Island Fresh Café — Restaurant in Maui

The good: Cute side of the road place off the beaten path of downtown Paia. Easy parking lot for maybe 8-10 cars. Nice casual atmosphere. Quite a few tables for various sized parties.

The bad: Short staffed, small portions for the price, and a forgotten meal. We waited almost 20 min to be seated. During this time, the busy waitress passed us a half dozen times and never greeted nor acknowledged us. A voice from the kitchen finally directed us to grab a menu and seat ourselves. No problem, but I wonder why the waitress didn’t offer that. Another 10 min passed before our waitress came to the table with water and silverware. It was 30 minutes from the time we walked into this half empty restaurant, to the time that our order was taken.

The food and coffee tasted adequate but a little pricey for the portion size- even at island prices. My husband ordered a latte and bacon benedict, my daughter had a single pancake, and I ordered a coffee and an acai bowl. The coffee and latte were just okay; nothing to rave about, but we are particular about coffee. The hot food came in about 10 minutes with no mention that my order would be following shortly. Sadly, my family was finished before I could track down the waitress regarding my missing order.

I asked the waitress if I could just get the acai bowl to go and she acted as if I was making an additional order; there seemed to be no awareness that my breakfast never made it to the table.

While we waited for our check, I started eating my acai bowl (so that it wouldn’t melt). By this time we got the check, I had finished my acai bowl because again, it was a the small portion and trying to get the staff’s attention was harder than you’d think. Even though the staff seemed to be running back and forth to the kitchen, there was never a pause to see if we liked our food or if we needed anything.

And finally, the gross: I know it’s a tropical island, but it’s just unappetizing to have a fly, fly into the hot sauce bottle and get stuck.

We finally got out of there a hour and 15 minutes after we arrived. We will pass on this...

If you only read the first sentence of this review, the main takeaway is DO NOT GO TO ISLAND CAFE. I grew up on Maui and went for breakfast with my partner during a visit home. It was our first morning on the island and we were excited to be on vacation and in Maui. Unfortunately Island cafe did its best to ruin our morning. To start, the service was awful and unbelievably slow. We sat for ~15-20 minutes waiting for a server to come to the table. While we were waiting, two women got up from their table and left because they had been waiting for 30 minutes! Anyway we were still hopeful due to the exciting looking menu. Unfortunately when the food finally arrived, it was absolutely unacceptable. The coffee tasted like drain water with a hint of coffee. I ordered the avocado toast which was stale bread with three slices of unripe avocado. My partner got the açaí bowl which was so small it looked like it was for a baby (and I tasted it, also completely flavorless)! To add insult to injury, while we were seated one of the servers came around and tried to sell us tiny loaves of Im sure equally tasteless banana bread for 10 dollars. During our meal we made friends with another diner seated next to us who was visiting from the big island and we commiserated over how awful our meals were. Island cafe is unfortunately an absolute tourist trap. Being from the island, I really want to support local businesses but unfortunately I cannot support this one. I wish I could...

While visiting Maui, my family was advised to check out the Paia area. A simple google search of "breakfast near me" led us to Island Fresh Cafe, which ended up making our last day the most special. We enjoyed a great breakfast (+ excellent matcha.) We asked the staff's recommendations for the best beginner surf spot in the area. We assumed it would be most convenient to rent boards close to the beach (for easy transportation.) The staff was not pushy about us renting from them. The surf shop we visited didn't have boards ready at the time - so we came back to rent from the cafe. Nadia kindly lended us boards and the staff even assisted us in loading them in our Jeep. Nadia gave us fresh bananas to bring to the beach, which were so delicious. We had the best time surfing at the beach they recommended. The waves were great and and the boards were perfect for our skill levels. Upon returning the boards, I browsed through the clothing for sale outside of the cafe. Nadia kindly allowed me to try on a pair of lovely pants that caught my eye - which I bought! I really appreciated her demeanor as she (again) was not pushy about selling anything. Before leaving, we had a nice talk with Nadia. Her presence is so beautiful. Two weeks after our visit to Island Fresh Cafe, my family and I still reminiscence on how we felt leaving the cafe. We are inspired knowing that we're all capable of being a light in the lives of strangers, as...