Marco's Grill & Deli — Restaurant in Maui

Marco's is one of only two real Italian restaurants in Kahului. Located off of Dairy Road, it is within the Kahului industrial area giving it a convenient location if you're doing much of anything in Kahului whether it's filling up gas and shopping at Costco or coming back from Kihei and filling up gas. A quaint location that is a easy to miss if you don't specifically know about it, I didn't even know about Marco's until a couple of years ago.

The first thing you'll notice when arriving at Marco's is the parking. The parking lot is rather unintuitive requiring you to circle all the way around a one-way street to get a decent parking space if the central spaces are occupied. Once you actually get in, the atmosphere is great. The simplistic outer decor belies its relatively upscale interior.

Once seated, I ordered the usual root beer. At Marco's, they serve their root beer in a chilled bottle with a glass of ice. A nice touch that no other restaurant that I've been to in the price range practices. The service is quick and the wait staff is attentive. I often judge a restaurant's service on how long I need to wait between refills when I run out of drink. I never have to wait long at all at Marco's.

As per the food quality itself, I will have to admit that it is pretty hit and miss depending on what you order. My first visit here, I tried their chicken Parmigiano. It was quite disappointing. Their marinara sauce lacks the same flavorful kick that other sauces I've had boast. I'd say that even Jack in the Box, for the brief period in time which they served marinara sauce, offered a tomato sauce with more flavor. The chicken was tasty, but a bit tough which didn't make for too great of an eating experience. The saving grace was the side of fettuccine Alfredo that was served with the meal. Of all the fettuccine Alfredo that I have had from restaurants on Maui, Marco's serves the best by far. It is rich enough to hold that creamy flavor while not being so rich that the cream flavor overpowers the rest of the sauce. The pasta itself is prepared to great consistency without being too tough or too soft. I find myself coming back just for the atmosphere and fettuccine.

Finally the dessert. I had ordered the Tiramisu in my visit this time. It seems like the chef prepares it in a very conservative manner, likely for those who do not care much for the taste of coffee. You can barely taste anything aside from the cream. I do not think their Tiramisu is one of their strong points.

All in all, the food is good if you know what to order, the dessert is a tad disappointing, but it is more than made up for by the wonderful service and atmosphere of the restaurant and in my opinion, those are probably the most important things when choosing which sit-in...

Marco's has been around since 1993. They were a welcome addition to Kahului's lack of cuisine and added a restaurant that was a "nicer" place to dine at. Their swanky second location in Kihei closed years ago.

ATMOSPHERE: They're part of the Dairy Center, and located at one of the island's busiest intersections (Dairy & Hana.) The theme inside is black and white, with a small bar, booth and table seating. Big windows lets in lots of natural light, with views of cars whizzing by. Unfortunately, tacky neon signs adorn almost every window top. Clientele can be touristy since its on the way to OGG.

MENU: Breakfast, salads, Italian & American apps, pastas, sandwiches, pizza, dessert.

FOOD: Caesar Salad This used to be my fave version on the rock but I've since found better ones. They tend to use super dark green romaine rather than baby so it has a very rough and thick texture. The dressing is a bit too tangy for me.

Tomato & Cheese Salad It's a mix of romaine, tomatoes, olives, onions, and cubes of mozzarella cheese tossed in a basil dressing that's refreshingly light.

Vodka Rigatoni No one does a better vodka sauce than these guys! Truly. The sauce is more on the orange side of the color spectrum, and is full of creamy and savory flavors from the prosciutto, cheese and garlic. I don't care for tube pastas so I always order it with linguine, which they're more than happy to do. The full portion is big enough for 2 to share, and they offer a half portion size as well. A few years ago this dish had a severe overkill of garlic, but they have since corrected it. Highly recommended!

Mushroom Chicken My second fave dish on the menu. Tender chunks of chicken and sauteed mushrooms are done in a garlic cream sauce over fettuccine. It's not a heavy dish but the portion is very generous.

Clam Linguine I always hesitate to order this dish at any restaurant in fear of receiving a flavorless dish. And here, it was another added disappointment, contrary to the server up-selling it. There was just not enough butter, garlic, and salt in the dish, so I did the ultimate sin and loaded my plate with grated parmesan cheese. Avoid.

Pasta Penne My spouse loves this dish, but it's so boring to me. It's simply penne with a spicy tomato sauce & ricotta cheese. Boring! Spice level is about a 3 on a 5 scale.

Ham & Mushroom Omelet The egg was cooked perfect, with a tasty blend of fresh mushrooms, deli-style ham, and mozzarella cheese. It comes with their delish oven-roasted potatoes and toast.

DESSERT: Tiramisu Moist and flavorful, mainstream but still good.

SERVICE: Friendly for the most part, but never experienced "wow" service. Reservations are not really needed as turnover is pretty quick.

OVERALL: Pricey, generous portions. The best vodka sauce I've...

Our review on Marcos grill & deli in kahului maui.

It's in a very convenient location on the corner of dairy road and Hana highway right in town.

The staff is really nice very attentive. The restaurant smells very delicious when you walk-in.

The prices are moderate too expensive. $$$ I ordered the Sandy shrimp special it had the linguine and shrimp and keepers and onions and carrots it was pretty nice looking but it needed flavor it needed salt and flavor it was bland I probably wouldn't order this again you know for the price you pay it was a disappointment.

My wife ordered the pasta with marinara a very simple dish it was spicy and she doesn't like spicy.

My guest ordered the Greek salad and the French onion soup. The onion soup was very salty. That means it was sitting around for a long time on the stove reducing and getting more concentrated so that needed to be freshened up? The Greek salad look delicious very pretty but it didn't have much flavor either.

Now the staff was very attentive and the waitress describe the food very vividly and when the food came it didn't taste vivid like the waitress said it did.

I heard of tiramisu for dessert and it was huge and there was so much mascarpone that it looked like a lemon meringue pie and on the bottom was the lady fingers marinated in coffee. there was enough room in this desert that you could have had a second layer of lady fingers which probably would have balanced it out. But there was too much mascarpone on top of the tiramisu, it looks like about 2 in of mascarpone on top of the lady fingers which is way too much should have been only an inch high. And the gentleman that made this tiramisu actually came out to the table to you know say oh I made it and so you know he's expecting a lot of compliments. So we just told him we thought he wanted to say.

This place has a lot of attitude but the food is really bland and has a lot of room for improvement.

I'm sure there are dishes in here that are pretty good but we haven't found it. And with the prices that they're charging you might want to try it but you might be disappointed too so just beware.

Mahalo Wes n Wanda - Mililani...