We had our wedding reception in October of this year. Manda, the private party coordinator, was awesome!! She always got back to me very quickly leading up to the reception. She was very helpful with suggestions (and not in a pushy way) when I was ever unsure of a decision. Since it wasn't a big wedding I didn't have a wedding coordinator. Manda knew that and offered any help she could give to make sure everything ran smoothly.

Food - food was excellent! Everybody loved the appetizers (lobster/goat cheese wontons, ahi nachos, garlic shrimp, sweet potato ravioli) and entrees (filet mignon and prime rib-->it was delicious!!).
The one dish that nobody seemed to like was the fish (mahi mahi). Nothing wrong with the way it was cooked, everyone just seemed to not like the flavor.

Cake - beautiful and tasty (strawberry chiffon)

Decor - regular was a mosaic candle in the middle of the table. We upgraded for $6 per table and got a fresh hibiscus flower in a bowel of water, per table. Smaller flowers are scattered around the table centers also (that's not an upgrade). I would recommend the upgrade. The regular mosaic candle is pretty small and does not look wedding-y (it's basically just the candles that are on every table in restaurant).

Entertainment - they always have live musicians in the main lobby and they piped the music to the private banquet room. Keep in mind though that the regular restaurant closes at 9:30pm or so (private parties can still until 10:30pm) and the music will stop then, also. We had polynesian dancers/musicians hired for entertainment after the restaurant music ended.

Price - very reasonable; much less than several other restaurants I looked into. Based on menu chosen, price ranged from ~35-50 per person.

In the private banquet room, there is a wall of windows that they keep open if weather permits. With it open, I thought it would be really chilly (late October) but I actually was kind of hot since there was no A/C.

I picked it mainly because of the good food reviews and we (and all our guests) were very happy with the entire experience.

Chantry and the Hukilau staff were an absolute pleasure to work with for our wedding reception. Out of all the vendors whom we worked with to plan our destination wedding, Chantry and the Hukilau staff were by far the best. We probably weren’t the biggest party that they had, but we never felt like it. They always had time for us. They worked with us through several conference calls with family members who wanted to be involved in the reception planning process, sent us photos of the reception room, and accommodated custom menu requests that we had. They were also kind enough to allow our guests to meet and park at the restaurant for an offsite beach wedding about an hour away, with the reception to follow later that evening at the restaurant. Chantry even went so far as to meet us and our guests as everyone was arriving for transportation to the wedding several hours before the reception to make sure that everyone knew where to go. This really blew us away; she really went above and beyond what we had expected for organizing our reception dinner. When we arrived the night of the reception, the setup was breathtaking. It was exactly what we had envisioned. Our friends and family still comment on how beautiful it was, how great the food was, and how attentive the wait staff and manager were to our party. Thank you, Chantry and Hukilau staff, for making our wedding reception truly memorable!

My husband and I had a destination wedding in Kauai with only 12 guests. We celebrated with an extravagant dinner at Hukilau Lanai. It was by far the best decision!

I exchanged dozens of emails with the staff at Hukilau Lanai (who were all extremely helpful and responsive) before Chantry was assigned to manage our dinner. Chantry, of course, was equally amazing!

It was very easy picking out a menu; for appetizers, we went with the ahi poke nachos, calamari, and lobster & goat cheese wontons. Our guests loved all of the dishes! We then had the soup or salad option (everyone picked the lobster bisque - hard to choose a salad over that!). For entrees, we had the choice of filet mignon, fresh catch of the day, and the pork tenderloin. Most of our guests chose either the filet mignon or the catch of the day.

Finally, our wedding cake was a round, two-tiered, chiffon cake with lilikoi filling and vanilla buttercream. The cake was textured and decorated with Hukilau Orchid Heads. We provided a cake topper (MR. & MRS. on three tree slices held up with bamboo sticks), which looked rustic and picturesque. I was very pleased with how the cake turned out (moist, delicious, and not too sweet) and how the chef placed the cake topper. The cake was only $85!

I worked with Chantry to create a custom wine menu (two reds - pinot noir and merlot and two whites - pinot grigio and chardonnay). We also chose two bottles of Domaine Carneros Brut for our champagne toast. We offered the entire beer menu, and coffee service was provided for free with the cake.

I created a seating chart and place cards, which I dropped off the day before our wedding. Everything was set up perfectly, and the service was SO smooth that we didn't even notice we were in a restaurant! The wines were brought to my husband and me to taste and approve :-) and we always got our dishes first. I thought that was a nice touch.

Everything went perfectly, and I couldn't have been more pleased!!!