Joseph W. Bean

Lunch and dinner here are served at moderate prices, but there is no moderation in the excellence of the food. As good as it gets in this price range.

If you’re looking for a great view or stunning food presentations, you may not be looking for Café O’Lei Kihei. On the other hand, a lot of food-with-a-view in South Maui is second-rate at best, leaving you wishing you could tip whoever made the surf and sand instead of sending compliments to the chef. And what you pay in some restaurants for beautifully presented plates would often be better spent on more lasting art forms. However, if you’re ready to eat good food and not pay a king’s ransom for the privilege, go to Café O’Lei Kihei.

Anyone who lives in Kihei or ever goes to South Maui for lunch or dinner will appreciate this place in the Rainbow Mall, upstairs where Buffet Toji and Deano’s Maui Pizza Café recently came and went. You’ll join me in hoping that Café O’Lei Kihei lasts far longer than any of the recent tenants.

Owners Michael and Dana Pastula have imported—in addition to their unfailing sense of style and generally excellent cuisine—some of the best recipes from their Ma‘alaea Grill (now The Place). If they hadn’t, the loss would have been mourned.

The familiar tempura mahi from Ma‘alaea Grill is in Kihei now, and it is definitely the best fish and chips on Maui. OK. “Definitely” is my opinion, but not just my opinion. Many of my friends agree, and they hurried in to see if it was still “perfect” when Café O’Lei Kihei opened. They say it is.

Another Ma‘alaea Grill favorite, the Eby-beef hamburger, is here too, still proving every day that a hamburger is first and foremost about the quality of the meat.

Instead of turning their attention to pizza-making just because there’s that famous brick oven in the restaurant, the Pastulas put the oven to work performing real magic for other kinds of food. Thank goodness, because high on the oven-list is the finishing of a wonderful Maui onion soup. Sadly, the soup is offered only at dinner, starting around 5 p.m. I can’t stop imaging this soup with a chunk of French bread and maybe a Martini as the perfect lunch. (Maybe someday. Right, Dana?)

A lot is new at Café O’Lei Kihei—not imported from Pastula restaurants in Makawao, Lahaina or Ma‘alaea. Among the best of the new are the creations of the sushi bar. Try the red dragon roll some time, whether with a drink at the bar or before dinner at one of the strangely private-feeling tables.

Is everything great at Café O’Lei? Only almost. If you want a very inexpensive plate lunch, skip the stir fry beef when it is offered, but order just about any fish plate lunch when it comes up. The price can’t be beat. Another weakness may be the steaks. I say “may be” because, loving superb beef steaks, I’d rather pay more and get better. At the prices charged by Café O’Lei, though, these are really good.

Into shellfish at all? You’re in for a treat. There’s a very fine selection. Choose fresh poke, baked oysters on the half-shell, shrimp, lobsters or crabs. It all looks almost too good to eat, but eat it.

Even the weaker offerings I mentioned—beef plate lunches and steaks—are better than you’d expect at the price, but if you go with almost anything else (like the succulent lamb shank), you’ll get far more than you pay for.

I’m a regular at Café O’Lei Kihei, and you will be, too.