Maybe it's a rainy day. Maybe you want to escape direct sunshine. Or maybe you're killing time or picking up last minute souvenirs before you need to drop your rental car off at the airport. For whatever reason, if you find yourself hungry at Maui's largest mall, the Queen Ka'ahumanu Center, here are our five favorite things to eat in the food court.
Fried Chicken Wings (Pearl's B-B-Q) Crispy and juicy, the wings at Pearl's might be the best wings on the island. By ordering a full plate, you also get your choice of four sides. Our go-to sides are kim-chee (duh), corn, and potato salad. For the fourth side, we always pick something different. The wait for the food at Pearl's can be a little long, so keep that in mind if you're in a hurry.
Chicken Katsu Curry (L&L) Chicken katsu is basically a fried chicken cutlet. When you add the lightly spiced curry gravy over the top, it becomes an even tastier dish. Like most plate lunches in Hawaii, it's served with rice and mac salad. We order the curry on the side so the chicken doesn't become soggy. The portions are huge, so the other advantage of this is if you have leftovers, it again saves on sogginess.
Mango Boba Smoothie (HiTea) This is about the fourth bubble tea joint to live in the food court over the last five years, but HiTea seems to have staying power. For one thing they have over 50 different flavors to choose from and many are Hawaii-centric varieties. To this end, while we haven't tried even half of the options, our favorite is the Mango Boba smoothie. The freshness of the mango makes this drink pop like the boba pearls at the bottom of the drink.
Hard-shelled Beef Tacos (Maui Tacos) This may be a controversial choice as Maui Tacos is better known for their burritos. Maybe it's a nostalgic factor that takes us back to the times when we had tacos at home using Lowry's taco mix and browned hamburger, but we love these hard-shelled tacos. Maui Tacos has a great salsa bar to top off your tacos.
Mac Nutella Crepe (Maui Crepes and Grill) Though there's a large selection of savory crepes, our top recommendation from Maui Crepes is the Mac Nutella. As expected, the crepes are light and fluffy as they are for all types of the crepes. But we love the way the macadamia nuts and Nutella play together. For an extra $2, you can add a scoop of ice cream. Always with ice cream!
By the way, did you know that you can now save $10/person on our Maui Princess Dinner Cruise or a Snorkel Adventure to the island of Lanai? Well you can! Just use the promo code VIP20 after clicking on this link: Hawaii Ocean Project Adventures.
