Top Maui Restaurants 2008 From Thrifty to Four Star: Indispensable Advice from Experts Who Live, Play & Eat on Maui [Paperback]

James Jacobson (Author), Molly Jacobson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 20, 2007

This book evolved from the popular download version which has guided thousands of Maui visitors in navigating America's most expensive place to eat out. It is unprecedented because of its scope and by virtue of the fact that it is written by restaurant critics. James and Molly Jacobson are two big-city-exiles who live on Maui and dine out an average of 11 times per week. Their honest, take-no-prisoners review guide is written with the philosophy that people who love to eat and prefer not to waste money on bad food should know the truth about Maui's well-marketed dining scene. Top Maui Restaurants is packed with local insights and insider tips. Reading this book before and during your trip is like having a best friend in paradise who steers you away from the tourist traps and guides you to the real gems. The online version is updated every month with the most accurate, up-to-date reviews and information, and readers of this book can get the latest download free at TopMauiTips.com.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Top Maui Restaurants 2010 From Thrifty to Four Star includes a free subscription to TopMauiTips.com, a new membership site for people planning Maui vacations. Details are inside the book. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

If you're planning your trip to Maui, you need this guide.

This lovingly researched, frank and honest handbook is indispensable for people who love to eat, and prefer not to waste good money on bad food.

Disappointing meals (and there are a lot of them on Maui) can totally ruin a dream vacation. Don't leave your planning to chance or rely on slick advertising-driven guides. Other tourist books with their capsule "reviews" don't come close to the insight you'll get from opinionated, knowledgeable restaurant critics who live on Maui. Thousands of elated and relieved visitors have trusted the online version of Top Maui Restaurants to guide them to the best eats on Maui.

In this book you'll find:

* The top romantic restaurants worth the splurge.
* The best inexpensive but tasty places.
* Hidden gems you wouldn't find unless a local revealed the secret.
* A convenient 100-point rating scale that accurately compares one establishment to another.
* A user-friendly reference to help you fulfill any food craving.

Dining out on Maui is more expensive than any place else in America. For less than the price of a bad breakfast, this handbook could save your vacation. Free trial Membership to TopMauiTips.com included.

Product Details

• Paperback: 238 pages
• Publisher: Maui Media (August 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0975263145
• ISBN-13: 978-0975263143
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (82 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #971,323 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top Maui Restaurants from Thrifty to Four Star, October 26, 2007

By 

S. Piper (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Top Maui Restaurants 2008 From Thrifty to Four Star: Indispensable Advice from Experts Who Live, Play & Eat on Maui (Paperback)

This book is one of two guidebooks to Maui that we consider a must. Unlike the free guides readily available everywhere, the authors give you the straight scoop on a whole range of restaurants. It is very easy on Maui to find terrible restaurants and leave feeling ripped off. Even the bad ones are expensive. This guide led us to several places we would not otherwise have given a second look. Just one example: Gian Don's. This very attractive restaurant with its comfortable outside seating looks totally out of place overlooking noisy Kihei Road. Following the authors' suggestions we ordered the appetizer ribs and a salad and were very happy with the portions and the prices. Without this book, we would never have tried Gian Don's much less ordered ribs in an Italian restaurant. This wonderful, entertaining guide was worth every penny. It will be on our short list of "must brings" to Maui--unless there is a new version out.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One delicious meal after another!, April 21, 2008

By 

Kimberly Shaw (Wailea, HI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Top Maui Restaurants 2008 From Thrifty to Four Star: Indispensable Advice from Experts Who Live, Play & Eat on Maui (Paperback)

We just returned from Maui with a well used copy of this book! We are VERY frequent visitors to Maui (about three times a year). I loved James and Molly's story, their passion for each other and for great food! I appreciate the fact that they are sharing their dining experiences with us (the readers). I highly suggest this book to anyone visiting or living on Maui!

I admit I peeked ahead to see what they thought of my favorite Maui restaurants and it helped me "trust" them to realize we shared similar tastes! Then I read the book cover to cover. Later I downloaded the latest edition. The book paid for itself the first new place we tried, which happened to be Cilantro Fresh Mexican Grill in Lahaina. Having lived in Hawai'i and also places that have some excellent Mexican food (Texas, California, Arizona and MEXICO)...in my opinion, this is the best Mexican food in all of Hawai'i, of course I am open to continue to try other places just to make sure. As it is often difficult to find an affordable dinner on Maui, this was a great place to discover.

Another time we wanted to kiss the book in thanks was after the first bite at Flatbread Company in Pa'ia. I cannot have gluten/wheat, so I had to skip the pizza, but I so enjoyed watching my husband and youngest daughter eat it. My daughter agreed that it was a "spiritual experience!" I enjoyed a salad with the yummy pineapple vinaigrette dressing! The lemonade was a little too tart for us, but loved the iced tea. My husband loved the pomegranate ginger mojito. The desserts were amazing, especially with their homemade whipped cream (sweetened with maple syrup). We found the service to be excellent, too!

Many places we had driven by on former trips and always wondered about. This book gave us the nudge to go ahead and try some of these places, as follows:
Longhi's - The steak WAS awesome, just as the book said. It was also one of the best breakfasts we had (even though Plantation House continues to be our favorite place). My husband thought it was the best french toast on the island. My daughter enjoyed the huge cinnamon roll.
Cafe O Lei - Great place for lunch, just as the book said. We loved the shave ice place downstairs, too!
Maui Tacos - Just figured it was typical fast food, so always avoided. After reading the review, we gave it a try. It was fresh and tasty and a perfect quick meal on the way to a movie.
Mala in Wailea - I appreciate all their organic items on the menu! The organic chicken was ONO!
I'O - It is now our top Lahaina restaurant, too! (Have enjoyed Pacific'o and Feast of Lele in the past.)

We did have two semi-disappointing meals this trip. I should say ONLY two, as we often have many more than that. Thankfully, this book helped us avoid most of those! And I do realize that every restaurant has an off day. Perhaps it was an off day for these two places? After waiting a while in the rain for the Gazebo, we felt it was not worth the wait. The view IS amazing, but you can get the view from the other side of the beach at the Sea House. The food seemed to be typical "diner" food. To me, it tasted like something you'd get at Denny's. It was not bad, but not great either. My husband and daughter had the pancakes and were disappointed. We much prefer Sea House or Plantation House for breakfast in that area (or Longhi's and SeaWatch further away). We had one night to have a romantic dinner, just my husband and I. We decided to try Pineapple Grill. We did not feel the view compared to the view at Plantation House (perhaps it was where we were seated). The service was excellent. The food was good. However, it was so noisy be could hardly hear each other. It was not too crowded, although there was one large group. We decided we did not like yelling at each other from across the table and did not stay for dessert.

Overall it was one ONO meal after another! We enjoyed adding some new winners to the restaurants we already enjoyed on Maui!

James and Molly, mahalo nui loa!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Makin' it so easy...!, July 28, 2009

By 

Kraig and Debbie "Kraig and Debbie" (York, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Top Maui Restaurants 2008 From Thrifty to Four Star: Indispensable Advice from Experts Who Live, Play & Eat on Maui (Paperback)

Not having visited Maui in 30 years, I had no idea where our family of four would be able to eat at reasonable prices. Given the fact that Hawaii, in general is so expensive, this wonderful book not only gave a comprehensive and entertaining review of Maui's offerings, but it was organized, thorough and easy to use as a daily guide...which we will for the next two weeks!

This book made an important part of our trip less challenging and took away the stress and frustration of trying to find nice, clean and reasonably priced restaurants.

I am so very glad we purchased this book -- I recommend it highly -- no one should travel to Maui without it!