Ka'ana Kitchen — Restaurant in Maui

The food was good but the service and ambiance were not. We came here to celebrate our anniversary and the last night of our vacation. Eater recommended Ka’ana as “different” from other hotel restaurants and that it offered a “fine dining”experience. Unfortunately, I would not describe what we experienced as a fine dining experience.

Our hostess congratulated us on our anniversary and lead us to our seats. We were seated on the balcony, which would be great except it looked directly at two large TVs playing sports games. Not romantic at all.

The TVs were part of the beach bar cabana, which was oddly built directly in front of the dining room, blocking most of the view. Providing diners of Ka’ana a view of whatever is playing on TV instead of an ocean view. It was very distracting. I felt like I was eating dinner being forced to watch football. A poor design decision that led to a poor dining experience.

Our waiter was also very distracted. He spoke quickly, disappeared for long stretches, we didn’t feel like we mattered at all. They seemed under staffed. Maybe due to the fire. In any case, I wish they would have limited reservations instead of stretching their staff.

The dining room was LOUD. There was live music happening at the beach bar right next to the dining room (classic resort/cruise ship singer, doing their own twists of popular hits.), while the restaurant itself had a different soundtrack (Hawaiian music, more mellow). Two soundtracks competed with each other. Along with the loud dining noise, It was sensory overload. We were barely able to hear each other. Which is why maybe the waiter was barking at us.

The food came fast and was good. We had the watermelon salad, waygu, mushroom risotto and veggie tacos. We shared family style. To be honest, we could have just ordered three. We were so stuffed. Wine prices were outrageous so we skipped. We are from the Bay Area so we can wait to drink better wine in Napa.

Overall, the price for the food based on inventiveness, quality, and preparation was reasonable.

We just can’t recommend it for special occasions. We couldn’t wait to finish our meal and get...

The Andaz Maui is amazing. 100% worth the stay and the casual dining options are delicious.

But Ka'ana Kitchen was just mediocre. We did breakfast and dinner here and both experiences left a lot to be desired.

Breakfast: At $97 for 2 people (not including tip), we were expecting more. It had multiple stations, including an omelette station, one with pancakes and waffles, and fresh fruit but it just felt pretty standard. Nothing was spectacular. I've felt like I've already overpaid for a lot of $30pp hotel breakfast buffets and this felt the same -- except at $20 more per person.

Dinner: This is where the real disappointment was. For our last night on Maui, we really expected a lot more for this "farm-to-table" menu. The grilled octopus and clams were the best things we tried, and I would order again. But that unfortunately didn't make up for the middling service and mediocre other dishes. The other dishes were okay but nothing special --we tried the kona kampach, black sesame noodles and toffee cake. The pork belly entre was just atrocious -- a terrible confused blend of flavors that did not work well together. We ordered an old fashioned that never came and when the waiter finally delivered it 20min later, he thankfully comped it. But after having to request share plates multiple times, and slow service as a whole, it just didn't seem that great of an experience -- especially compared to the rest of the resort where the service is excellent. Honestly, we were sad that we ended our trip with Ka'ana Kitchen versus somewhere else. Also not a huge ding - but we noted we were celebrating a birthday and recent engagement and they never bothered acknowledging either even verbally.

The short of it - stay at the Andaz but go elsewhere to eat. Even the casual poolside bar food is far...

Since we stayed at the Andaz, we had to check this location out. We liked it so much we ended up having 3 expensive meals here and lunch at the poolside bars twice (Bumbye Beach Bar and Lehua Longue). I think they share the same kitchen. You can come here for breakfast and dinner, and the poolside bars for lunch.

The first night we got here we didn't have a reservation. It was a Tuesday night and they didn't give us attitude like Morimoto did because we didn't book a reservation and we wanted to sit outside. In fact, we were seated by a friendly hostess outside almost immediately. Everyone who works there will smile and greet you and ask how you are. They really want you to feel welcome

The servers are high quality, too. Friendly, nice, patient and helpful. The food quality was superb. Everything we ate here for dinner was delicious. I forget our entrees and appetizers, but I'm sure you'll find other specific dinner food recommendations in other reviews.

As for breakfast, one day I did the Nutella waffles which were soooooo good. We had unlimited mimosas which means they can go up to four, but you really have to push them if you want to be served over 3. However, considering how drunk I was getting, 3 was probably enough. They have four different juices for them. My boyfriend ordered the poached eggs which were okay. He liked them, though.

Another day we did the pantry option, which is like the buffet without the fancy stuff. The full buffet option cost 2x more. There were adequate food options but the quantities were low, so it felt more like scraping what's left (it was close to 11AM at the time). The full buffet is better stocked if you...