Oki Diner & Bakery

Gracious and friendly service. The food is a local style of comfort food. Don’t expect fancy or healthy and you won’t be disappointed.
We were greeted by a pleasant hello befor we even got into the place. Our waiter was very friendly and he smiled the whole time.

Hi All,
Went here when I was staying at a resort in paradise. Decided to go get local food and came across this place accidentally. It was a nice place to start the morning and plan our day of hiking. Our waitress was a hard older lady, but once past the façade of hardness, she was absolutely wonderful. She helped us plan our trip for the day with some excellent local advice that frankly, the resorts didn’t offer.
Now…the food. We went for breakfast 3 times in a row. Why? Well it wasn’t due to the egg omelet which were perhaps the worst omelet i have had, next to some omelets I had at several resorts thru my 3 weeks in Hawaii. So I just chalked that one up to Hawaii, culturally, cannot make an omelet (super runny). Now the pancakes… and I am not a huge pancake fan… were quite good. But what captured my heart… or rather stomach, was the pancake syrup. I have had true VT maple syrup many times, but this syrup was absolutely amazing– Banana, Guava, Passion fruit… and coconut. I had the banana and coconut and it was like heaven. So fresh and tasty… I tried to convince the waitress to sell a bottle so i could take home, but since there aren’t any preservatives, she said it would go bad in a week. :’-(
And because of the wonderful conversation/​advice from the waitress combined with the truly delectable home made syrup. I rated this a 4.
Oh… i almost forgot… the fresh pineapple juice was also amazing. The waitress warned that most pineapple juice at the resorts/​restaurants is canned… this was not… and it was obvious.
So go here for good advice, and a rare cheap meal … and get the juice and syrup! And leave a good tip!
FYI… I went there in 2008.
–MSZ

* CLOSED *
My husband raved about how great Oki’s diner’s pancakes are and how their lunch plates are best on the island. There was A LOT of anticipation of chowing down on loco mocos and teriyaki chicken, etc. We showed up on our first day and turns out Oki’s is gone. We even called the number listed and it was redirected to another phone #. The lady on the phone confirmed that the long standing restaurant is indeed closed. The place is currently being renovated for another restaurant, though…

Sorry, I love my loacl joints like Tip-​Tops and Hamuras but this place is not one of my favorite or even near it. Looking for breakfast on Monday morning our first choice was closed, so we decided to come here… Bad Idea.
The food was not good at all. I had the steak and eggs and I was sooooo dissappointed. It looked unappealing as the steak wasn’t even seared and GRAY! The steak was too rare and the hashbrowns were bland. My boyfriend got eggs, bacon and rice and the bacon was no where near crispy and more towards straight out of the bag. While we ate five FLIES swarmed around our food landing on most of it and one even taking a dive in our drink.
Then the lady comes to fillup our drinks and says nothing but «wots dat» as she points to our cups. She takes them anyway and fills them up… with the fly inside!
We use to come here years ago and after this experince NEVER AGAIN!

Good pancakes at a price ($ 12 breakfast).good service in an open air setting. Alkali balanced water a first for me.
Service was ok for breakfast, local feel to the interior.

I try to stay away from restaurants that attract tourists, but I like Oki diner.
Prices are OKI. Service at the time was OKI. Pancakes were more than OKI. They were ono.
If you are travelling with a baby, they have one high chair for the entire restaurant. It’s an old worn down highchair with sesame characters on it. I always bring those antibacterial face and hand wipes to wipe everything down. I wiped down the highchair, and it was dirty! Glad I brought my wipes!

Comeeee on people… I swear this is like such a touristy overrated spot. my co worker kept telling me that I should check this place out and that it was sooo good. not only that while driving the island Oki Diner had a big old sign outside the restaurant saying world famous pancakes.puhleaseee.Ihop has better pancakes than this place… i ordered the pancakes with macdamia nuts. they totallly jip you on the macdamia nuts they like sprinkle them on one pancake. what’s the point…
it was okayyyy. i didnt find anything delicious about them. they also have different syrups. strawberry, vanilla, coconut… ewww very thick and very blah… i stuck with the maple syrup…
we went there a 2^nd time during our trip. decided to give it one more shot. ordered the omelette… ewwww.ewww.it’s thin and no flavor.
service wasn’t that great either. definitely would not come back next time I’m in Kauai. nor would i recommend this place to anyone…
CHECK PLEASE!

