5 FANTASTIC MAUI RESTAURANTS
MAUI >> Locavore regional cuisine continues to spread across the Hawaiian islands, especially on Maui, where the farm-driven movement is no longer limited to Lahaina. Talented chefs are opening fantastically fresh dining options in unexpected places. Here are five delicious spots to try.
Aloha Mixed Plate
For 20 years, this casual, oceanfront spot near Mala Wharf was known for its shoreline views, big portions and low prices. It was twice voted best lunch plate by readers of the Maui News.
Following a December renovation, the weathered blue wood has been replaced by clean gray lines and pops of yellow. The menu has been updated too, with chef-driven selections including salads using vegetables from the restaurant’s farm, plus craft cocktails and specials, like a poke of the day ($13), which was a melt-in-your mouth ahi on our visit. You’ll still find classic mixed plates, but they’re featured alongside fresh imu beet salad ($9) with Waipoli mixed greens, and burrata agedashi ($10), panko-crusted burrata with dashi and ginger.
Breakfast is as popular as ever, with local favorites like griddled Croque Wahine ($12), made with sister restaurant Leoda’s multigrain bread, kalua ham, bechamel and a sunny side up egg.
DETAILS >> Open from 8 a.m. daily at 285 Front St., Lahaina, Maui; www.alohamixedplate.com
Tin Roof
“Top Chef” alum and Hilo native Sheldon Simeon and his wife, Janice, opened this tiny gourmet comfort-food shop two years ago in a warehouse complex near Kahului Airport to make their cuisine
approachable for everyone. That’s why almost every item on the menu, including the flavorful, protein-topped rice bowls, is under $10.
We ate every last bite of the super-spicy mochiko chicken ($9). The chicken thighs are marinated overnight in ginger sake shoyu and coated in a sweet mochiko (rice flour) batter before being twice-fried and topped with gochujang aioli and furikake-flecked crunchies. Crave something milder? Get the garlic shrimp ($9), head-off white shrimp cooked in lemon garlic butter and topped with fried garlic and watercress.
Tin Roof is only open four hours a day, and the lunch lines typically start forming before 11 a.m. Our advice? Skip breakfast and get here by 10:30 a.m. so you can try everything before Tin Roof sells out for the day. If the bench outside is taken, grab a seat on the curb, like we did. The feral chickens won’t mind.
DETAILS >> Open 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Saturday at 360 Papa Place, Suite Y, Kahului, Maui; www.tinroof.com
Taverna Urban Drink + Italian Eats
Talk about buzzy. Taverna is one of the best new restaurants on Maui, where you’ll find fresh, handmade pastas, wood-fired pizzas topped with local ingredients, and farm-driven cocktails. The restaurant won Hawai’i magazine’s coveted best new restaurant honors last year.
Swiss-born chef Roger Stettler, who spent 10 years as the executive chef at the Four Seasons Resort in Wailea, serves upscale Italian cuisine in a chic and modern dining room that manages to be loud and romantic at the same time. Head to the concrete-topped bar for antipasti and one of three signature negroni cocktails ($14-$16), or tuck into a dark wood booth ideal for lingering over a Tbone and a glass from the Italian-dominated wine list.
Taverna Lasagna ($25), the restaurant’s most-ordered
and to-die-for dish, is made with fresh tomato sauce, beef Bolognese, bechamel and mozzarella. We also loved the Fritto Misto ($14): Fried shrimp and calamari served with arugula, spicy tomato jam and lemon aioli. Perfect with a refreshing papaya spritzer ($12), made with Ruffino Prosecco, citrusy calamansi juice and papaya shrub.
DETAILS >> Open from 5:30 p.m. daily at 2000 Village Road in the Kapalua Resort, Maui; www.tavernamaui.com
Maika’i Lani Malasadas
Stockton native and selftaught chef (most recently of Lahaina’s Slappy Cakes) Ben Calit opened this malasada stand just off Highway 30 in Lahaina in January, and ever since, locals have been buzzing that Calilt’s family recipe produces what may be the best Portuguese doughnuts on Maui. We popped by during the eatery’s third week to check it
out.
Located in front of Lahaina Baptist Church, Maika’i Lani Malasadas is as heartwarming and sweet tooth-satisfying as it sounds: Calit’s family — including his wife, Elizabeth, and their three kids, who take orders and run your card via Square — make the crispy, golden doughnuts to order ($1.25 to $2 for one; $11 to $15 for a dozen) and inject them with your choice of impossibly delicious, housemade fillings made from fresh fruit. Our faves: guava and strawberry.
Look for more from the Calits, including a mobile operation by May and a Hawaiian-fusion lunch truck down the road.
DETAILS >> Open 7:30 a.m.2:30 p.m. (or until they sell out) weekdays at 520 Waine’e St., Lahaina; www.facebook.com/bencalit.
The Mill House
Some of the island’s most innovative, farm-driven cuisine is here, at the foot of the lush Waikapu Valley, about 40 minutes from Lahaina. Open since 2016, The Mill House is situated on the grounds of a former sugar cane plantation, where the majority of ingredients are grown, harvested in the morning and on your plate by lunch or dinner. Wagyu and Texas longhorn cattle graze on the hillside’s native grasses.
Pieces of the old mill remain, and have been repurposed into the rustic-meets-modern design. We got lost in elements such as a wall made entirely of old bricks, freshly lacquered tree slices and rocks that fit together like a puzzle. Executive chef Jeff Scheer’s cuisine also marries the best of Maui’s native ingredients with texture and technique, from a bright green taro leaf risotto studded with puffed grains to a white fish ceviche with lime, mint, basil and a touch of jalapeño heat ($16).
Ponder old and new while taking in the stunning views of the West Maui Mountains with a sip from the bar’s organic sugar cane cocktail program in hand, thankful for the quiet beauty of Maui’s countryside.
DETAILS >> Open from 11 a.m. daily at the Maui Tropical Plantation, 1670 Honoapi’ilani Highway, Waikapu; www.themillhouse.com