Maui Restaurants Blog

5 Comments

  1. KRE
    March 15, 2011 @ 9:45 am

    Went here because of many favorable reviews. BIG DISAPPOINTMENT! To start with the positive, the view from outside was spectacular during sunset. Service was good, although with minor flaws. The kitchen, however, needs a lot of work. Specifically, we split an expensive Caesar salad, which was good, but nothing special. My wife ordered the crab cake appetizer for her main course and I ordered the ahi with fois gras. The server brought out her crab cake right after the salad, thinking that it was another appetizer. When my ahi came out, they served the same crab cake, which by now was cold. The small piece of fois gras was almost cremated. They both went back. The next crab cake was very good, however, the next piece of fois gras was slightly better, but almost microscopic. The seared ahi was refrigerator cold on the inside and barely warm on the crust. Great concept – very poorly executed. We were hoping to bring the rest of our family here next week – forget it!

  2. Gail Johnson
    November 26, 2010 @ 7:30 am

    We chose to celebrate Thanksgiving at David Paul’s Island Grill. We were seated on the lanai – street noise, no ac, and no light. The menu was barely readable in the dim. When held way up high by a recessed ceiling light, the tiny print of the wine list was lost in the glare off its plastic cover. I ordered a pinot noir, telling the waiter that we were not familiar with the wine but generally liked pinots from that appellation. The wine was delivered by a man who appeared to be both maitre d’ and sommelier. After tasting, I exclaimed at the bitter tannic finish and was told that the wine should open in 10 or 15 minutes. It didn’t, but more on the wine later. On to the meal. We were delivered one tiny warm dinner roll that smelled yummy and yeasty but was flat from lack of salt. It was served with a totally uninteresting avocado garlic unsalted butter. Our pate de maison appetizer was a reasonable portion of country-style pate accompanied by two quarter-inch thin slices of stale bread. The pate was oddly flavorless and flat. It was slightly improved by the tiny dot of mustard and the two cornichon. We ate it on our dinner rolls. Then came our entrees – My husband enjoyed his pork tenderloin. It was a generous portion correctly cooked to a tender pinkness. The menu promised butternut squash, beans, apples and bacon. I think. There were maybe two beans and two pieces of squash. Perhaps the kitchen was running low on the sides and split one serving into four? I ordered the scallops and pea risotto, a dish I have ordered and immensely enjoyed in two other restaurants. The four scallops were large and perfectly cooked. The risotto was under-cooked, gummy and tasted of peas only if I closed my eyes and tried really hard. I couldn’t tell if the carrot valoute sauce had been too heavily salted or it I was picking up over-salting on the scallops. Either way, the dish didn’t sing. There was no complexity, no depth, no play of flavors. I didn’t finish my meal because I was bored with my big plate of so-what. Our server stopped by again at the end of the meal. I stopped him from filling my wine glass, saying that it was a really horrid bottle of wine. Not corked, just a bad wine. The server said, yes, he didn’t think much of the wine and felt there were far better pinot noirs on the menu. Really? He couldn’t have shared that opinion with us before we spent $75 on bad wine? We decided to cut our losses and declined dessert and coffee.

  3. David James
    March 16, 2010 @ 8:51 am

    My wife and I have eaten here twice and it was good the first time and very good the second time. It was nice to have every dish be good. No hit and misses.Just hits!

  4. salinnyc
    August 18, 2009 @ 7:45 am

    We were excited that David Paul is back on island, and glad we stopped in. The restaurant is beautiful, and the view amazing. We loved the tasting menu, nine small courses, but we were totally full. The bottled wine selection is great. I loved the fish dishes, my wife loved the lamb chops. And the prices are good for the quality of food you get. Service was good.

  5. Terri Curley
    August 18, 2009 @ 5:42 am

    We chose to dine at David Paul’s after reading raving reviews on Travel Advisor. Needless to say, we were extremely disappointed! My family and I decided to enjoy the $45 tasting menu after our waitress raved on about it and informed us that the entree portion (2 seafood and 2 meat items) would equal a full entree. She assured us they were wonderful dishes and we would be full.

    When we received our plates, they were the size of a tablespoon. My husband’s short ribs contained gristle. We were appalled! The manager (who came by to remove our plates) asked how things were and my husband proceeded to let her know (not knowing this was the manager). About 10 minutes later, our waitress came over and informed us that the next course would be arriving soon. My husband asked to see the manager at this point unbelieving that the previous person had not summoned the manager. To our dismay, we found out the manager was the same lady who had come by earlier and not done anything to rectify the situation. She finally agreed that our meal (if you can even call it that) was taken care of. It’s a shame our wonderful evening filled with high expectations was ruined. We were not looking for a free meal, but a wonderful gourmet evening.

    We have done tasting menus throughout the US and never had such deplorable food and small servings anywhere. It was an insult to be served what we were given. The table next to us had ordered boneless short ribs and we heard them complaining about bones. This is unacceptable for the prices, etc.

    The only saving grace of the whole evening was the spectactular sunset view we witnessed on their lovely balcony, but this is all the praise we could give to this restaurant.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.