Da Shrimp Hale — Restaurant in Maui

The location of this restaurant is somewhat cursed as past businesses never lasted long. Dominos, gone. Taco Del Mar opened up twice, gone twice. Tortugas, gone. They've been open for close to 10 years by now so they're doing something right!

ATMOSPHERE: Simple decor and indoor seating. There is no sink, let alone restrooms in the restaurant to wash your hands. Instead, you have to trek to the middle of the mall to use theirs.

BEVERAGE: No alcohol but okay to BYOB.

FOOD: Fried Calamari The breaded rings and tentacles had a good flavor without being super oily, and came over a bed of crispy, slightly spicy Cajun fries. The dipping sauces were cocktail and an orange-colored sweet/fruity concoction which I didn't care for. More appropriate sauces would've been marinara and tartar.

Fried Catfish My fave! Two good-sized filets were breaded, deep-fried golden brown, and moist & flaky inside, all over a bed of Cajun fries. The only place that serves catfish, that I know of, on Maui.

Gumbo Pretty legit and tasty recipe, I must admit. Another fave of mine.

Dungeness Crab My crab was old as some of the meat smelled of ammonia, and it was missing 3 legs. I got it done in garlic butter which didn't add much flavor to the crab meat aside from coating the shell in an oil slick. The amount of garlic used was minimal to none, so I'd advise adding on another flavor in addition to this to give it some sort of life, or ask for drawn butter for dipping.

SERVICE: Folks have been friendly throughout the years.

OVERALL: After my last seafood boil at Hot & Juicy Crawfish in DC, I swore I'd never eat this type of cuisine again, but I had to give these guys a try. Nice effort and fair pricing. I'd eat here again to try more things but will pass on the bagged items, especially the...

We were not greeted when we entered the restaurant so we figured it was an "order at counter" restaurant. We waited by the order pickup counter until a server said she would clear a table for us. Half the tables were dirty from prior customers and the other half were not prepped for seating. As we ate, we noticed that no tables were cleared until customers came in and asked for a table... At that time the server would clear and prep one while the customers waited. The food was good but no plates are provided. You have to eat it out of a plastic bag. Most places give you a dish to dump the food in. Especially when most people will be sharing the food. All the dinnerware was one-time use. Kitchen forgot some of our order and our water cups were never refilled. To top it off, the employees were not friendly and were clearly only there to...

Interesting way they serve the seafood.

I ordered a pound of shrimp in their garlic butter sauce. It came in a large plastic bag with the sauce. Different, but OK. The shrimp was cooked perfectly and the quality was great.

They give you a pair of clear plastic gloves to put on and no silverware. Again different, but OK. My only problem with the meal, and the reason for 4 stars instead of 5, is that the shrimp were whole. Using the gloves and my fingers I had to grab a shrimp out of the sauce in the bag and then peel off the head, legs, and shell. Even for really good shrimp I'm not interested in working that hard and getting that messy to get to my meal.

If you're OK with peeling your own shrimp dripping in sauce with your fingers while wearing plastic gloves, you'll love the food. If not, I recommend going...