Spices Restaurant

If I had read Unilocal first, I would have saved the trouble in patronizing this open-​aired college level cafeteria joint masquerading as a good place to eat. But there was a DIAMOND in the rough, so not all bad.
The Bad: You will be eating alone. I mean, there are NO CUSTOMERS. The waitress came out after 5 minutes. That’s the first sign of trouble.
The Bad: I ordered «Fish & Chips» and got 5 fish sticks of Mahi Mahi. Mind you, there were decent tasting, but it was definitely «Fish Sticks & Chips,» not as advertised.
The Bad: My wife ordered the pulled pork. She likes cabbage in her pork. I think the cabbage ruined the pork in flavor and texture. My opinion counts, so the pork sucks.
The Good: Our waitress recommended TIFFANY’S — wow — best thing that happened during our meal. TIFFANY’S was our favorite spot of our 8 day trip. It’s in Wailuku, has a great atmosphere, and the food is throw-​back good.
Yay for our waitress! However, to be fair, we literally had to run out of the restaurant because God bless her, she was the most chatty loose-​stool of the mouth woman you will ever come across. You’ll recognize her instantly — grew up in Minnesota, has a husband with a wheat farm, and a beautiful granddaughter. Much love, but keep it under 5,000 words in talking with the customers.

Hotel restaurant, street view. Breakfast special just fine. Coffee wassaaay too expensive. Hear Lava Java a good choice for a cuppa Joe. U

Breakfast outstanding. Try corn beef hash.

way overpriced. no view of the ocean. very average waiters, they did not come to refill my water. the food below average. I had a burrito my friend had the fish way over cooked mushy and dry, burrito had an off taste. I’m not sure why this place keep coming up in the local magazine to eat at. I don’t do this but I’m not sure I’d even give this place a single star. stay away not worth time or your money.

Pretty spot with a water feature out front and tiki torches make it a nice place for a happy hour cocktail, but the food isn’t very good.

PROS:
Open restaurant, beautiful view
Yummy Fries (I always ask for well done for thicker fries, these were cooked as ordered)
CONS:
Waited 5 minutes before being acknowledged by anyone (there were only two people at the bar and the entire restaurant was cleared; I guess that should have been the indicator.
Our waitress was reallllly nice but just wasn’t there. Not the best service.
Main entrees — I had a cheeseburger. Nothing special; in fact a fast food burger probably would have been better than this. My date had a chicken sandwich with pineapple. He said he wasn’t impressed.
Overall — The price was reasonable and if you don’t care too much about service or the quality of the food and you’re just looking to fill your stomach, here’s a restaurant for you!

We walked into this place by chance. We got there just in time to take advantage of their $ 18 Prix Fixe dinner and $ 3.75 happy hour drinks. We were extremely pleased with the service and quality of the food. The place was pretty empty, but it was good food at a cheap price! The tomato basil soup was AMAZING!

Nice atmosphere but the food was a little bland. Be careful because flies and gnats will be flying ALL around you the minute you receive your food.
The alcoholic beverages are a decent price/​taste but not the best on the island.
Unfortunately I would not recommend this place to anyone.

If I could, I would rate this place LOWER than one star. Food was horrible for the price. We ate there on a Saturday night and no one was there, which should have been an obvious clue to how bad this place is. It is a glorified «Denny’s» but with $ 20+ entrée prices. DO NOT waste your time or money.

