MADI·MAUI

Kept since 2001 · One island

Yes,
Maui again.

Most travel writing about Maui is somebody’s first week, published as if it were expertise. This is the other thing: a running record of one island, kept by one family across twenty five years of going back to the same beaches, the same towns, and the same handful of restaurants we never get tired of. Every place we have eaten is on the list, and which ones we actually go back to.

26
Years coming back
204
Meals logged
15
Places we have eaten
10
Places we go back to
Sunset over the water: palms in silhouette above a lawn, the beach curving away to the right, and the mountains across the bay under a pink sky
2023

You get the denominator

“The best places I ate” usually means the only places someone ate. Here you can see the whole set, and which ones earned a second visit.

Dated, not evergreen

Every entry carries the year we were last there. A rave from 2014 and a rave from this March are different claims, and you deserve to know which one you are reading.

The List

Every place we have eaten · Updated 2026

Town
Verdict
Kihei CaffeBreakfast, outdoors, order at the counter. The line looks bad and moves fast. Roughly forty breakfasts here and never a bad one.Kihei200238×Go every tripMama's Fish HouseYes it is expensive and yes it is worth it, once per trip. Book the moment your flights are ticketed. The fish is named after the person who caught it that morning and that is not a gimmick.Order Whatever came in that morning, cooked the simplest way on the menuPaia200119×Go every tripSam Sato'sCloses early, closed Sundays, same family for generations. Half the room is people who have been coming since they were kids.Order Dry meinWailuku200316×Go every tripTin RoofSheldon Simeon's counter near the airport. We land, we drop bags, we come here. Tiny room, quick line, worth building your arrival day around.Order Mochiko chickenKahului201614×Go every tripKomoda Store & BakeryThey sell out. Get there before nine or do not bother. A hundred years old and still a screen door.Order Cream puffs, and a stick donut if they have themMakawao200412×Go every trip808 DeliSandwiches to take down to Kamaole III. This is a logistics recommendation more than a dining one, and it has never once let us down.Kihei201221×Worth going backStar NoodleLost the original Lahaina location in the fire, reopened in Kaanapali with a shorter menu. The garlic noodles survived the move intact. The room does not have the old view and that is fine.Order Garlic noodlesKaanapali201114×Worth going backPaia Fish MarketPicnic tables, communal seating, fish tacos. Reliable rather than exciting, which on a travel day is exactly what you want.Paia200611×Worth going back
Go every tripWorth going backWent onceClosed

Showing 8 of 15

See the whole list

Where all of it is

Tap a town to filter the List

Kihei3Wailea2Lahaina2Kaanapali1Paia2Makawao1Kula1Wailuku1Kahului1Hana1

10 towns · 15 places · Dot size is how many. Tap one to filter the List.

  • South Shore
  • West Side
  • North Shore
  • Upcountry
  • Central
  • East Side

Start here

If this is your first time on the site

  1. 01

    Read the List

    All 15 places, filterable by town, with visit counts attached. It is finished and it is useful today.

  2. 02

    The road to Hana

    Whether to do it at all, and the honest case for skipping it. We have driven it eleven times and would not do it every trip.

  3. 03

    See what I don’t know

    The gaps, kept public. Read this before you decide how much to trust anything else here.

How this site works

Three layers, one record

LAYER ONE

The List

The complete record. Every restaurant, every verdict, every visit count, filterable by town. This is the part nobody else has, because it took twenty five years to fill in and it cannot be shortcut.

LAYER TWO

The Guides

The planning layer. Where to stay by town, beaches, snorkeling, the road to Hana, Haleakala, and what a fifth trip should look like instead of a first. Each one carries a last updated date and pulls straight from the List.

LAYER THREE

Field Notes

Dated posts from each trip. What opened, what closed, what got worse, what surprised us. Notes feed the Guides, the Guides get deeper every year, and the whole thing compounds instead of scrolling away.

What I don’t know

Kept public and kept current. Twenty five years on one island is not the same as knowing all of it, and pretending otherwise is how the rest of the internet got untrustworthy.

  • I have never surfed here, so I have no opinion on lessons or breaks
  • I have never stayed overnight in Hana, only day tripped
  • We have never been to a luau and cannot tell you which one to pick
  • I do not dive. Snorkeling notes only
  • I have never rented in Kapalua and cannot compare it to Kaanapali
  • Almost everything I know about the east side is from the road, not from staying