Dining in Kauai is an activity unto itself. Dining is not just eating (although you will find scrumptious meals created from locally grown, raised, or caught products), but an entire feast for the senses.

Dining on Kauai begins with views and decor. Resort areas will feast your eyes with romantic settings and panoramic ocean views. In Poipu, the Beach House and the restaurants at the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa offer spectacular settings right on the beach that will linger in your memory long after you return home. In Hanalei, the restaurants at Princeville Resort look out onto an awe-inspiring vista of Hanalei Bay with cloud-shrouded, majestic peaks in the background.

Next on Kauai's sensuous dining experiences are the enticing aromas, especially at ethnic restaurants. Even if the cuisine is unfamiliar to you, your taste buds will be standing up to applaud at just the wonderful scents wafting out from the kitchen. Kauai offers a rainbow of different ethnic cuisines, from Asian and Polynesian to Mexican/Central American, European, and eclectic mixes.

Dining also means soothing sounds, from the strumming of a ukulele to the gentle rhythm of tumbling waves in the sand. In our reviews we note which restaurants feature live music, which is so important not only to the digestion, but also to the relaxing atmosphere that seems to calm the soul and makes the entire dining experience a banquet for the senses.

Best of all, dining on Kauai is a divine experience in tasting. Taste the familiar, the new, the exotic, and even the adventurous. I urge you to try at least one restaurant featuring cuisine you are totally unfamiliar with. Who knows, you may become enamored with it.

Don't pass up the small mom-and-pop places, the takeouts, the hole-in-the-wall eateries; some very fine food at very budget-pleasing prices comes out of these tiny places.

On your jaunt across the island, you'll find affordable choices in every town, from hamburger joints to saimin (noodles in broth topped with scrambled eggs, onions, and sometimes pork) stands to busy neighborhood diners. As long as you don't expect filet mignon on a fish-and-chips budget, it shouldn't be difficult to please both your palate and your pocketbook. But if you're looking for lobster, rack of lamb, or risotto to write home about, you'll find those pleasures, too.

Plate Lunch Palaces -- If you haven't yet come face-to-face with the local phenomenon called plate lunch, Kauai is a good place to start. Like saimin, the plate lunch is more than a gastronomic experience -- it's part of the local culture. Lihue is peppered with affordable plate-lunch counters that serve this basic dish: two scoops of rice, potato or macaroni salad, and a beef, chicken, fish, or pork entree -- all on a single plate. Although heavy gravies are usually de rigueur, some of the less traditional purveyors have streamlined their offerings to include healthier touches, such as lean grilled fresh fish. Pork cutlets and chicken or beef soaked in teriyaki sauce, however, remain staples, as does the breaded and crisply fried method called katsu, as in chicken katsu. Most of the time, fried is the operative word; that's why it's best to be ravenously hungry when you approach a plate lunch, or it can overpower you. At its best, a plate lunch can be a marvel of flavors, a saving grace after a long hike; at its worst, it's a plate-sized grease bomb.

The following are the best plate-lunch counters on Kauai. How fortunate that each is in a different part of the island!

The Koloa Fish Market, 5482 Koloa Rd., is in southern Kauai on Koloa's main street. A tiny corner stand with plate lunches, prepared foods, and two stools on a closet-sized veranda, it sells excellent fresh fish poke, Hawaiian-food specials, and seared ahi to go. It's gourmet fare masquerading as takeout. Daily specials may include sautéed ahi or fresh opakapaka with capers, and regular treats include crisp-on-the-outside, chewy-on-the-inside poi dumplings (when poi is available), one of life's consummate pleasures. For a picnic or outing on the south shore, this is a good place to start.

In east Kauai's Kapaa town, the indispensable Pono Market, 1300 Kuhio Hwy., has similarly enticing counters of sashimi, poke, Hawaiian food, sushi, and a diverse assortment of take-out fare. It's known for its flaky manju (sweet potato and other fillings in baked crust), apple turnovers, sandwiches, excellent boiled peanuts, pork and chicken laulau, and plate lunches -- shoyu chicken, sweet-and-sour spareribs, pineapple-glazed chicken, teriyaki fish, and so on. The potato-macaroni salad (regulars buy it by the pound for barbecues and potlucks) and roast pork are top sellers. Pono Market is as good as they come. If they're available, pick up some Taro Ko taro chips; they're made in Hanapepe, hard to find, and definitely worth hand-carrying home.