Aloha Sandi H - Thank you so much for sharing your experience and writing a review here on TripAdvisor.
I'm Dr. Addison, the new owner of Tasting Kauai and I'm deeply saddened that you felt that your experience on the North Shore was overpriced and a lot of yapping. If I understand your comment correctly, you are a vegetarian and you were only able to experience the banana bread and dried fruit. With that experience, I totally agree that for a $100, not worth it at all.
First off, we always accommodate for food preferences (at no charge - even though it requires chefs to create special dishes just for you) and it sounds like we either did not receive your information when you registered that you are vegetarian or our stops weren't able to create you something special. With that, I'd be happy to refund you your hard earned $100. Please email me at
[email protected].
Secondly, I apologize for all the yapping. We designed our food tours to not be a "stuff your face" experience but one where you get to taste food that is unique to our culture and locally sourced ingredients. If you were looking for that kind of experience, we definitely aren't the tour for you and if there are guests here reading this, this tour is not for you. Our food tours are designed for you to spend quality time with chefs, owners, with ingredients they choose to create with, that are from this island, that you will not find anywhere in the world. Although it may present itself as a pizza, or a hamburger, they are local ingredients grown here. The reason this is special and important for our tours is that approximately 95% of our food here on Kauai is imported. So these tours are designed to also support local farmers, ranchers, who are trying to change this paradigm. The stops you experienced, the chefs you met, are people who are on a mission to create a culinary experience that excites your palates and helps our local farmers, ranchers, and community live a healthy and happy life.
Hence, all the yapping.
Lastly, I'd prefer you to take that money and donate it to the Hawaii Foodbank - Kauai branch (where we already donate a portion of your tour towards) instead of throwing it off a cliff. Due high cost of living and a tourist-driven economy, 1 in 8 adults here on Kauai is food insecure. Meaning, at some point this month 1 in 8 adults will not be able to afford food to eat, and will visit the pantries here on Kauai. So while you were able to afford an overpriced food tour on your vacation, just know you helped a few people get food on this crazy but beautiful island.