Kauai gluten-free food options are plentiful along the south shore!! I will be going through the next several posts about our finds and eats throughout Kauai. Today enjoy our first day of amazing gluten-free finds!
Breakfast
We were famished after a full day of travel the day before. Our dinner the night before consisted of PB sandwiches, which we scarfed down right before our flight out of Phoenix, AZ to Lihue, HI. We hadn’t gotten groceries and we planned to do that after we ate. After a google search for gluten-free breakfast near us, I found Holoholo grill. It was so good! I will say we did try this place again another day and it was not quite as tasty as that first day. As one of the locals told us though you want to eat where “The aunties are cooking.” Aunties are the older Hawaiians!
I got the Kaluha Pork Hash without onions. Wow was it so good! I don’t know if it was the hunger, the first meal in HI, or all of the above. Kaluha pork is Hawaiian pork that is roasted with only Hawaiian sea salt, so completely safe for a low fodmapie like myself! In addition, it had bok choy, purple sweet potatoes, red potatoes, pepper, and jalapenos. If you like spicy you will love the jalapenos! I ended up moving those to the side after the first bite as they were a little too much of a kick for me. Ryan got the Loco Moco, which is a Hawaiian staple (definitely not low fodmap though!).
Lunch
After exploring the south side of the island we got lunch at Koloa Fish Market. I saw this listed on a Pinterest board as Kauai gluten free food. If you have never had Poke this is the place to try it! If you don’t like fish this is the place to try it! Oh my gosh, the fish just melts in your mouth. We got the Ahi Korean which listed fewer spices and that was fodmap friendly. Ryan and I got one to split with Edamame and a sweet cucumber salad which was cucumbers marinated in rice vinegar. (I wish we had gotten two sides of the cucumbers it was so yummy!). Poke is naturally gluten-free (fish ✔, rice ✔ – just make sure the sauce ingredients are low fodmap friendly)
The only thing is to check the business hours. They are operating mostly during lunch time it seems. Also, you cannot eat on the property. Right now it is a storefront window that you order at and then another window where you pick up and pay for the food. Regardless it was hopping even at 2:30 in the afternoon. You can also order fish to cook here too. They did do call-ahead orders. We ended up taking our order back and eating on our lanai.
Dinner
For dinner, we ate at Tidepools. This was not our favorite meal. It was one of the most expensive meals we had on the island. The food was okay, you are paying for the atmosphere. I am not going to lie I was a little disappointed even with the atmosphere. From the online posting, it looked like you were going to be in your little cabana, but it was all one big cabana with a bunch of tables underneath. We were seated somewhat privately at least and seated right by the koi fish pond.
I honestly was suffering from a terrible headache that quickly advanced into a migraine this night. Maybe if that didn’t happen I would have enjoyed this meal more! Regardless it was a very pretty setting.
We started the meal with polenta-encrusted scallops (which the waitress modified so I could eat). I had the Macadamia Nut Encrusted Fish (which they modified by taking off the nut encrusting because it contained onion). It was a really good fish regardless as was well seasoned with salt and pepper and then had a macadamia banana sauce that it was over. The fish was served over mashed purple sweet potatoes and a side of broccoli. Ryan had the Hawaiian catch and enjoyed his!
We skipped dessert here as there was nothing that could be modified Gluten Free/Low Fodmap. We enjoyed walking around the grounds and even saw a quick Hula performance as we walked back through the hotel (Grand Hyatt).
Overall, a good first day of eats. We ended the night somewhat early to go to bed! Stay tuned for more of our amazing eats around the island of Kauai!
