Aupaka Terrace

Located in Marriott’s Kauai Beach Club Resort, I eat here for breakfasts only during my honeymoon in 2008, and it’s my favorite breakfast spot in the world. I wake up everyday of my stay here hoping they have my Coconut Turnovers in stock at $ 4 a pop. Expensive? No, it is a bargain to have the food of the gods in your mouth, hot and so good. Passion fruit juice is served here too, from a carton, but what else would it come in with such demand.
The breakfast has no waiters, but is more like a quick service eatery where you pick up your items from a breakfast bar and check out at a cashier. It’s the only way to go with such high volume during the peak season.
The servers behind the breakfast bar counter are so friendly, and are so open about everything from talking about their lifestyles to how all the products are made, procured and stored. It’s not a fake façade friendliness, but a wholesome, you are part of the family kind of friendliness.
Sitting above the pool in private nooks, the beach rolling in just beyond, and watching the clouds go by with perfect breezes blowing by. It’s my bit of heaven. I just sit back, relax, and take it all in. I could literally sit for hours there and just smile.

We made this our morning stop for coffee (get the Mahalo Mug, it will save you tons of money during your stay) and fresh fruit (try the papaya)! It’s so convenient and never a wait! Grab some coffee and have a nice morning walk on the beach with a beautiful sunrise!

This is the one of the two places we usually had breakfast at while staying at the hotel. The food is good and the menu varied. There are lots of places to sit and they will serve you from this menu from wherever you sit. We enjoyed each of our visits here.

While staying at the hotel, we wanted to try some food. We were already bummed by the crap service at dukes, so we really wanted to try elsewhere. I got the prime rib the night we went. I’m not a steak person at all. And when I got it, it looked amazing! I cut in to it, and it was stil pink, but when I bit in to it, omg it was amazing!!! The best steak of my life! My wife took a bite, not a big steak person either, and she was blown away by it as well. Well worth the money!!!
My wife got the sushi, it was pretty expensive for 4 rolls, and tempora. The roll was good, but only 3 tempora. :(
All in all, i enjoyed the food very much! We left with a much bigger smile than we did when we left dukes. Try this place.

While we stayed at the Marriott in Lihue during our most recent visit, Kukui’s was closed for remodel (reopening September 1, 2009). The rooms lack cooking facilities, so we ate out most nights. This trip we choose to go places within walking distance, and that included Duke’s Canoe Club, Gingbua Thai Restaurant, and Aupaka Terrace. I don’t think of Aupaka Terrace as a destination restaurant for non-​guests, but overall we were really pleased with the food we had there.
Aupaka Terrace features:
* Four nightly specials
* Extensive sushi menu
* Full bar
* Outdoor (sheltered terrace) dining overlooking pool and ocean
* Breakfast
* Weekend brunch
What we tried here:
* Chicken chow mein
* Fresh Hawaiian catch with banana salsa
* Teriyaki ribeye with vegetable stir-​fry
* Unagi avocado maki (not on the sushi menu, but they made it anyway)
* Chi Chi (Pina Colada with vodka) and Mai Tai
* Chocolate Burst (dessert)
* Bento box (breakfast takeout with scrambled egg, sticky rice, sausage, and pickled vegetables)
* Cut pineapple (breakfast takeout)
Positives:
+ The sushi bar is fabulous and top-​notch. Sushi is super fresh and gorgeous.
+ My husband’s steak was crispy on the outside, tender on the inside. Very flavorful, and one of the best steaks I’ve tried in a long, long time. I’m not usually big on red meat, but I stole several bites.
+ My fish (I think it was opakapaka) with banana salsa and lemon grass was really tasty.
+ The drinks were great.
+ The breakfast bento box was interesting and a decent value ($ 7.50) for the amount of food in it.
+ You can watch the chef cook.
+ Friendly service.
Negatives:
— Dessert was a miss the night we tried it. We renamed Chocolate Burst «Chocolate Fizzle.» It was heated and supposed to have warm fudge inside, but it was pretty dry.
— The chicken chow mein was only so-​so. The chicken was a bit fatty, the noodles uninspired.
— It appears that for breakfast many diners (even those eating at the Aupaka Terrace) still use styrofoam. I’m not sure what’s up with the excessive packaging.
— Like many places in Kauai, it’s expensive.

