Maui, Hawaii Special – Ami Ami Bar and Grill

Ami Ami is located in the premises of the Maui Coast Hotel.  The hotel is quite nice in the Kihei section of Maui.  You’d expect prices to be relatively high for a hotel restaurant, however we were surprised that the prices were quite comparable to the nearby restaurants. 

Ami Ami has a nice outdoor seating area so you can enjoy the breeze.  We went quite early just after 8:00AM and were seated in the outdoor section.  The menu had a good variety of western style breakfasts as well as a couple of Hawaiian themed dishes.

We were very glad to be seated outdoors because our server reeked of cigarette smoke.

We ordered the Maui Coast signature breakfast.  This was composed of bacon, scrambled eggs, Portuguese sausage and hash browns.

The bacon was cooked just right with the perfect amount of crisp.  On the contrary, the hash browns were way too crispy.  It tasted more like deep fried rather than pan fried.  The brown toast was delivered nicely with a variety of jellies.

Next is the steel cut oatmeal brulee with the fruit and berries option.

This was a perfect balance of bananas, strawberries and blueberries served over creamy steel cut oats sweetened with the brulee underneath.  This was quite a big serving enough to be shared by the two of us.

Finally we got the Belgian Waffle with fruit and whip cream.

The waffle was very fresh and was served nice and warm with fresh whip cream over top.

The atmosphere at Ami Ami was very relaxing.  It was not too noisy nor was it busy.  Having outdoor seating was an added bonus.  It was unfortunate that our server smelled like cigarettes. We were glad he disappeared after taking our orders as the food was served to us by other staff who did not smell like cigarettes.

SFDD gives 3.5 out of 5 Delights.

Maui, Hawaii Special – Ululani's Hawaiian Shave Ice

Shaved ice is the best thing to enjoy if you want to cool down in the Maui heat.  Ululani Shave Ice is a popular place in Kihei as we passed by a couple of times and saw line ups.  

There menu is straight forward. You first choose the size of the shaved ice, then choose either the preset popular flavor combinations, or build your own.  You can choose up to 3 flavors and pay extra if you want more.

We shared a medium sized No Ka ‘Ol which had mango, coconut and passion fruit flavors.  The staff took their time and patience to build a nice looking ice ball for us. They made sure the flavored syrups covered all of the shaved ice.  That’s why they poke holes into the ice during preparation.

In fact, if you hit a part of the shaved ice that has no flavor, they welcome you to bring it back for a syrup top up.  They serve this in a special bowl that allows you to poke it into the round hole in the table for convenience.

Flavor wise, it was great because it was not overly sweet like we initially thought, seeing that it was made with colored sugar water.  The syrups they used tasted very much like the actual fruit.

You have to eat it fast.  Also, we noticed birds are quite assertive here in Maui.  They hang out at your feet begging for food.

The seating area was covered so you can eat comfortably under the shade. Though It would have been better if staff came out more often to wipe the tables and clean the ground as there was melted shaved ice from previous visitors.

SFDD gives 3.5 out of 5 Delights.

Maui, Hawaii Special – Da Kitchen Cafe

Da Kitchen was recommended to us that serves some good traditional Hawaiian dishes.  Hawaiian food seems to have its own unique mixture of different Asian cultures influencing its style.

There are 2 locations in Maui that we are aware of.  We went to the one near the airport on our final day just before our evening flight back home. 

We got here at about 6:30pm, and it was already packed with people waiting to get in. The restaurant was quite spacious with high ceilings.  It appeared most of the customers were locals, which was a good sign.

They had quite a lot to choose from on their menu.  Here is a sample:

We started off with the famous Hawaiian sushi known as spam musubi.  It’s a sushi with spam.  This is so popular that you can even find it served at convenience stores like ABC.

We didn’t try the one at ABC, but we are certain this one would taste a lot better. Unlike sushi, this one is served warm.  The spam felt like it was pan fried.  It came with some sweetened soy or teriyaki sauce.  It’s hard to tell the relative size of the musubi, but it is certainly extra large.  The spam complemented well with the sauce, rice and seaweed.  Da Kitchen also serves a fried version of this musubi. We saw many tables ordering the fried version too.

For the main, we ordered Loco Moco,which is another common dish you hear people talking about in Hawaii. 

Loco Moco is a hamburger steak served over rice with a sunny side up egg, onions and a gravy like sauce.  This was a rather large serving for one.  If we had known it was going to be so big, we would have just shared one dish instead of ordering 2 mains.  Anyway, the hamburger steak was cooked well-done.  The sauce was also nice to have for the load of rice you get.  However, the egg was way too runny.  Next time, we will ask for a cooked egg to avoid risk of food borne illness.

The other item we ordered was the SaiMin. We wondered what was a SaiMin, because we saw it on a McDonald's menu, but were afraid to order it.  We found out that this is a ramen type of soup noodle served with veggies, green onion and pork.

