Cafe O’lei Napili

We were staying at Napili Shores so we decided to give Café O’lei a try. The service was excellent and everyone was really friendlly and helpful. The tempura mushroom appetizer was very good. My husband and 6 year old son got the piña colada drink special in alcoholic and virgin. My son loved his and my husband said it was very good. I had a mai tai. It was decent. The prime rib was cooked very nicely and delivered at the reqested medium rare. They also had a recommended organic Merlot to go with it which was good and paired very well. The garlic mashed potatoes were ok and I didn’t care for the prepared horseradish or the au jus. The au jus had the consistency of gravy and I’m not sure what was going on with the prepared horseradish. It barely had any flavor of horseradish in it. But like I said, the prime rib was great so we didn’t really need the dipping sauces. My son got the chicken fillet which looked a little over cooked but the fries were good. He ended up eating almost half of my prime rib so that’s a decent endorsement. For dessert I had the lilikoi cheesecake, my husband had the pineapple upsidedown cake and my son had a bowel of ice cream that came in a cute presentation with fancy cut strawberries in it. All were tasty. We may go back again on Saturday for more prime rib at a very reasonable price.

Fantastic! We were staying at a resort in Kaanapali and wanted to get out for dinner. We were seated immediately, had drinks within minutes and the waitress was super nice. The food was excellent. We did pork quesadillas, crab cakes, mahi-​mahi, and steak plus desert (there were 4 of us). After all that, plus drinks, the tab was very reasonable and not much more than the hotel breakfast buffet. Highly recommended!

Horrible. Horrible. Horrible. We had dinner reservations at 630. Were sat immediately. By 645 no one had come to take any drink orders. By 710 we got our drinks, and the water we asked for 3 times. My wine glass had some foreign substance in it. It took ten minutes after the waitress took it to get another one. The kids meals came relatively quickly after ordering. The rest of us were served by 730. An hour after we had arrived. Our waitress never once asked how we were doing. They don’t offer bread before dinner (but you can buy three slices for $ 1.95). We decided it was the worst service we had ever had, and we weren’t going to tip… only to get the bill and see that a 20% gratuity had already been added. Because they add tip when there are 6 people (we had 5 adults and 2 small children that required very little work). The whole experience was miserable. And unfortunately it was our last night on the island. Bummer way to spend it. Stay away!!!

Café O’Lei is located on the property of Outrigger Napili Shores, so the majority (if not all) their clientele are hotel guests. And really, if you’re not staying here it’s probably not worth coming here.
I only tried one thing on the menu, as we had picked up a frozen pizza to eat in and wanted a salad to go with it, so we ordered a Caesar salad. There really wasn’t much to it, just lettuce, a couple croûton stick things, maybe some Parmesan cheese, but I don’t recall, and dressing. Unfortunately, the lettuce was wilting and kind of gross. The salad dressing was pretty good, but that’s about all the salad has going for it. I’d probably avoid in the future, but hope their other food is better.

Their slogan is «Simply Good Cooking» and that is exactly what you get. This is one of five award winning family owned restaurants on Maui. Here you will find great service and delicious food that won’t break the bank. Definitly a must eat.