Continuing on with our pre-Christmas trip to Hawaii, this post shows a few of the wonderful dinners we had while in Maui. All of the photos shown below were taken in the Wailea area of Maui, just down the the road from the condo where we were staying.
Please note that as of the time of this writing (December 2021), all of the indoor dining restaurants in Maui required proof of vaccination card and ID for entrance. Also, of all the restaurants we went, from upscale Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, to Manoli’s Italian (pizza) Restaurant, dress shorts and Hawaiian shirts were welcome as far as the dress code goes. It’s Hawaii after all, so hang loose!
For starters, I’m re-posting our dinner from our second night in Maui at the authentic and local-themed Humu Restaurant. This restaurant (Humu is abbreviated from Humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa) was our favorite fine-dining dinner with a view in Maui, so I’ll repeat a couple photos here. This restaurant, located in the Waldorf Astoria Maui Resort, has some of the best sunset views and scenery in the area, not to mention excellent food, wine, drinks and service! Make sure you make a reservation about a half hour prior to the sunset time, as it varies depending on season.
Another fine dining and upscale “chain restaurant” we enjoyed was Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, located in the Wailea Mall. While we usually dress up a bit for Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse back home in Florida or elsewhere, here shorts and a Hawaiian shirt were the norm. Like other indoor restaurants, make sure you take your CDC vaccine card as it’s required for indoor seating.
While we loved the food and service at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, there was no Hawaiian view or outdoor seating here unfortunately, which would have been nice. Our seating was in a nice and comfortable circular booth which overlooked other diners in the small intimate section of the dining room where we were seated (it was a bit awkward at first actually, as we felt like we were on a platform staring at them LOL!), but we had plenty of table room for our appetizers, wine, water and ultimately entree.
We like sharing multiple appetizers (one course at a time) prior to our entree, and had an enjoyable evening of fine dining from the appetizers to the main course to dessert.
We shared a huge ribeye, which they sliced up for us and reminded and cautioned us about the 500 degree plates on which the steaks are served. Don’t touch the plate!
On another night, (actually we went two different nights as we enjoyed it so much), we had dinner at Tommy Bahama Restaurant, also at the Wailea Mall complex. We had one dinner inside the restaurant, and one outside on the patio. We preferred the patio seating as it felt so tropical, with live and gentle Hawaiian music on the porch by a male performer. We also enjoyed our meal and seating inside as well (as the patio was full for outside dining the second time we went), but preferred the outdoor seating on the terrace. Anyway, it was all good: What’s not to like at Tommy Bahama!
On our first visit we both had the macadamia-crusted Mahi Mahi for our entree (after appetizers of course), and the second visit we split a steak after having had seafood for several nights. Both were delicious and we had great service with a tropical ambiance.
And finally, one of our most enjoyable, yet more simple in food offerings, and was actually the least expensive restaurant of them all, was dining at Manoli’s Restaurant. Manoli’s was an upscale causal and Italian/Pizzeria type restaurant, which had an open-air but covered restaurant terrace with a large bar area and an expansive patio overlooking the tiki torches and Maui landscape.
Manoli’s was such an enjoyable and care-free evening of appetizers, pizza, and drinks in a comfortable outdoor setting. We went to Manoli’s a couple time as we loved it so much!
Finally, I’ll finish this post with a sign I saw on their chalkboard which offers great words of wisdom for everyone.
Bon Appetite!