Defries Lunch Wagon

The food is great, prices might be a little higher, but you get what you pay for. The truck seems like a permanent fixture already.

Just ate here based on other Unilocal reviews– it was awful!!! The moco loco pork tasted like it was a week old!!!

Decent food. Nothing OMG about it but worth trying once… Across the street from burger King.

The garlic butter shrimp was awesome! Wonderful customer service– great family running the business! Looking forward to trying the rest of the menu my next visit

Amazing amazing amazing. Driving down 56 I saw their sign that said Chicken Hekka, Butter Garlic Shimp. So we turned down the street and had both. The Chicken Hekka was as good as Grandma used to make and the shrimp was best we have had on the Island. We will have to go back one more time before we leave the Island.

Hand down the best place to get Loco Moco on Kauai. Every time my wife and I come to Kauai this is the one place we always make sure to eat at. They’re only open a few days a week so be sure to call ahead to see if they’re open. You won’t be disappointed! My favorite two things to eat here are the loco moco and the Defries chicken. Theres no better place to get cheap local grinds then Defries. Next time I come here I’m going to see if they will make me a loco moco with the Defries Chicken! Mahalo for the ono grinds!

This is the best truck for the buck, roast pork plate is awesome, nice tender cuts of pork, with a lite tasty gravy, the pork has just the right amount of fat to keep it tender, two scoops rice and so onolicious. My only negative is the cold corn the comes with most plates, not my favorite thing eating cold corn. The second and my favorite is chicken hecka, very authentic has the woods ear mushrooms, bamboo shoots and longrice, perfect balance of sweet and saltiness, the woods ear fungus adds a bit of earthiness. again the corn throws everything off, but I look past that cause the hecka rules.

Da best shave ice! We are staying in princeville which is 35 miles from Anahola and we gave already hit up this place for shave ice twice! We visited three others in Hanalei and Princeville and they didn’t compare to the low price and high quality! Da shave ice broke da mouf! The peeps are VERY friendly and we chatted with them for a good 15 minutes about fishing and island life. Highly recommended.

Ok. Been Kauai and been seeing this sign Squid Luau and I love Luau. Ordered and opened the box and the Luau Glowed in the Dark. Ok. Not too much Coconut Milk and had good squid. I think the Luau leaves were the frozen kine. I don’t know if I will go and order again. Will try other menu items. Lucky was hungry. Almost ate half the plate.

Top notch shrimp truck. We were walking by and saw that they advertised having the best garlic shrimp. I hopped on my Unilocal app to vet them and was happy to see great ratings.
M & I split the shrimp lunch plate and he got a smoothie. The shrimp were perfect. The mac salad was made with spaghetti noodles, which was different, but good. The corn was as you would expect. M loved his smoothie, the gal working said the trick is to freeze the fruit rather than using fresh fruit and adding ice.
Worth a visit.

Defries lunch wagon is a must try! My favorite hands down is their defries fried chicken. If you’ve tried Hanamaulu chicken, Imu Hut teri fried chicken or remember Lawai Restaurant chicken, you gotta tried defries fried chicken!!! Crispy on the outside and moist on the inside and my favorite part of it is their fried chicken is boneless!!!
I went with a group that ordered the Hawaiian plate, chicken cutlet and roast pork and they said those selections were delicious also. Good home style gravy.
Next time I go I want to try more selections but I don’t think I could order anything but the fried chicken. Oh almost forgot… Great local family running this wagon, makes you so happy to support such a friendly local business!

This is a 4.6 rounded up. The only non-​5 star part was probably the corn that obviously came from a can. No initiative there!
Anyway, really really liked the fried chicken (it’s got a little terri flavor to it — yum!)/terri beef plate we ordered.
Got a strawberry delight and a shave ice for dessert and that was maybe the best set of decisions I made in the last week. The shave ice was the perfect consistency the whole way through and had a great flavor combo (coconut, pineapple & melona) with ice cream in the bottom, cream on the top, and a sprinkling of ling hi mui (which I suspect is just colored MSG because nothing else can make food taste that good with so little of it). Just awesome. The strawberry delight was also great but I’m glad that the server told us to let it melt just a little, then stir the strawberry and ice cream together. It was fantastic.
Don’t think they serve burgers anymore, which was a bummer but there are still great options here. Would def. visit again.
As I mentioned in the tip, be sure to call for the location before going as they *are* a van and *do* travel.

Best shaved ice and smoothies!
Friendly people…

We stopped after horseback riding and had an awesome plate lunch. The Mac salad had a touch of mustard which made it the best Mac salad I’ve had to date in Hawaii. Follow those bites with butter garlic shrimp and pow! Flavor magic!
The hubs got the fried chicken combo with butter garlic shrimp and is currently in a food coma on our hotel bed! Overall, yum!

