Juice Co, and Lilkoi gelato at Papalani, ending at the local farmers market, this Tour was totally worth it. I loved it. Thanks Katherine! read more

See all

Tasting Kauai does a wonderful job at overpromising and underdelivering. I was really excited to do this tour, and was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, it is over hyped and made out to be something that it just isn't. I was hesitant to write this review because we actually did enjoy ourselves and our tour guide was very nice. However, Tasting Kauai DID NOT meet our expectations and DID NOT deliver on what was advertised and/ or described on their website. Below, I've provided descriptions of the tour (taken directly from their website). Underneath each description, I've provided my honest review. 1. "Come adventure with us on the North shore and try local fruits, teas, grass-fed beef, and fresh-caught fish." We didn't have any fresh local fruit on our tour.. perhaps they're referring to the Kombucha. If that's the case, technically I don't think that counts as a fruit serving, or does it? Maybe in their eyes it does, but not in mine. 2. "You can count on a full day of eating delicious food and exploring what's fresh and seasonal on the Garden Isle!" Since when is 3 hours considered a full day? 3. "Hop in your car and follow our guide on a tasting adventure through Kauai's lush North Shore, sampling everything from food trucks to fine dining!" There were no fine dining experiences, unless you consider a burger joint connected to a gas station to be fine dining.. don't get me wrong, the half burger that we got wasn't bad (it wasn't great either) but for the price we're paying for this tour, you seriously can't hook a sista or a brotha (my husband) up with a whole burger? Also, the burgers were not made to order.. again for the price that we're paying, you'd expect them to at least cook our meat the way we like it. I like mine medium/ medium rare but all the half burgers were cooked well done, and slightly dry as well. 4. "Four-hour tour" It was only 3 hours. 5. "Exclusive access" Um... what exclusive access? All of the spots we went to were open to the public. 6. "Visit to a local farm with educational info" We drove to a parking lot behind a shopping center that was next to a farm and the tour guide pointed out the taro fields. Sad, just sad. 7. "Intimate groups" I'm not surprised at this and believe that this probably is not by choice. 8. "Personal introductions to some of Kauai's top chefs" We were not introduced to any top chefs unless they're referring to the cook at the gas station/ burger joint. Or perhaps they're talking about the dry fruit guy who showed up with his shirt on backwards. 9. "Tastings at over six stops on the North Shore" We actually only had six stops, not over six stops. Two of the stops were beverages, and one was a dry fruit tasting. 10. "Experience out-of-the way establishments, shops, food trucks, and local farms" I'm not really sure what stop was considered the out-of-the way establishment. If they're referring to Kaua'i Farmacy, it was already on our radar. Also for the second time, we did not visit any local farms. 11. "Sample traditional Hawaiian food and learn about the North Shore's healthy food culture!" Yes we had a sample of the Poi with Kalua and Lomi Lomi but we've already been there done that at all of the last 3 luaus we attended while visiting Hawai'i. Have to say this was lame and nothing special or remarkable. 12. "Enjoy some of the best food the North Shore has to offer!" I am flabbergasted that the 6 stops they chose to take us to is what they consider to be the best food on the North Shore. They probably spent $30 tops for each of us to sample food/ drinks at these 6 locations. So that means they pocket about $80 per person. Luckily, we received a 20% discount on our tickets and only paid $88 per person + tax but that's still way too much and we definitely did not get our money's worth. I mean maybe it would make sense if they had to charter a shuttle bus for the tour but we drove ourselves in our own vehicles! Shady I tell ya, shady! 13. "This unique tour can't be experienced anywhere else on the island." There was nothing unique about this food tour. Unless I missed something.. which I'm pretty sure I didn't. Also, they don't provide any water or other beverages at all during this tour. I mean, that's the very least that they can do. Not to mention, it was 90 degrees out. SMH. read more

It was a great food tour. Great food stops and Kauai history lesson. Susan, the tour guide, was very knowledgeable and friendly. I highly recommend one of these food tours. read more

Thoroughly enjoyed our tour with Susan! The food was amazing and she was very nice and informative!