I’ve been in the restaurant business for a little over thirty years and I have only seen one restaurant on this level of «Badness» (and by «badness» I mean, bad, negative, terrible, not good).
When we walked in the place, there were two people eating, this was prime dinner time on the island of Maui. That should have been our first clue. So we sat down and were served a basket of rotten bread in a basket with rotting goo on it. I sent it back and pointed the nastiness out to our waiter, he didn’t say anything and walked away shaking his head. That should have been our second sign to RUN!!! Five minutes later the waiter came back and refilled our water, not saying anything about the bread until one of our party asked him if he was okay. The waiter said yes and he had the cook check the bread and the cook said it was fine, it just smelled that way because of the combination of garlic and herbs.
I have never met a combination of garlic and herbs that yielded a rotten smell or taste.
Next we were attacked by a swarm of flies so we asked our waiter if we could sit inside the restaurant because of the flies, he said «y’all can sit wherever you want it’s fine with me» and then walked away. This would have been a good time for the waiter to help us with our food and find a good place inside the restaurant for us to sit. Not abandon his guests.
Then came the food… OMG. The fish was over cooked and the steak was not flavored (remember, the name of the restaurant is Spices) and the other steak was not cooked to order. I had to send my steak back THREE times and it still wasn’t cooked right. How does someone mess up a med-​rare steak? Go to Spices, they can show you.
So we all sat there and tried to eat the food because we were hungry. But I couldn’t take it, I had to find the waiter and let him know the food was bad and we need to talk to the manager.
When the manager came, we let her know about the food and honestly tried to give her some feedback to help the restaurant but she told us that we weren’t used to eating good food. Well if good food is over cooked fish, bland soup, unflavored beef and 3-​time undercooked steak then she’s right, were not used to eating that kind of good food. So we then tried to impart some knowledge to the lady about the restaurant business and management from our collective years of experience in those arenas. The manager got very defensive and obviously could not receive the feedback. During our conversation I advised her to let the owner know if he was serious about running a successful restaurant, he should look into his operations from the management to the cooks and on down. The manager corrected me and let me know they did not have cooks but the had chefs. Come on now, chefs? What kind of chef can’t make a medium rare steak? Even the ones fresh out of culinary school can make a medium rare steak correctly! Oh well, my advice to customers is to steer clear from this place because you will probably not be happy with the service or the food. Oh, and believe it or not the manager never even heard of Unilocal

I saw this place from the street and looked nice. My wife and I decided to try it. It was the worst. We ordered the lobster special. They gave us bread to start with. It was like a rock and taste like dough. We ordered a Cesar salad, most good Cesar salads come with dressing already on it. This had it on the side in a plastic cup like you get at fast food places. The main dish was to have corn on the cob. We didn’t get that at all. The waiter realized it only after we told him. Mind was to have rice pilaf. I didn’t know that steamed rice was the same thing. As far as the lobster, it wasn’t that great. I don’t blame them for that.
Over all I think that a place that has been open for over 8 yrs would have better quality food and service.
This place rates on the bottom of my list. Also over priced.

ATMOSPHERE OVER QUALITY. The food was good, but the atmosphere was better.
SEATING FOR BREAKFAST: We went there for breakfast. We got seated right away. Get there before 9:00 a.m. It started to get crowded as we sat there. As we left about 9:45, there was a line waiting to get seated.
SERVICE: Adequate. They seemed to be under-​staffed so our waitress was nice but rushing around and forgetting things.
FOOD QUALITY: Adequate. it’s hard to ruin breakfast. I had the EGGS BENEDICT and had a MIMOSA along with that. Though pricey, it was good.
REMEMBER: ATMOSPHERE OVER QUALITY. BRING THAT CREDIT CARD!!! OR BRING YOUR BOYFRIEND’S CREDIT CARD!

Review is based on dinner — Short summary is avoid this place — Don’t let the many fliers and ads fool you.
I should have seen the warnings signs when our entrees were $ 25-​$ 30 and were given only paper napkins — BTW… where is the table cloth at this price??? I can’t believe there was no table cloth. However, I was hopeful that the food would be good since Spices was advertised on TV and recommended as a top restaurant.
Our total bill including tip was $ 80 for 3 entress and dessert (no drinks). We had a NY steak and 2 mahi mahi’s which were both bland and overcooked. NY Steak was overdone and had to use
at least¼ bottle of A1 sauce. My family typically likes bland food but maybe the fish wasn’t that fresh that day. Dessert was much worst — brownies tasted like we were chewing on cardboard.
Only plus side was attentive waiter who was great!

We decided to go to Spices because we saw a coupon for a lobster dinner and when we got there, they were out of lobster. No big deal, we ordered some other stuff that sounded good from the menu. Everything we ate was disgusting, even the free bread in the beginning. Almost unedible! We had a great trip in Maui except going to Spices Restaruant. Its going to be a memorable place, but not a good one!!! I don’t recommend this place. May look nice on the outside, but don’t be fooled.

Avoid going here, even if you’re staying at the hotel. We went here for lunch, and we were the only people in the place (it was slightly after a typical lunch time, but still.) We should have taken the hint!
Service wasn’t even that great! Servers changed so a little disjointed, which is OK, whatever, however it wasn’t attentive and food was slow to arrive which made no sense given we were the only people in the place.
We had pulled pork sandwiches, which is hard to make taste bad. But they managed to do just that, and they were soggy. Cocktails were good though, but not quite good enough to have a second.
Worst part of it all was it was expensive.

