Tidepools
Tidepools is the flagship restaurant at the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa, the sprawling family-friendly hotel on the south side of the island in Poipu. I say family-friendly, but there are as many couples as there are families with children, as this resort also exudes romance and beauty throughout. Stevenson’s Library is the other high-end restaurant at the resort, so if you must choose between the two it’s going to come down to a matter of cuisine and ambiance when deciding where to eat, although each place offers the finest in both; and why not just eat at each one? They are also both very expensive, but enough about Stevenson’s – is Tidepools worth the splurge and does it provide value despite the high prices?
The Grand Hyatt Kauai is a category 7 hotel and is bookable with points at 30,000 points per night (25,000 points off-peak, 35,000 points peak). Room rates usually cost $800-1000 per night for the base standard room during the summer.
Points availability is very hard to come by during the winter holidays and over the summer, and you can expect to fork over 35k points during this period, IF you are able to find standard base rooms.
The restaurant is located below the lobby on the resort grounds and is surrounded by a large koi pond which itself is surrounded by immaculately maintained landscaping. You can easily identify the restaurant as you head down from the lobby by its numerous thatched huts.
There are menus posted outside the entrances that you can browse prior to entering. You can expect to pay resort prices for the meal and drinks, although the cost for dining here has gone up considerably since the last time we ate here, with the steak entrees having gone up 61% over the past year! The ribeye cost $49 in the summer of 2022, and as I was looking at the menu prior to arrival this past September, the new cost was $69. Hmmm, the cost for each entrée increased about $20 each, but I felt that the quality and the experience were enough to justify the updated prices. We arrived on a Monday and our reservation was for Friday evening – my wife checked the menu again just for fun on Thursday and the prices went up again, to $79 per entrée! Still, we love Tidepools so much that we kept the reservation for the five of us, especially as we had booked their special Table 42.
What is Table 42? Tidepools has a lot of reserved seating spread throughout the space, but if you want to guarantee a flawless and neighbor-less 2-hour dining experience, Tidepools has a separate dining ‘hut’ which is situated on top of the koi pond and separated from the main dining areas by a cute little walkway. The dining space is diamond-shaped and encircled by the koi pond on three sides, and it is just a delightful setting with the sun slipping behind the horizon (to be more specific, behind the resort grounds) and the koi gently splashing in and out of the water periodically. The table seats a maximum of six and is available for reservations at 5pm and 7-730pm nightly. There is a minimum of $450 food/drink spend before tip and tax. Well, I thought, at least we’ll hit the minimum spend without much effort!
Reservations at all of the tables here do go fast, so save your spot on the OpenTable website as soon as you book your vacation and know that you’ll be dining here. This also applies to Stevenson’s Library, although there is usually more availability and last-minute open reservations at Stevenson’s.
For a ‘hotel’ restaurant, the food is actually up to par with the finer steakhouses on the mainland, with the ribeye steaks and New York strips being cooked perfectly to medium rare and the entire dining experience being exceptional service-wise. The food checked off everything on the checklist – presentation, temperature, flavor, creativity, and freshness. One thing I can say for sure is that this restaurant serves up both excellent quality and enough quantity to leave all of the dining party satisfied. Service was attentive and not intrusive.
One complaint that I do have is that the cocktails are pretty weak and tasteless – they were very similar to the drinks we ordered from the Hale Nalu lunch spot by the pools in that there was not much alcohol or flavor. The cocktails at Stevenson’s Library are world-class and put the Tidepools counterparts to extreme shame. Other than the anemic drinks, you’re in Hawaii! Relax, enjoy the meal and ambiance, and savor not just the flavors but all of the senses that are being stimulated while the two hours blissfully pass by.
Table 42 is pretty magical and nothing can beat the atmosphere of relaxing in your own private and secluded section, surrounded by water and foliage, munching on delicious food, and just breathing in all of the beauty and serenity that Kauai has to offer. Not even the bill could break the enchanted state of consciousness with which the previous two hours had dosed all of us. If you’re a Hyatt member, make sure to charge the bill to your room to earn 5 points per dollar (or 6.5 points if you have Globalist status), and then pay the room charges on checkout with the Hyatt credit card to earn another 4 points per dollar. The total after tax and tip? $595 – this equals 6,247 Hyatt points that you can stash towards your next vacation.
You should definitely dine here if you’re staying at the Grand Hyatt Kauai, although there are a lot of good eats off resort where you can eat for a lot less money (check out Kiawe Roots, for example) – but you can check out those off-resort restaurants on other days.
The dessert offerings are a sweet and delicious way to end the meal, and are typically complimentary if you inform staff that you (or someone in the dining party) are celebrating a special occasion – and most of you will be celebrating something!
I can’t recommend this restaurant enough! Table 42 is the perfect setting for that one special & romantic meal, if you can reserve it. If you have been here before, let me know what you think of the restaurant, or of the resort in general, in the comments below.
