Sea C.H. Stuck in Maui looking for a good chow.

[SeattleJim]

Hey traveling PN CH's, I'm on Maui for a while and am trying to find some hidden gems for a good meal. Price no object for a good experience.
Thanks for the help!

[lskohn]

We're here on West Maui now, and I can definitely recommend take-out from Honokowai Okazuya & Deli! I got the broiled salmon with thai chili sauce, but the meats are good too, the carnivores with me reported.

This is purely take-out, but if you have a beautiful beach to take your dinner - like, everywhere here - a bottle of wine or beer, and a fresh pineapple - this is the best cheap dinner around. I'd call it a hidden gem, for what it is. Not Mama's, by any means...

Address 3600D Lower Honoapiilani Road (north of the Kaanapili resort area)
Phone 808 - 665-0512

One I haven't tried but a year-round resident recommended recently is The Waterfront, 50 Hauoli St, in Wailuku. Also not upscale.

[Beach Chick]

We always love going to Plantation House for breakfast..best in town and cheap too..great for lunch & dinner..Kapalua Golf Course
Hula Grill is always a fun time..
Kimo's in Lahaina
Sansei for sushi
Maui Tacos in Kihei
Roy's in Napili
Kealani's
Mama's Fish House
Kula Lodge
Gazebo for breakfast or lunch
Chez Paul

[honu2]

Hailemaile General Store in Haliemaile is terrific. If you like sushi, then Sansei in Kihei may be a place you'll want to try. I've heard good things about Manana Garage in Wailuku, but have never been.

If you are a fan of raw fish, or just adventurous, try a local treat called poke, which is usually found at the seafood counter at supermarkets like Foodland or Star in Kihei or Wailuku and eaten as an appetizer with beer, for about $9-$10 a lb. Poke is cubes of raw fish, like ahi, mixed with various sauces with a soy sauce base and you can get it spicy, or mixed with seaweed, or wasabi. You can usually tell where the poke is good by watching for the construction workers trucks in front of the store around 4 p.m.

[Bill Hunt]

Bev Gannon's Hali`imaile General Store has always been a favorite of our, but I have to admit that I've dined on her fare in Phoenix twice, since we were last on Maui. Still, her ahi sandwich is something that I remember fondly, when the phase of the Moon is right.

Hunt

[staffstuff]

Mama's Fish House in Paia.....a great food, location & ambience experience....I wouldn't miss it on Maui.Also lots of 'fun' roadside bbq's on the road to Hana starting at least 1/2 hour south of Paia.....one in particular in Hana proper, down the road just west of that famous General Store, where the executive chef from the only 5-star hotel in Hana 'moonlights' at his outdoor bbq 'stand' on his day-off....serving his creations under a tent and with seating at picnic tables.

[landguy]

I just got back from south Maui and the food is as average as ever.
The only decent restaurant that we've found that's consistently good is Mama's Fish House. Roy's in Kihei can be pretty good as well. I love Maui, we go to Wailea every year but I have to say its never for the overpriced and average restaurants.

[Smokie]

Just got back last Tuesday:

For lunch or dinner try Paia Fish Market in Paia. You order at the register and then grab a bench. The Mahi fish & chips are great!

For breakfast try the Gazebo in Napili. It's right on the water - great view. They only have about 10 tables so expect a wait.

Now I'm stuck with bad Seattle food until next time.

[elicia]

oh poor YOU, stuck on Maui. well, here's some suggestions (pictures and more text http://www.tikiroom.com/tikicentral/b... my maui trip report from 06

)

Tasty Crust with its proud proclamation “Serving Maui for over 50 Years,” and my husband said, “we’re going to eat there.” After eating there today I was talking to Rose the salesclerk in the boutique at our hotel and mentioned it, and she said. “Only locals eat there! I love the pancakes.”

Exactly the sort of place we try to find. My husband had the pancakes (“World Famous”) and they were indeed darn good and enormous pancakes with a crust that was just a bit crunchy at the dges. (we ate here twice its my favorite place on the island)

Tasty Crust Restaurant
1770 Mill St
Wailuku, HI 96793-1298

Humuhumunukunukuapua’a might be considered the Kihei-Wailea coast’s answer to Mama’s Fish House, and is even more expensive. Access is through the very ritzy resort entrance and grounds, and the restaurant itself is a series of palapa-roofed wooden decks over large salt-water ponds full of reef fish. We started with the combination appetizer; were all excellent, but despite what the menu claims do not expect this to feed more than two people (there were six ribs but only two pieces of everything else). I chose the opakapaka nightly catch. My husband opted for seared ahi with baby bok choy, which he liked (I am not thrilled by fish that isn’t cooked all the way through). Mention should also be made of the Pele’s Revenge drink, the creamiest rum and coconut drink we’ve ever tasted, served in a whole green coconut.

