Kō Restaurant — Restaurant in Maui

We were very excited to come and experience the fairmont standard in Maui. We are fairmont gold frequenters and always have incredible experiences when we stay with the fairmont. Although we were not guests of the hotel this time around we knew we had to try the Plantation style restaurant Kō on our visit to the island. We drove around an hour to come to the restaurant for 4pm as this was the opening time listed on Google. When we arrived we were told they only offered happy hour seating at this time which was not specified anywhere in their advertising. Because we had a young child with us this became very challenging as all that could be offered to us why high table bar seating. We made it work but with little to no ability to actually enjoy ourselves as we had to make sure he didn’t fall off the elivated bench the whole time until they would move us to lower seating 30 mins later! I ordered a Mai tai which was by far the worst I’ve had on the entire island over the 5 separate times I’ve visited over the years, honestly it was dark rum poured over boxed juice with absolutely nothing to make it special…not very fairmont at all. My husband and I ordered some appies while we waited to pass the time…thank god we got happy hour prices because the food quality was so basic I would have been even more dissatisfied to have paid twice the cost at regular dinner hours. The crispy lavender shrimp was okay to taste but just deep fried shrimp smothered in sauce with an additional bowl of unnecessary sauce on the side. The fries I ordered for my son…which I specified came smothered in garnish and sauces which was not clear on the menu. Though they weren’t bad I had to undress each individual fry to make it more kid friendly and would have truly appreciated being informed they would have the spicy aioli all over them when I asked for them for my 2 year old! I’m going to be straight forward about our dinner entrees. I ordered the flank steak for somewhere around 57$ American. It was not even the size of a deck of cards. I weigh all my food at home so I can assure you this was very likely 4oz of one of the cheapest cuts of meat you can get. My husband got a fresh catch and although the portion was better the dish was so basic with very little flavour besides an extreme amount of garlic. We came here so excited and truly hoping for the best meal of our trip. After spending 275$ for 2 adults and a 2 year old we left extremely underwhelmed and dissatisfied. Our drive home was filled with chats about how we’ve had better food at shopping centre food courts a 1/10 of the cost. Truly disappointing and hope they figure out how to meet the fairmont standard soon! Our server Brandon was attentive and great at his job. We didn’t make it known to any manager of our disappointment because there was just no point. We knew the food was what it was and waiting for meals to be remade when you are already struggling to keep a toddler distracted in a place that had no space for him was hard enough. We would likely not return to this restaurant ever again unless some very big changes were made to the kitchen. I would also like to specify this is the second Google review I have ever written for a restaurant in my life…because I have 20 years experience in the food and beverage industry myself, I understand the ins and outs of fine dining extensively and know what the basic standard is for an establishment claiming to offer fine dining. This place just did not tick any of the boxes and was certainly not worth the...

I shared a delicious night out with a couple friends last night at Ko. In true Maui form, our server Morgan was friendly and gracious. Also, as happens frequently on the island, one of my friends bumped into an uncle of hers who was working, so we scored a free dessert! It's always nice to go somewhere touristy that's also accommodating for locals, so the 15% kamaaina discount was much appreciated!

We started off with a salad and appetizer. The kale salad was good, but not my fave. Get it if you're making a health-conscious decision. I think I'm going to try a different one next time. Next up was the Kobe beef and kimchee appetizer. It was like a little Korean beef bowl. The only thing I didn't like about it was that I had to share it. 😄 We were also served bread - a few rolls and house made rice crackers served with butter, a mildly spicy dipping sauce (tasted like it had gochujang), and an edamame (soy bean) spread. The rice crackers looked really cool, but in typical rice cracker fashion, they had the consistency of styrofoam. That's not really a complaint - thats just what you should expect from rice crackers. But like I said - they look cool! Go see the pic! I tried it with the hot sauce and the edamame spread, but was happiest with a combination of both.

At the end of the night, we went home very happy, and it's because all three of us had great main entrées, and the desserts were better than what we were expecting. I had the zarzuella, and my friends had the lamb chop and the sea bass (lemon grass broth preparation). I stole a bite from each of them, and I probably would have been envious had I not been even happier with mine. I was in a seafood mood, and you can't really beat the satisfaction brought by a variety of seafood served in a vat of saffron broth when you're feeling that way. Both of my friends were equally satisfied with their choices - and that never happens for us, so it was success all around!

Lastly was dessert. I'm typically not a dessert person, so you should take it as high praise when I say I would definitely order the pineapple creme brulee and calamansi lime pie again. The creme brulee comes in a hollowed out section of a pineapple. It looks fancy, but we've all been fooled by food that looks better than it tastes before, so we were all happy when we dug in. The chunky, tart pineapple plays well with the creamy sweetness of the custard and the crunch of the sugary crust. So good! The calamansi lime pie great as well, though I only got a couple of bites before one of my friends demolished it. If you're not familiar with calamansi, its a small lime that came to Hawaii via the Phillipines. The restaurant also does a calamansi lemonade. Personally, I enjoy making myself a calamansi soda at home on occasion. I'd do it more often if didn't take so much work. Each fruit isn't much bigger than the size of a pinball, so it takes patience to collect the juice. Anyhoo - they must go to a lot of trouble to get all that juice, but its totally worth it for that pie!

Thanks Ko for a great evening!...

We were so hyped to go to this place. We purposely had not eaten for maybe 6 hours. We get there and sound was the first sense we experienced. A low energy elevator style hawaian music. As we were waiting to be seated we looked around to take in the restaurant and its customers, older crowd and old money, muted voices and under the radar dresscode. Glanced at my wife with a look that 26 years of marriage has refined and perfected, - where was all the hype we had come to expect from the top rated restaurant on the island? Ok so atmosphere is not ideal let's try the food. Bao buns and sushi for appetizers. Sushi was some of the best and most expensive i have had, bao buns should have just been dropped from the menu. Waitress asked us our opinion we gave her a thumbs up for the sushi but a thumbs down on the bao buns. It was as if we had stabbed her. This painful look shot across her face as if her life depended on it. Felt bad and asked her for her must haves on the entré menu. She suggested the lobster tempura and the pork. We ordered. Pork was above average but the lobster tempura lacked the finesse of something served in this type of restaurant. A good tempura of any type should be light, crunchy and devoid of any greasy aftertaste letting you indulge in something deep fried without making you feel like you walked out of a chick fil A. We didn't stay for desert, we were already racking up a bill of $200 with no alcohol and did not to get disappointed with any other plate. Waitress did deduct the bao bums from the bill which is the reason why i gave 3 stars for service. I would of given 2.5 stars for the food because half the food we ordered was really good. Do not recommend this restaurant if you want an entertaining night unless you are a group and you can make your own sounds to drown out the hawaian...