Kaʻana Kitchen Maui
Pacific-Rim Fusion Restaurant at Kaʻana Kitchen in the Andaz Maui
Kaʻana Kitchen is the main fine-dining restaurant in the Andaz Wailea resort hotel, at:
3550 Wailea Alanui Drive
Kihei, HI 96753
808-879-1234
About Kaʻana Kitchen Maui
I wanted to and expected to, love this restaurant, but I was severely disappointed. The ratings on Trip Advisor and Yelp are high. A friend who is a Maui food writer told me it is her favorite restaurant. The food is very good, the presentations are pretty, and the decor is lovely. So how could I be disappointed?
Why Not Kaʻana Kitchen
Here are the things I did not like about my dinner at Kaʻana Kitchen, in my own order of importance.
1. The menu is incomprehensible. My wife and I eat dinners in Maui restaurants, including fine dining Maui restaurants, about 75 times per year, and have been doing so for many years. We have eaten in practically every fine-dining restaurant on Maui, and have loved almost all of them. So we are very experienced at reading menus in these types of restaurants. But we could not understand the menu at Kaʻana Kitchen. We could not figure out what was an appetizer and what was a salad and what was an entree or what was a small plate and what was a full-size meal. We could not understand the descriptions of the food and had no idea what came with each food item. We had the waiter come over to our table three separate times to answer our many questions, and we still could not understand what we would get when we ordered any item on the menu. We were dining with another couple who are also frequent Maui diners, and they similarly had no idea what this menu was all about.
2. Some of the items were small portions or had no accompaniments, which was surprising at these prices. For example, the watermelon salad consisted primarily of one rectangle of watermelon, and the striploin steak (the most expensive item on the menu) consisted of three cubes of steak with no potato or similar supplement.
3. The prices were outrageously high, even for Wailea (the most expensive area of Maui).
4. When we were seated at an outside table, the music was so loud that we could not hear each other talk. So we moved to an inside table, where we had noises from the open kitchen also making conversation difficult.
5. The service was good, but nothing special.
6. No bread or rolls were served with the meal.
7. The food was very good but was not outstanding or better than at many less expensive (not to mention quieter and with clearer menus) other fine dining Maui restaurants.
See below for the Kaʻana Kitchen menu list and food photos.
For reviews, menus, photos of other restaurants on this side of Maui see South Maui restaurants.
Kaʻana Kitchen menu (subject to change) $$$ Fine Dining
“Barry Masuda”
Ono Pastrami
Bigeye Ahi
Maui Caught Snapper
Baby Spinach
“Kaʻana Classics”
Watermelon Salad
Grilled Octopus
Hanger Steak
Panzella
Roasted Eggplant
“Hawaiian Shellfish”
Kauai Shrimp
Abalone Risotto
Kampachi
“Upcountry Farms”
Hearty Garden
Evonuk Farms Beet Salad
Ahi Tataki
“Butchers Block”
Pork Belly
Buttermilk Fried Chicken
Wagyu Striploin
Desserts
Apple Pot Pie
Haupia Sweet Potato Cheesecake
Frozen Lilikoi Parfait
Chocolate Cake Roll
Chocolate Peanut Butter Terrine
Coconut Sundae
Kaʻana Kitchen Maui photos
Where To Dine On Maui
Maui Restaurants for Fine Dining (Expensive) click here
Maui Restaurants Mid-Price (Moderate) click here