Staying at the Marriott for several days we got to know this place very well. Ate breakfast here just about every day — we had free breakfast (up to $ 21/​person). Let me tell you… even between the two of us at $ 42 total there were a couple of days when we would exceed that! A little pricey for breakfast is a tad understatement. But hey, it’s the Marriott…
Breakfast is full of the usual fare. If you ever had breakfast before, then you would know what breakfast is like (you know what I mean…). $ 4 for juice, $ 1.50 for a slice of toast. $ 11 – 12 gets you a massive omelet with home fried potatoes — not too bad and you get a lot of food. You probably wouldn’t want to eat an omelet every day…
Coffee was $ 3.50 with 1 refill (they seem to limit all refills to one). Saw a lot of people get the $ 29 souvenir mug that gets you unlimited coffee, tea, etc. If we had to pay for our breakfast we would’ve got that for sure. We like our coffee. A lot.
Ok, moving on to dinner now…
First things first, they close early for food… at or right before 9pm. There’s really two things you can get here — sushi and the daily specials. We tried both. Nigiri is average, not bad… the rice, not so good… the fish pretty fresh. Rolls were ok. Not the best prices — surprise surprise. On par, quality/​experience wise as Sushi Bushido (where we also went). So neither here nor there kinda feeling.
Dinner specials, well those were pretty damn tasty. I had the tuna, the wife had these seafood cakes with fettuccine. My tuna was fresh, cooked perfectly rare, good seasoning & sauces (my only complaint was that there might have been too much sauce — oh, I remember what it was, it was this wasabi butter and something else. Good though.). Also it’s not the most thickest cut piece of tuna. And during our stay the daily fish special was… tuna. Just cooked differently each day.
Specials run about $ 17 – 20. They have a full bar. You know what a bar is like. Not much of a draft beer selection.

Eh. Where to start. Hubby & I are staying at Marriott for our anniversary and wanted to just stay at the hotel for dinner. Since we love sushi, we decided to give aupaka terrace a shot. Didn’t expect much since all day I watched the same location sell continental breakfast items.
3 stars because the sushi was decent– it was fresh, which is a must– but pricey. There isn’t much to the menu, the nigri are your best bet. The rolls are ok– there is a good attempt to make creative rolls without a over-​reliance on krab (thank heavens!), but the rolls consisted of only 4 pieces, and the pieces were cut too big. Plus the rolls are about 11 – 12 bux a pop, but we pretty much expected that since it’s the Marriott. They also had some dinner specials (steak & fish), but we didn’t try those.
The environment is somewhat pretty at night– you are actually on the terrace above the pool, so it’s open & breezy. Overlooking the pool & the beach, which has tiki torches lit at night.
However, this terrace is also the walkway to the pool, so you have people in bathing suits (some wet) traipsing through your dinner. Most are ambivalent teenagers. Bleh.
If you want fresh fish & you are too lazy to leave the Marriott, then you can give aupaka a shot & let the rest of us Unilocalers know what you think.

i came here for dinner and breakfast. Aupaka Terrace is located on the main terrace which wraps around the Kauai Marriott. It overlooks the pools, palm trees, roman columns and the beach and has a great birds eye view of the whole resort.
They have tables on the terrace, couches and even tables on the private gazebos which are on top of the 5 jacuzzi’s that are part of the pool. The view here is truly spectacular.
They serve Japanese food at night and the fish is very fresh. I also saw other diners eating tempura and other types of entrees. They have a wide range of tropical and fruity drinks. We had the wasabi cheesecake for dessert and it was delicious! You could taste the wasabi but without the wasabi bite. I highly recommend that.
As for breakfast it is a continental style. They have pastries, coffees, espressos, yogurts, papayas, pineapples and juices. It is a tad bit pricey for what you get. The half papaya was $ 4.50, juices were $ 4.00, but you can enjoy the resort while eating breakfast. We enjoyed ours on the rocking chairs overlooking the pool.