Back to Kauai (I wish). We spent the morning of this day doing a lovely hike on the Kuilau Ridge Trail. Some problems with our rental car’s keyless entry system then required a trip to the rental counter at the airport in Lihue. Casting around for places to eat we landed on Mark’s Place, a restaurant that got lots of positive reviews online for their Hawaiian fare. As with many other places on Kauai and the Big Island, they were not open for dine-in in June/July. Unlike Hana Hou, however, they were not even letting people in to order or allowing them to eat at their outdoor tables. We lined up outside the front door to order and once our food was ready we could either eat in our car or take it away. We opted to drive to a park in the vicinity and had a nice lunch on a picnic bench there.

Mark’s Place’s menu features many classic Hawaiian dishes. As you will see, however, they also have a daily specials board. Reviews online recommended exploring that menu and so we did. From it we got the Sesame Crusted Ahi served with a kim chi butter sauce and the Pork Tinono. Both came with rice (choice of white and brown), chowmein and salad (a bit of mac ‘n cheese over greens). Both were tasty, the ahi more so and would have been even better obviously if eaten as freshly prepared. The boys got sandwiches: the younger one talked us into a cheeseburger and the older got the teriyaki chicken sandwich. A big order of fries on the side that we all shared. We also couldn’t resist one each of the spam and Korean chicken musubi. Plus a few soft drinks.

A quick look at the setup and the food we ate is in the slideshow below. Scroll down for price etc. and to see what’s coming next.

All of the above came to $65 all-in, which is a very good value for the quality and quantity. The food certainly fortified us for the second half of our day which featured another lovely hike, this time to the Ho’opi’i Falls, and swimming (perhaps unadvisedly) in the pool formed by the lower falls.

I’m not sure where things are at with the pandemic on Kauai now or if more restaurants have opened for dining in. I would certainly recommend Mark’s Place for either dine-in or takeaway if you are in easy range. And I would highly recommend both those hikes as well (though a picnic lunch would probably be better in between than a drive to Lihue).

Coming next from Kauai will be another takeaway lunch in Lihue. That’ll be next Sunday. Before that I’ll have a restaurant report from Minnesota on Tuesday and my last Los Angeles report on Saturday.