Hale Mo'olelo — Restaurant in Maui

A beautiful place to watch the sunset and some really yummy vegetarian and vegan options. Live music was great too. TL;DR: Go for ambiance, not for the best service or seafood you’ve ever had. Despite a timely drink and appetizer order, it took repeated requests from my sister before a wine menu was brought out. The $60 Pinot Grigio (same bottle is $20 at total wine) took a long time to arrive and was lukewarm, not even close to cold despite being on ice. The frosted glasses immediately lost their frost from the temperature of the wine being poured in. Suffice to say at a 300% upcharge you expect the wine to be at least be a little chilly. The waitress, though she was very polite, only insisted that it had been in the “cooler”. (Not fridge. It was a hot day. Interesting to say the least.) She offered another bottle but couldn’t promise it would be any colder. She eventually filled the bucket with ice and cold water and after 20 minutes that made it at least palatable for my sister and cousin to consume. The waitress and eventually a manager came over to check again on the wine, which was I guess nice, but they really offered no solution and it was a bit frustrating to keep being interrupted; they seemed satisfied to leave only when my sister pasted a smile on her face and declared that everything was wonderful (clearly it wasn’t). The manager especially was oblique and entirely unhelpful. Listen, warm wine on a beach ain’t the end of the world, even if it’s unexpected for this nice of an establishment. What could’ve helped was someone saying “hey, here’s a complementary glass while you wait for it to chill.” Or, “I’ll go double check if there’s anything cold right now for you.” Nothing of the sort, just kind of hovering over and making forced small talk. My sister also asked detailed questions about the seafood dish, and then it arrived sans one of the elements she was most looking forward to (shrimp). Again not the end of the world, but if my sister asked about the dish why not tell her “Oh, and we’re out of the shrimp.” The meal cost the same despite lack of shrimp and was reported not to be worth the money. I had the beyond burger and those, the fries, and the edamame were good, everyone else liked their meals, and the chef made another of my (vegan) sisters the poke bowl with tofu instead of fish. The sunset was gorgeous to watch there and the resort is very lush. Overall, it was a great dinner — whether it was worth $700 for a party of eight (including gratuity, couple people who had multiple drinks, two people who ordered the underwhelming $52 seafood dish, and a $60 bottle of white wine that probably should’ve been comped) is probably for your...

Of course, you're in a resort area and the restaurant is in a Westin. But we'd eaten at most of the other places in the area and decided to give this a try. It's a beautiful outdoor setting and the service and entertainment were both great. The menu was rather limited and bizarrely most of the apps were served with ranch dressing (noted on the menu, we didn't try them.) We did have the garlic shrimp for dinner, a half-dozen grilled shrimp that came with a half dozen spears of grilled asparagus and cherry tomatoes. The shrimp were good, although there wasn't much garlic flavor to be found. The asparagus and tomatoes were well prepared and really rounded out the plate. You're offered a choice of rice or mashed potatoes (!!??) as an included side. I had unsweetened ice tea, which had kind of an off flavor, although it's remotely possible they're using some kind of tea I'm not familiar with (not black, jasmin, or oolong.) At sunset they have a brief Hawaaian ritual and serve a coconut half-shell with a non-descript non-alcoholic drink which was OK but nothing to write home about. Prices were slightly above average for the area. Dinner wasn't bad (except the iced tea) but I can't think of a reason why I'd return here given the other options...

My wife and I sat at the bar this past Thursday night, and we initially just stopped in for a drink or 2 before we headed to Macadangdang for dinner. But, we had the pleasure of sitting at the side of the bar where Freddie was the bartender and we decided just to stay the whole night because of an amazing person Freddie was/is, we had a great conversation just extremely personable to the point where we wanted to make sure we sat at Freddie's bar again the next night, but our excursions around the island got back to late. Wonderful experience, so glad we got to sit at Freddie's bar. Also, a wonderful couple paid for our drinks and dinner, and they did not have to, but so grateful and appreciative of them as well. The husband's name was Clark. Thank you to, Clark, and your lovely...