Marlow — Restaurant in Maui

I'm a 31 year Maui Resident and also live UpCountry. I came to Maui (from the Lodge at Koele, on Lana'i, in Food and Beverage Management), in 1991 to open the Grand Wailea (also in Food and Beverage Management). That being stated, I had SERIOULY been looking forward to going to MARLOWS and trying this new UpCountry dine-in restaurant that bravely opened in the pandemic. I'm just always cautious to try any restaurant immediately, as I know it's best to wait several months vs. "dine right in first". None the less... I was absolutely looking forward to what I had read in MauiNow articles about this place!

Maybe I was expecting too much? I was hopeful for something similar to the West Side's Sale Pepe Restaurant... But UpCountry. Or at least hopeful for amazing wood fired Pizza that many food truck/trailers offer, but in a sit down brick and mortar establishment with cocktails and wine. Heck... I was just hopeful and hungry for some wonderful Italian food tonight!

Cocktails took a PAINFULLY long time l to arrive and mixed drinks were smaller than you would expect on coach class on a budget airline... and way overpriced for barely a 6oz. Cocktail. Possibly 5 small sips for a $14 Gin and Tonic. The food we ordered arrived seconds after the cocktails that were ordered all together.

Water is served nicely in bottle service, but sadly at room temperature and no offering of ice.

They do NOT have a Caeser Salad (or any facsimile for that matter) on their menu, and I found that extremely odd!?

They don't offer ground black pepper for your salad.

Pizza condiments were offered after I had eaten my third slice.

Pizza was "pretty okay" (22% better than Pizza Hut or Dominos) because their Sauce and locally-sourced ingredients were excellent and flavorful. However, they actually put the Basil on the pizza while it is still in the oven, so expect charred or burned basil. Pizza crust was a bit too thin and uneven... and had a soggy or wet center.

However folks... contrary to "hipster" Guy Fieri and others... Wood fired Pizza does NOT have to be "CHARRED" or BURNED... Thats a myth! The dough was still soggy in the middle and there was no browning of the dough. All this simply means is... Too small an oven for this restaurant volume... And way too hot of a temperature in the attempt to keep up with the orders.

Service was VERY attentive and SUPER friendly but not well trained. Sadly they expect the servers to be bartenders and make cocktails & drinks too!

However, expect to see a "KITCHEN SERVICE CHARGE" on your bill? I guess this is the new-norm for cheap charlie restauranteurs to offset paying kitchen staff a competitive wage/salary and passing it on to the patron to make up the difference?

Gelato was TRULY AWESOME (SERIOUSLY!!) but sadly lacked any presentation at all!

I don't mind paying premium price for amazing food, drinks and service. But over $90 (not including tip) for two people and just a starter and one pizza ("good pizza, yet soggy in the center with tiny overpriced cocktails)... I won't be returning ever!

But heck... they seem to be bustling and busy with what appeared to be the "New Haole UpCountry Crowd, Gated Community type, Tesla-driving hipsters and UpCountry B&B Tourists"... so kudos to them for finding a niche customer base who can afford those prices! Amazing they can appear (for now) to be successful at that business model. So I'm fairly confident that they won't suffer without, or miss, my patronage whatsoever.

I will stick to places like Kamala's Kitchen (food trailer) in Olowalu or Penny's Pizza and Pasta in Kihei for great craft pizza options or Sale Pepe in Lahaina (when I can get to the West Side). I'm just kinda bummed because I had such expectations for something really amazing for UpCountry! Especially a brick and mortar wood-fired Pizza restaurant.

A restaurant like this shouldn't be an over $100 option for two dishes, tiny cocktails and two desserts! Especially when the pizza isn't better than a food truck/trailer can make!

Wishing the owners and staff all the...

Marlow is Maui's newest pizzeria, specializing in sour dough crusts. Opened by chef and owner, Jeff Scheer, formerly of the now-shuttered Mill House, in August 2021. According to an article in the local paper, what started out as a small venture selling pizzas to friends and family blossomed into the brick & mortar biz you see today.

ATMOSPHERE: Located in a new wing of Pukalani's Kulamalu Town Center, the corner eatery is cozy, modern and chic but very noisy and echoey. Countertop seating offers front row seats to their open kitchen with a modern wood-burning pizza oven. A tiny lanai sports a few outdoor seats.

