They say the most important meal of the day is breakfast, and in Hawaii, it’s also one of the most delicious! Scroll to find some of the best breakfasts in Kauai!
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Food in Hawaii can be expensive, but going out for breakfast on Kauai is cheaper than lunch or dinner. Most of the time, the portions are large enough to share, too!
Kauai has a great mix of local Hawaiian breakfast spots as well as places to get standard American fare or even Asian-style items.
From simple to extravagant, Kauai has some of the best breakfast restaurants in Hawaii.
Kauai Breakfast FAQs
Kauai is known for having some of the sweetest shrimp in Hawaii. They are also known for traditional Hawaiian dishes like poke, Loco Moco, Kalua Pork, and Huli Huli chicken.
Some longtime favorite local Kauai restaurants include Tip Top Cafe, Mark’s Place, and Hamura’s Saimin.
To save money on food, hit up local grocery stores and Kauai farmer’s markets for fresh produce and baked goods. You can also take advantage of Happy Hour deals as well as Kauai’s vibrant food truck scene.
Kauai Breakfast Items
Wondering what a Hawaiian-style breakfast looks like? Here are some of the most popular things to order for breakfast in Hawaii:
Loco Moco
This is my husband’s favorite Hawaiian breakfast food. It’s two scoops of rice topped with hamburger patties, a fried egg, and gravy.
The fancier places will also add in pickled ginger.
Some restaurants will offer loco moco with fried rice or kim chee fried rice.
Malasadas
Malasadas are Portuguese donuts and they kind of look like oversized donut holes. Typically, they are rolled in sugar and cinnamon.
However, bakeries are getting fancier and now you can find them with guava, haupia (coconut), chocolate, or almost any kind of filling.
These go great with a cup of coffee!
Spam and Eggs
It doesn’t get more Hawaiian than a breakfast of fried Spam and eggs. Usually, the eggs are scrambled and sometimes the whole thing is served over rice.
Spam Musubi
For breakfast on the go, one of the most popular things to eat is Spam musubi. It’s Hawaiian-style sushi.
The Spam is either marinated in a mixture of sugar and soy sauce and then fried or the fried Spam is topped with a special sauce. The Spam is placed on a bed of hot rice and wrapped in seaweed.
Portuguese Sausage
The most popular sausage in Hawaii is definitely Portuguese sausage. They are sausage links that are served whole, sliced up, or mixed in with scrambled eggs.
They also have Portuguese sausage musubi, which is just like Spam musubi only with Portuguese sausage.
Banana Macadamia Nut Pancakes
Hands down, this is my favorite Hawaiian breakfast food. Sometimes the pancakes are topped with macadamia nuts and other times it’s cooked inside the batter. Same with the bananas.
The bananas in Hawaii are so much sweeter and more flavorful than your everyday banana. Look for the apple banana. Sometimes the bananas are even caramelized.
Hawaiian Sweet Bread French Toast
If you like French toast, you’ll love Hawaiian sweet bread French toast. It’s made with thick bread and often comes with scrambled eggs and bacon (or Portuguese sausage.)
POG Juice
This stands for Passion, Orange, Guava juice and it’s delicious! If you fly Hawaiian Airlines, you’ll get a cup of it on your inter-island flight. But, we often order it at restaurants.
You can also buy cartons of POG at local Hawaii grocery stores and even on the Mainland!
7 Best Breakfasts in Kauai
Kalaheo Café & Coffee Company
Kalaheo Café & Coffee Company is located in the verdant hills of Kalaheo, where thousands of acres of rich coffee are ground under the beautiful Hawaiian sun.
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It was opened in 1994 and has grown to be a favorite eating spot among locals of Kalaheo as well as international visitors. And it’s one of the best Kauai coffee shops.
They serve the best coffee to start the day, but they are most widely known for their scrumptious breakfast menus which contain famous choices such as the “Bagel Benny” and the “Upcountry Breakfast.”
Their breakfast options are sure to bring you back in time for lunch and they have those covered as well.
Anuenue Café
Anuenue Café is a little breakfast restaurant located in the center of Poipu. They offer the best coffee and breakfast using the freshest and best-quality ingredients like grass-fed beef and produce grown locally.
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Open almost every day between 7 AM to 1 PM, hungry guests can come on in and order some of their signature breakfast dishes like the “Hitting Reef Omelet”, made with salsa, avocado, and queso fresco or the “Loco Moco,” a burger made with beef/steak/Kalua pork served with rice, eggs, and gravy.
Also available for order are various flavors of tea, seasonal fruits, and the most delicious locally roasted coffee.
Passion Bakery Café
Passion Bakery Café is located on the eastern side of Kauai in the Kinipopo Shopping Village. A wholesale and retail bakery, they offer freshly baked homemade cookies and various innovative pastries like the “Croiscone,” a hybrid between a croissant and a scone, or delicious blueberry, passion fruit, or mango muffins.
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Most importantly, they offer a delicious breakfast menu, serving the most amazing wraps, sandwiches, and burgers.
Their coffee and tea bar serves the finest Italian coffee and pizza lovers can order perfectly made sheet pan gourmet pizza by the slice.
Art Cafe Hemingway
The Art Cafe Hemingway gives its morning time guests the opportunity to experience a blend of creative and culinary artwork.
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Wooden chairs and tables are set in the midst of beautiful pieces of art, creating a sentimental feeling of eating in a French brasserie. The very same type of brasserie that an artist like Ernest Hemingway (whom the cafe is named after) would have written and eaten in.
Dishes are prepared fresh daily and are sourced from local farms. Still honoring the legendary writer, each meal is named after one of his famous book titles like “For Whom The Bell Tolls” and “The Sun Also Rises.”
Ono Family Restaurant
Ono Family Restaurant has been serving local-style breakfasts to its patrons in the Kauai community for more than three decades. They offer delicious breakfast options prepared using ingredients that are sourced from local fishermen, ranchers, and farmers as well as from distributors.
Step right in and try their Tropical Pancakes, made with shredded coconuts, macadamia nuts, and bananas, followed with a topping of whipped cream.
Also, try the Strawberry Sweet Bread French Toast, made with Portuguese sweet bread and then topped with strawberries, whipped cream, and powdered sugar.
Their restaurant preaches aloha to all that walk through their doors and eats their foods. They start serving diners from 7 AM every day and close by 2 PM.
Java Kai
Java Kai is a top-notch cafe that sources all their ingredients from local farms in Maui, Molokai, and Kauai. They take their coffee seriously and serve seriously delicious breakfasts and lunches as well.
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Visitors to this wonderful little world of coffee and chops are always faced with a conflict of choice; to buy a Feta Mo Beta, an egg sandwich prepped with sprouts, feta cheese, and pesto, or to go for a scrumptious acai bowl that has bananas, home-made granola, pineapples and more on top?
Regardless of their choices, nobody leaves this beautiful little cafe without testifying to the deliciousness of its coffee and meals.
Waipouli Deli & Restaurant
Located in Waipouli Town Center, Waipouli Deli & Restaurant is a popular breakfast spot among the locals and tourists alike.
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They serve delicious covers of classic English breakfasts like bacon and eggs served with pancakes, or hamburger steaks with mushrooms and onions.
They also serve a number of Japanese and Hawaiian dishes like chicken cutlets with fried noodles, loco moco, and beef sukiyaki.
