Mama's Fish House (Hawaii, US)

Our last eating stop in Maui was Mama's Fish House in Paia. We drove nearly an hour to get there and it was well worth it.

The restaurant is on the Hana Highway and it's very hard to miss (during the day). It's quite large and they have plenty of seating. The parking is all valet only (free) because they get so busy that they have to cram lots of cars into their parking lot. The restaurant itself is about 75 feet from the ocean so the views are decent during the day. At night, the sea breeze is very refreshing and the mood and atmosphere of the dining room is quite romantic.

Service at Mama's is quite good as the servers are all very polite and helpful. It's a very busy restaurant so we made reservations. However, be aware that they will call you to confirm your reservation. So make sure you can be contacted or give them a call the day before to confirm your reservations.

Fruit Smoothies and Ginger Tomato Bisque

We ordered 3 fruit smoothies around the table along with an appetizer and 2 entrees.

The Fruit Smoothies were all very good. They were thick and frosty, but the ice and juices never separated and maintained their consistency throughout our dinner. After the drinks were served, we were given some Hawaiian sweet bread and a whipped butter with what I can only assume was ground red bell pepper for colour and a hint of pepper taste.

Opakapaka Ceviche

The server also brought a Ginger Tomato Bisque, compliments of the chef. It was served hot and had lots of flavour.

Mahimahi Stuffed with Lobster and Crab

Opakapaka Ceviche – Tahitian lime, chili pepper, kaffir lime leaf, cilantro and mango. Our appetizer was a great way to start our meal. It came with three types of chips and was very refreshing. The ceviche was cold and the sauce wasn't too sour. We tried to eat the young coconut that it was served in, but it was rather difficult so we gave up after a few pieces.

Ahi Seared in a Hana Ginger-Panko Crust

Mahimahi stuffed with lobster and crab, baked in a macadamia nut crust. I ordered this the last time I was at Mama's and it was just as good as I remembered it. The mahimahi was very soft and tender, and there was a good portion of crab and lobster stuffed inside.

Ahi seared in a Hana ginger-panko crust with Kalua Pig fried rice. The ginger-panko crust had subtle ginger taste to it which blended very well with the ahi tuna. I gave H most of the kalua pig fried rice and she loved it. It was very flavorful and the pork was excellent.

Kuau Chocolate Pie

Since the 4 of us shared 2 entrees, we had room for dessert so we ordered the Kuau Chocolate Pie Baked in a caramel cookie crust. The chocolate part of it was very smooth and rich, but it didn't really stick out as being unique or different from what you can get at a bakery. The caramel cookie crust was the central attraction. There was a thick layer of caramel between the chocolate and the crust. The only problem was that the chocolate separated from the caramel so we had a tough time keeping the top and bottom of the pie together. Altogether though it was quite delicious and a nice way to wrap up our dinner.

Overall, I recommend anyone who visits Maui to try out Mama's Fish House. If you do the drive to Hana during the day, Mama's is a great place to stop by for dinner on your way back to wherever you're staying on the island. Remember to make reservations though.

Summary
Food: Exceptional. All their dishes are very well made and delicious.

Service: Very good. The servers are very polite and helpful. Service is top notch.

Setting: Very good. Free valet parking, romantic atmosphere, and spacious dining room.

Value: Good. The prices are steep, but you're paying for all of the above, so it's somewhat justified.

Ululani's Hawaiian Shave Ice (Hawaii, US)

I don't remember what flavours we got...

While shopping along Front Street in Lahaina, we passed by Ululani's and I remembered seeing it on a travel site, listing it as the #1 "restaurant" in Maui. It was a hot day and we decided to try it out. I have certain tastes when it comes to shave ice (I'm Taiwanese so it's in my blood) so I wasn't getting my hopes up, but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the texture of the ice (very finely shaved) and the taste of the flavour syrups. We chose to add a scoop of macadamia ice cream to ours, which I though actually took away from the overall taste of the shave ice (there were way too many macadamia nuts in there!).

