Kitoko Maui
Restaurant · Kihei ·
Gourmet grub in garden setting with outdoor seating
Gourmet grub in garden setting with outdoor seating
"South Maui Gardens in Kīhei is an oasis of food trucks, and Kitoko Maui ranks among the best. French-trained pastry chef Cole Hinueber left Spago to open this miniature five-star restaurant on wheels. In a monogrammed chef’s coat, Hinueber serves the fanciest loco moco in the islands: your choice of braised Maui beef, local venison or lobster with crispy sushi rice, green papaya salad, and tamarind sauce topped with a fried egg. Don’t skip dessert here; rich cacao sorbet comes in a hollowed-out cacao pod, best paired with the financier topped with liliko‘i sauce, toasted meringue teardrops, and Thai basil from the chef’s garden. Vibe check: South Maui Gardens hosts a lū‘au three times a week and chef Hinueber offers dinner specials to accompany the show." - Shannon Wianecki
"You won’t find prettier dishes from a food truck than you will at Kitoko, a mobile restaurant tucked into a secret garden in Kihei. The chef used to do pastry at the Four Seasons and has channeled all that fine dining expertise into seared swordfish bento and specials like poke with a magenta dragonfruit ponzu, arranged like a floral wreath on a wooden board. Kitoko is parked in a tropical plant wonderland, so you should definitely stick around, find a table at one of the nooks tucked among the palms, and listen to the area’s live music." - martha cheng
"You won’t find prettier dishes from a food truck than you will at Kitoko, a mobile restaurant tucked into a secret garden in Kihei. The chef used to do pastry at the Four Seasons and has channeled all that fine dining expertise into seared swordfish bento and specials like poke with a magenta dragonfruit ponzu, arranged like a floral wreath on a wooden board. Kitoko is parked in a tropical plant wonderland, so you should definitely stick around, find a table at one of the nooks tucked among the palms, and listen to the area’s live music." - Martha Cheng
"Kitoko Maui is an upscale food truck, but you won’t find it alongside the highway like so many others in Hawaii. Instead you’ll get to it by walking a crunchy gravel path lined with lush potted plants and oversized Buddha statues into South Maui Gardens, a longtime plant nursery in Kihei. It’s all about the beautifully plated steel bento boxes topped with Kauai shrimp, braised beef, or swordfish. (You can even go vegan.) The grilled shrimp are a great choice for when it’s hot out; served on a bed of citrusy vegetables and sprinkled with nuts, they give a Thai twist on an unbelievably fresh Hawaiian staple. Desserts such as the macadamia-caramel tiramisu and homemade sorbets are among the most delicious sweets you’ll eat in Maui, and they look good on Instagram, too." - Juliana Shallcross, Kris Fordham
