Botero Lounge

Located close to the lobby, on an atrium style platform in the central area of the Waldorf Astoria. Surrounded by various sculptures of Colombian artist Fernando Botero. Friendly welcoming staff, we were seated immediately. Access by a few stairs as well as a ramp on the opposite side. Highlight are the atmosphere and the live music in the evening. Orders for drinks and food were taken quickly and served soon afterwards. Complimentary nuts and iced water provided too. Drinks and food were good but nothing memorable. While you certainly expect to pay resort prices, drinks were somewhat reasonable but prices for the food were just crazy high. Hence -2 stars for the rating. We also received a wrong bill for our table, impacting the service quality.

We came here for a night cap after having dinner at The Shops next door. Plus, the Grand Wailea's Christmas lights were on at the front drive. If you haven't seen it, you must! ATMOSPHERE: The circular lobby bar has a high porte cochere-like covering that used to have beautiful frescos painted on the ceilings that they've sadly painted over. It sits in the middle of the open-air atrium surrounded by decorative pools, lush foliage and art work by Fernando Botero, who the bar is named after. Besides bar seating, there are also sofa lounge chairs and high tops. They have nightly entertainment but we missed it. There was a wedding reception going on which was winding down but we found seats on the patio area. Because it rained earlier, they pulled the cushions off the sofas so we were sitting on the still comfortable shells. MENU: Bar-style apps, chicken wings, burgers. SERVICE: We walked up to the bar to an unwelcoming male bartender. No smile, no greeting. When we tried to order, he told us to have a seat anywhere and a server would be with us. Poor gal seemed to be taking care of the entire bar by herself, yet she was still smiley, friendly, welcoming, and professional. You go, girl! OVERALL: Touristy, duh. Nice ambiance and not too pricey.

I have to give some context to the poor rating. Because, if you are looking for one of the best hamburgers you will have in your life, then you will find it here. I am telling you, the hamburger I received was easily a top 5 in my life. It was our first night there. Long day of traveling, so we were looking forward to some good music, which was good, btw, some cool refreshing drinks, and relaxing while we planned out the rest of our trip. It started off relaxing, but it took almost 20 minutes to have someone come get our drink order. Maybe I should have drank some water before I came because I was extremely thirsty, so this did not start well. It didn't bother me at first since this was my first night of vacation, so I was a bit more patient in the beginning. They finally showed up to take our order. We were told she would get our drink orders input and then would come back to our food order. No problem, we were not in a hurry. I was looking forward to trying a few dinks while I was there anyway. She did not come back until she delivered the drinks. Which took almost another 20 minutes. I am extremely thirsty at this point. She took our food order. I guess I should have ordered another drink then because I did not think it would take almost another 20 minutes to get our food. We are just over an hour in, and we get our food. I asked for another drink and was told they would send the server over. I started eating. It was amazing. I will share a photo. I am telling you this photo does not do this burger justice. I am telling you your taste buds will be dancing to the live music playing in the background. However, I have nothing to wash the burger down with. At this point. All four of us have nothing to drink. The server finally showed up, and we asked for another drink and some water as well. Almost another 20 minutes before it showed up. Good thing I ordered water as well. At this point, I am not feeling this place even though I just had one of the best burgers ever. I am thirsty, feeling ignored, and wondering what the problem is because all the tables around us are empty. It was not an extremely busy night. So, as you will see from most of my reviews. The experience ruined everything. I will remember that burger for the rest of my life, however, I will also remember that it takes more than two hours to order two drinks, a water, two hamburgers, some onion rings and a salad for just as long. If you go here. I would say order two dinks to start, make sure they take your food order as well, or just get it to go. Because I would expect you to be there for a long, long, long time. I think I have only had one other dining experience that lasted that long. It was at a 5 or 6 course steak house, not a lounge in a hotel.

Great cocktails, friendly staff, and convenient location in center of hotel but overpriced food and limited underwhelming menu. Smashburger was good (basically bigger In N Out burger for $34) but truffle burger had way too many overburdening flavors with truffle + garlic + mushrooms + goat cheese (not in a good way) that I only ate half which was a waste for a $40 hamburger... French fries were good but needs to be ordered as an additional side as it is oddly not included in the hamburger entree. Overall $150 for 2 people. I would only recommend for the bar/cocktails and go elsewhere for dinner.

Food, drinks, and vibes at Botero are all 10/10 but what really kept bringing me back was our server, Sharon. She was the absolute best - sweet, funny, accommodating, and so much more. Every interaction with her left me and my girlfriend smiling, and on our last day she even brought us a treat from her favorite bakery and showed us amazing pictures of beautiful spots on Maui. No matter what we did that day, we always came back to Botero to at least have one drink at the end of the night and see Sharon. You could see from how she interacted with her other tables that everybody felt the same way about her. Botero wouldn’t be the same without her

The setting of this spot definitely sets it apart- obviously the Grand Wailea is gorgeous! We went down early (around 5 PM) before everything got busy and had the best service with Laura! She anticipated our needs, was super friendly, and gave us some great recommendations of other things to do on island. After reading other reviews, I can only assume that the bar gets busier as the night goes on and it may take longer for service/ food/ drinks. However, we just ordered some sodas and a creme brûlée and both arrived in under 10 minutes (just how we liked it having a baby with us!). If you're heading in, I would recommend going early and leaving plenty of time if you plan on doing something afterwards- it's a pretty large bar/ eating area and I could tell the servers were running around, probably short staffed. That being said, we had incredible service and loved Laura!

We loved it here! Favorite place in the hotel. Sam R was a phenomenal server. He was so attentive and genuine. Even though he was hustling around, he always made sure to answer our questions and was just such a delight to interact with. And Gabe provided a perfect atmosphere with his smooth voice. We plan to come back here the rest of our trip!

Sam was the star of the experience! My burger was super salty, Sam took care of it for us. The falafel was great. But Sam was amazing. I would see him literally walking so fast between tables and to the bar he looked like he could be running- then he would get to our table and squat down and take his time. Be present. Be focused and calm. Made us feel so taken care of and he was so so attentive. We couldn’t figure out how he could move so fast and then be so present with us. He’s an absolute AMAZING server!! Ask for Sam R!