Catch a tidal wave of flavor at Kainoa’s Hawaiian Grill in Rexburg

REXBURG — Taste the Aloha spirit with the best Hawaiian food this side of the Big Island at Kainoa’s Hawaiian Grill in Rexburg.

Since 2018, Kainoa’s has been making waves in the Rexburg cuisine scene, offering authentic Hawaiian-style plate lunches and unique fusion dishes for the entire ohana.

Conveniently located across from Porter Park at Hemming Village in Rexburg, the Hawaiian restaurant is owned by Jeremy and Rochelle Claridge. They moved to Rexburg from southern Arizona six years ago and brought Kainoa’s to Idaho.

“We want our customers to taste the quality when they eat it,” Jeremy said. “We don’t go cheap on ingredients. We buy the expensive meat; we buy the expensive chicken.”

The Wipeout

The Wipeout is one of Kainoa’s most popular dishes. It features five types of meat: misoy chicken, bulgogi beef, chicken katsu, fried spam, and kalua pork.

“When you go to Hawaii, this is what would be considered a Hawaiian plate lunch,” Jeremy said. “You’ll get some meats like this and some sides — white sticky rice and mac salad is pretty much what you’re going to find.”

The fried spam may be a new flavor for some Idahoans, but it is a definite favorite of Hawaiians.

“You can’t have Hawaiian food without fried spam,” Jeremy Claridge said. “We sell a ton of that stuff. Once (people) taste it, when it’s done right, they really, really enjoy it.”

Kainoa’s chefs also provide a healthy Hawaiian dining experience, carefully removing any fat from the kalua pork.

“It’s a good, salty smoked pork,” Jeremy said.

Additionally, the platter includes chicken katsu — “thinly-sliced chicken breast – seasoned and fried to perfection” and beef bulgogi, a delicious Korean-style dish, Jeremy said.

But Claridge’s pride and joy is the final entrée on the meat platter — a tender, misoy chicken thigh marinated for 12 to 36 hours, dripping with flavor.

“It’s something special,” Jeremy said, describing two visitors from out-of-state who once declared, “’We’re from Texas. We do the best barbecue. That’s the best chicken we’ve ever had.’”

Every Wipeout Wednesday, you can order the Wipeout for 20% off.

Ono Fries

For a unique Idahoan twist on a Hawaiian favorite, try the Ono Fries — a heaping blend of chicken katsu and cabbage piled high on a bed of French fries with ranch and Waikiki sauce dressing drizzled on top.

“We’ve brought it out to people before, and they’re like, I ordered fries, and this looks like a salad,” Rochelle said. “I’m like, there’s fries in there; keep digging.”

Kainoa’s regulars request the Ono fries by the dozen.

“You can’t beat it,” Jeremy said. “That thing gets almost the whole food pyramid.”

Hawaiian-style tacos

Kainoa’s is famous for its four delicious Hawaiian taco varieties — Lani ono, Blairstown, fish, and kalua — with rice and mac salad.

The Lani ono tacos include “our Waikiki sauce and our chicken katsu wrapped up with some cabbage and tortilla, and it’s just a lot of flavor,” Jeremy said.

A Blairstown taco is “buffalo wing style” with chicken katsu, cabbage, buffalo sauce and ranch.

These two taco varieties are a hit with the college students.

“They love the price,” Rochelle added.

Kainoa’s serves up 11 signature homemade sauces — ranch, house mayo, spicy house, spicy katsu, Kilauea, sriracha, house, Waikiki, mango tartar, katsu and orange vinaigrette — that pack in the flavor with every bite.

“All of our sauces are made in-house every day, fresh from scratch, which is quite a feat, but we do it because it’s that good,” Jeremy said. “People can really taste the difference.”

Kainoa’s also offers a variety of wraps, salads, sandwiches, hot dogs and chili.

For dessert, the menu features seven flavors of Hawaiian smoothies – Malia Mango, Kalia-lia, Parker Ripcurl, Aloha Alani, Kick’n Kaleo, Blairstorm and Kahuna Claridge — that combine apple, mango, raspberry, orange, guava strawberry, pineapple, cranberry, peach banana blackberry, blueberry and guava.

The Hawaiian Grill is the first franchise of the original restaurant in Thatcher, Arizona, founded by Eric Blair and his wife Kainoa, who is Hawaiian. Jeremy and Rochelle plan to expand to additional locations in the near future.

“We try to do it fresh and do it right and make sure that everybody has a really great experience,” Jeremy said.

The restaurant is open from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. at 115 South 2nd West in Rexburg. Check out https://www.kainoasrexburg.com or follow them on Facebook.

“You can come in here and feel like you’re getting a bit of the islands,” Jeremy said.