Moku Roots — Restaurant in Maui

Hundreds of Dollars down the drain.. when someone shows you who they are, believe them!!

In December for my birthday, a friend and I came there often because we liked there food. I had a very prejudice experience, with one of the managers there. She had an attitude and was very rude to. My hair happened to be really frizzy because of my swim in the ocean at the Westin Ka’anapli earlier that afternoon. I tried to resolve things to let her know that I felt she was being rude and she continued to be stand off ish and have an attitude. So I swore I’d never come back.

In March I moved to Maui and because I knew very few people and was following my intuition, I decided to come back. This experience was better but I still experienced a lot of prejudice. I continued to come because I enjoyed the food and had formed a friendly relationship with one of the workers. However the restaurant has a double standard with the way their employees are allowed to display their attitude in comparison to their costumers. I eat only vegan so as a result their are very few restaurants to choose from on the island. In order to illustrate one of my experiences, I had a blonde employee tell me that she didn’t care when I explained to her that I wanted low ice for my $10 lavender lemonade. A month later I did the same while the owner was present and because of their prejudice I was painted and treated as though I was a problematic customer.

Just a few days ago, asked for the curry to be remade because it looked sloppy and I had a feeling it wasn’t made right; also I’m allergic to chickpeas. The owner had it remade and when she brought it out to me rather than sit it on the table she handed it to me and tried to tip it over so it would spill on me. Rather than be annoyed. I tried to enjoy my $14 curry, because if you weren’t paying attention, it could have looked like an accident. There was barely any pineapple rice or pineapples. It just curry soup and vegetables. && when I sent inside the restaurant to help pay some more of they bills everyone in the restaurant looked annoyed as though they were mad the curry didn’t spill all over me! lol what kind of restaurant is this. Four stars my butt ; this should definitely be a 2 or 3 star depending on the situation!

Lastly was the experience I had today. I plan to go traveling again as I had in May to mid June, and I saw the same originally rude employee I saw in December, and if I’m candid, I only continued to come back because I hadn’t seen her… I truthfully hold a lot of disdain for this woman. But I ordered my food and also decided this would be my last time ordering here, because I truthfully can’t Stomach the sight of her. However I ordered and watched 2 different families within 30 minutes, receive their dishes before me that ordered after me. I only ordered their expensive $7 avocado toast.

I won’t order from them again and I honestly don’t recommend that anyone does, especially if you are of a minority ethnic background.

Thank you...

I was really excited to try this place because im a health fanatic foodie and everyone at my work was raving about this place, they go all the time. I ordered the mushroom melt to go. I requested goat cheese instead of swiss and ulu bread instead of regular bread. Well they were out of ulu so i ended up with the regular. When i got the sandwich i was extremely disappointed. There was barely any filling or cheese (which they charged extra too!!) and just huge mounds of white bread. Probably would cost me 2 bucks to make but this was 20 bucks (with tip, i shouldnt have) for basically just bread!! Had barely any flavor either. I feel like i got severely ripped off. I ate it only cuz i was starving and it sat in my stomach like a rock. Really sad because i was excited to try other dishes but this was just such a turn owas.

EDIT: Wow, this is not a troll post. I did eat here quite some months ago and thought i left a review until i moved back to lahaina and was hunting for vegetarian options and remembered i ate here when i was just about to come back. It left a negative impression on me. I dont care if you no longer serve it, its what i had when i ate here. The cheese and the ulu being out wasnt even the issue, it was the no filling/ poor quality in taste sandwich i received. So take the criticism rather than accuse ppl of trolling. I have better things to do than that, just letting others be aware. I also said 20 was INCLUDING tip. Sorry that i was generous with you guys.

EDIT: Again, calling me a liar. I have around 5-10 ppl to confirm i ate there and my order. I didn't know you no longer served it when i wrote my review (and theres no rules against late reviews) and if i wouldve known that then i wouldve deleted my review but how you dealt with it with your angry response says it all. Very unprofessional. What happened was 100% true so if anything, you are...

I wanted to love this place, but their staff needs some serious training! Given their poor standards I won’t be back.

First the good: our food was solid, well seasoned with a few standout items (coconut bacon on our salad was smoky and lovey). I also love the concept of a zero waste restaurant and it’s clear they’re going above and beyond most restaurants in the area.

Now for the bad.

I was a bit shocked at the amount of body hair and loose, flowing hair on display, totally uncovered and unbound, by the serving and kitchen staff. Ponytails bounced and lots of armpit hair peeked out from tank tops... I know Maui is a casual place, but I also witnessed a long blonde-ish hair sticking out about 6 inches from the lid of a takeout container, trapped in the lid as it was placed on the dish, the other end of the hair clearly in the food... this hair clearly matched the hair of the woman who was working the serving station wrapping food. Untied hair=hair in food and in takeout.

In addition, I witnessed a server spill sauce on the floor, use a disposable napkin to wipe it up (thought the goal was to reduce waste?) then leave that dirty napkin on the serving station where food is placed by the kitchen when it’s ready to go to tables or be wrapped up for takeout. Not proper sanitation practices.

The server then took the small dish of dipping sauce, now mostly empty and with sauce smeared all over the side, to a table without refilling it so the customer got a full side of sauce or washing her hands at all.

Finally, that dirty napkin that she used to wipe the floor with? Another server grabbed it from the service station and then used it to wipe down the outside of our to go sandwich, the logical result of dirty towels being left in the service station.

I won’t be back...