The first time I went to Oki diner (their old location) I thought I was in an episode of the Twighlight Zone.
My friend had been there since they’ve moved and told me he thought it had improved. We went today for lunch and w my iPad in hand check out the reviews on Unilocal before ordering.
I ordered the side of Portuguese sausage for $ 2.95 for 4 slices (too pricey) but good. I also ordered the Ginger chicken which was SUPER good. It was covered in green onion and Ginger and looked odd… But it tasted GREAT! I would definitely go back for that dish.
Friend had the kalua pork that was very tender and moist. Husband had the Teri beef — it was dry and salty.
The service was friendly — Evan was our server. He was very professional but I think they are under-​staffed seemed like he was the only one serving… the owner’s son walked in and helped serve food to a few tables — it wasn’t terribly crowded since it was 2:30 on a Saturday. Then the owner’s son disappeared. Our food took a little while to arrive, we were fine with waiting though.
I used the bathroom, and found it to be clean. I did notice that they had a cleaning schedule posted on the door.

Upon leaving I did notice the owner’s son washing his car in the parking lot… I thought that was kind of strange.

One of the few places on Kauai we found that is open late. PLUS they serve breakfast all day which automatically gets them into my heart. The service was friendly.
Got a banana pancake, mac nut pancake, scrambled eggs & Portugese sausage (mild). The pancakes were large w/​a nice thickness. I tried the regular, vanilla & coconut syrup on my pancakes. MMM MMM great!
The kalbi rice plate was also good.

A. Previous location was more accessible
B. Outside eating area was nice on a breezy day
C. Service was slow, but I understand the «no worries» way of life
D. Food was edible
E. I am entranced with the commercials
I will hit it again.

Oki Diner should really be called OKAY diner. Ha ha. I make joke — supposed to be funny!
Anyway, we arrived from a late flight and it was open so that already gives it a couple of stars.
Menu says they have the best pancakes on the island and well, they’re good but I’m not a huge fan of pancakes so I’m not one to judge. What I did have that I though was AWESOME was the portugese sausage. They were half dollar size of crisp juicy goodness that was the «meat» with my rice. SO SO SO SO good.
So perfect late night place for a quick eat. Service was fine — not many people at 11 pm at night and they were cool considering it was close to closing time.

I like this place but yes the service was pretty poor, the only thing that redeemed it was that it had the best pancake ever. I loooove pancakes and have to try it whenever a place advertises itself as having «famous» or «world’s best» pancakes. Usually I am left disappointed but Oki diner really did have amazing pancakes.
We went here for dinner on our last night in Kauai. We had a 10pm flight out of Lihue, and there are not that many places open late on Kauai. Luckily Oki diner is near the airport.
I got the oxtail soup, as I was hankering for it. I usually get oxtail soup a few times when I am on the islands but since we’ve been in Kauai, I hadn’t had it yet. I wanted to try Tip-​Top Café’s famous version but alas that place closes after lunch. Oki diner’s version was decent. It had lots of fresh vegetables which were nice, but it didnt’ have that nice thick gelatinous soup or the peanuts as most oxtail soups in Hawaii contain. The soup had an almost herbal taste. It was nice nonethless, after a week of eating super rich fatty foods, to have a nice bowl of soup (not like the oxtail wasn’t fatty, it was). The oxtails were nice and tender though. It’s served with a side of chopped ginger and cilantro.
Hubs got the triple combo plate — he got the Neal’s chicken, fried noodles, and garlic shrimp. The neal’s chicken was pretty good. Fried pieces of dark meat chicken that had a sweet shoyu sauce on it. It was nice and crispy. Fried noodles were ok, kinda too sweet for me, and not enough oomph. Garlic shrimp were in a thick creamy garlic sauce, not scampi, more like alfredo. Portions were super large.
For dessert, even though I was so full, I had to order 1 pancake. And let me tell you, it was the best pancake I have had in ages! it’s large, fluffy, but still has a lot of dense egg-​y flavor. YUM. Even though I thought I would have only a bite, I ate the WHOLE thing by myself. oops. The coconut syrup is good too, it has fresh coconut cream in it, so it’s different from the bottled stuff.
Prices were reasonable, but service was slow, it’s a good thing we had so much time to kill before our flight otherwise we’d be scrambling!
We had a lot of food leftover that we brought the leftover Neal’s chicken to eat on the plane, but never got around to it. It lasted the 13 hour flight back to New York, where we nuked it and ate it was rice and it still tasted pretty good! haha.
I think this would be a pretty good place for breakfast as their egg dishes on the menu looked pretty tasty.

