2 Best Restaurants in The West Side, Kauai

Folks love this roadside café—especially at breakfast and lunch, though it's good for dinner, too—for its casual neighborhood feel and lengthy menu with omelets, sandwiches, burgers, and plenty more. Lots of Kauai products are used here, including Anahola Granola, fruit for smoothies, fresh-caught fish, and coffee, which you can also buy by the pound. Takeout is an option. This is a solid choice, with vegetarian and gluten-free options, in an area with limited restaurants.

The reins have been handed over to the next generation at this family-run restaurant, where meats are grilled over kiawe wood for a smokey flavor. Steaks and burgers are made from from Rancher's Daughter's Reserve grass-fed Kauai beef, lettuce is grown nearby at Iwikua Farms, and there's usually a locally caught fish special. Denim-covered seating, decorative saddles, and a stagecoach in a loft transformed the old Ako General Store in Waimea into a comfortable Western-look steak house where you can eat on the front porch, on a deck out back, or in the old-fashioned wood-panel dining room. Live music is lined up nightly, and The Saddle Room saloon stays busy until 10 pm, thanks to a dozen appetizers, a decent selection of beers, and "fancy kine" cocktails. Time things right and you can enjoy a bite before a movie at the Waimea Theater across the street.