SLEEPING GIANT GRILL
ADDRESS: 440 Aleka Place, Kapaʻa, HI 96746
INSTAGRAM: @sleeping_giant_grill
While spending time in Kauai, my wife Cami and I were wanting to take advantage of the fresh seafood available on the island. We did some research near where we were staying and found our way to Sleeping Giant Grill, located just down the street from us. Sharing a parking lot with the Aston Islander hotel, the restaurant seemed to be a pretty popular place, with a decent number of people already eating there when we pulled up at 6:30PM.
The menu itself offers a good variety of different options, including burritos, tacos, wraps, salads, or mixed plates. The protein options also can be land, sea, or vegetarian, so there’s you can definitely customize your meal around all types of appetites in your group. Since we were on the lookout for seafood, we gravitated towards their fish options. I’ve always been a fan of fish tacos, and was initially torn between the options of either ono or ahi. The woman taking our order then mentioned that we could mix and match (applicable to the other proteins as well), and you’d just pay the price of the more expensive one. Music to my ears, so I went with the sautéed ahi and fried ono tacos, while Cami went with the grilled mahi mixed plate.
The majority of the seating seemed to be outside, where there are a number of tables situated in front of the entrance to the restaurant. If you’d prefer to dine inside though, there are several large wooden tables that they have set up in a side area past where you order your food. Your name gets called at the front once your order is ready, and it probably took maybe around 10 or 15 minutes for our food to be ready, despite how popular the restaurant was at the time.
I was definitely ready to dive into my fish tacos once we got them. Each one was topped with shredded cabbage, salsa, cheddar cheese, garlic cilantro cream, diced red onions, and scallions. I liked the fact that there was a texture contrast between the two tacos, since one was grilled and the other was fried. The sautéed ahi ended up being marinated before it was grilled, which gave it a flavor more on the sweet side. These were proper 8″ soft tacos, but at a little over $9 per taco, that seems a bit on the expensive side.
Sleeping Giant Grill is situated in a pretty convenient spot for some fresh seafood plates if you’re staying at any of the nearby hotels, but it’s also not too far of driving distance from other areas along the shoreline either. There’s certainly a good variety of different options available on the menu. But while the food tasted good, I wouldn’t say it’s something I would go out of my way for. The pricing also leans a bit more on the expensive side, although I’m not sure if that’s just the general norm for the area.
Let’s now take a look at the Sleeping Giant Grill Dish Spotlight. Asterisks (*) below mark my recommended dishes.
** Fish Taco Plate **
Two fish soft tacos, topped with shredded cabbage, salsa, cheddar cheese, garlic cilantro cream, diced red onions, and scallions. Fried ono (pictured left) and sautéed ahi (pictured right).
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** Mahi Mixed Plate **
Grilled mahi with butter sauce, served with sides of mac salad and rice.
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And finally, here are my rankings for Sleeping Giant Grill:
Food: 4.25 / 5
No shortage of options here when you can choose between burritos, tacos, wraps, salads, or mixed plates. Featuring seafood, meat, or vegetarian, the food definitely had good flavor from what we tried and tasted fresh.
Atmosphere: 4 / 5
The outdoor tables are definitely meant to take advantage of the Kauai sunshine, but the tables inside were slightly packed into the dining area, which could end up getting a bit loud if it was fully packed.
Service: 4 / 5
As a restaurant where you ordered at the counter and brought the food back to your table, our interaction with the staff was pretty neutral. The kitchen did seem to stay pretty well afloat amidst the crowd that was there.
Price: 3.75 / 5
Food prices were definitely on the more expensive side, but that might just be how it is in that part of Kauai. My plate of soft tacos ran $19, while Cami’s mahi mixed plate ended up being $26.
Overall:
16 / 20
(80%)
Categories: Hawaii, Restaurants
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