Regardless, I can see why Ululani's is touted as "the best shave ice" in Maui. I don't agree, however, that it is the best shave ice in Hawaii (I'll save that for another post). If you're in Maui and have a craving for shave ice, you can't go wrong with Ululani's. There's a reason there are 2 of their stores within 100 feet of one another.

Summary
Forget the summary, just go try it out. It's really good.

Lahaina Fish Co. (Hawaii, US)

After some shopping along Front Street in Lahaina, we stopped by the Lahaina Fish Co. for a light meal since we weren't all that hungry. The seating area for the restaurant is literally over top of the ocean. The restaurant view was spectacular and we were seated along the edge by the water so H had something to stare at during our meal.

It wasn't all that busy in the restaurant but we ended having to wait a bit for our table, and for the server to show up. She disappeared for long periods of time as well which wasn't very helpful. I counted about 3 or 4 servers and there were maybe 10 tables of patrons but service was still quite slow.

For H, we ordered the Chicken Stix & Vegetables served with Ranch dressing. She enjoyed the chicken with ketchup, but she wasn't really a fan of the veggies. In hindsight we should have just ordered it with fries despite how unhealthy they are (because she loves them and we can use them to bribe her into eating faster). I had a few bites and they were pretty standard.

J and my mom each ordered an Ahi "Katsu" Rice Bowl, which was 'panko crusted medium rare tuna served over seasoned Jasmine rice with Wakame (Ocean) salad, pickled ginger, Kiware sprouts, shredded Nori, sliced cucumber, sesame seeds and Wasabi ginger beurre blanc'. Long description, but it was actually very good. There was plenty of Ahi tuna and the toppings blended well with the rice so it wasn't too heavy or dry. Amidst all the heavy food that we had been having up until then, the rice bowl was a very welcome change.

Summary
Food: Good. The rice bowl was very good and had an interesting mix of vegetables and toppings.

Service: Poor. There were plenty of servers but ours was nowhere to be found most of the time. We waited 10 minutes for the chicken strips and about 20 minutes for the rice bowls.

Setting: Good. It's by the ocean so there is a great view.

Value: Average. The food was good and the prices were pretty standard for high tourist density restaurants, but the service brought down the total 'package'.

Gazebo (Hawaii, US)

I'm not sure if Gazebo is a local favourite, but the tourists sure love it. It's a small restaurant that seats maybe 30 people located very close to the beach at a small resort in Napili. The first time we went, we needed to ask the locals for directions. They only open for breakfast and lunch and they always have long line-ups.

They open up at 7:30am and when we arrived at 7:20am there was already a line-up of over 30 people. When they opened, we ended up getting the last available table. Thankfully, the service is fast and they cook up the dishes quickly.

Pineapple Pancakes

Pineapple Pancakes - thick fluffy pancakes with pineapple mixed right into the batter which gave the pancakes a delightful pineapple taste with every bite. I had a few bites of this and it definitely tasted fruity!

Whice Chocolate Mac Pancakes

White Chocolate Mac Pancakes - their signature dish. I couldn't resist ordering this one again. They mix white chocolate and macadamias right into the batter and top them off with a bit more of each and some whip cream. The bites with white chocolate are heavenly and the macadamias give the pancake some texture and a lot of flavour.

Banana and Mac Pancakes - this one was odd because one of the pancakes was plain with no bananas in it. We're not sure if that's how it was meant to be or if they just forgot to mix them into the batter. The macadamia pancake was the same as mine.

Banana and Mac Pancakes

I don't recall if they had this last time I was there, but instead of regular plain maple syrup, they provided us with coconut syrup. It was a creamier white version of maple syrup with coconut flavour. I thought it added to the whole tropical island feel. We all thoroughly enjoyed it.

The beach view from the restaurant is fantastic. It's not right up against the water, but it is somewhat elevated so you get a good view of everything.

