Where to Eat Near Maui Airport, OGG

If this is what passed for a meal on your flight, you'll need something in your belly when you land on Maui at Kahului OGG airport!

Pat R. asked Molly a question many Maui visitors want to know:

HELP! We (husband David & our 2 best friends) will be arriving in Maui’s Kahului airport (OGG) at 8:20 PM HST. As you can guess, we will be bone weary (12 hour flight!) and a little hungry. We are staying at a condo in Maalea and wondered if you can recommend a place where we can get a quick, light bite to eat before we completely run out of steam?!? We typically end up eating something heavy which doesn’t help with the 5 hour time adjustment at all. We will be eternally grateful if you can help. Thanks in advance! -Pat R.

Molly replies:

The trip from the East Coast can be pretty brutal, but even the relatively short 5 hour flight from the West Coast can be tough. Then there’s the luggage to be collected, the car to be picked up, and the drive to your resort or rental. By the time you get to your place, you might just crawl into bed and be done with it. But what about your poor tummy?

There’s nothing more stabilizing and reassuring than eating after a long flight, so it’s no wonder that smart Maui visitors are planning ahead. James has flown a million miles on airplanes over the years, so we put our heads together and  what to do once you leave Kahului Airport in Maui.

Timing Is Everything

Your first challenge will be the time of your arrival. Maui businesses go to bed early! We’ve arrived for dinner at 8pm and been turned away more than once, even when the joint is supposed to be open until 9pm.

If you are arriving after 8pm, or after 5pm on Sundays, you will generally be limited in your choices to the fast food restaurants located just outside the airport. As you exit the airport and drive down Dairy Road (one of the main drags in Kahului, and the one you’ll take to get to West or South Maui), you’ll find:

• a Krispy Kreme on the right
• a Denny’s (turn right immediately after the Krispy Kreme, and then left into the back parking lot)
• a McDonald’s on the left just after you cross through the Alamaha intersection
• a Starbucks, Jamba Juice, and Burger King on the left in the Maui Mall Marketplace

These chains are most likely to be open late at night – although even they can be closed at what seems like odd hours to folks from the mainland. There are also other fast food restaurants in Kahului, but they’re not right on Dairy Road “on the way” to other areas.

If those aren’t your bag, we have several other suggestions … true to our slogan We Eat Bad Food So You Don’t Have To, I’m including our favorites, not the duds.

Head for Paia

It might sound a little strange to drive to another town for food, but Paia is only ten-fifteen minutes away and has the tastiest, least expensive food scene on the island. The restaurants are more likely to be open later, and you can pick up great local produce and groceries at Mana Foods. We thoroughly review Paia’s food scene in Top Maui Restaurants, but here are some of our favorite places:

• Paia Fish Market features one of the best fish burgers on the island. The line will look long, but don’t worry, by the time you sit down and take your first bite of ono, you’ll be happy.
• Flatbread Pizza Company makes fantastic pizza (very thin crust) and is open later than most.
• Cafe Mambo’s crispy duck is not the lightest post-flight fare, but it’s too tasty not to mention.

Now that I made that list, I can think of four or five other places you should try. Make a point of eating in Paia while you’re here, OK?

To get to Paia, exit the airport and turn left onto Hana Highway (KMart will be on your left). Within a few minutes you’ll be in the tiny town. The restaurants are clustered on either Hana Highway or Baldwin Avenue (which forms a T-intersection with Hana Highway).

Paia’s main obstacle is parking, but we always find a spot. There is a public lot immediately on the right as you enter town, or you can grab a spot on the street. Another public lot we often use is on the left as you go up Baldwin, immediately after Mana Foods.

Make sure to lock your car and don’t leave Maui Revealed in plain sight. (That’s good advice in general when leaving your car unattended on the island – that book not only flags you as a tourist, but as someone who might tramp through someone else’s backyard to get to a hidden, no-longer-so-secret, long-since-Revealed, now-crowded-with-other-visitors-just-like-you spot.)

Stay Kahului, Stay Local

If driving to Paia feels like a big production to you, but you still want to see if you can avoid fast foods, there are a few good places to try in Kahului. These are all within reasonable driving distance of OGG, and many are right on Dairy Road.

• Da Kitchen is a Maui landmark, and a great place to dive into local plate lunch. WARNING: local food is not light fare–if you’re looking for a salad, this is not the place. Problem? Not open late, and not at all on Sundays.
• Marco’s Grill & Deli is an authentic New Jersey Turnpike diner. No kidding. Good ravioli and a big menu; full bar and black-and-white tiles on the floor.
• Amigo’s is a good Mexican joint. We like the Kihei location better, but we often eat here when we’re running errands in town.
• Thailand Cuisine is one of our favorite restaurants on the island. It’s in the same Maui Mall location as Whole Foods.
• Ba-le makes excellent noodle dishes, pho, and good sandwiches. It’s in the food court at the Maui Marketplace Mall, so you can check out local chain L&L while you’re there.
• 

  Thailand Cuisine is fan-tab-ulous Thai food.

  Whole Foods Market has a good food court, including a very good salad bar. Ironically, the prices at “whole paycheck” don’t seem outrageous to us on Maui – our groceries are always much more expensive than they are on the mainland. They have great produce, and if you haven’t picked up a copy of Top Maui Restaurants by the time you arrive, you can get your copy at Whole Foods.

• Costco has an inexpensive food court with a limited-but-tasty selection of food, including giant slices of pretty good pizza (better than most on Maui) and, of course, their $1.50 hot dog and soda deal. If you’re stopping here for groceries/water/soda anyway, this is a good bet. (They also carry our book.)
• Zippy’s is a local Hawaiian chain that makes pretty good fast food.

Many of these restaurants are closed by 8pm or 9pm, but if not, they’re good first-introductions to the island. If you can wait to get to Kihei or Lahaina … or wherever it is that you’re traveling to … you might want to wait to eat until you arrive. There are listings for grocery stores, liquor stores, and over 160 restaurants fully reviewed by us in the latest edition of Top Maui Restaurants (the only independent, objective, honest, and direct restaurant reviews of Maui restaurants, and the second best-selling guidebook to Maui). You can get a copy on Amazon or at any bookstore, ABC Store, Costco, or Whole Foods on the island.

There is nothing better than stepping off the plane in Maui and smelling the beautiful air here. I hope you have a fantastic time, and as always, hope you eat very well.