For the 5 days I was in Kihei, I think I went to Spices for breakfast three times! As many know, I am a slave for eggs benedict, and had heard Spices’ was the best.
Sit outside by the fountain, get a mimosa and watch the ocean and the action on S. Kihei Rd. Birdies off all sorts kickin it around you and singing but for whatever reason they don’t screw with you like San Diego birds. I guess they got the aloha spirit too.
And yes, unlike their eggs benedict rival, Longhi’s in Lahaina, Spices’ is just straight up regular and serious except it comes with a surprising special «mango» hollandaise sauce that us enthusiasts die for. I wish I knew the secret so I could make it right at home. They also make it with other variations, like eggs florentine (the same but with spinach) for us that don’t eat little Wilburs. Everyday, I wish I was in Hawaii!
I’m really disappointed about what I’ve been reading on here? Apparently, go for nothing but the eggs benedict. That’s the one reason I was told to go there, and I couldn’t agree more. Hahaha.

Wow. I can’t believe what bad ratings this poor restaurant is getting. Maybe we went on a good night?
We were thrilled to try yet another new restaurant that was recommended by a friend who lives on Maui. We didn’t know what to expect. We thought it’d possibly be Mediterranean food with a kick because of the restaurant’s name. Actually we all enjoyed our dishes, for the most part. My friend had the crab stuffed ahi roll and caesar salad with chicken added to it. She really liked her ahi rolls. I had the hawaiian style mahi mahi and my other friend had the chicken picatta. My mahi mahi was cooked perfectly along with mashed potatoes and steamed veggies. I ordered a lemonade as my drink and I really liked how they added 7-​up to it, which made it very refreshing. My friend thought that her chicken picatta could have used a little more spices, but she still thought it was alright. We were a pretty happy bunch.
It was just so nice to be able to really sit down and relax after a long day of work and not worry about having to drive (or get lost) at night since we could just walk over from our hotel. This is definitely a place we will keep in mind the next time we’re in town and are staying at the Maui Coast Hotel.
Food: ****
Service: ****
Ambiance: ****
Value: ***

My urge to start Unilocaling started because of this place. I don’t want other people to waste so much money at this restaurant. This place was less than half a mile from where we stayed in Keihi so we decided to check this place out for dinner since the patio setting looked like a good spot for people watching. The service was attentive and our waitress was really good. The food, however, was disappointing and tasteless. The appetizers were decent, but there are other places in the local area that serve the same stuff for much less $$. My husband had the rib-​eye and I had the Mahi Mahi. Both entrees were bland, even after using the salt and pepper on the table. The chef used an extensive amount of parsley on all the appetizers and entrees, very overwhelming. We couldn’t wait to get out of there and go eat a real meal for half the price.

I didn’t want to eat here. I saw the Unilocal rating. But with little time to spare before leaving paradise and heading back to California, I headed over to Spices which was located several steps away from the Maui Coast Hotel.
The place has a patio-​like feel because of its openness to the sights and sounds to the surroundings and adjacent street. I was seated at a table next to a small hedge of bushes. Looking at cars drive by, I noticed a few white specks fluttering around my table. Was this pollen? Dust perhaps? Somebody’s dandruff that happened to travel my way? One speck landed on my table and saw it was a tiny white fly, no larger than the head of a pin. I’m OK with company but not of the insect-​variety, especially since more of its brethren were on those bushes next to me. I mentioned it to a waitstaff member and jumped over to an empty table two tables behind me and all was better.
I ordered the Denver omelet and it was tasty and filling, but unspectacular. Not too different than something served at Denny’s. Service was quick which was good since I had a plane to catch.
The waitstaff member came over to tell me that those tiny flies feed on those bushes and lay there at night and only when the sun hits them that they flutter about. I was thinking, «Great to know. Now how about you get a can of Raid and spray those bushes down.»

We were kinda excited to eat breakfast here because there was signs all over our hotel since it is part of our hotel. But the breakfast was a dissappointment. I got the biscuits with sausage gravy and that’s all it was for $ 7.00 and a glass of orange juice was $ 5.00.