Quick Dish: Kailani's
For a mid-sized Midwestern city, Springfield has a lot of different cuisines to choose from. But until this summer, Hawaiian was not one of them. Kailani’s (2833 W. Chestnut Expwy., 417-869-8080) fills that void, if in fact it was a void. My trip to Kailani’s was a unique experience, from the far-flung Chestnut-west-of-College-Street location, to my sweet but overtly attentive waitress-in-training.
That said, I have no doubt that this is seriously authentic cuisine. The lunch specials are only $4.99; I ordered the Shoyu chicken and a side of lau lau potatoes. The chicken was basically shredded chicken with a light ginger sauce on a bed of rice. It tasted good, if a bit bland. The potatoes were delish—a cut-up baked potato topped with cheese, sour cream and a couple of chunks of pineapple. The service was like lightning—I took a book with me and honestly did not complete a paragraph before my food was in front of me. Though the experience was best described as "different", I’m pretty sure I’ll go back to Kailani’s to try the Koren chicken or maybe the roasted Kalua pig —Matt Lemmon