Summary 
Food: Very good. White Chocolate Mac Pancakes are exceptional. Their pancakes in general are very good as they are thick and very fluffy.

Service: Good. They are quick and serve up the orders quite fast as well.

Setting: Good. Plenty of parking and a fantastic view. Although it may be hard to find if you've never been.

Value: Good. Although I have only tried their pancakes, the line-ups lead me to believe that they make great food in general.

Star Noodle (Hawaii, US)

We stopped by Star Noodle on a Sunday night around 7pm and were greeted by about 2 dozen people waiting outside the restaurant. I went in and found out that the wait for a table was at least an hour and forty-five minutes. However, their take-out wait was only about 25 minutes. J came up with the idea to get take-out and eat somewhere else, so that's what we did.

Vietnamese Crepe - shrimp, pork, bean spourts, nuoc cham. This was on the Share menu and rightly so. It was a very large portion served on top of a crispy grilled/fried crepe. Even between 3 adults, the sheer size of the dish was a little overwhelming and we were a little sick of pork by the end of it. It was very tasty though.

Hapa Ramen - rich pork broth, roast pork, poached egg, choi sum, kamaboko, bamboo shoots, mayu, spicy aka miso. This was probably the best dish we ordered and deserves its place as first on the list of noodles on their menu. The portion wasn't very large but it was very flavorful.

Garlic Noodles - fresh & fried garlic, dashi, green onion. J had this and she quite liked it. I didn't get much else of a description of though.

Pad Thai - rice noodle, chicken, shrimp, egg, peanuts, garlic chives. I ordered this and quite frankly I was disappointed. The noodles were standard and the flavour was average. There was some lemon flavour to it and a little bit of peanut taste, but overall it wasn't impressive. I have had similar or better pad thai at food courts. Perhaps it was because we did take-out, and unfortunately I may never know as I am not interested in ordering this again.

Overall, foodwise I think take-out took away a lot from the total experience. Unfortunately they only take reservations for parties of 5 or more. Since we had 4, we wouldn't have been able to reserve anyway. If you plan on trying out Star Noodle, go with a large party so you can reserve, or try going really early or really late to avoid long waits.

The restaurant is located a few blocks from the main road through Lahaina in an industrial area. The couple of blocks leading up to the restaurant give no indication that there might be a restaurant nearby. The interior was clean, brightly lit and bustling with people. If we had a more flexible schedule, I would have liked to eat-in rather than taking our food out.

I apologize for not taking any food photos for this review, but we ended up eating on a bench in a dimly lit parking lot, so we had more pressing concerns than taking photos of the food. It was an interesting experience, but one that I would like not to repeat again.

Summary
Food: Good. Eating in is probably much better than taking out.

Service: Average. They weren't very consistent with order-taking, and they just left take-out orders on the counter expecting customers to inquire when it is ready.

Setting: Good. Restaurant interior was clean, well-lit, and there was plenty of parking in their lot and nearby.

Value: Average. This could be rated higher due to the food assessment but based on my experience with their take-out, it was purely average.

Coconuts Fish Cafe (Hawaii, US)

We had a late breakfast on our second full day in Maui so we spent some time at the beach and the pool to work it off. Since we weren't all that hungry by lunchtime, we piled in the car and headed for Coconuts Fish Cafe in Kihei (a 40 minute drive from Lahaina).

Fish and Chips

The restaurant is located in an outdoor plaza that's lined with stores and other restaurants. Parking was plentiful since there's a bank there and it was closed on Sunday. Although it was already past the normal lunchtime rush hour, Coconuts was still quite busy. They have a small dining area inside with maybe 12 tables and a patio outside with another 8 or so. Since it was a hot day, we waited for a table to clear inside the restaurant so we could enjoy the little bit of air conditioning that the store could maintain.

Shyanne's Fish and Chips

We ordered at the cash register and within a few minutes our meals were brought to our table. It's the sort of place where you get your own utensils, napkins, sauces, and fill your own fountain drinks.

