The downhill spiral of a great restaurant…

February 6th, 2008

I never thought I’d have to write these words but it’s a last desperate plea to restore a restaurant that many visitors and locals are quickly warning others to stay away from. When we found Oki Diner in Lihue, we thought we’d struck local food gold. Sure, the rundown location was less than appealing and the snail-like service was a little irritating but you put a plate lunch of teri beef, kalua pig, fried noodles, sticky rice and a scoop of mac salad in front of us and we were happy haoles. When they moved to a new location on Rice Street that looked to be a step up, we were very excited. That excitement was short lived.

We have had nothing but bad luck with Oki Diner ever since they moved there. They no longer give you the cornbread, they refuse substitutions now and charge outrageous prices to sub out one meat for another, when I say the service is slow…I mean the diner has 3 tables of customers and it takes an hour to get your food and it’s overdone like its been sitting and then reheated. Add a rude, lazy and sometimes neurotic wait staff and you have a recipe for disaster for this former favorite. I used to recommend this restaurant to EVERYONE who was going to Kauai. I told them to ignore the hole in the wall feel and call the order in to avoid the slow service but now there’s no way I would send anyone there. I’m not the only person who feels this way, the reviews on TripAdvisor for Oki have never been great but they are now consistently negative.

All is not lost for Oki Diner though. It’s going to take owner Barbie Oki, a beloved staple of the Kauai community, throwing herself into commiting to the kind of quality and quantity she used to be known for. It can be done. I hope it WILL be done because I’ll be the first person to send people back there and would gladly amend this review to rave about its positive change. But in a business that is already fickle in the islands where long time, neighborhood staple mom and pop restaurants seem to fold like a deck of cards after years of consistently good service…how long can the open sign stay lit for the once great Oki Diner?

Comments

5 Comments so far

callie on February 6, 2008 2:37 pm
It is up to them to improve their services ya know?
Hopefully this will give them a push in the right direction eh kamaaina?

~c
MrBeachBum on February 6, 2008 3:39 pm
Oki was a place where the locals who work in the downtown Lihue area would go to get their carry-out lunches. This, in my opinion, was always a sign of a good restaurant. I did not witness this same occurence at the new location which means that even the locals have kind of had it with them. I hope they get the clue sooner rather than later. That cornbread was to die for!
Local Kine on February 8, 2008 3:20 pm
I ate breakfast there the last time I was on Kauai more than a year ago, and it was exactly as you described it in your first paragraph.

It’s too bad they changed for the worst. Well, hopefully they’ll take note of your post.
Beat of Hawaii on February 14, 2008 4:36 pm
Things are changing at Oki Diner. Chef Dominic Benzon is now there with a new dinner menu. He was the chef at Nick’s Fish Market in Waikiki for ten years and is now back on Kauai to take care of his mom.

We’ll be going to Oki Diner in the next few days and posting a review of their new menu at Beat of Hawaii.

Aloha,
Rob
Pele on February 14, 2008 6:21 pm
Let’s hope they’re hiring some more staff interested in serving up the aloha spirit to go along with the new chef! I’m looking forward to your review and hopefully a renewed commitment from Oki Diner to good, reasonably priced local food with an average wait time!