Again, this looks like  an extra large serving.  It had endless pieces of pork.  The pork is prepared similar to the Chinese style BBQ pork.  The noodles were quite chewy.  It’s similar to Japanese ramen, except this felt more like a whole grain type of noodle due to it’s chewiness.  The soup was a clear  broth and was not too salty at all.

We were quite full after our meal.  It was great that we had a chance to experience some popular traditional Hawaiian dishes here at Da Kitchen.  Servers here were quite friendly and the food came within reasonable time given that it was dinner time on a Friday evening..

SFDD gives 4 out of 5 Delights.

Maui, Hawaii Special – Pizza Hut

After a nice dip in the beach during sunset in Maui (which is around 7pm), we trekked to a nearby Pizza Hut for a quick dinner as we didn’t want to venture out too far while wearing our wet bathing suits.  This location only had take out available and was bustling with a few customers when we arrived.

We were hoping for some grand deals, better than what we can find at Canadian Pizza Huts, but were quickly disappointed that they only had a couple of promos happening as indicated on the posters on the window.

We ended up getting 2 personal pan pizzas with one topping.  Being in Hawaii, we thought we’d make our own Hawaiian pizzas so one had ham, the other had pineapple and we just split it between us.  We picked up a couple of canned pops at the nearby ABC convenience store.

The grated cheese and chili flakes came separately in nice respectable packages.

Pizzas were done just right and was still hot by the time we got back to our hotel.  It had a generous amount of cheese for this personal sized pizza.

It is too bad there wasn’t more specials available when we were there.  The wait was a bit long but maybe we were just impatient as we were still soaking wet in our bathing suits.

SFDD gives 3 out of 5 Delights

Maui, Hawaii Special – Bubba Gump Shrimp Co

We spent the morning strolling along Front Street at the Lahaina Section of Maui.  There is a lot to see along this street, including this giant tree that branched out endlessly.  We were quite fascinated to have seen this Bubba Gump restaurant as we immediately recognized that it was from the movie Forrest Gump.

Initially when we were walking towards it, we thought it as going to be some sort of a museum dedicated to the movie, but it was definitely a real restaurant.  We found it at the right time because we were hungry and needed a lunch to get our energy back up.

The restaurant is rather large and had seating next to the water. It was not very busy when we got in so we got a table right away.  It felt as if we were on a cruise ship since we had a nice ocean view of the beautiful Maui water.

Our server was friendly and explained to us their system of how customers can flag them down whenever we needed attention.   Apparently we have to flip these license plates on our table to “Stop” them.

We thought this was an interesting idea, but then realized it was a bit annoying to use.

The menu had quite a variety of seafoods, burgers and sandwiches to choose from.  It did not have as many shrimp choices as recited by Bubba Gump in the movie though, but still had a nice selection.

We started with a featured appetizer, which was a fried shrimp tossed in a creamy sweet and chili sauce.  It was served on a small cast iron pan.  There were more than a dozen good sized juicy shrimp.

The sauce they used was very creamy and tasty.  It was not too spicy but had the right balance of heat.

For our mains, we got the fish and chips.

This was quite a large portion for lunch.  The fish was lightly battered over some nicely prepared fries which had some Cajun seasoning on top.  What caught our attention was the paper  used underneath the food had the fictional articles straight out of the Forrest Gump movie.

For our next main, we got the Dixie Fishwich, which was a fish burger.  You can choose between a deep fried version or a charbroiled version.  We went with the charbroiled fish.

The fish was quite a large piece with a slice of cheese melted above it.  There was something not quite right with this, but the server fixed it right away for us with a replacement.  The fish was quite juicy with the right amount of seasoning.  The fries were also fried perfectly.

This was a beautiful location to eat at since you can be right next to the sea and have a nice breeze to keep you cool from the Maui heat.  You can also visit their souvenir shop to pick up lots of different Forrest Gump memorabilia.   We had not known about the existence of Bubba Gump restaurants, but seeing their website shows they have quite a few locations around the US and even in Japan.

If you are a fan of the movie, then this restaurant is a must visit.

SFDD gives 4 out of 5 Delights.

Maui, Hawaii Special - Sansei Seafood Restaurant and Sushi Bar

Sansei Seafood Restaurant is a chain of Japanese restaurants in the different parts of Hawaii.  We visited the one in Kihei for an early dinner after a fellow tourist recommended it to us a few days earlier.

If you get here before 6pm, you can get 25% off most of the menu so we made it just on time at about 5:45pm.  The waitress was kind and said we didn’t have to rush o we took our time to review the menu.

We started with fried calamari.

The batter was light and the portion was just right for the two of us.  It came with a spicy dipping sauce, similar to the ones you use for shrimp cocktail.

We were not that hungry since it was still early, so it was going to be a light dinner, sushi only.  The server was overly generous with the wasabi and ginger. It’s hard to tell the proportion, but it was a large chunk.

We ordered the California roll on the right, and on the left is the Paia Make roll. the Paia maki was mainly a veggie roll with avocado, cucumber, nuts and some local greens topped off at the end that sprouted out like a flower.