Fish and Chips - served with french fries and famous coleslaw. We got a very large pile of french fries with 2 pieces of lightly battered and fried fish (one piece ono and one piece mahimahi). The ono was soft, tender, flaky, and quite similar to cod in texture and taste. The mahimahi was the opposite as it was much meatier and reminded me of chicken.

Fish Tacos (1st taco)

Shyanne's Fish and Chips (kids menu) - same as Fish and Chips (but only for under 10 yrs old!).

Fish Tacos (2nd taco)

Fish Tacos - 2 tacos grilled with white corn tortillas and a variety of 17 different ingredients including tomato, cheese, France's coleslaw and mango salsa. The tacos are the signature dish of Coconuts. They were quite large with heaps of toppings and delicious tender grilled fish. Even though J fed H first, her taco was still dry on the outside when she started eating. No soggy tacos here! The server mentioned that they are messy and she was right. We both ended up having to use forks to eat all the toppings that fell out by the time we were done. Thankfully they have wet wipes.

Overall, the 40 minute drive to Kihei was well worth it. I don't know if I agree with their website claiming that they are the highest rated restaurant in Maui, but I do agree that they are quite good and well worth the price.

Summary
Food: Very good. Try the fish tacos. You won't regret it.

Service: Good. The servers were quick, polite, and introduced the foods as they served them. Everything else is self-serve though.

Setting: Average. Easy parking but you have fight for a table on your own and their AC couldn't keep up with the traffic volume.

Value: Good. It's a little pricey but the food taste and quality is quite high.

Duke's Beach House (Hawaii, US)

Staying at the Honua Kai Resort in Lahaina, eating at Duke's for at least one of our meals was a given. We stopped by for breakfast and we weren't disappointed.

Tropical Fruit Smoothie

I ordered a Tropical Fruit Smoothie which was fresh banana with orange, mango & passion juices. It was thick and sweet, but tasted very natural (ie. little to no sugar added).

For our meals, we ordered a Duke's Breakfast Sandwich, a Paniolo, a Bikini Benedict and a Ham and Cheese Omelet from the Keiki menu for H.

Duke's Breakfast Sandwich

Duke's Breakfast Sandwich - slow roasted pork, Lahaina egg, pepper jack, Hawaiian sweet bread. This sandwich definitely earns its name. The pork was so soft and tender (maybe because of all the juicy fat layers) and all the ingredients add to the taste and texture of the sandwich. Although the bread looks thick and heavy, it was actually very soft and improved the overall package.

Paniolo Omelet - ham, pepper jack, avocado-tomato & chipotle salsa. I didn't try this one myself but it was described as "good".

Paniolo Omelet

Bikini Benedict

Bikini Benedict - spinach, vine ripened tomatoes, macadamia nut pesto hollandaise. Jo had this dish and she really liked it. She's a sucker for eggs benedict though, so keep that in mind.

Ham & Cheese Omelet

Service wasn't bad, but we had a tough time finding our server on occasion. The restaurant wasn't very busy. It was probably a quarter full at the time, but they only had a few servers so we had to wait for a table. The location of the restaurant is great. It's right by the beach and they have an open patio as well. I'm not sure what parking would be like for those who aren't guests of the hotel, so I can't comment on that. I don't recall seeing any visitor parking spots, so keep that in mind.

Summary
Food: Very good. Duke's Breakfast Sandwich was very delicious and I definitely recommend it.

Service: Average. There wasn't anything special about the service. A one quarter full restaurant and hard-to-find servers isn't very impressive.

Setting: Good. No idea about parking, but the restaurant is right on the beach and there's good view from almost every table.

Value: Good. Despite being right on the beach and listed as a fairly pricey restaurant, Duke's was pretty reasonable pricewise for breakfast.

Sansei Seafood Restaurant (Hawaii, US)

Sansei has a 25% discount on most of their menu items as long as you put in the order before 6pm. Since they open at 5:30pm, you can imagine the kinds of line-ups they get. Thankfully, they take reservations so we got a table right away and started ordering food immediately.

