Category Archives: Kihei

Paia Fish Market – Paia and Kihei

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Paia Fish Market has occupied a prominent corner in Paia for as long as I can remember, and always pumped out dependable food. Sometime in the last decade, they multiplied out their simple formula and opened additional locations – and they work just as well.

The deal here is pretty simple: Choose a type of fish and a preparation, and then sides. I recommend always checking to see what’s local and fresh – it’ll taste better, support local Maui fishermen, and probably be healthier fish.

If you don’t want a piece of fish with slaw and sides, you’ve got a few other options like burgers and fish or chicken tacos. Again, all dependably good if not earth-shattering or unusual.

The best burger is the off-menu Obama burger – I think it’s blackened ono with butter. He knew what he was doing here.

I don’t consider this place gourmet, but it’s not too expensive and it’s also great for take-out. It’s also much better than the a lot of the restaurants along Kihei Road, so if you’re in Kihei looking for a casual, reasonably priced, dependable meal, you could do a lot worse than Paia Fish Market.

Here’s the Paia location:

100 Hana Highway, Paia HI 96779

And here’s the Kihei location:

1913 South Kihei Road, Kihei HI 96753

Nutcharee Thai

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I found out about this place pretty recently and I’m really sorry I didn’t know about this before.

Maui has a few Thai restaurants and several Thai food trucks. Of all of these, I think Nutcharee is easily the best. Not that the others are bad at all – in fact I really like the Thai food truck at South Maui Gardens in Kihei.

The menu here is decently extensive, but I do feel that it lack enough good vegetarian options.

My highlights are: the Ahi Laab (basicaly a laab or larb salad made out of raw ahi – really an excellent adaption of a classic dish to local ingredients), the E-san sausage (which I think they even make in-house – it has a tiny bit of funk which I love about it, but if you’re looking for regular sweet Italian sausage, this is definitely not it), and the Panang curry. I’d say we get those three dishes almost every time we eat here, and then we add a few other things depending on the size of our party.

They do have some beer, but not a full liquor license. But no matter – this isn’t really a place to sit and relax for a long meal. Nutcharee’s is a full table-service restaurant but the ambiance isn’t really amazing. Remember how I said they adapter their larb to use local ingredients? Well, they haven’t adapted the dining room to embrace outdoor seating, which I consider a negative.

I personally haven’t tried take-out from Nutcharee, but I’m willing to bet it’s pretty great, especially if you avoid the fried items.

Website: Nutcharee Thai

Address: 1280 S Kihei Rd #124, Kihei HI 96753