Wailea Kitchen - Farm to Table Organic Menu with Vegan & Vegetarian Options — Restaurant in Maui

This is the second negative review that I have ever posted. I hate posting negative reviews because I would usually rather give the place the benefit of the doubt and at least try it once again before leaving a harsh review on a small business. But you could not pay me to eat here again it was the worst experience I’ve ever had at a restaurant by a long shot and I hate to think about other people going through the same experience for what comes out to a 60-80$ per person meal. To start I booked an ocean view table but when I arrived it wasn’t available, honestly would not have cared much if the rest of the experience was okay. The waitress quickly came and took an appetizer and drink order but that’s when things turned for the worst. Didn’t receive the drink I ordered for an hour and a half(mind you the mixed drink was delicious but what does it matter if you have to wait an hour and a half for it) and I was thankful I ordered the appetizers because we received those almost an hour after being seated and weren’t able to order our entrees for an hour and a half. It was chaos with so many peoples orders getting messed up that all though there was an adequate number of staff to accommodate the small number of tables they were far to busy trying to make things right to take care of everyone seated. I finally received my dinner almost two hours after being seated but by then my appetite was spoiled and I just wanted to leave. The food was only a little better than the service and at 40$ a plate felt like a complete ripoff. The ingredient quality was good but the flavor was bland and execution was no better(the pasta noodles were over cooked, and I wasn’t told that there was no salad for my Tahitian prawns until it was almost ready to be served so that meal quickly devolved into oily prawns coated in parmesan and served with a side of greasy fries). I would have walked out a lot earlier but my partner is vegetarian and it was our first night on Maui so I was worried about finding another place that could accommodate us so last minute. In the end they gave us 15% of the entire meal which worked out to 26 dollars off. But the waitress somehow double ordered my 42$ entree so unfortunately it did not even cover that single mistake. If I pointed this out it probably would have been rectified but I honestly would have paid just about anything to walk away from that experience at that point so that’s what I did. If you have read this far I apologize for being so long winded but hopefully I have saved you...

Very disappointed. I worked most of my career as a chef and I hate to leave this review, however, when drinks are nearly 20 dollars and pasta is 40, I expect to get what we are paying for. The chef greeted us and immediately let us know they were understaffed. In fact, we heard about it 3 more times throughout the night. When that happens, I take it as a reason to provide a poor experience. They WERE very polite and friendly, but eventually it wasn’t enough. The service was pretty bad. It took 15 minutes for our appetizer of fries to come out. We still didn’t have plates or silverware. It took forever to get our drinks. Because they let us know they were understaffed, I was still okay with the slow service. I finished my drink and was not asked if I wanted another drink at all, I had to request one 20 minutes after I finished my first one. We were a party of 6 and waited 45 minutes for our entrees. The chef sent out complimentary cauliflower, which was okay. They apologized for the wait on our entrees. 10 minutes later, another complimentary plate of cauliflower came out. At that point I was getting upset, but was still polite. For the record, there were less than 7 tables in the restaurant…ours was the largest. I had ordered a “Tahitian Pasta”. I had 4 cherry tomato halves in the entire pasta. I had to scrape to find the sun dried tomatoes that were described on the menu. When all of the entrees came out, my daughter STILL did not have silverware. All of the dishes were okay. No salt was used when they were prepared, or they were very under seasoned. My wife had to get up to grab salt from the server station. We were polite and thankful the entire time, but extremely disappointed. If we were paying Olive Garden prices, I would have been disappointed. It’s very hard to leave this review, BUT, when the check was as high as it was, I feel like I was ripped off. The chef came out and apologized again, but it wasn’t enough. I worked as a chef for most of my career. I am very understanding when going out to eat and write reviews about once a year. I feel bad for them, but in the end, you have to provide people what they are paying for, and we did not receive that. A polite group of people, but very overwhelmed and in need of some direction...

We planned this as our Departure dinner for our long awaited honeymoon. As vegans it's not easy to find dining that is not simply "grab and go" food so we were excited to have a real dinner. The place was not crowded at all. The hostess was so sweet. Our server; Karina, was so kind and patient as we browsed the menu. She too is vegan and was happy to recommend items. She was even nice enough to exchange my husband's cocktail when he didn't really like the one he ordered. My husband ordered the Vegan Pesto Primavera which is described: Organic vegan pasta, homemade pesto, zucchini, eggplant, onions, mushrooms, artichoke, capers, Roma tomatoes in a white wine cashew cream sauce. $39. I ordered the Wailea Kitchen Tacos: Three tacos served on your choice of flour or corn tortilla, topped with papaya hotsauce, sweet Maui onion and fresh tomato. Served with a side of golden rice and beans. $29. I added soy curls for $6 more. When the food came we were excited to eat but then, upon further inspection, there was basically no "there" there. My tacos had zero substance to them and if I had not added the soy curls, there was basically a few slices of vegetables with sauce. The rice and beans were room temperature. My husband had a nice size dish of pasta but the only vegetables we noticed were about 6 slices or tomato and a few mushrooms. There were ZERO capers, eggplant, zucchini or artichokes. "Primavera" is supposed to be loaded with vegetables. Hubs was so disappointed that we called Karina over. She said she would ask the chef to sauté some more vegetables. When she came back to the table she let us know that the chef REFUSED, "that's the way the dish is prepared". We were SHOCKED! $39! What an absolute disappointment and terrible attitude for Chef Christopher to have. We only asked for vegetables that were supposed to be included! Despite the food being delicious we will never visit again and will discourage our vegan friends from...