Lava Flow

We each started with our drinks and ordered Lava Flows all around. Think of Lava Flows as super Pina Coladas. Sansei describes it as Strawberry Coulis swirled with coconut cream, banana, pineapple, and Maui Silver Rum. If you're looking for a strong drink, take a pass because the Lava Flow is mild in alcohol, and potent in fruit and cream. It's absolutely delicious and I recommend it to everyone.

We ended up ordering too much for the 4 of us, so I'll just list it all out below.

Panko-Crusted Fresh Ahi Sashimi

Panko-Crusted Fresh Ahi Sashimi - island fresh ahi tuna wrapped with arugula and spinach, panko crusted and flash fried served with a soy wasabi butter sauce. Everything about this dish is great. It's crispy on the outside and soft (but firm) on the inside with all that ahi sashimi. There's no rice to weigh it down and the wasabi butter sauce is light and mild, not overpowering the taste of the roll. It's not a surprise that this dish is on their award winners list.

Matsuhisa Style Miso Butterfish

Matsuhisa Style Miso Butterfish - tender butterfish marinated and roasted in sake and sweet miso. The fish was so soft, tender, and buttery that we ended up getting 2 orders of it. H finished off an entire order on her own!

Crispy Fried Calamari - with a spicy Japanese cocktail sauce. The calamari was above average as it wasn't too greasy and it was lightly battered. The cocktail sauce was okay. I would have preferred a spicy chipotle mayo dip instead of the cocktail sauce.

Crispy Fried Calamari

DK's Crab Ramen with Asian Truffle Broth

DK's Crab Ramen with Asian Truffle Broth - topped with crab, cilantro, Thai basil and mild jalapenos. We had to remove the jalapenos quickly because they weren't all that mild and we ordered the ramen specifically for H to eat. The ramen was very delicious, although the noodles were a little more thinly pressed/cut than typical ramen. The toppings included went well with the noodles and the fantastic broth. The bowl was a little larger than I remember from 4 years ago when we first visited Sansei on our honeymoon.

Seared Ahi Salad

Seared Ahi Salad - seared Hawaiian ahi tuna over Kula greens with Sansei's soy sesame vinaigrette. The vinaigrette was light and refreshing and not too tarte or oily. The ahi was thinly sliced and only lightly seared around the edges. Coupled with the vinaigrette, the ahi tasted a bit like ahi tuna carpaccio.

Asian Shrimp Cake

Asian Shrimp Cake - crusted with crispy Chinese noodles, served over ginger-lime-chili-butter and cilantro pesto. The shrimp cake itself was tasty, but it was a very small portion. In total, there was probably less shrimp in the shrimp cake than what you'd get from a single dim sum order of har gau (shrimp dumplings). The crispy Chinese noodles were good on the first two bites, but then quickly became tiresome because they were flavorless. Our server complimented us on our ability to not make a mess of the table. We actually cheated because we used H's scissors on it...

Sansei Sashimi Trio

Sansei Sashimi Trio - ahi, hamachi, and salmon sashimi. We should have read the included fish because salmon is.. well, it's salmon.

Spider Roll

Spider Roll - crispy tempura soft shell crab, cucumber & Kaiware sprouts with sweet Thai chili sauce & rich unagi glaze. I'm a sucker for soft shell crab and this roll did not disappoint. I thought it could have been better with a little less rice, but I was probably getting full at that point. The crab was tasty and the roll went very well with the sauce. The sprouts gave it a more exotic and healthy taste to an otherwise already good tasting roll.

Spicy Japanese BLT Roll

Spicy Japanese BLT Roll - crispy salmon skin, local greens, tomato and spicy masago aioli. The salmon skin was indeed crispy, but there was very little of it. The tomato was a little odd and tasted out of place in a roll. There could have been more of the aioli as the roll tasted a little dry due to the greens. This roll tasted like a healthy weight watchers roll.

