Kihei Caffe — Restaurant in Maui

I normally eat at the Kihei Caffe in Lahaina. This trip I was staying in Kihei and decided to go to the Kihei location. Unfortunately, I decided to visit the morning after the July 29th Tsunami warning and they were closed. I was so disappointed because it is one of my all time favorite restaurants, (at least the Lahaina location…). We had the memorial service later that day and had a wonderful celebration of life party after that. The next day just before lunchtime someone asked if anybody wanted to go to lunch and I said yes. When they asked where we should go I immediately suggested Kihei Caffe! I was so happy I was finally going to get some banana macadamia nut pancakes. Five of us went. Just like the other location you order first from a counter and then find a seat. You tell them your name and they bring you the food when it is ready. We ordered separately and I was the last to order. I knew I wanted banana macadamia nut pancakes but I was hungrier than just that. The 2+ 2 had two eggs, two pieces of bacon and two buttermilk pancakes but it said no substitutions. When it was my turn I asked if I could get the 2 + 2 with banana macadamia nut pancakes AND THE COUNTER PERSON SAID YES!!!! I was overjoyed, (no I really was). I also heard my brother in front of me order iced green tea with mango and that sounded so delicious I ordered a glass to go with my coffee Americana. The menu made it clear, and I think there were signs too, that said no refills. Once you order and pay you turn to the right and wait for your beverages. In my case the wait was less than 30 seconds and I was the only one there, so apparently the other people in my party didn’t have to wait long either. We went into a secret inside room that was near the back of the patio. The food came at different times and each time it did someone stuck their head in the room and called out a name. I will say that because we had three separate orders I would not expect the orders to come at the same time, but some food from each of the three orders came within a few minutes of each other but two meals from a single order came at least five minutes apart. So much so that while we tried to wait for the last meal we eventually had to start eating because our meals started getting cold. I have to say that my meal was perfect. The banana macadamia nut pancakes were not just buttermilk pancakes with banana and nuts thrown on top. They were delicious and barely needed any syrup on them. My eggs were over easy and they were cooked perfectly so that the yolk could mix with the pancake, banana, nuts and syrup. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. The bacon was perfectly cooked, about as brown as you could get it without burning it at all. It was pretty thick too, which I like. It was on the salty side, but in a good way. I made the right call on the iced green tea with mango. It was delicious! The coffee Americana was perfect too. It was just the right temperature so I could start drinking it, not sipping, right away. It was not bitter or flavored, nor was it too strong or too weak. It was the perfect cup of coffee not trying to be the world’s greatest cup of coffee.

All in all the Kihei Caffe was better than expected and I expected it to be fantastic. It didn’t let me down and it even raised my expectations for...

Horrible experience at this establishment. Aside from the fact that the food quality is lack luster at best (think cold cheese thrown on top of cold-ish eggs), my fiancé and I experienced horrible service here. My fiancé ordered a custom omelet and verbally requested feta cheese at the counter. The gentleman who rung him in didn’t bat an eye, took our payment and instructed us to have a seat outside and our food would be brought to us. After waiting about 20 minutes we were bought our meals and sure enough the kitchen used cheddar cheese. My fiancé politely brought this up with one of the hostesses and asked if he could have the cheese preference he had ordered. This is when the confusion ensued. The staff rudely asserted that he could only have feta with the daily special something we weren’t informed when we placed our order. Had we been given this information he would have simply just ordered no cheese. One of the chefs even went so far as to slam his plate on the table and assert he ordered wrong. It was an appalling scene. We remained calm despite the mistreatment and repeatedly tried to explain what had happened to no avail. Ultimately we left our $70 meal on the table and left. Refusing to eat food at an establishment that treats its guests this way. If feta cheese wasn’t an option, the staff ringing folks in should be trained not to ring it in as one. Customers should not be punished and forced to eat what they didn’t order or pay for. Meanwhile the food was gross. My waffle tasted bland, eggs were cold and topped with half melted cheddar, and the syrup was thick and had a strange after taste. I’m not sure how or why their ratings are what they are, but this place needs a serious reality check. It’s not worth the price or the poor service. My advice: do...

All right so here's the thing, this place is on the main strip in Kihei, and therefore like all of the other food trucks and restaurants, carries very high pricing. The service is fine, not overly friendly. Although the girl at the counter taking our order was very kind about finding out if there was any shrimp in the sauces of the dish I wanted to order since I'm allergic. They have a pretty large menu so lots of choices for picky eaters. Expect to pay around 17 to $28 per plate. Portion sizes are small to average. The Portuguese sausage fried rice with scrambled eggs was actually very good! My husband got the loco moco which he was trying it pretty much every location we went to, unfortunately this one was his least favorite out of the six he tried around the island. He said the patty lacked flavor and was quite dry. I ordered an iced coffee that was quite literally undrinkable, extremely acidic and tasted as if it had been made days prior. I threw it out. We paid $70 total for two people. That included one hot coffee, one iced coffee, an order of fried rice, and one locomoco. Personally I felt this was excessively highly priced in comparison to many of the other restaurants we ate at around the island that gave larger portions and had better quality ingredients. But again, it is downtown Kihei, so high prices are kind of to be expected. The food trucks next door are charging $25 a plate, and that's a food truck! So it is what it is. I wouldn't run to eat at this place or recommend it specifically, but I can't say I wouldn't go back if we were in the area just for the fried rice. It is quite...