Hanalei Taro & Juice Company Lunch Wagons

Eh. Just okay. We came because of all the good Unilocal reviews but it was just mediocre. We ordered the lau lau plate, pork tacos, and the punch drink – which the guy taking our order couldn’t even tell us what was in it. The tacos were pretty good but the lau lau was just okay.
I also felt like this was a tourist trap spot. While we ate we watched three tour groups roll through here for their lunch stop… and had to listen to their guides over and over again.

Food is really good, we love the king lau lau combo, price is good for big portion. We also ordered 2 taco, love the sauce and the portion!

Tasty, worth visiting. Pretty affordable. I uploaded a photo of the updated prices. Try the pulled pork.

Delicious! Did not know what to expect but this place is a find.
Ordered the lau lau plate. The lau lau was perfect, as was the lomi salmon– fresh and flavorful. Portion was good size so my husband and i shared. Highly recommend.

Helpful tip: Get here early as in 11/11:30 or it will sell out! My favorite Hawaiian plate lunch on the island. Really delicious food and drinks. Great location on the way to the beach in Hanalei. Everything was so tasty. We are total foodies and wanted to try everything on the island once and this is the only place we ate at twice. Nothing was greasy or heavy. Everything we ordered had awesome flavor and the lady running the truck was so nice! The king plate can easily serve 2 – 3, big portions.

Kalua Pork was salty enough to make it so tasty. Lau Lau Chicken was wrapped in taro leaves had great flavor the leaves were very tasty too. Lau Lau pork made the pork infused with the taro flavor. Salmon Lomi on the side was a nice touch and delicious. Taro mac salad was outstanding. One of the best traditional Hawaiian food meals we have had this trip. Food truck style with outdoor picnic tables.

I waited for a little over a week in kauai to get some good lau lau. I was so happy I did because this place did it right! The lau lau was straight ONO (delicious)!!! The portion sizes are huge so even though it’s $ 10 – 12 you’re getting great portion sizes. If you’re in the north shore and want a good traditional Hawaiian cuisine… Look no further!

I think we caught this place at an unfortunate time. They were out of almost everything and customer service was sub par. I ordered a smoothie and it was pretty average. The mochi cake however was delicious!

A inexpensive way to experience the unique flavors of Hawaii! The food was very good, the staff friendly and the portions and prices reasonable.

Loved the taro burger and their juice! A great place to stop for a quick and easy lunch in Hanalei.

The BEST food in Hanalei by far. Just do yourself a favor and order: Kings Mixed Plate with Pork. I would try the watermelon drink next time. Ginger lemonade was pretty gingery for my taste but my husband loved it. We ordered the Guava smooth which had banana, taro, guava… delicious. We waited to eat here until our last day and I’m so bummed we did! I don’t get the bad reviews– they obviously didn’t know what to order.

If you’ve never had Hawaiian food before, this is as good as it gets!
I’m sure you saw the overlook and stopped to take pictures of the endless lo’i kalo fields in Hanalei.
Take those crops that sustained generations of Hawaiians, harvest, and pound the kalo or corm, mix with water and you’ve got poi. One of the best and most complex carbohydrates. In fact, poi is the perfect baby food!
This place is literally farm to truck.
If poi is not your thing, try a smoothie. The poi gives it the perfect texture and the fruit completely erases the poi taste.
My mom and I shared the King Kalo Plate with poi. Only chicken laulau was left and it was delicious. Laulau is also made by using the leaves, think spinach, and your super moist delicious meat. The kalua pig, was ono! Mac salad, yum!
Taro mochi (Japanese sweet rice dessert) was life changing!
I wanted all three drinks that were being offered but settled for a lilikoi (passion fruit) tea. So refreshing, I wish I had three.
I can’t wait to plan my next trip to Hanalei just to eat here!!!

Great plate lunches. I had the Kalua pork bowl because I didn’t want to eat the whole plate, and it was so delicious. Oh what I’d give for another one of those. Kalua pork plate was just as good, though it included macaroni salad and a bit of dessert too. Lau lau plate was tasty too. If you’re in the area, it’s definitely worth a stop. Would love to come back.

Stopped here on the way back from Tunnels Beach. Read the other Unilocal reviews on the car ride and made my selection.
Order the barbecue pork sandwich, pork tacos and Brazilian blast smoothie $ 18.75. That was the only smoothie option available and it was delicious. Nothing special just a good smoothie after day out in the sun. The tacos were good (3 – 4 stars), would eat again but nothing to drive out of the way for. The sandwich (2 stars) was disappointing. It was pork in a hamburger bun, some veggies, cut in half with some bbq sauce drizzled on top. Not as large as another Unilocaler made it seem.
Worker said the King plate is popular and can feed 2. May consider that next time, especially since you get a piece of that mochi dessert.
Would stop here for lunch again if it’s on the way. Recommend the smoothie, but don’t recommend the bbq sandwich unless you like mediocre food.

We discovered the truck while browsing the Kauai Community Market in Lihue; they are there every Saturday morning.
I knew coming to Hawaii that I wanted to try the Lau Lau. So I got the Plate ($ 9). The pork laulau that comes with sides; rice, mac salad, lomi salmon and a taro dessert. It was alot a food. they load you up on rice and the laulau is alittle smaller than my whole hand.
The service was excellent and quick. About a 5 minute wait.
Also had it again at their truck in Hanalei on a tasting tour. This one was busier, but we didn’t suffer on quality or time. I missed out on the mochi cake this time, hopefully I will return to Kauai sooner, rather than later.

