Hawai'i Dining

Date of Visit: 8-22-8 @ 5:10pm
The Skinny: Located at the Cannery in central Haiku it is one of the very, very, very few places to eat in the area. I ordered the Upcountry Beef Burger (Maui Cattle Co. hormone free beef), Kamuela tomato, lettuce, onion, toasted onion bun with cheese and Fries. My wife had the Roasted Beet Salad with organic mixed greens, goat cheese, honey roasted walnuts, grape tomatoes. What can I say? The Salad is one of the best on island (if you like beets) and she always enjoys it. My burger, unlike other Maui Cattle Company patties I have had was actually juicy! Great tasting and filling too. Oh, if you like mayo order it on the side as they serve the bun dry. The fries were plentiful but are the seasoned in-the-bag shoe-string variety which doesn’t impress me. Come on, do some steak fries! As an added bonus a beer only costs $2.50 more with the burger.
The Best Thing: Great looking servers (you cant avoid noticing).
The Worst Thing: If you don’t live or travel to the north shore you probably will never go there.
My Recommendation: Go and bring friends.

The Osteria L’Intrepido di Milano was the figment of the imagination of wine writer and author Robin Goldstein, who invented its existence in order to expose what he regards as the lack of rigour in the granting of many food and drink awards.

Mr Goldstein succeeded only too well. Wine Spectator magazine, which is read by two million people worldwide and is regarded as the oenophile’s bible, added the Osteria L’Intrepido to its list of global restaurants worthy of its Award of Excellence.

Mr Goldstein piled on the embarrassment faced by the magazine, which has run its Awards of Excellence scheme to highlight laudable restaurant wine lists since 1981, by inventing a special “reserve wine list” for the Osteria L’Intrepido consisting of highly priced bottles which had been previously heavily criticised by the periodical.

One of the wines, a 1988 Amarone Classico La Fabriseria, was described by the magazine as smelling “like bug spray”, while another, a 1993 Amarone Classico Gioe, earned the description: “Just too much paint thinner and nail varnish character.” Mr Goldstein said he had executed his hoax by creating a website for his restaurant and submitting the $250 entry fee to the magazine along with a covering letter, a sample menu, and an exhaustive wine list. He even wrote fictitious reviews of the restaurant on the dining website Chowhound – praising its menu of roast piglet with foie gras and grilled prawns on an aubergine crisp.

Mr Goldstein said his scam raised serious questions about whether food and drink awards were a profit-making exercise for their organisers or a genuine attempt to scrutinise each and every applicant.

This list is from NBC’s Today Show and Men’s Health Magazine…

1: The worst food in America
Outback Steakhouse – Kihei and Lahaina
Aussie Cheese Fries with Ranch Dressing
2,900 calories, 182 g fat, 240 g carbs
Even if you split these “starters” with three friends, you’ll have downed a dinner’s worth of calories before your entrée arrives.

12: Worst burger
Carl’s Jr. - Maalaea
Double Six Dollar Burger
1,520 calories, 111 g fat
Carl’s Jr. brags that it’s home to this enormous sandwich, but the restaurant chain also provides convenient nutrition info on its Web site — so ignorance is no excuse for eating it.

14: Worst sandwich
Quiznos – Kihei and Kahului
Classic Italian (large)
1,490 calories, 85 g fat, 4,510 mg sodium, 96 g carbs
A large homemade sandwich would more likely provide about 500 calories.

19: Worst drink
Jamba Juice – Kihei and Kahului
Chocolate Moo’d Power Smoothie (30 fl oz)
900 calories, 10 g fat, 183 g carbs (166 g sugar)
Jamba Juice calls it a smoothie; we call it a milk shake. In fact, this beverage contains as much sugar as 2 pints of Ben & Jerry’s butter pecan ice cream.

20: Worst fast-food chicken meal
McDonald’s – Kahului, Kihei, Kahana, Lahaina, Pukalani, Wailuku
Chicken Selects Premium Breast Strips (5 pieces) with creamy ranch sauce
830 calories, 55 grams (g) fat (4.5 g trans fat), 48 g carbohydrates
The only thing “premium” about these strips is the caloric price you pay. Add a large fries and regular soda and this seemingly innocuous chicken meal tops out at 1,710 calories.

Date of Visit: 8-6-8 @ 5:30pm
The Skinny: LuLu’s is just off of Kihei road on the 2nd floor with good views of the beach area and all the local tourist traps. It’s clean and bright, which is a nice change from some of the other sports bars that I have been to lately. Ordered the “MagnumPI” burger (includes cheese, bacon and avocado) with onion rings at the spacious bar. It was big, very juicy, and held together well. It was in one word, Satisfying! The onion rings were really good too. The prices are reasonable and you can feel comfortable while dining. I really like this place!
The Best Thing: Nice atmosphere, friendly staff and good food.
The Worst Thing: It can be hard to find for the first time.
My Recommendation: Definitely worth a return visit.

Date of Visit: 8-2-8 @ 12pm
The Skinny: Went for a birthday lunch for my wife. She ordered their ½ lb Angus beef Hamburger and I ordered Shrimp and Chips. When her order arrived she discovered that the bottom bun was soaked through with watery juices from the burger. The bun fell apart during its first pick-up. After closer examination I noted that it was not fried or grilled but pre-cooked and re-heated in a salamander (or just nuked in a microwave). She found the taste non existent and the texture completely unappealing. After 2 bites she had to stop. The staff was nice and wanted to replace the order but she had by now completely lost her appetite. I found my shrimp and chips just OK, the shrimp was average and the “chips” to be generic frozen shoe strings.
The Best Thing: Nice staff and views of the harbor
The Worst Thing: Sub quality food for way too much $$$
My Recommendation: Don’t stop, Keep driving

Date of Visit: 8-5-8 @ 5pm
The Skinny: One of the best burger and beer combos on island. Always consistent, their burgers are hearty with all the fixins needed. The new super crinkle-cut fries are also hard to stop eating. It’s the best sports bar (and only one) in town.
The Best Thing: The prices are hard to beat, live music is very local, friendly staff, and ESPN is on over 10 TV screens.
The Worst Thing: The Wendy’s Burgers next store
My Recommendation: Do it if your hungry and thirsty!