Maui Restaurants

Maui Restaurant Reviews

"Mischievous, marvelous, magical Maui," sings Israel Kamakawiwoole in Maui Hawaiian Sup'pa Man, his ode to the demigod. The island is all those things and more. Maui has a well-deserved reputation as a world-class vacation destination, with excellent hotels, resorts, natural beauty, and water sports. The island's restaurants try to keep up with the sophisticated palates and discriminating tastes of locals and visitors.

Make no mistake: for a place the size of Maui, there's a lot going on. From ethnic holes-in-the-wall to stunningly appointed fine dining rooms, and from seafood trucks to oceanfront fish houses with sweeping panoramic views. Much of it is excellent, but some of it is overpriced and touristy. If you're coming from a "food destination" city, you may have to adjust your expectations.

At casual and fine dining restaurants, choose menu items made with products that are abundant on the island, including local fish, onions, avocados, cabbage, broccoli, asparagus, hydroponic tomatoes, a myriad of herbs, salad greens, kalo (taro), bananas, papaya, guava, lilikoi (passionfruit), coconut, mangoes, strawberries, and Maui gold pineapple. And items grown on neighboring islands like mushrooms, purple sweet potatoes, and watermelon.

Local cuisine is an amalgam of foods brought by the ethnic groups that have come here since the late 1700s blended, too, with the foods Native Hawaiians have enjoyed for centuries: lomilomi salmon, laulau, poi, Portuguese bean soup, kalbi ribs, chicken katsu, chow fun, hamburger steak, and macaroni salad. For a food adventure, take a drive into Central Maui and have lunch or dinner at one of the "local" spots recommended here. Or get even more adventurous and take a drive around Wailuku or Kahului and find your own hidden gem. There are plenty out there.

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