Since the topic of restaurants on Maui is a frequent one, I thought I would mention two places where I ate recently. One is brand new, the other is not so new, but a real bargain. Both are in Kalama Village in Kihei

Last night I had the pleasure of dining at Tastings Wine Bar & Grill, which recently opened in Kihei.

http://www.tastingsrestaurant.com/

We only had pupus and sampled some of the wines, but we plan on going back soon to try the tasting menu ($48). Derek McCarthy, the chef has done a fabulous job with the menu, managing to keep a varied selection with reasonable prices. The menu consists of a tasting menu, and a few daily entree selections, but the highlight of ther menu for me are his "Tastings" -- an impressive selection of heavy and light pupus. They have a handful of wine by the glass and Darren the bartender is glad to provide you with a taste before you make your final selection. They also have quite a wine list.

Derek comes to Maui by way of Roy's Kihei, where he paid his dues while getting Tastings off the ground. Formerly he had a restaurant in Healdsburg called Tastings Restaurants and Wine Bar.

The other place I ate this week is The Tiki Lounge. The Tiki Lounge was formerly the Sausage Shack. They remodeled it last year--the remodeling took forever. But they reopened a while back, although I had not been in until last week. Anyone looking for a bargain meal in Kihei--look no further!They have wide selection of sandwiches, chicken, turkey, traditional and vegetarian sausages, salads, and pizzas. The sausages are $5, and they come with onions, peppers, and a condiment tray with sauerkraut and all the trimmings. Cheap, cheap, cheap, but excellent food. The pizza looked very good--we'll be having one pof those very soon!

Thank you for the great information. The menu at Tastings looks fabulous. Can't wait till February to try it.

yeah, me too! we'll be staying in Kihei in eary Jan.

I feel like gone2maui is my personal Maui guide! my family thinks she's my new best friend. i'm always saying, "gone2Maui said this" and 'gone2maui said that"...
she's even reviewed the property we're staying at!

we're coming in from Texas, gone2Maui, what would you like me to bring you as a 'thank you' gift?!

d

Hi Gone2 maui

You are the best We will be in Maui next week and will put this on our list. Do you know if we need reservations?

Tastings is rather small; "intimate" would describe it. You might need reservations if they take off. If they don't, well, it will be a moot point as they will join the many other interesting places in Kihei that have come and gone in a flash.

The oldlady and I have never had fancy cuizine before we thought hell! were in maui lets go big. So we went on the computer looking for fancy restaurants found this web site and put wine and maui in a search; we liked are wine so we were looking for a restaurant that specialized in wines we found Tastings in kihei. So we went there when we were shown the wine list "wow wee" we didn't no were to start the little dark Tongin (Sandy) sure set us straight on how it all worked (Derock)the chef he matchs up the food and wine you don't even need to no anything about all that fancy stuff they do it all for you. It was all the best I have ever had. It was the most I ever payed for any dinner but it was well worth it.I will always remember the evening because I will be paying for it the rest of my life. After that the old lady she didin't like any the food I liked or could afford so she stopped eating and lost about 15 pounds. After that she divorced me took half my stuff moved to maui. She is waiting tables at Tastings how I was told. Thank You Chico I needed to get rid of that luggage a long time ago it cost a little more then I hoped it would.I hope she stays there and eats all there fancy food.