OMG the taro mochi cake. SO GOOD! I bought one and took it back to SF with me and then was SO sad I didn’t stock up on them.
Also had a lil Kahlua pork taco and a mango taro smoothie. pork taco was crazy-​delicious. The smoothie tasted just like a normal smoothie, which is good for the lactose-​intolerant or vegan folks out there, but pricey for a smoothie in general. I was eyeing the taro granola acai bowl, but the kindly cashier in the truck told me that it was just normal granola (?!) and it’s nothing special. looks like the stars are definitely the lunch dishes (and the taro mochi cake!!) and not so much the other stuff.

We were excited to try the food at this food truck because, well, taro! There was a small line-​up already when we arrived at 11:30am for lunch. We ordered the pork lau lau plate and a mango smoothie. The mango smoothie was pretty good. The lau lau plate was mixed. I thought that the taro was extremely bland and could use some seasoning. However, the lomi salmon was super salty. The pork was good, though I didn’t like the bitterness of the taro leaves that it was wrapped in. The macaroni salad was good as well. There are a few picnic tables near the food truck. It can get windy so hold down your lunch! Overall, we were a little disappointed and it’s unlikely that we’ll visit the food truck again.

*** MUST STOP ON THE ISLAND OF KAUAI ***
One of the most amazing food trucks I’ve ever eaten from. True local ingredients with lots of time and preparation to make sure everything tastes just right. LOVE this truck and it’s amazing natural drinks. I had this watermelon drink that was so sweet and clean. I ate this pulled pork that was called lau lau that is wrapped in this leaf. Very cool dish. The pork was so clean and fresh tasting. Excellent food. Better than all the food trucks I’ve eaten at in the Bay Area. Technically its not really a «mobile» food truck cause it looks like its been stationed there for quite sometime.
They also had the side of mac and cheese which tasted like it was true GOURMET. I don’t like mac and cheese usually cause its way too heavy and gross tasting sometimes. THIS ONE WAS PERFECT and LIGHT tasting. I liked it a LOT and think it might have been the BEST I’ve had in ALL of HAWAII. Recommend THAT as a side for sure. The tacos are fresh and delicious, you can look at my pictures of the ones we had. There was also this granola banana berry desert like thing that you could eat for breakfast or something I suppose. It was just alright I guess. Fresh for sure, which is what the ISLAND of Kauai is known for. This island really has some of the BEST quality food EVER.

A must-​see if you’re in Kauai! Between the super friendly owner, the delicious yet low-​priced food, & vibe of being a truly local spot, this was one of my favorite meals in my 9 day trip to Kauai. Highly recommended by a friend who was born and raised here!
Note: Beware of the roosters! They’ll hop on the tables and peck at your food, even if you are nearby:
Zero wait on a late rainy Saturday morning.
Like I said, the owner was really chipper & talked to us about her truck, other customers she’s interacted with, and her recs on the menu (though funnily enough, she doesn’t eat meat despite serving some of the best pork I’ve had on the island).
Cost: ~$ 30 for 1 plate lunch, 1 entrée, 1 drink, 1 smoothie, and 1 dessert. A good lunch for the two of us.
Must-​Haves: Lau Lau Pork if you want something unique, Kalua Pork Taco if you want juicy pork meat, Kulolo if you want a different local dessert.
Ginger soda + Kalua taco:
* Kalua Pork Taco (2/​$ 5.75) — 4 stars
cross-​section:

Crazy juicy and moist pork meat. Light on the flavor, but the quality of the meat is out-​of-​this-​world. The tortillas weren’t super fresh/​impressive.
* Fresh Ginger Soda ($ 3) — 4 stars
Super strong, fairly sweet, good! Chunks of ginger in there!
* Kulolo ($ 5.25) — 4 stars
pic:
Only item recommended by that friend who grew up in Kauai. A very traditional Hawaiian taro cake, texture very dense and chewy, kind of like mochi but not so stretchy. They get it fresh Saturdays so we got one that hadn’t even been labeled yet!
* Taro Smoothie ($ 5.50) — 4 stars
Mine had some combo of mango, papaya, lilikoi. Very fresh fruits, great tropical mixture that’s not too sweet. I *think* the taro came through in the texture — slightly grainy/​starchy (sounds weird but I really like this different texture) that’s subtle — you’d have to be looking for it.
* Lau Lau Plate (Pork wrapped in in taro leaves, steamed. $ 9) — 4 stars
pic, wrapped up:
pic, unwrapped:
Never had anything like this! Though the meat is pretty lean, it comes out very soft and moist due to the steaming. Some of the leaves are so softened by the cooking and I’m not sure if I was supposed to but I ate some w/​the pork, and it added a unique bitter-​ish greens flavor.
Menu:
Specials:

Taro-​dise!
Who knew that taro shakes and taro mochi cakes were going to completely hit the spot? It was all so good in fact, and we were so hungry, that I don’t have a photo to show you. It was good, and its gone!
This easy going locals food truck is located near to Wishing Well Shave Ice (great bet for shave ice, in my opinion) in a green, muddy parking lot full of chickens and roosters in Hanalei.
This is surfer fare. Good orders include a pig plate, or their lau lau plate, which are enormous and which those with a smaller appetite might share. Each plate comes with rice and poi (or double rice, if you are not a poi fan) macaroni salad w/​taro, salsa, a giant amount of kalua pork (it is pretty salty), and a small square of taro mochi for dessert. There is an orange oil sauce that adds a big kick up the heat to add to the pork, which needs a jolt.
Nice little surf shack of food. Tasty smoothies. Family friendly. One of the better low cost options in Hanalei.

Amazing piña kolada smoothie and taro Micho cake

Great prices, good food made with local, fresh ingredients. Excellent value and definitely the best food in Princeville. Highly recommend picking up the Taro hummus with two bags of pita chips before long excursions — makes a great, nutritious (and cheap!) snack to take along.