Cafe O'Lei Kihei — Restaurant in Maui

For our anniversary we dined here we was actually supposed to go to there sister restaurant the mill house but due to we arriving early and sitting and waiting we kept getting attacked by mosquitoes and were allergic to them so if u are don't go because it's an open area restaurant covered but opened aired so we called the kihei location and they said we could accommodate us well due to traffic we arrived a little after 630pm from the hostesses to our waitress Mia they where very slammed restaurant almost booked out from the time we sat until the time we left nothing but customer service I drink alot of water and when I usually ask for the 3 cups or the pitcher I get the WT# LOOK nope not MIA she said okay coming right up we ordered the lettuce wraps,unagi nigiri sushi,a Ceasar salad,fried breaded calamari,and a kalua pork flatbread,and everything was good except the Caesar salad to much water in the salad but we as former restaurant workers know sometimes little things like that happen no biggie than we order our dinner I had the prime rib medium rare,and my wife had the macadamia nut crusted mahi-mahi deliciousness but mind you the whole time our waitress and the staff is very attentive to everybody in the restaurant filling up our drinks clearing the table making sure we good all while being slammed and still smiling dessert we ordered a banana cream cheese filled lumpia with vanilla macadamia nut ice cream and a pineapple upside down cake with the same ice cream my wife calls the manager over and begins to tell her how amazing our waiter MIA was and how her staff is on it with everything we chit chat for a little while before she has to excuse herself because even she was running food drinks they all was busy which is very nice to see in such an establishment everything we highly recommend and our to go containers which wasn't much leftovers she kindly packed it for us to we didn't have to constantly call someone over or make room on the table for us even though had room yes we had a feast mostly ME but from the start to the finish the service food quality of food was like a well ran orchestra or play we will definitely be BACK AGAIN!!! My wife has been there before a long time ago and she was hesitant to go again but because of the mosquitoes we decided on giving them a try and let's just say this she didn't blink an eye she was so happy and content with everything. We cane home and the rest is history mahalo to the staff of Cafe O lei kihei at the rainbow mall and MIA OUR WAITRESS mahalo mahalo and they even made us a brownie dessert for...

Had lunch at this restaurant one day as they had some pretty good ratings. Overall, the experience was pretty good. The food was tasty, but a little overpriced. I tried the blackened mahi-mahi which had great flavor, but the portion of the fillet was very small, very thin and overcooked. Conveniently, I like my food a little overcooked so it was fine with me however, if you liked your fish cooked the way that it should be, you would’ve found this to be a little bit dried out. For the price I would’ve thought you’d get a bigger cut of fish, but that was not the case. My daughter tried a special with ono/wahoo which she absolutely loved. The filets in that dish were huge and were the size that you would expect for the price. My wife had a blackened mahi sandwich and she liked it. my son had a burger and he said it was good, but then again, it’s really hard to screw up a burger. I do have to say the size of the burger that my son got was big. We also got a couple desserts; passionfruit cheesecake, and the brownie. The brownie was good with the sauce that came with it and the Kona ice cream, but the cheesecake was the star of dessert.

What made the entire lunch really enjoyable was the staff. Terri was our server and she was amazing. She had good recommendations, super personable, friendly, had the right amount of time helping us and leaving us alone. She’s exactly what you would want and expect from front of the house staff in any restaurant. I can’t say enough good stuff about Terri, she was amazing, and really just made the whole lunch worthwhile. We walked into the restaurant in a great mood, and we walked out of the restaurant and an even better mood because of the conversations we had with Terri and the whole experience itself.

The food is a bit pricey, but then again, it’s not out of line for what you see in that area. The only note to management would be to make sure you’re being consistent on the cuts of meat. Other than that, I would absolutely recommend this place and the next time we are in Kihei, we will definitely stop in, especially if Terri is...

Disappointing, not willing to accommodate a vegetarian, and bad food. Also freezing inside! - after coming to Cafe o’Lei every year for the last 4 years with family & my husband on 1-2X a year Maui trips & loving it (then), I went this year and found that there was only one entree that was vegetarian, and it was made with eggplant- the one and only food I don’t Like. The only other vegetarian option without eggplant was the mushroom flatbread, which I didn’t want but ordered because the waiter wasn’t willing to work with me and it was my only option- and it was really bad. Over baked, garlic was in huge hunks instead of cut whatsoever, no white sauce - just really bad. But worse than that, I asked the waiter if any entrees on the menu could be made vegetarian and he said no. Tell me how there are dishes with pasta that can’t be made without the meat? He wasn’t willing to put in any time to make it a decent meal for me, and I ended up having to order something I didn’t want because it was my only option, and it wasn’t good. I am NOT a picky person when it comes to food, and I used to love this place. It really ruined our Valentine’s Day night out, and we left hungry, frustrated, and disappointed. The frozen meal I ended up eating afterwards was better than the food I got here. I used to recommend this restaurant to friends visiting from other islands and bring loved ones there but I will not be coming back in future years nor recommending it. Their menu has changed significantly, it doesn’t accommodate vegetarians, and their service and food has gone downhill from what...