Munching across Maui: 5 Favorite Maui restaurants (and more)

If goat cheese and salmon tartare make you salivate, send me an email here!  I can tell you about my Waterfall Guru, cool guesthouses, and even treehouses! 

I went to Maui on a mission - to experience the island's GAStronomy.  There's a gal who does Foodie tours to -- you guessed it -- the island's gas stations, sampling BBQ, sushi, and other pumpside provisions.
If you love Foodie travel, but dream of more than GAStronomy,  here are my top 5 stops for Maui restaurants!










MAUI RESTAURANT STOP 1:   Surfing Goat Dairy
This is not an official Maui restaurant, but it should be your first Foodie stop, only 20 minutes from the Kahului airport.  You get free samples of exotically flavored goat cheese, sip a mango smoothie as you wander the farm and watch the milking, then buy crackers and some Mandalay spread (that's the chevre with apples and curry!) for a beach picnic over on Kaanapali.  

There's also the Ole (with jalapenos and artichokes)...
the Ping Pong balls (rolled chevre marinating in olive oil)...
and even some Goat Cheese truffles!


MAUI RESTAURANT STOP 2:
Head west to Lahaina for a Maui restaurant that you might miss if not for this blog. 
I missed it!  In fact, I had driven by it for 4 days, thinking it was just a ramshackle old-time island home.

But once on the back porch, it's got one of the top Maui restaurant views on the island!

It's the Ma La Ocean Tavern, where we tickled our palates with Ahi Tartare and a frosty glass of pinot grigio, followed by a whole wok-fried fresh ocean fish.






MAUI RESTAURANT STOP 3:

One of the top Maui restaurants is not next to the beach -- it's ON the beach, at the Lahaina luau! 

 Admittedly, it gets a bit crowded, but you get all the local favorites -- lomi lomi salmon, ahi poke,  and of course, poi poi (that pinkish mush of the island staple, taro)

And again... just check out the simply unbeatable scene -- from MY dinner seat!

 MAUI RESTAURANT STOP 4:

Noodles for breakfast?   YES! 

Before a day of waterfall trekking, make a quick stop at a granddaddy of Maui restaurants: Sam Satos. 

It's all about noodles.  Order them dry, and drizzle broth over the top!  

The noodle bowls are ample, but don't leave without a skewer of teryaki beef, and a coco pan (I tried to eat just one, but it was impossible!) 

Best part of this bustling Maui restaurant?  I was one of the only non-Asians, and THE only non-local! 

MAUI RESTAURANT STOP 5:

As you head down towards Hana, duck into a casual but de-lish Maui restaurant, the  Paia Fish Market, for some Mahi Mahi fish-n-chips "to go".  Paia is a cool surfer town that hosts one of my favorite guesthouses on the island, Blue Tile!

Then find a sliver of shoulder on the Hana road, somewhere between the gorge jump

and the famous Red Sand beach, 

and pull off for a fruit stand stop with freshly baked banana bread!  

And further south, you can visit the Organic pick-you-own farm, and continue on to the bamboo groves of Seven Sacred Pools.   Down on this southern tip, you can even find a  smoothie station where you gotta jump on a bike to power the blender! 

YOU  want an Hawaiian adventure like this?  

I can help!   Let's talk now!  (609) 923-0304