Wailua Shave Ice

Wailua Shave Ice – Where to Cool Down Fast and Refuel for More Kauai Adventures
Local Expert's Rating:
5.0 / 5
The Bottom Line:

After working up a sweat on all your East Side Kauai adventures, you can always count on Wailua Shave Ice for help cooling down fast. With their fresh fruit flavors and icy cold touch, their amazingly sweet creations never fail to delight. If that’s not enough, they’re happy to help you refuel for even more fun with their tasty acai bowls and smoothies.

- The HawaiianIslands.com Local Expert Team

As your East Side Kauai adventures heat up, you can cool back down in style with a trip over to Wailua Shave Ice. Although they started out in a little food truck right by the beach, they’ve recently upgraded to a cute shop in the middle of the Kauai Village Shopping Center. You’ll be pleased to hear, however, that they’ve managed to retain their beachside aesthetic and chill atmosphere despite that exciting change.

You just have to go a little bit further from the beach to get to their awesome treats, but it’s well worth the trip. Once you waltz through the doors of Wailua Shave Ice, they’ll be happy to get your order going, so you can cool your jets while satisfying your sweet tooth. Their friendly service will have you feeling right at home in an instant, so you can focus on selecting the items that’ll delight you most.

With its fresh fruit and icy cool profile, the shave ice is the star of the show, of course. Wailua Shave Ice offers a variety of shave ice flavor combinations designed to highlight the local tropical fruit selections. But that’s not all they have. Their smoothies and acai bowls are well worth a try as well.

No matter what you order, you can trust that all your favorite tropical flavors will stand front and center for your enjoyment. As the orders come through the system at Wailua Shave Ice, every last one gets their full attention, ensuring that the results always exceed your every expectation. 

Must-try items on the Wailua Shave Ice menu:

Deluxe Acai Bowl
When you need a one-two punch of energy to brighten up your day, the Deluxe Acai Bowl is the way to go. To create this powerhouse of flavor, they lay down coconut chia seed pudding before adding acai, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, and banana. Then, they add granola, coconut flakes, and almonds before pouring on a drizzle of honey.

Smoothies
Available in regular and large sizes, Wailua Shave Ice’s smoothies give you a quick pick-me-up while letting you sink into all the best island flavors. They’ll create your drink in any flavor you’d like, including chocolate peanut butter, strawberry-banana, dragon fruit, matcha, and pina colada. You can get peanut butter, local greens, haupia foam, or even more fruit for an extra charge.

Da Mango One
With its mango on mango flavor profile, Da Mango One is a truly popular shave ice concoction. Wailua Shave Ice starts this sweet treat with a big pile of mango shave ice. To that, they add mango yogurt before piling on the diced mango by the boatload.

Kauai Orange Dream
Another shave ice delight, the Kauai Orange Dream is so good that you’ll be telling people about it for the rest of your trip. Wailua Shave Ice starts building this creation with a big pile of orange shave ice. Then, Wailua Shave Ice adds coconut milk to provide a creamy kick before pouring on the haupia foam.

Although the flavorful shave ice and fresh fruit are plenty good all on their own, there’s a bit of magic in getting a bit of foam over top. With its rich coconut flavors, their haupia foam is the most popular. But if you want a beautiful purple cap, then go with the ube foam instead. Both add an extra sugary zing plus an interesting mouthfeel that’ll have you coming back for more. Want to take your shave ice experience to the next level? Get a scoop of vanilla ice cream underneath, too.

Insider Tips:
-Want to commemorate your trip to this quaint shave ice spot? Just buy a sticker at the checkout counter.
-Children ages 12 and under can get a kid’s bowl instead of the rather colossal regular shave ice.
-On sunny days, everyone on the East Side seems to line up here for a cool treat. So, arrive early and be prepared for a wait. Tables might be scarce as well, but you can always take your treat back to the beach to enjoy it while taking in the view.