The Restaurant at Hotel Wailea — Restaurant in Maui

Everything was “amazing minus one” is the best way I can think to describe this experience.

Do keep in mind, of course, that all this is happening on a hardened volcanic eruption in the middle of the ocean. Perspective is important.

Not at all to brag, but we have experience with fine dining around the world at 1-3 Michelin Star (and not) restaurants. Total with tip for two people, with 3 cocktails between us was about $450 after tip, so that’s part of the rating — the price is not an issue, just context for the rating and standards at this price point in terms of value compared to similarly-priced experiences.

From the top: self-parking was full and no one was at the valet stand. They were dealing with a wedding. I had another go-around and found a self-park spot. Not a big deal. My pregnant wife was waiting at the valet stand and wasn’t sure if that was where we should check in for our reservation. They just told her to wait. When I came back from self-parking, I just asked the front desk reception where the restaurant was — it’s down another corridor, so waiting at the valet stand was pointless. Again, not a big deal, but room to do better.

Check-in went fine and we were seated at perhaps the worst table in the restaurant. No view of the ocean unlike basically every other table. We were visiting about an hour before sunset, so just in time to stand awkwardly next to a table on the upper level to try to get a good photo because our table only had a view of the roof of one of the hotel buildings. Again, amazing minus one.

There was a loud wedding or some type of similar function happening during our visit, so service was good, but slow. Drinks took a bit over 30 minutes to come after we ordered them. A small addition we ordered during dinner was forgotten, which we reminded them to cancel at the end. It was pretty obvious that they had their hands full with the loud wedding party full of drunk people who bumped into us as we found the restrooms.

The food was, again, just short of excellence. The first course featured an ahi tartare, think poke with some fantastic capers, on a stale shrimp chip with green food coloring. Seriously, it hurt my teeth to crunch on that chip. The flavor was fantastic, just that chip was either overcooked or stale. My wife had a lobster tortellini which was unevenly perfectly al dente. Again the flavor was great, but just short of amazing, like the texture.

Second course was a perfectly-charred mahi with under-salted dashi and amazing mushrooms kinda just floating around, with a mushy but amazingly flavorful eggplant again just floating randomly in the dashi, and the freshest, most amazingly crunchy ogo seaweed I’ve ever had. This dish would have been perfect with just the mahi and ogo in a dashi that had been reduced 50% more.

Dessert was a small square of basque cheesecake with some Godiva accoutrements. It was great. A darker Valrhona chocolate, or even better, something local, would have elevated this dish, as would some kind of local fruit coulis.

The drinks were good and strong but balanced, but again compared to some of the other nicer drinks we’ve had in the area, they could be elevated with something like local flowers, fruits, purées, garnish, and/or locally-made liquors. The wines by glass list looked decent, but visiting from Northern California consisted mostly of things from back home. I didn’t ask for a wine list but I think they have one. No wine pairing option was suggested or available as far as I could tell.

We left with a few mosquito bites. Again, you’re in the middle of a lush tropical rain forest in the middle of the Pacific.

TL;DR You’re in the middle of the ocean in paradise. It’s not an amuse-bouche-and-postcard-for-your-birthday-signed-by-the-sommelier-that-you-laughed-about-your-professor-back-at-Oxford with kinda place. Just make sure you get a table with a good view of the sunset...

What can I say?...there's so much to say that I didn't know where to begin so I delayed my review...

...I CAN'T STOP CRAVING THE RESTAURANT breakfast at HOTEL WAILEA. Which is why I plan to head on over again this week for my MIL's bday.

My first meal there was for Mother's Day (see Aaron N. Review). Since it was such an amazing breakfast spread and a beautiful celebration, I decided to surprise my husband for Father's Day and to celebrate my two daughter's kindergarten graduation. So we ate breakfast there for the 2nd time.

Tyler stood at the front & greeted us like ohana recognizing us from our first visit. His warm greeting as we approached the beautiful open lobby of the restaurant felt like reuniting with good friends. And with the sounds of the tropical waterfall nearby, it only added to our excitement.

