Lahaina Fish Co — Restaurant in Maui

Lahaina Fish Co. was a restaurant I found when searching for dinner options near our hotel while visiting Maui. Lahaina turned out to be a town that we visited nightly while on Maui. I was able to make a reservation ahead of time using Open Table, but I also see that reservations are able to be made via Google as well. I highly recommend reservations at any restaurant when traveling especially a highly travelled tourist location like Hawaii. Though, if you do have to wait to be seated at Lahaina Fish Co., there is plenty to do while you wait as there are local shops and boutiques along the main street.

We arrived early for our reservation and they were able to accommodate us. We dined here on a Wednesday evening. The waitstaff were friendly and the ambiance was romantic. The restaurant is open-air and seats right out over the water, a perfect spot to enjoy a sunset dinner. It does get breezy, so for those that are easily chilled, I recommend a light jacket though with Hawaiian coastal breezes it feels quite refreshing at the end of a long sunny day.

We ordered two entrees, the Seafood Lau Lau and the Opah blackened. You are also served ciabatta with sea salt butter, a tasty start to a meal. I was very pleased with the variety of food offered on the Lau Lau dish. I can see why it was recommended by our waitress. The sweet potatoes were my favorite, but the seafood selections gave you a taste of everything caught locally. For those with a taste for spicy flavors, the Opah blackened won't disappoint.

Overall, we were pleased with this dining option while visiting Maui, and would recommend to family and friends. I would say this dining option is more fine dining with unique twists and flavors to...

Every time we visited in the past, the food was phenomenal and the service was great. However, we had two bad experiences there this week.

On our first visit, we were greeted by a very pleasant manager and were seated almost immediately. Our order included a burger, ahi tuna app, and a bowl of chowder. Service was incredibly slow. While the burger and tuna were fantastic, the chowder was downright cold. When it came out the second time, it was piping hot. But for some reason, it was now as thick as paste, so much so it was inedible.

I was not going to say anything, but when the manager came by and saw me not eating, she inquired. I told her what happened. She immediately took it back and took it off the bill. We paid, tipped the waiter, Allen, and moved on.

The following day, we returned and were put in the same waiter's section. The greeting from our server, Allen, was cool, at best. All the rest of the staff was very congenial. While the food was good, it became very obvious that the server was avoiding our table. When he did take our order, we even went so far as to ask him if we have done something that upset him. He responded with a sarcastic, "I'm excellent."

He didn't check on us and pretty much ignored us, while yucking it up with all of his tables immediately around us. It was a really unpleasant experience. It ruined what had been one of our favorite restaurants on the island.

We have a third reservation for the restaurant we made when we arrived at the island. But our experience was so lousy, we won't be back. Good food. One...

Ambiance - 4 stars, right on the water, open air setting, nice decor, but bathrooms were small and unattended. Hostess - 5 stars, got us the location we wanted, seated promptly, reservation ahead Food - 3.5 stars... my wife had the shrimp scampi, she enjoyed it and probably rated it 4 stars, I ordered the burger (only 1 on the menu) and it was probably a 2. I know... why order a burger at a fish house???, but it's a burger... really??? How hard is it? No flavor, meat was unseasoned and too big. Service - 1 star... the service really sucked. I'm sorry, but when you spend $19 on a burger and $25 for shrimp scampi, your expectations are a little higher than your run of the mill chain restaurant. The server did not engage our table, visited only the minimal amount required to serve a table and had no personality. Worse, she obviously knew the patrons at some of her other tables and we felt a bit like the red-headed step child (no offense to gingers - my wife happens to be one). It took forever to get our food and it appeared like the food had been in the window for some time. We were seated at 8:00 and didn't get our meal until 8:45 - and we didn't order an appetizer. We also were held hostage waiting for our bill. Return - I'd be willing to give it another shot, but I would probably try the fish next time and would request a different server - the neighboring tables seemed to get much...