Kai Wailea
Kai Wailea’s sister restaurant, Kaiwa in Waikiki, is well-known for unique, creative sushi and Japanese dishes served in an elegant, comfortable restaurant with excellent, traditional service. The service is not always up to par, but the food usually is here in the Shops at Wailea.
They’ve narrowed the menu down a bit since they first opened, which was a good choice. The more extravagant sushi platters are still here, but not as many of them — we don’t risk the heart attack that threatened the first time we saw the prices.
The food is good to great, with fresh sushi, including some creative combinations, and some really excellent cooked dishes. They now offer a $60 tasting menu in the evening, which is a good way to go. The five course meal features a hearty miso soup, which comes studded with local vegetables, a tasting of the day’s freshest sashimi, a tempura (a little soggy) and robata-yaki (teriyaki chicken and beef) course, and a choice of three entrées: a generous and delicious sushi platter, a super-tender rib eye loaded up with grilled veggies, or a lobster tail on our last visit. The sushi platter has enough for two to split with ease, but you won’t want to skip that steak, either. Dessert is also included, but we’re too full for it. (This is fine, because desserts are not their strength.)
Lunches feature several meal combinations, including a $16 version that includes that incredible rib eye, a sushi roll (your choice), salad, and miso soup. The beer and sake list are very good, and service is good, too — until they get busy.
This is still an expensive restaurant, especially if you focus just on the sushi … but the value they offer has climbed considerably since their opening, especially if you take advantage of their fixed price meal.
Address: 3750 Wailea Alanui Dr., Wailea, South Maui
Location: The Shops at Wailea
Meals: Dinner
Hours: Nightly 5pm-10pm; Late Night Happy-Hour F-Sa 9:30pm-12:30am
Parking: Lot
Phone: 808-875-1955
Website: www.kaiwailea.com
March 26, 2010 @ 3:19 am
My wife and I greatly enjoyed the type of dining experience provided by KAI Wailea. The ability to take your time and order many appetizer size items from the menu at your leisure makes this an evening event to savor and enjoy. The menu provided my wife many Nigeria, sashimi and roll choices witch were (ALL) fresh and elegant and totally pleasing to her palette and eyes. I am not a sushi person so I stayed with the vegetable platter and grilled Robata-yaki choices as well as the specialty evening choice menu items.
We actually made two visits to the KAI because our first nights experience did not live up to our expectations from a kitchen point of view. Our first appetizer choices were the Garlic Edamame and Original Celery Tskemono (our favorite!)We ordered the Robata-yaki Platter and to our surprise one of the chicken choices was way under cooked while another was way over cooked to the point of tasting like chicken jerky. (dry and salty) We also ordered the garlic Beef witch turned out to be skirt beef and was very tough. My suggestion would be to name the cut of beef on the menu. We also ordered the Lobster& Asparagus that was grilled perfectly and delicious. We ended our first evening by sharing the Chocolate Brownie Sunday. The ice cream was creamy, the berries very fresh BUT the Brownie tasted like a brick (hard as a rock) coco.
On our second night at KAI we were welcomed by the waiter who served us on the 1st night. He was extremely knowledgeable and helpful. He advised us upon entering that they were short of help and this was quite evident as we moved through the evening. The restaurant had no hostess, bartender, bus help or server helpers, just three servers wearing all those hats at the same time. They pulled it off but you could tell they were a little upset at being put in that position and the restaurant was full when we left. I hope they made out ok????? As for testing the kitchen on the second night all choices were cooked perfectly witch made us happy, the specialty items one of witch was my favorite (Crispy Shrimp was out of this world GOOOOOOD). We finished the night with an awesome (Acai Cheese Cake) Yummmmmmmmm.
One last comment, the tables have a 16th inch deep by 16th inch width inlay border around one inch from the outside of the tables. I noticed several pieces of rice or other products on both tables we sat at in these cracks. What a wonderful opportunity for bacteria. Oh well, I won’t give up and will try this restaurant next February if it is still open.