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| - We went there for brunch this morning. The lack of cars in the parking lot should have been a sign to turn around and head for IHOP or Village Inn, but we decided to take our chances anyway.
Boy, what a waste of time and money! We were seated quickly, but that is the only positive comment I can think of. Oh, it was nice to have real flatware and a cloth napkin. There. Two things.
Food: We ordered the pineapple with brown sugar and coconut as a starter. After the almost 20 minutes it took to arrive, we were expecting something fantastic. It was good, but not anything I couldn't have made myself and certainly not something that should take 15 minutes to prepare. I mean, it's just a pineapple with brown sugar, maybe some margarine (I gather they don't use real butter at the Grille -- keep reading.) and some packaged coconut. Hint to Maui: use freshly grated and toasted coconut and make sure that the pineapple has been broiled long enough to get the sugar to actually melt. The sugar scrub consistency of the topping wasn't quite what I was after.
My husband commented that with the time it was taking, we'd end up with our meal right on top of the pineapple. He was right. We hadn't eaten but two bites of the pineapple and there were our meals. If you're going to call it a starter, you should serve it prior to the actual meal.
I ordered the longboard combo with pancakes and sausage. The pancakes weren't even as good as Bisquick pancakes, despite tasting suspiciously like a premade mix. They were a stranage mix of rubbery and powdery, sort of cold, and were served with margarine and "maple" flavored corn syrup. Gross. If I'm going to eat pancakes that cost $9, I expect real butter and real syrup. Or at least amuse me with homemade fruit/flavored syrups. Even though the menu says they have pineapple and coconut syrups, I was never offered them by our server. Not that they would have helped the dismal pancakes at all. I think the sausage was previously frozen. I don't know. I didn't eat them. But they certainly had that pre-fab look to them.
My husband got the crab cakes benedict. The first thing I asked him was if the potatoes were freshly made or frozen. We're pretty sure they were frozen. The Hollandaise was definitely not from scratch. Probably the crab cakes were commercially made as well. Chef Gordon Ramsey would say, that's being a "fake chef".
Here's the thing. If the food had been truly inedible, I would have sent it back. Instead, it was unimpressive and disappointing. I ate it because I was hungry enough to do so. If we had been at home, the dogs would have gotten most of my meal. Then again, if I had been at home, I could have made better pancakes. With real butter and syrup. Lesson learned.
The Maui Grille has such a unique opportunity and they're wasting it with mediocre food and slow, apathetic service. We were expecting a tropical twist on our food (how about using real ingredients for starters?), some island flair, something memorable. Too bad they haven't quite gotten it. I can't see Maui surviving out here if they don't shape up their menu offerings and food quality. I can't say I'd be game to try lunch or dinner here, either, after our bad breakfast.
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