Did I mention I love food? Luckily so does my sister Marissa, so when we travel together we are always looking for great places to eat. We also love to try new things. And once in a while, we like to get a little fancy so we looked into our options and went a little extra bougie one evening. Here’s our second (and final) list of our favorite places to eat in Maui from our recent trip.
Mama’s Fish House
We had heard from A LOT of people how fantastic Mama’s Fish House is but given they were fully committed with reservations (and they take reservations up to 18 months in advance!) we didn’t have much hope of getting in. We knew that bar seating was first come first serve but consistently hearing how popular it is, we knew we couldn’t count on that so we weren’t sure if we were going to make the trek.
One day we tried to go to see the sea turtles (and held out a little hope we might even see some seals) and the weather decided to become uncooperative, so we decided to pull into Mama’s thinking it unlikely that we would get in. But we got lucky! As we pulled up the valet asked if we had a reservation and we said no but we’d be happy to sit at the bar so he checked and found out that there were indeed 2 seats at the bar. YAY! We were thrilled. (FYI, the only parking is complimentary valet so be aware of that.)
The restaurant sits right at the water and is a beautiful property. The restaurant itself–wow! Truly iconic Hawaii.
We sat down at the bar and befriended the bartenders who were incredibly genial and willing to answer all our questions about their favorite things on the menu.
We ordered some drinks to enjoy and then started with the shrimp wontons with macadamia nut dipping sauce all of our selections we were assured were some of their favorites. We enjoyed every drop of our drinks and every morsel of the wontons. We were tempted to order another order of them they were so good but we knew we had more food coming
For our main course we selected the Hawaiian Kanpachi backed with lobster and crab in a macadamia nut crust (caught off coast of Kailua-Kona)–part of what makes this restaurant so special is that the fish is all locally caught and brought right to the restaurant!
We had shared so we could try the dessert which was highly recommended with the local bananas. It was a perfect end to a delightful meal.
We absolutely loved our meal here and we will be planning way in advance to get a reservation for our next trip!
The Restaurant at Hotel Wailea
It was our first visit to this property in general and it’s absolutely stunning. The restaurant is an intimate experience with the tables overlooking a beautiful garden area.
Looking through the menu it was exquisite and we could tell it was going to be difficult to pick so we decided whatever we picked we would share. (As far as I’m concerned that’s my favorite way to eat with friends-share it all so you can try more things!)The wine list was gorgeous and we each selected a glass to enjoy with our meal. Our server kindly shared with us his favorite things on the menu when we asked him. We decided to “be good” and start with the Waipoli Greens (gotta eat our veggies!) It was fresh and crisp. The balsamic vinaigrette was so good we would have eaten spoonfuls of that! We then split the risotto and the seafood ravioli as appetizers. Both were melt in your mouth delicious!
We then finished up with the Mahi main entrée which fell apart it was so tender!
If you are looking for a fancy night out in Maui, this is a perfect place to go! It definitely deserves its rating of Top 10 Best Restaurants in Hawaii!
Lineage
When I am looking for fabulous restaurants, I am going to be honest, I don’t generally give a second glance to ones in a shopping mall area. Boy am I glad some folks “in the know” recommended this gem that I would definitely have overlooked!
Lineage is in the Shops at Wailea (conveniently walking distance from our hotel) and when I saw their tagline: “Eat–Drink–Talk Story” I was hooked!
Only one problem, yet again another menu with so many amazing things we could hardly choose. Luckily the 3 of us at dinner were all for sharing (yay!) so we started with the Ahi Poke which was absolutely divine. We were torn amongst a few things on the menu and fortunately our server was a good sport. We let her know the couple things we were considering and asked her to pick what she thought was best and just surprise us. We were not disappointed! She brought out the Korean Fried Chicken and the Garlic Szechuan Noodles. WOAH! SO GOOD! Honestly Marissa and I are still dreaming about that chicken it was so amazing. The food was perfect to share and every morsel was delish!
Lineage is definitely worth a visit and I can attest you will definitely be talking about it for long after!
As you can tell from these blogs, we ate really well during our time in Maui! And it was all so fresh and local that we never felt guilty.
Bon Appetit!