Boy, are we glad we found this spot!
Drove all day from Waimea (West shore) to Hanalei (North shore) to sight see and had no luck locating a hearty meal. We Unilocaled and called every spot and they either didn’t serve what we wanted, or was closing early. Upon arrival, Sandy knew it was us that called and took our orders; she’s one of the sweetest ladies in Kauai.
I had: Hawaiian Combo Plate
Rice, chicken w/​noodles, the BEST lau lau I’ve ever had — pork pressured cooked so you can eat the leaves — (Just like Alex’s comment below me) and a unique style of mac! — The rice pudding was just DELICIOUS.
GF had: Loco moco and man, was that meat tender!
If you’re wondering, «how different is that from L & L?» well, if you want reheated frozen food, go for it. If you want freshly prepared grub from a warming family, this is the spot.
Make sure you call to find their location, that’s the fun part :)
Sandy, if you’re reading this, hello from Jennifer and Michael! Thank you for our last meal! It was nice talking with you — we will visit you again!

What a nice friendly family runs this place. If you want to relax and chat while you eat lunch, this place is great. I had the chicken plate lunch. The rice & gravy is delicious and the chicken… we all know Kauai has a lot of wild chickens. Could this be wild chicken on the plate? It was all dark meat, a bit chewy but had a delicious glaze, very crunchy outside, super-​flavorful. I was a little surprised but ate every morsel. Recommend you try it!

I’m pretty sure that this truck in the middle of a parking lot is as authentic Hawaiian as you can get. Bonus: food is made by a family all crammed into the truck. And they all make it with love.
Now, the hubby and I had already stopped on the side of road for some darn magical boar, but when I saw the bright yellow DeFries truck, we had to stop for second breakfast. If we were staying longer in Kauai, we would’ve returned for the cheap, filling food.
Everything here is served with macaroni salad and rice. Gravy if you want it, too. I LOVE that about Hawaii. Even though the fried chicken had a nice seasoning to it, I wouldn’t order it again unless it was hot. It was served cold (which I suspect was on purpose), but I would suggest getting the Loco Moco instead. Folks, this is not gourmet, but you won’t care when you’re sharing a picnic table with the locals and slurping up shaved ice with a scoop of vanilla ice cream hidden in the center.

Great food and service with a smile. I had the Friday special, the Hawaii plate consisting of some of the best lau lau I’ve ever had, Mac salad, and rice pudding. The wife had fried Ahi, fresh caught by the owner’s son, and it was delicious.
We stopped by on the way back from a hike and got some shaved ice. It did not disappoint.
Overall the food was great, and the family that runs the wagon is equally as great.

Lunch wagon that saved us… from a certain fate of starvation on the Island of Kauai. While were driving around the island on «56», this bright yellow wagon beckoned us (studies have shown that yellow is an appetizing color) with its island goodness. Greeted by an exceptionally friendly host I chose the following:
DeFries fried chicken. — This was described as a secret recipe, taking about three days to marinate/​cook. It was served a ‘lil cold, but I was soo hungry I could deal.
Also had:
Roast pork Loco Moco. This was pork with gravy and an over easy egg with onions. Both of the above dishes were served with cole slaw, pickles, corn and rice. The pork was my favorite, as is pretty much anything with an over easy egg. The slaw and pickles were a nice balancing touch. The pickles were not the «Vlasic» stork vairety, but were more of a marinated cucumber type. These were great.
Shave ice which appeared to be a local treat was served with melona pineapple and vanilla ice-​cream in the center. The melona tasted soo good that I could only imagine it was an island creation all its own.

Located in the craft fair lot on Hwy 56, this was a Godsend for us! We were starving, so reading about the loaded plate lunches were making us starving.
We ordered, and started with this while we waited:
Butter Mochi — omg, a gooey, soft, warm square of butter pound cake-​tasting fresh mochi
DeFries Fried Chicken — a 3-​day process of marinating led to these chunks of fried chicken, served with white rice, mac salad, cucumber and seaweed salad and corn.
Roast Pork Loco Moco — served with the same sides as the chicken, a pile of tender roast pork sat on top of white rice. Two oozy fried eggs in gravy topped that, and made a gooey meaty pile.
We talked with the mom of this family-​owned business while we ate and she was super friendly. Her daughter had taken our orders, and the whole family was the sweetest ever.
Of course, we had to get:
Shave Ice — with pineapple and melona, and a big scoop of soft vanilla ice cream in the center. So refreshing, so yummy!
We just might be back for the oozy cheese-​stuffed burgers they make on Saturdays! Or another of their plate lunches Monday-​Friday :).