A few dining experiences from last week on Maui:

• Monkeypod Wailea - great food, great MaiTai with the Lilikoi Whip on top. Plan for an hour+ wait for dinner, we had someone go ahead at 5:30 to put on name on list and were seated around 6:30.
• Three's - good food, service was a little slow, but admittedly because they were just straight up short-staffed and had no sushi-roller for the lunch shift. Drinks were pretty tasty.
• Waikiki Brewing @ The Shops Wailea - we ended up getting to-go as the wait for a table was 2 hours. Average food, wonder if the to-go took some of the charm off.
• Cafe O'lei Kihei - pretty good food, sashimi was tasty, service was a little slow due to staffing, drinks were reasonably priced
• Coconut's Fish Cafe - excellent to-go plates, ordered online and picked up
• Ohana Seafood Bar and Grill Kihei - food was ok, they were out of shrimp somehow?, views from the deck were nice
• Umalu in Ka'anapali - Good food and the views were very nice, is a hotel restaurant if you care to avoid that sort of thing.
• Mama's Fish House - EXCELLENT FOOD, service was impecable, the drinks (while pricey) were super tasty - watch out for the Scorpion! I fought to get a reservation for this one, so plan ahead, they are booking 4 months out right now.
• Paia Fish Market - great lunch spot, worth the wait in line. Plenty of fresh catch options!
• Kilo's Kitchen in Hana - great food truck with very good chicken katsu, got lunch and then drove down to Hana Bay beach park and ate on the picnic tables
• Maui Brewing Co - went for lunch, no wait to get a table, food was very good and beers/drinks were tasty. Worth a visit if you like the craft beer scene.

And for dessert...

• Uluani's Shaved Ice - very tasty treat with the ice cream down below, worth the wait for your first visit, but I wouldnt rush back to wait 45 mins again for a shaved ice.
• Lappert's Ice Cream - very tasty, very rich and sweet. Almost have to get a plain ish flavor to tame the sweetness. Evening time will have a line, we stopped in mid-afternoon.

I've had lots of Thai food in Thailand. I've also had lots of Thai food in San Francisco, Berkeley and other parts of the Bay Area. I have no idea what you're talking about -- the food is indistinguishable in all of these places. Somewhat larger portions in the U.S., but that's the only difference I can think of.

Kimo's, Joey's Kitchen, Sam Sato's Inc., Honokowai Okazuya & Deli. Dessert at Tasaka Guri Guri shop in Maui Mall.

Tante’s Island Cuisine at the Maui Seaside has a great menu split between local plate lunch and Filipino family style meals.

Also recommend Joey’s Kitchen in Napili, as well as No.1 BBQ and Eating Local in Lahaina.

The food truck park next to the Courtyard by OGG is really good too.

It really depends on the restaurants that was visited, the type of thai food, and if the cooking was tweaked to try to accommodate what they think the diner's tastebuds are.

While it is possible to get good authentic (or better) ethnic food in the bay area, there is also the possibility that restaurants in outside the US tweak their cooking as well.

Lanai City Bar and Grill
 

During my recent stay, twice had dinner at the Lanai City Bar and Grill. https://www.lanaicitybarandgrill.com/

Both times had the lamb burger. The second time, I asked for it to be done in the style of the Boom Bang Smashburger, which I found to be superior to its normal style (which was still good). The beet salad was great. The housemade parker rolls were interesting, but I would only order it again if I was with a large party.

Taverna is fantastic. I wanted to try Mama's Fish House, but I didn't get the chance when we went earlier this year.

Not worth a new thread, but Outback Steakhouse in Kihei is closing for good. Always packed, much like it was on the west side location years ago.

I can’t speak for this outlet, but yesterday’s news had an item about Oahu’s Piggy Smalls closing due to the difficulty finding staff.

That's always seemed like an odd fit for that location (in a Safeway parking lot) but yeah, it did seem to always be busy. I think they had a lot of staffing issues.. probably more than the "cool" restaurants down on the water or in more popular parts of town. I'm in the industry (bartending down in Wailea) and have talked to several entry-level workers that couldn't get out of fast enough. Basically, just used it as a quick steppingstone to get some experience. I bet the regional manager that had that on his route is bummed to lose Maui trips :)

My brother and I would run down for dinner occasionally to Outback just mix things up a bit from our typical stuff on the west side. Agree it’s an odd location but it worked.

We had dinner there about 3 weeks ago and the staff & service were good. But, they couldn't cook my sister's steak properly. First it was too rare. They took it back and cooked it a little longer and it came med. well. She ordered it "medium". Not sad to see them leave.

We did have decent meals at Monkeypod, Three's, Cafe O'Lei and a few other places in Kehei. Yes, prices for everything are higher than last year.

Only other disappointment was the very limited menu at Lehua Lounge @ Andaz.

If it’s any consolation, I checked out the food on menus in the Maldives resorts. That’s really expensive. Maui is cheap in comparison lol

We had a few poke bowls from Island Gourmet Hawaii during our trip. If you like poke bowls, it's very decently priced with a large portion of raw tuna. I loved it. About 18 USD with some "toppings" or 15 USD without. I find that what we get here in Canada is more like a salad with a little bit of fish and nowadays it's around the same price.

We've also had just poke from the grocery store, i.e. seasoned raw tuna, that you eat with a toothpick. I think it was like 10 usd a pound? Very good snack if you like raw fish. Funny how here it's the most expensive fish for sushi etc. but there it's actually very decently priced.

Napili market is a favorite grocery for poke and nicer things. Times and Foodland are great for staples / generics. Safeway is in Maui and I eschew it only because I shop at Safeway at home so I prefer the local Hawaii grocery stores. Like with all shopping, I try to buy stuff on sale if it’s something we would eat. Btw these named shops are in the Lahaina / kaanapali part of Maui.

Wailea part has a foodland - I’m not sure of other grocery stores because our grand Wailea lodging didn’t have a kitchen. If we had a kitchen etc then I would have better known grocery stores :-)