My Winter Trip to Asia and Hawaii: Restaurants at the Andaz Maui at Wailea

In December, I took a two week trip away from the cold! I started in New York and stopped in Hawaii for a week en route to Asia, breaking my time between two islands: Maui and Kauai. After Hawaii, it was off for a quick stop in Singapore, 5 days in Phuket and two days in Tokyo. This was my first ever trip to Asia and we had a great time! I flew Business Class most of the way, stayed at the top notch hotels Andaz Maui Wailea, Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort and the Conrad Tokyo.

Trip Report Index

• Planning with Miles and Points

• The Andaz Maui at Wailea

• Restaurants at the Andaz Maui at Wailea

• Maui’s Haleakala, Ho’okipa and the Road to Hana

• The Grand Hyatt Kauai

• Wamea Canyon, Wailua River and Na Pali Coast in Kauai

• A Day in Singapore

• Redeeming Barclaycard Arrival Miles To Fly Singapore to Phuket

• A $3250 Stay at Le Meridien Phuket with Points

In Maui, I spent three nights at the brand new Andaz Maui at Wailea and had an amazing stay. While there, I had a chance to sample the on-site restaurants. I had breakfast every morning at the Ka’ana Kitchen breakfast buffet. I got to try the just-opened Moritomo’s for lunch and dinner and I also picked up a few things from Mokapu Market. To tell you the truth, being from New York, I don’t have high expectations for culinary impressions when I travel as it’s just so hard to compare to all the amazing options we have here. But after visiting the Andaz Maui, I’d have no qualms recommending the on-site restaurants and giving the overall dining experience there two thumbs up!

Paying for Dining at Andaz Maui at Wailea

We had the most amazing breakfast every morning at Ka’ana Kitchen and had a great dinner at Morimoto. But, of course, the most satisfying part is that we didn’t end up paying for any of it.

The breakfast buffet at $45 a person is certainly pricey. Fortunately, it was included for Hyatt Diamond members. Although Natalya was staying in a separate room and I was the only one with Diamond membership, we booked both rooms under me and all four of us were able to enjoy the breakfast buffet at Ka’ana Kitchen.

For meals and hotel incidentals, there are two types of points that I tend to use:

• Citi ThankYou points can be redeemed for lodging certificates. Before going to Hawaii, I used my Citi ThankYou points to order $100 denomination Hyatt gift checks and then used them to settle the bill at the end. A $100 check costs 10,000 points.
• Barclaycard Arrival miles can be redeemed for any travel expense, including anything you put on your hotel bill. It’s my go-to card for travel expenses that I can’t pay for with other miles and points so my trips are “almost” free. Although I did not use Barclaycard Arrival miles this time, they’re among the easiest miles to use. I would just pay the hotel bill with my card and go online later to reimburse the expense with the miles.

Ka’ana Kitchen

Ka’ana Kitchen is the Andaz Maui at Wailea signature restaurant. The breakfast buffet served by Ka’ana Kitchen has a unique design that’s meant to make you feel “at home” or in an inviting friend’s home where your host is right by you in the kitchen. The main part of the restaurant features an open kitchen where all the fruit is cut and things are cooked right out in the open. With a farm-to-table concept, the food ingredients are produced at local farms and everything is extremely fresh. There is an outdoor and indoor seating with cozy wooden tables.

Ka’ana Kitchen has to have some of the most enthusiastic waiters we’ve ever encountered. They literally talk to you into having that morning’s healthy fresh squeezed vegetable smoothie featuring kale, apple, carrots, etc or taking another skim latte with you to go! They even complimented Alex’s Hawaiian shirt… I told him they were being sarcastic. Regardless, it’s easy to have a good time when everyone around you is in a good mood.

The variety of food is great. They have pancakes, french toast, fresh fruit, berries, bread, muffins, omelettes, fresh squeezed juice… probably just about every breakfast option you can think of. They have many different types of uncut fruit (and some already cut) and the cooks are happy to cut you some for your table, even with a nice and enthusiastic presentation.

 

Morimoto

Morimoto Maui is one of famous Iron Chef’s Masahuru Morimoto’s restaurants. Although we also have a Morimoto in New York, we still decided to try it out. We went there for dinner one evening and were very impressed. Morimoto’s may not be cheap, but we did find the portions on the large side and filling. It cost about $200 total for the four of us and we got to sample many dishes by splitting appetizers and main courses.

As a quick note about making reservations, the restaurant has an inside section and an outdoor section with the outdoor section being a far nicer decor and ambiance. That said, the inside is more child-friendly, but those not traveling as a family will most likely prefer the outdoor seating. I mistakenly did not specify outdoor seating when I made the reservation and, as a result, we ended up waiting an hour for an outdoor table. On the one hand, this was fair, but the manager did come up and talk to me while we were waiting and I, in a very casual and non-complaining way, mentioned the long wait. He was extremely apologetic and bought us a round of champagne once we sat down so I suppose this isn’t typical. But do make the right seating requests!

Appetizers: We took a while to choose, but eventually settled on the Morimoto style shashimi, tuna pizza and rock shrimp tempura. I would recommend all three and would have them again. The shashimi was definitely a unique dish that was a nice combinations of different layers. And even though I don’t typically like rock shrimp tempura at all when I have it at other restaurants, this one was great… so I can only imagine fans of rock shrimp tempura will enjoy it even more.

Main courses: We ordered two main courses to split between the four of us. The vegetable Buri Bop was a dish he actually created on Iron Chef. The dish is brought out on a stone grill bowl and cooked right in front of us. We specifically asked the waiter for a dish where “Morimoto’s talents really shine”.

We also ordered a seafood medley dish. This particular dish, I would say, was just ok. But our taste buds were already satisfied by everything else we tried!

Since we enjoyed our dinner, we decided to go again for lunch the next day. The lunch menu is actually quite different from the dinner menu and the four of us were underwhelmed by the mid-day offerings. Overall, I’d say stick to Morimoto’s for dinner and check out lunch options elsewhere.

Mokapu Market

The Mokapu Market is the Andaz’s quick/to-go dining venue. The Mokapu market is open 24 hours and have different options from light snacks, local treats, flat-bread sandwiches or drinks and beers. They also have their own home-made gelato.

Summary

• We had some very nice meals at the Andaz Maui at Wailea at Ka’ana Kitchen for breakfast and Morimoto Maui for dinner.
• The morning breakfast at Ka’ana Kitchen, although cost $45 per person, was included with the Hyatt Diamond elite status and was complimentary.
• It’s possible to use points to pay for meals and hotel incidentals.Citi ThankYou points can be redeemed for lodging certificates to order Hyatt gift checks and settle the bill. Barclaycard Arrival miles can be redeemed for any travel expense and any charge on the hotel bill will count as a travel expense.