When we were seated, a friendly Aunty waitress (sorry didn't catch her name) sat us. She spoke so highly of their hot tea and homemade honey, so I trusted her taste. She has great taste! I enjoyed every drop of that hot tea and fresh sweet honey. I gotta ask next time if they retail sell these. Last time I had their mimosas…perfect balance of POG juice and bubbly fun.

Then Katie welcomed us - she was our waitress from before and remembered us celebrating Mother's Day. She amazingly remembered what my little ones ordered: RICOTTA PANCAKES and FRENCH TOAST with EVERYTHING on the side (kids have plain & picky tastebuds, haha). When the sweet, kind food runner brought out their order, Katie immediately recognized that it wasn't meeting kid standards. I said it was fine and would just try to make adjustments but after my failed attempts of feeding my LO's Katie gladly replaced the pancakes free of charge back to the no toppings one we had ordered. I, of course, tasted their dishes. The ricotta in the pancakes is such a genius secret to making them fluffy and tasty. You really don't need syrup. But adding the lilikoi cream and coconut whip to the pancakes...ono! (delish!)...with fresh island fruits! Yum! The French toast is a hearty slice and so tasty that you can enjoy it plain, but why pass on calamansi syrup for that sweet tang and top it with coconut whip for that fluffy cloudy experience.

Now the pastry board! We raved about it at our first visit and Katie remembered how much we enjoyed the banana muffin, Mac nut croissant and all the spreads. Every bite alone or with island flavored butters or jams just brings the brings the breakfast experience together. So she brought out the pastry board compliments of management. We truly felt the genuine aloha of The Restaurant of Hotel Wailea and enjoyed the friendly professionalism of each team member.

I couldn't help but order the WAILEA CRAB CAKE BENEDICT again. It was so flavorful and satisfying last time and it consistently pleased my taste buds again. Omg! I'm already salivating just thinking about it all.

We loved our experience eating breakfast here. The location, the ambiance, the view, the outdoor seating, the staff, everything is the high standards you’d expect in Maui. We look forward to trying out the dinner menu soon. And The Birdcage Bar is such a cool lounge to hang out in during the day. We can't wait to experience it at night. Maybe we will now that my MIL is in town to babysit.

Mahalo nui loa and we will see...

They blew it big with us last night. Yes, the holiday rush is on but they had a lot of staff clearly in place. Running back and forth..We live on island and had my son and his wife who were visiting out for dinner and looked forward to a nice....experience. WE were seated and got the drink order in, then placed the entree order and a bit later the salad etc dishes came out. Small and underwhelming. THEN, We waited. And waited. And waited. The waitress was pretty unattentive to us all the while busy fussing with other nearby tables. She no doubt could see we were getting annoyed. I finally intercepted her and asked when dinner was coming out. She said, "Shortly". It wasnt. She never came back. I grabbed the buss/waterboy (Who was running around working his butt off) and asked if he could go find our waiter for an update. He came back with a manager who seemed a bit pissed about what was going on and ran off to do damage control. We had told him we were just leaving and to bill us for the drinks and call it good. He returned with the dinners shortly after. Luke warm lobster dish's and very small on the plate. A couple of bites and you were done. A presentation meal. Visual. The table behind us by the way, had arrived after we did and had dinners etc brought out and were taken care of. Not us. We waited. We surmmized that the waitress had forgot to put the order in or the whole damn thing got lost somewhere in the kitchen. This was a restaraunt night special where each person was a flat 150 dollars so the end tab before drinks and tip would be 600 bucks. Expensive. We didnt pay that. Just the salads and drinks as the manager offered. They gave us take out desserts as well. We wanted to go. We now had been there almost 2 hours. The buss/water boy who was working hard and chasing down our dinner problem and people for us did his job. I threw 20 bucks at him and a thankyou. We never give negative reviews to our local dining places on the island. They have struggled to keep it all going here after pandemic and Lahiana. You cut them some slack. If you are going to have ANY dining establishment on the island you had better be good. Last night, this one...