After a horrible experience at No. 1 Chinese Food & BBQ the previous night, we were desperate for something halfway decent.
Came here 2 consecutive days for breakfast. Had soup both days. I dunno why but I was craving soup in Kauai sooo bad!
The saimin broth was a tad on the salty side (and i like salt!) and the teri chicken in it was dry (yes even tho it was sitting in the broth). My dining partner had fried rice, eggs and portiguese sausage and this was delish! We shared a pancake with some homemade coconut syrup. This also was gooood! Moist and perfect! The next day I had the won ton min with garlic shrimp and it turned out to be sooo much better than the saimin. The small bowl was more than enough. I made the mistake of ordering a med bowl the day before and had so much left I felt bad for wasting food. The broth in the won ton min was different and the shrimp was tasty.
The food was 3 stars. but the extra star goes to our server. i didnt get his name but he served us both days and was awesome. Efficient, genuiene, and funny. He recommended a place for good meat jun (which I was also craving) and we went there later that night for the best meat jun ever!

I WON’T EVER BE BACK. I RECOMMEND THAT PEOPLE AVOID YOUR RESTAURANT ENTIRELY!
I rarely give out one star ratings but, Oki, today you earned it. I would give you no stars if that were possible.
1 Your decent but nothing special food is not worth waiting over an hour for! if you have a problem with your kitchen staff not showing up for the day you need to tell people before they sit down and wait for thirty minutes. We arrived around 8:10. We ordered our drinks around 8:15 AM and our food around 8:30 AM. My guava juice came quickly along with two glasses of water but my coffee never showed up. About a half an hour later I overheard the people next to us talking. It turns out that only one cook showed up for the day. Why didn’t you tell us this? Why did we have to overhear it from the table next to us? Why didn’t you tell us before we sat down (now for 40 minutes with no food) so we could make a decision about whether to eat there or not? Why did we have to hear it from a neighbor? Why did you never tell us?
2. Ok, so one of your cooks never showed up. What does that have to do with your never bringing my coffee and never once refilling our waters for the entire two and a half hours we were there? I had to get up and get the coffee myself. I never was even offered a refill of coffee until about an hour and ten minutes after I got it. I refilled it three times myself, after initially pouring it myself.
3 Mitch, you are a horrible waiter. Why did you ignore our table for the entire time we were there except once to bring the food and once to take our order??? Other tables got their coffee. Other tables were told about the situation in the kitchen. Other tables got their waters refilled. It wasn’t like you were busy bringing food out of the kitchen. (Nobody got their food for over an hour). This was not the kitchen’s fault. This was you intentionally ignoring us. One wonders if it was because we were the only table with two guys sitting at it on an early Sunday morning. One wonders if this the way you treat all same sex couples that enter your restaurant.
4 Mitch you are a horrible waiter countinued: When you finally brought our food over an hour after we ordered it you failed to offer me the selection of syrups that you offered other tables. I overheard you explaining the selection of many different syrups available to the couple next to us. I had to ask you about it specifically. You couldn’t have cared less if I got what I paid for.
5. Mitch you are a horrible waiter continued & Oki you are falsely advertising. All over the restaurant you have signs you take credit cards. When I gave you my credit card you told me the machine was down. Again, why didn’t you disclose these things to us before we sat down so we could make a decision about whether we wanted to eat there or not? You couldn’t have cared less. We were lucky we had enough cash to pay for the meal. What would we have done if we hadn’t???
6. Mitch you are a horrible waiter and Oki you have awful customer service. Ok, so we finally get our bill and it is wrong. We were charged for two coffees. I don’t think I should have even had to pay for one since i had to get it and refill it myself. After several minutes waiting for you to come back again with the corrected bill. We still left you a ten percent tip. I regret doing that. After a thorough analysis of what happened it was clear you deserved nothing.
update: My attention has recently been directed to Trip Adviser where there are tons of bad reviews of Oki’s. Many talk about how they waited over an hour for their food and how they didn’t accept their credit cards. I am kind of shocked that the Unilocal rating on this place is three stars. And, although I thought the place could use a little cleaning, these reviews mention rodent and insect problems and even people getting sick from the food. From what I have seen in these reviews and with my experience, the restaurant really should be shut down. It seems they count on the fact that you are tourist and that you won’t be coming back any way. I will be contacting American Express about this restaurant’s breach of contract and false advertising as well.
I WON’T EVER BE BACK. I WILL RECOMMEND THAT PEOPLE AVOID YOUR RESTAURANT ENTIRELY!

