What to Eat in Maui: A Guide to Food in Maui

Maui is known also as “The Valley Isle”. It is the second-largest island throughout Hawaii. Highly famous for the remarkable sunrise and sunset views from Haleakala, it is also famous for its farm-to-table cuisine and the fresh ingredients and raw produce make for some of the freshest and the best food in the world. Exploring food in Maui surely tops the to-do list while planning a trip here.

Here are 7 of the Best Dishes of Food in Maui:

1. Spam

Spam is nothing but a canned, pork luncheon meat which is considered divisive in existence. Usually, various countries have access to this specific food item but limited to only one basic flavor. Whereas in Hawaii you can have numerous flavors of spam ranging from jalapeño spam, black pepper spam, garlic spam, cheese spam, Filipino sausage spam, Portuguese sausage spam, chorizo spam, bacon spam, and much more. This is why sometimes Maui is unofficially called the Land of Spam.  

Best Places: The Olowalu General Store,  Da Kitchen in Kihei, McDonalds  and Grandma’s Coffeehouse near Haleakalā

2. Loco Moco

A very famous traditional Hawaiian food item, Loco Moco is said to have been discovered on the Big Island back in1949. It is a plate full of rice served with a hamburger patty and egg on it alongside being loaded with delicious gravy having humble roots. This lunch platter can be found easily in almost all the restaurants across all the Islands in Hawaii and is one of the most popular items of food in Maui. Although beef patty remains the same, the gravy is what adds different flavours and distinguishes one Loco Moco from another.

Best Places: Joey’s Kitchen at Whaler’s Village, 808 Grinds cafes

3. Fresh Fish/Seafood

Seafood Lāwalu is a special highly demanded dish at Maui consisting of lobster, fish, scallops and shrimp served with porcini mushroom risotto, baby bok choy greens and white truffle oil. Tiki Terrace serves the best version of this particular dish. Hawaii is also famous for a dish called Lomi Lomi Salmon. It is basically a mixture of diced tomatoes, cured and salted salmon and onions. Lomi Lomi somewhat has a salsa texture and it is said to have been named after one of the movements used to create this dish—a ‘lomi’ kind of motion used to mash the salmon. This is easily one of the most popular things to eat as food in Maui.

Best places to try Fresh Fish/Seafood: Mama’s Fish House in Paia, Fish Market Maui in Lahaina, Tiki Terrace restaurant

4. Pie

Based in Lahaina / K’aanapali, Leoda’s Kitchen & Pie Shop is the most preferable and highly recommended place to eat pies in Maui. It offers huge varieties of homemade pies—regular size, small, sweet pies like banana cream, key lime, strawberry, coconut cream, macadamia chocolate, apple crumble, berry, pumpkin, or other delicious pies like a mushroom, corn, carnitas pork, chicken and much more.

Best place to try Pie: Leoda’s Kitchen & Pie Shop

5. Malasadas

Malasadas are basically oval-shaped, deep-fried doughnut resembling balls, coated with sugar and cinnamon. It is extremely popular in Hawaii but is originally based in Portugal. They are very much like English fritters. Though traditional malasadas are empty or non-stuffed, you can enjoy them with different fillings of your choice.

Best places to try Malasadas: LuLu’s Lemonade & Malasadas in Lahaina, T Komoda Store & Bakery

6. Hawaiian Shaved Ice

Shaved ice is said to be one of the best ways to cool down in the Hawaiian heat. It is likely to be the most refreshing dessert in Maui. It is connected to the agricultural past of Hawaii too, making it even more significant for this place.  Earlier, when sugarcane and pineapple plantations took place, it was one of the Japanese workers who discovered and created this refreshing dessert, known today as shaved ice. The workers used to have only Sundays off the work, so to keep them fresh and energetic they started carrying blocks of ice with them and consumed it with syrups of pineapples and sugarcanes they planted.

Best place to try Hawaiian Shave Ice: Ululani’s Hawaiian Shave Ice

7. Pork

Pork is one of the most widely consumed ingredients while preparing food in Maui. Numerous forms of pork can be consumed as per respective choices. Some of the most unique preparations include Kālua  (the luau pig preparation cooked in an underground oven), Lau Lau (a traditional Hawaiian dish with grated pork wrapped in a taro leaf and served with some shredded fish), Smoked Meat (sweet pork with guava jelly and piko onion) and Crispy Pata pork hoof (made up of choke herbs, braddah tommy sauce, finadene onions, banana ketchup, and butter lettuce wraps).

Best places to try Pork: Myths of Lahaina Luau at the Royal Lahaina Resort, Lineage Restaurant in Wailea

What else are you waiting for? Book your tickets and head down the Hawaii to eat some of the best food in Maui! Let us know in the comments below what your favourite food in Maui is!