We also ordered one of their specialty rolls called the Sansei Mango crab salad hand roll.  Instead of using seaweed, it’s wrapped in something called mamenori which is like a rice paper.  But at the time we ate this, we thought it was a type of lettuce due to the color and the texture.

This was a very unique roll that we’ve never tried before so it was quite a tasty surprise. It paired well with the peanuts, mango and the vinaigrette on the bottom.

The sushi's we ordered were better than expected and were very unique from our own experience.  The ingredients used were very fresh and were definitely made to order.  It’s too bad we were unable to sample more of Sansei’s sushi's this time.

SFDD gives 4 out of 5 Delights.

Maui, Hawaii Special - Teddy’s Bigger Burgers (Lahaina)

After an early morning snorkeling expedition at a location north of Lahaina, we were quite hungry since we didn’t have time for breakfast.  It was already just past noon just in time for lunch.  We were not familiar with the area so we opened up Zomato and found this Hawaiian burger joint close by called  Teddy’s Bigger Burgers.  It had good reviews so we felt safe dropping in for a bite to eat.



Being in Hawaii,the weather was hot that afternoon, around high 20’s close to 30 Celsius so we were looking forward for an ice cold fountain drink to cool us off too. 




The restaurant had a 50’s type of diner design to it. It was very clean and well kept with lots of tables available for seating.  We didn’t expect a fast food place to be so tidy, but then we realized later it’s not fast food quality at all.

They have quite a selection of burgers to choose from. You can build your own, or order one of their signature big burgers that have preset toppings already. Even though we were hungry, we didn’t think we could chomp down their specials since they looked so big in the pics. Thus,  we ordered 2 of the most basic burgers, one of which was a combo so that we can share the fries and drink. 

Both burgers had a 5oz patty cooked medium well. It came with the standard lettuce, tomatoes and a secret Teddy burger sauce.  The on in the pic below has an optional pineapple added in, being in Hawaii and all we thought we’d try this.




The one below is the combo with fries covering most of the burger, but it looks just about the same as the one above, less the pineapple.



The burger bun was very soft and fresh. It was lightly toasted on the grill so it had a light crisp on the inside of the bun.  The beef patty was still quite juicy even though we opted for medium well.  The veggies were also very fresh. 

The secret sauce which tasted a bit like thousand island dressing had just the right amount without drowning the burger.  Although the burger was big, it was not messy to eat.  At some places, your burger will have juices and sauces dripping out from the other end while biting in, but these burgers did not have that problem.

The service at this location was good and the people working here were friendly, cheerful and very welcoming.  You have to wait for your food but that’s because the burgers are made to order.  They give you a little buzzer which lights up and vibrates when your food is ready to pick up.

SFDD gives 4 out of 5 Delights.

Maui, Hawaii Special - Outback Steakhouse

We  had the opportunity to visit Maui for the first time so we are looking forward to share our restaurant visits with you.  We will start with Outback Steakhouse.  True that this is not quite Hawaiian, but we were craving for some steak that evening and since there was an Outback not too far from where we stayed, we dropped in here for dinner.

This Outback is located in the Kihei section of Maui within a strip mall.  We got here Sunday early evening and were seated promptly.  It was not a full house like other Outbacks that we’ve been to. I guess tourists prefer Hawaiian restaurants instead since it appeared that the other tables were locals.

We started with the loaf of brown table bread which came with some whipped butter.  The bread was cold though.  We recall that the bread at other locations usually comes out warm.  We didn’t care much for it since we were looking forward to our appetizer coming up next.

Outback is famous for their Bloom’ n Onion.  It is a giant onion fried in a light batter and blooms open like a flower’s petals. It comes with a spicy chipotle dipping sauce.  This onion seems smaller than before, but it was still more than enough for the two of us.

You have to be careful though when chomping down on the onion while hungry. It fills you up quite fast due to the oil and the richness of the dip.  Aside from the size of the onion, it tasted consistent like other locations.

One of our meals came with a side salad.  This is also smaller than the ones we had at other locations, what’s going on Maui Outback??  Furthermore, the lettuce leaves had black specks on them throughout. 

We ordered their prime rib.  We usually get medium but from our experience, restaurants seem to overcook it so we asked for medium-rare this time.  It came almost perfect as a medium so it was just what we expected.

The beef was so tender it can almost melt in your mouth.  It was also not to overly fat along the sides.  It was also not overly seasoned as you can taste the natural beef flavors throughout.  It came with mashed potatoes but they were bland as if the kitchen forgot to add in the salt.  What was strange was serving this nice piece of meat on such a small plate.

The second main we ordered was the beef tacos.  It came with 3 rater large pieces with medium well cooked beef.  This was presented quite nicely as they used a special utensil to hold up the 3 tacos.  They were very generous in the amount of beef stuffed in each taco.  It came with some sort of ranch/tarter sauce type of dip and some more of the bland mashed potatoes.

Despite the few hiccups we were still satisfied with the main dishes and the bloom’ n onion.  The server was friendly and got us what we needed in a timely matter.  This location is located in a strip mall with plenty of free parking available.

SFDD gives 3 out of 5 Delights.