Seared Foie Gras Nigiri Sushi

Seared Foie Gras Nigiri Sushi - lightly seared and served with caramelized sweet onions & ripe mango and rich unagi glaze drizzle. This dish was the highlight of the meal for me. It was seared just enough to blacken the edges, giving it a little bit of crispiness. The foie gras was fantastic and went well with the nigiri rice. I would definitely order it again, despite the steep price ($20).

Tempura Fried Macadamia Nut Ice Cream

Tempura Fried Macadamia Nut Ice Cream - vanilla ice cream wrapped with buttery pound cake, rolled in roasted macadamia then flash fried and served with chocolate and caramel sauces. This dessert sounds as good as the description. As with many good restaurants, by the time we got to dessert we were already very full so we didn't enjoy it as much as we could have. Despite that, it was still absolutely delicious. The crispy macadamia crust gave the pound cake and ice cream a wonderful texture. The pound cake was light and fluffy and did a great job soaking up the chocolate and caramel sauces. If I was a local, I would have gone to Sansei just for this dessert. It's quite large so be prepared to share!

Service at Sansei was very good. Our server was around quite often and moved very quickly and efficiently. The food came out surprisingly quickly and we found our table out of real estate quite often. She was also super nice and always smiling.

The restaurant is a decent size and they fit a lot of tables in the space. It was very busy and we saw many parties turned away because they didn't have reservations. My advice: make reservations!

Summary
Food: Exceptional. Almost every dish was fantastic. Go with the award winner list and you can't go wrong.

Service: Very good. The server was super nice and efficient.

Setting: Good. The restaurant space was average, but the location is quiet with plenty of parking, and the tables were very clean.

Value: Good. The 25% discount is a great deal, but the prices are a little steep to begin with. The fantastic food makes up for this somewhat.

Mr. Taco (Hawaii, US)

Fish Gordo

The Whaler's Village in Lahaina was our first stop in Maui. Shopping with H is very slow going, so we ended up in the food court for a quick lunch. Inside the food court, there were 3 places available including a Subway, an Italian place and Mr. Taco. Interestingly, the Mexican place we decided on had absolutely no signage to indicate that it was called Mr. Taco. In fact, the roping they used to form a nice neat line for guests had Mr. Sub written on it. I only found out that they're called Mr. Taco because that's what's on the receipt.

Fish Gordo

Two Fish Taco Special

Anyway, between 4 of us, we ordered a Fish Gordo (burrito) and Two Fish Taco Special. The burrito was a good size and filled with guacamole, refried beans, rice, and grilled fish. It came with some nachos and salsa which H enjoyed more than I did. Overall, the burrito was good. Most of the tastes blended into one another so almost every bit tasted the same. Depending on how you like your burritos, this is either a good or a bad thing. I did find myself craving some sour cream on the side when I was eating it, but I enjoyed it regardless. Also, the nachos tasted decently fresh, despite the food court being quite 'slow' and near empty.

J's tacos were pretty good too. The fish was a little harder, or meatier, than the fish in the burrito, but she thought it was tasty and pretty good for a food court meal. The tacos also came with a regular salsa and an avocado salsa. The avocado salsa was really good. It was fresh and had a decent kick to it.

As others have pointed out in reviews, the restaurant doesn't seem to carry enough ingredients for all their menu items. When ordering the burrito, I was told that they were sold out of the other meats, so I had no other choice but the fish.

Service wasn't bad at all. It took about 8 minutes for our food to be made, but then again it's made to order so that's not a bad thing.

If you're planning to eat at the Whaler's Village and want something fast, you can go with Mr. Taco and you probably won't be disappointed.

Summary
Food: Good. It's made to order and not lacking in taste. Also, their avocado salsa is really good.
Service: Average. Some menu items weren't available.
Setting: Average. It's a food court.
Value: Average. It's a food court in a shopping mall with premium stores, so expect to pay about $15 per person.