Mauka Makai Maui
Excellent Food At Mauka Makai on Maui
Mauka Makai is the restaurant in the Westin Nanea Ocean Villas in Maui. It’s in the north portion of Kaʻanapali at:
45 Kai Malina Parkway
Lahaina, HI 96761
808-662-6400
Here’s a more recent Mauka Makai Restaurant review.
About Mauka Makai Maui
This is one of Maui’s best fine-dining restaurants. The food is excellent and the presentations are amazing. The view looks over the swimming pools to the ocean and is especially great at sunset time. Most tables are open-air but covered by a ceiling, with just a few tables completely indoors. There is live music most evenings. Mauka Makai is open for breakfast and dinner. (Lunch is served in the adjacent more casual poolside restaurant and bar.)
Here are some of the wonderful dishes I have enjoyed for dinner at Mauka Makai, making some of the best meals I have ever had on Maui.
— Yukon Gold Gnocchi with charred Hawaiian orange butter and toasted macadamia nuts — The caramelized butter sauce is marvelous and the gnocchi have a perfect texture (photo below).
— Avocado & Prawn Bruschetta — Chopped pieces of avocado, shrimp, and cotija cheese, with a tasty aioli sauce, piled on top of buttered toast.
— Deconstructed Coconut Chicken Potpie — soup containing lots of chunks of chicken, potato, and vegetables, decorated with two long flaky pastry sticks.
— Upcountry Gathered Greens with mesclun baby greens, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, hearts of palm, beets, and lavender dressing — This salad has an assortment of fresh greens and a variety of the other listed ingredients (photo below).
— Hawaiian Butter Lettuce with yogurt ranch dressing — It’s a fresh green salad with a super creamy dressing (photo below).
— Prime New York Strip Steak, 15 ounces, with hapa potato puree, candied carrots, asparagus, and a mushroom glace — This huge steak is so good with its delicious gravy. “Hapa” in the description of the potatoes means “half” so you get half pureed purple sweet potatoes and half mashed buttery white potatoes, each tasting terrific (photo below). (This steak has been replaced on the menu with a less large steak at a lower price.)
— Whole Crispy Catch fish with wok-fried mushroom poke, garlic beef-butter fried rice, pohole fern salad, and calamansi ponzu — This large entree consists of two whole moi fried crisp on the outside but super moist on the inside. It’s the most amazing presentation I have seen, with a mixed fresh variety of salad greens in the center, a circle of the whole fried fish around that center, and four bowls of extras in the four corners. One bowl has fried rice, one has fern salad, one has mushrooms, one has ponzu sauce, and each of those four has great flavors (photo below). (This fish has been replaced on the menu with a single fish, instead of two, at a lower price.)
— Farm Fresh Harvest Board — a large rectangular slate stone tray holding a colorful array of fresh cold carrots, asparagus, cucumbers, tomatoes, pahole ferns, and mushrooms, plus scoops of hummus and goat cheese, and a garlic smear.
— Chocolate Decadence — This gorgeous dessert consists of a scoop of the most wonderful chocolate mousse, pieces of crisp chocolate “flourless torte,” banana slices covered with a Brulee coating, and lines of thick blueberry sauce (photo below).
Mauka Makai Maui Details
To show their attention to detail and presentation, the waiters at Mauka Makai even made careful and neat arrangements of the leftovers that we took home in boxes they offered for that purpose.
If you order between 5:30 and 6:00 PM, you can choose to get a “Sunset Menu” of a three-course dinner (salad, entree, dessert) from a more limited menu, for about the price of just an entree.
Mauka Makai opened in 2017, with the opening of the new modern Westin Nanea Ocean Villas. It’s the best new restaurant on Maui in many years. Mauka is a Hawaiian word that means toward the mountains, and makai means toward the ocean, so the restaurant name reflects the two directions that the food comes from, the land and the sea.
See below for the Mauka Makai menu list, food photos, and video.
For reviews, menus, photos of other fine dining restaurants see Fine Dining Maui Restaurants.
Mauka Makai Dinner menu (subject to change) $$$ Fine Dining
Salads
Upcountry Gathered Greens
Kula Tomato & Maui Surfing Goat Cheese
Hawaiian Butter Lettuce
Small Plates
Yukon Gold Gnocchi
Pork & Ahi
Hot Stone Natural Prime Beef
Avocado & Prawn Bruschetta
Seared Scallops
Deconstructed Coconut Chicken Potpie
Kauai Prawn
Share Plates (Entrees)
Grilled Ahi
Pulehu Ribeye
Crispy Duck
Misoyaki Butterfish
Seared Scallops
Fried Pork Chop
Crispy Whole Catch Fish
Black Pepper Lobster
Clams & Mussels
Farm Fresh Harvest Board
Desserts
Lilikoi Surfing Goat Cheese Cake
Maui Gold Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Baked Maui
Affogato
Chocolate Decadence
Lappert’s Hawaii Ice Cream
Breakfast Menu
Buffet with some of the following
Corned Beef Hash with Ulu
Assorted Meats and Cheeses
Grilled Fish
Smoked Salmon
Spanish Egg Bake
Loco Moco Rice Bowl
Many other hot and cold selections
Small Plates
Cereal & Milk
Assorted Bakery Basket
Local Gathered Fruit Plate
Greek Yogurt Berry Parfait
House-made Granola
Toasted Quinoa Muesli
Smoked Salmon & Bagel
Main Dishes
Two-egg Breakfast
Gourmet Bacon & Eggs
Breakfast Bento
Alii Breakfast
Local Plate
Egg-white Frittata
Eggs & Corned Beef Hash
Three-egg Omelet
The Day After
Turkey Egg-white Wrap
Sweet Bread French Toast
Buttermilk Pancakes
Belgian Waffle
Steel-cut Oatmeal
Mauka Makai Maui photos
Some of the above food photos courtesy of Mauka Makai
Mauka Makai Maui Video
Where To Dine On Maui
Maui Restaurants for Fine Dining (Expensive) click here
Maui Restaurants Mid-Price (Moderate) click here