MENU: Beer, sparkling & still wines, salads, pizza, gelato.

FOOD: Burrata - $16.00 Very refreshing. A bit pricey but the cheese was velvety smooth and the tomatoes very fresh in taste and color.

Meatball En Sugo - $15.00 (2pcs,) Sugo translates to sauce, so you have meatballs & sauce! The two jumbo jawbreaker-sized polpettas were insanely juicy and airy with a perfectly-balanced tomato sauce and chewy sourdough slice to the side. Another pricey item but worth trying if you're a meatball fan.

Calabrese - $25.00 The salami was nice and salty - my vice for a pizza topping and went well with the mildly-sweet marinara sauce. The crust is what I was excited to try and it did not disappoint. If you're not into chewy crusts this isn't the place for you. Unlike others' experiences, our crust wasn't burnt to the point of being inedible, though there were a few spots here and there of char.

Funghi - $24.00 Their white pizzas have no sauce on it, so be forewarned. I'm a sauce kind of guy but really liked it as the whole clove garlic confit and cheese made up for its absence. The chunky oyster mushrooms had an ascending earthy-flavor akin to truffle oil which I normally can't palate but here, it worked.

DESSERT: Olive Oil Gelato - $7.00 The spouse and I were totally flabbergasted as to what this flavor could be. Our server told us it tastes like vanilla and is her favorite, so we went for it. Served in small tumbler glasses, It was white in color and tasted like butterscotch. Very good.

Pistachio Gelato - $7.00 My choice. There were no visible chunks of pistachio in it but the flavor was there. Silky smooth and ultra creamy. Excellent recipes!

SERVICE: Here's the reason why this isn't a 5-star review.

The sole host was taking care of the dine-in line, pick up line and table-plating duties. It took about 25 minutes from walk-up to being seated, with a second check to make sure they didn't forget about us as my phone didn't ring as promised.

Once seated, no one came to our table for 15 minutes until a worker in the kitchen noticed us and gave one of the two servers a nudge.

Our female server was friendly and knowledgeable, but even as the crowds died down, there was no follow-up service until the very end of the meal.

Instead of checks being presented so you can look at the charges, they approach with a wireless credit card machine in-hand and ask for payment, similar to European-style dining. While it saves time, it's very uncomfortable to just hand over your card not knowing if the charges are correct and selecting a gratuity with the server staring you down. No receipt was printed from the device as the feature wasn't working so I had to ask for one which she fetched from another station.

OVERALL: Nice, simple menu. Good pizza. A bit...

I have been dinning here since the restaurant first opened as I live across the street. Typically Marlow has provided great service as they scaled from opening to current day operations; though pricing has always been questionable. It was very upsetting to report that of my most recent, & probably last visit to the restaurant. I had placed an order for pickup earlier that evening and was given an hour and thirty wait time even though the website online (google) said that seating availability was: “Open.” I gave the kitchen 40 minutes after I originally ordered as I assumed the website was being conservative in regards to the wait time. As I arrived I asked for my order. They replied that the order hadn’t even started and that I was queued behind three others. They assured that the hour thirty wait would be true to the receipt. Since the order had not begun, I reached out to another comparable Italian restaurant in upcountry: Casanovas. After placing an order of comparable size, they gave me a pickup time of 20 minutes which was still beating that of my continuous wait time at marlow. I confirmed my casanovas order and went inside to relay my news and cancel my order. You would think this would be the end of it and one could move on but no….. all of the servers were very offended by my request to cancel even tho they claimed they hadn’t even started the order. They then tried to bargain with me by giving me a salad that was waiting on the counter and by claiming the order would now be completed in 20 minutes; after minutes before of claiming that it hadn’t even begun. I stuck to my decision with canceling the marlow order as they weren’t this eager prior to. I then offered them an out of the situation by requesting for them to give me everything they had completed, and to give the rest of the completed order to the kitchen as I didn’t want to wait there any longer and I felt bad. After of my request/out, the chef had a complete bipolar melt down & personality shift, walked over and took my already paid for salad out of my hand. He then replied very passively by telling me to leave and my order was canceled. Very upsetting but just wanted others to be aware of this, and not to get your hopes up as well on this mediocre...