We went on the Wednesday tour of South Shore and it was amazing! Kate was very knowledgeable and super friendly and was able to give us a lot of recommendations. We were able to try some local jams and jellies, stopped by a delicious food truck, visited a locally owned market for a fresh fruit bowl and the BEST poke, kombucha, gelato, and enjoyed the farmers market. Every single stop was delicious and left us wanting more. Thank you Kate for being an amazing tour guide!!! read more

See all

This was truly bad -- I paid over $200 for my husband and I to do a taste tour. We received a reminder the day of the tour (yesterday) and showed up at the appointed place (Kauai Juice company) at 12:45 -- we were told to show up 10 minutes early. We waited until 1:25, no one showed up, no one responded to calls, texts, emails and voice mails. No explanation why we wasted an entire afternoon planning on this tour. It has been 24 hours later -- no one has had the courtesy to respond or to refund our money as we have asked. I went on this tour before and enjoyed it -- not this time. Truly an awful experience. read more

Great Kauai North Shore food tour by Dan and Marta. We got to try a variety of local food that completely changed our perception on a local food; poi being a great example. Loved it! And being that we went to 5-6 different spots, the food portions were very generous. We were full by the end and didn't need to eat dinner! Also, it was great to drive around to spots we overlooked in the past. This now gives us new places to eat in the future when we come back to Kauai. We also met some great people on the tour from various parts of the world. We'll definitely try the other 2 tours in the future. Highly recommend if your looking for a different sort of Kauai experience. read more

See all

So worth it!!! We went to the north shore, Susan was great and we are so very pleased by the great out of the way spots and places we have never would have thought about stopping. Every stop was informative and so yummy. We will be hitting another part of the island next tour. Many thanks Tasting Kauai, keep up the great work read more

Tasting Kauai - Food Tours Near Me - Lihue, Hawaii

Enjoyed my tour. Just the right added tour to my vacation. With a friendly and knowledgeable tour guide, we a super time. Come hungry.

We took a southern tour with six stops yesterday in and around Hanapepe. We had so much fun not really knowing what to expect. We started at Little Fish Coffee. We met others in the tour in their back courtyard. We started out with a poi granola fruit parfait which was delicious not really liking poi, we tasted it in a completely different way. Next was Popo's cookies. We were given a talk about how this little business was acquired. These cookies were amazing. Crunchy crisp and delicate all at once. I bought four packages but not sure any of them will make it home. Lol. Next we moved onto Japanese Grandma's. All I can say is amazing. The tasting was just amazing and the shop within the restaurant had some very cute and unique things. Moved on to Midnight Bear Bakery. Not much was said but their bread and mini caprese salad was sooo good. I went back later to buy one of their many incredible sourdough breads a toasted garlic. I wanted the turmeric but already sold out. We then took a long walk to our next stop which was the Salty Wahine. Amazing award running salts. We were shown the best way to use them. We purchased a few bags of their delicious tubs and salts. We walked back into Hanapepe via the river and swinging bridge. Our last stop was Ono Pops where we were treated to organic locally produced multi flavored pops. At the end of all that was the start of The Hanapepe Art Walk. A really fun more food than narrative tour. Can't wait to try their other tours. read more

See all

The Tasting Kauai is a fabulous, unique concept and we enjoyed it very much. Being from Dallas, Texas we are foodies!! The hosts were awesome!! My only disappointment was the spots they chose could have been more interesting... something we can't do in the mainland. All the food was ordinary, greasy American food like hamburgers, pizza, ribs, eclairs and french fries... except the poi stew...that was cool and interesting! Some ideas could include: take customers to meet a local fisherman and eat fresh fish right off the dock, take us to one of the local organic sustainable vegetable or fruit farmers, show us how and where the local eggs and cheese are done, maybe even a local rum distillery. Anyways, we had fun, and would consider it again! read more

Tasting Kauai - Food Tours Near Me - Lihue, Hawaii

See all

Just completed my second tour with Tasting Kauai on Thursday, East side. The company has changed hands 2x since I first went as well as tour guides. There was a great sale price so I grabbed it otherwise I agree with another review that is pricey since you are expected to fight the traffic and parking and caravan in your own car. I like these tours in that it acquaints me to establishments that I might not go to when I opt for reading reviews and trying restaurants that are recommended and more popular. The little places not as well known often have the best food. You certainly go away full sometimes after the first stop (Dojo Saimin) . I found it quality and in some ways better than my tried and true saimin place. While i do not care for the kombucha they were more than accommodating to find a beverage more attuned to my taste. Kenji burger gave us their specialty fries and half a burger which was excellent . I know restaurants change their willingness to host these food tours having taken many but I think it would be helpful in decision making to know ahead of time what the stops will be. Two of these stops were my favorites (one I had eaten at twice in that week) and yearly the other so did not discover any new finds in their place, l love the mahi burger at Jimm'ys and the setting . They give you half a burger (which at this point you are really hard pressed to finish because you are so full) and fries and it is fun to sit outside on the picnic tables oceanside. You certainly can not fault this tour from being stingy on its stops. Sam's Ocean Cafe is another of my favs BUT ( and here is another plus) I apparently have not been ordering their specialty as I discovered. Their grilled cheese with brie, fig jam, honey drizzle and pt reyes blue cheese is to die for. They gave us salad, their focaccia bread and more. The restaurants certainly are generous and it behooves them to be so to guarantee return customers. Again its casual open air ocean side setting is fun! Hard to get into though unless you just want to go to the bar. Reservations uch needed as it is very popular. Susan did a great job with our group of 5 (thankfully no children which I prefer) . We all had a great rapport and stayed past the 4 hrs chatting away. Kudos to her expertise and knowledge/experience with food and restaurants on Kauai. Can't wait for the North to open up again. read more

this was a great tour and included tastings of local, traditional foods at local establishments. susan is a fun, knowledgeable tour guide. i recommend doing this tour early in your stay so you can plan time the rest of your trip to eat more of what you like; and also b/c susan is a wealth of knowledge and can recommend additional places to eat & visit. read more