Grand Wailea Resort Hotel
3850 Wailea Alanui Dr.

This is the oldest bakery on Maui. We split an excellent cold pastrami sandwich with tomatoes and lettuce on a great baguette, followed by a piece of wonderful macadamia pie and a piece of “Hawaiian strudel”. Definitely worth a visit.

Maui Bake Shop
2092 Vineyard St
Wailuku

Sam Sato
1750 Wili Pa Loop

Aloha Mixed Plate
1285 Front St
Lahaina, Hawaii 96761

Excellent mixed-meat “noodle cake” (pan-fried noodles done the way we like them). Something new, pineapple-coconut shrimp ~ deep fried shrimp served in a sweet, clear coconut sauce with chunks of fresh pineapple ~ a spin on the traditional Sweet & Sour. The fried fish filet in garlic sauce was gargantuan and fantastic. Big portions and it was all done perfectly! There are tropical drinks on the menu, but these are to be avoided; the “zombie” was bright red and sickly sweet.

China Boat
4474 Lower Honoapiilani Hwy
Lahaina

Stillwell’s is another local bakery in Wailuku, this one on the Kahului edge of town instead of in the old downtown. It’s famous for its pies, particularly cream pies. We had a really good crab cake sandwich, the crab cake better than some we’ve had in fancy restaurants, the sandwich large enough to easily share and came with some rather good Caesar salad (again better than some we’ve had in fancy restaurants). We shared the sandwich to have room for more pie, and had slices of their chocolate cream (extremely chocolaty and rich) and coconut cream. Very reasonable, and has more tables than most of the small bakeries mentioned.

Stillwell Bakery
1740 Kaahumanu Ave
Wailuku, Hawaii 96793

Mama’s Fish House. Mama’s is an old standby, well worth visiting both for its wonderful ambience (open air covered dining on the beach surrounded by tikis and bamboo poles) and its excellent fish. We started with the Maui French onion soup and then had the Hawaiian plate whose name I can’t remember and the mahi; all excellent. Very pricey, entrees start at $30 and rapidly go up (expect to pay more like $40-45 for most, without soup or salad). The drinks claim to be accurate renditions of the famous cocktails (Trader Vic’s mai tai, Don the Beachcomber’s scorpion); the scorpion seemed about right, but it’s hard to tell when it’s served in a hurricane glass and not in a bowl with long straws.

Mama's
799 Poho Pl
Paia, Hawaii 96779

[RosebudSMB]

If you want to go to a local eatery, try Sammy Soto's. They serve breakfast and lunch, have saimin, noodle bowls and the most fantastic lima bean cookies in the world. Trust me, my friend who lives up by the needle MADE me try one of those cookies. I ended up buying a dozen and eating them all like a fat kid loves cake in the back seat of her car before we got home. Evil cookies... I crave them. 1750 Wili Pa Loop 808.244.7124

[jaydeflix]

Price is no object? Head over to Mama's Fish House on the way to Hana and let me know how the $65 signature dish is =) Mahimahi stuffed with lobster, crab and maui onions and macadamia nut crusted. It sounded incredible but was beyond my honeymoon budget. The rest of the food was incredible tho and well well worth it. http://www.mamasfishhouse.com/

Also, hit Mala Ocean Tavern (http://www.malaoceantavern.com/). Great food.

There's also this little health food store with an awesome fresh food selection next to the bad ass coffee at 3636 L. Honoapiilani Rd in Honokowai. Don't recall the name of it.

And for breakfast, Java Jazz (http://www.javajazz.net/) is supposed to be great.

The food at Maui Brewing Company was ok, but the coconut porter was worth the stop.

And if I helped you out, there's this guy carving tiki's down on front street that I am regretting not getting one of his pieces......... =)

[barleywino]

if you pass through Honolulu, be sure to stop at Alan Wong's (fwiw Gourmet magazine ranked it #8 in the world)

[Bill Hunt]

Barleywino,

That's good to hear. I'd actually rate them (especially the Chef's Counter) a bit higher, but that is MY tastes. Still, good call. I've only missed them once, in my travels, since they opened - and I regret that time.

I'll follow closely, as we'll be on Maui, for the first time in too many years, and I want to see what's happening, what's new and what is still holding its own.

Hunt