Apparently, islanders don’t like to keep their businesses open on Sundays, especially Sunday night. So after cruisin’ around the quiet streets, we came to Oki Diner, which is conveniently open till midnight.
Mom and I shared the $ 15 Hawaiian plate, consisting of teriyake beef, lau lau, kalua pork rice and your choice of fresh green salad or macaroni salad. I gotta say, the lau lau and the kalua pork were delicious. The rest was forgettable. The teriyake beef: bland. The macaroni salad: odd tasting, and not in a good way.
The service was blunt but fairly helpful, I guess we’re just used to a lot of ‘hi how are you’s. For late night eats, Oki did an OK job.

Oki is ok. We ate here twice only by default only because of the convenient location and we were headed in that direction anyway. The first time was because of the advertising in all the travel ads and it was the logical place to stop for a quick lunch. The location is key for this eatery and I believe the reason for their popularity. The décor is casual and very spacious with both indoor and outdoor tables. However, it is very overpriced. For example, TWO pancakes cost $ 8!!! Not worth it. Not the best pancakes but pretty good. The food and service is good ok. I would recommend this place a standby.

SLOOOOOOW Service.
We were ready to order right away and from the time it took them to take our order and for us to receive our food must have been close to 20 minutes or more. That’s ridiculous considering this is a diner and it wasn’t crowded at all.
I had the pancakes and they were good but didn’t have anything amazing about them. The vanilla syrup was good but not THAT big of a deal. My dad and my husband enjoyed their loco mocos and cousin Nainoa ate all his steak and eggs so they apparently had no complaints but they are notoriously easy to please.
4 people with tip was about $ 60 so it wasn’t THAT great of a deal either. Apparently the big appeal is they are the only late night spot on the island but I see no other reason to go.

I had the chicken teri saimin, which tasted exacty as I expected, which is to say like ramen from a (decent) mix. My wife had hash browns, which turned out nothing like the picture but instead came out in two microwaved bricks.
The place had a weird atmosphere. It was about 8p on a Thu night. There was one other party in the entire restaurant, but they had hip-​hop and rap music playing on the radio. We felt like the cleaning crew after a late-​nite party that ended an hour ago. The menu had pictures, which I’m a sucker for. Word of warning: On my previous visit I ordered their «special chicken» which somehow tasted terrible.

I loved their breakfast!
The guy who served us was super friendly!
Pancakes with pineapple and home made strawberry and coconut syrup– CHECK
Portuguese sausage– CHECK
Eggs sunny side up– CHECK
Coffee– CHECK!
I love the way they make their fried rice– my boyfriend had never had kamaboko before and it was hilarious watching him try it! (fortunately he liked it)
The girls were off doing the helicopter tours so we went and had breakfast… I am coming back for more! (when my credit card is paid off)

Their pancake syrups are very tasty. They have exotic flavors like coconut, strawberry, and macadamia nut syrups.
However, the diner itself is a little bit… dirty… shady… I dunno
The food was pretty tasty. I got the breakfast buffet and found all of the food to be very good! The pancakes were average, but awesome with the addition of the syrups.
There were flies everywhere (no windows, so what else can you expect), and the syrups did have ants crawling on them… so minus two stars for the buggies!