Saturday farm tour is where it's at! It might very well be in other places too. But, we only had time for one tour on this last trip and farm tour it was! With Kauai/Portland man Shaun. I would say as tour guides go, he was pretty low key laid back. Is it the heat? Is it Hawaii? As we peaced out early, I'm sure there's been some nagging in the back of his head "was a bad review coming?" Nah. It was warm man. I wanted to go in the ocean. Ok. What's great about farm tour? They tour the farmers market. What'd we eat on farm tour? Sugarloaf pineapple (do it - they were all I ate the whole next day before we left), Papaya smoothies, Harmonious Roots Persian dips (wish these were suitcaseable), Ono pops (I recommend the POG) and mushroom Banh Mi. What was the best part of farm tour? Touring the KCC Go Farm Hawaii Kaua'i farm project. Particularly the talk given by 'farm coach' Eric Hansen. You can really see his passion for agriculture and it's completely infectious. As someone born on a farm, I have A LOT OF FEELINGS about agriculture, the politics of land and the open wild, and where food comes from. It was great to watch Eric sum up the politics, beauty and importance of strengthening the next generations interest in agriculture. My spouse usually totally dismisses that stuff as froofy and even they were onboard with Eric's animated descriptions. So, uh, thoughts: -Could you tour the farmer's market yourself? For sure. But, it's more fun as a group. And I think the samples are a little larger as part of the tour. - What's the real gem here? Well, all of it. But, the farm tour part of the farm tour. -What's up with that sopapilla slider at Verde? It wasn't good friends. I'm sure I'm hella spoiled living in California. But, while I'm very pro farm to table restaurant I'd swear on a bible that meat tasted like freezer. No bueno. Something unfortunate happened to my slider. Maybe it was an anomaly. We left after the slider that wanted to be a sopapilla, so, we missed the brewery bit. So, obviously, I cannot write about it. Do it for the farm bits! We'd love to come back and do the rest of the tours next time we're on the island. Shaun may not be the jazziest guide you'll ever encounter in the history of food guides but, sometimes it's nice to just have someone quiet and chill so the food producers can do the speaking. Shaun also did give us a food recommendation for Saimin Dojo which was where we ate our favorite meal of our trip! Overall, we liked the tour and felt it was worthwhile. read more

My party of 5 participated in the Lihue tour on our final day in Kauai. Our guide, Susan, was outstanding. She had a wonderful way of getting the group to share and enjoy getting to know each other. She also provided a lot of interesting history and information without going overboard. The food was outstanding! Three of the stops were in the same shopping center,and all were excellent! I'm still thinking about the ahi taco at Verde. Compared to other foodie tours I've experienced, the food was plentiful and well balanced and timed! The last stop was a KAuai Brewery and we were having so much fun that we stayed a bit longer to enjoy more beer and the company of new friends. Highly recommend!! read more

Tasting Kauai - Ahi taco on homemade flour tortilla and Kauai grass fed beef taco on homemade Ube (purple sweet potato) tortilla. - Food Tours Near Me - Lihue, Hawaii

See all

I always feel like you take a chance on booking something like this sight unseen but what an amazing surprise it was! From the greeting to the goodbye, Susan was attentive and made sure that we were all made to feel important in our journey. The food choices were amazing and the stories gave us some great history about the island. The ending at the Kauai farmacy was a perfect spot to end our journey! Thank you Susan for everything. We will definitely do this again on our next visit to the island! read more

We went on the hanapepe tour yesterday with Shane. He took us to 6 different businesses where passion and food are one and the same. Little fish coffee, popos cookies, Japanese grandmas cafe, midnight bear bakery, salty wahine and Ono pops. Every place served us delicious and plentiful food. We had a cooking demo at salty wahine as well as yummy chicken and veggies seasoned with their salts. Shane kept our tour moving along in a timely manner although we never felt rushed which was no easy task because our family was so easily distracted by one another! We have gone on many walking food tours when we travel and this one is definitely a favorite! Thanks Shane read more

Tasting Kauai - Cooking demo at salty wahine - Food Tours Near Me - Lihue, Hawaii

See all