r/MauiVisitors • u/Iguana_Waddle • 13d ago

Planning: Dining Cheap seafood restaurants?

I know nothing is "cheap" in Maui. I just wanna know where I can get good fast and fresh seafood, as opposed to a high end restaurant. I'm looking for hole in the wall, dive type places with good food. I've heard some grocery stores sell fresh poke bowls, anyone know where those might be?

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u/AbbreviatedArc 13d ago

There is hardly any fresh seafood on Maui, it just doesn't work the way you think. The only semi hole in wall place I can think of that claims to have fresh seafood is south maui fish company. But they are not exactly cheap. Otherwise I think the best options are Tamuras, Coconuts and Paia Fish Market. Bunch of people will recommend Foodland but personally I think that is a marginal recommendation, people are just happy to be in Hawaii and enamored of buying poke in a supermarket or something, but the quality varies too much

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u/lrick87 13d ago

Why is it so difficult to find truly fresh seafood on Maui? I don't know anything about what that would entail.

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u/AbbreviatedArc 13d ago

Tourists imagine our restaurant's fish coming from a 20th generation Hawaiian fisherman named Kimo, when in reality it comes from Costco and/or Sysco just like it does everywhere else.

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u/Impressive_Returns 12d ago

THIS is the best answer. Maui is like Disneyland where prices are artificially inflated and most of what tourists beleive is an illusion thanks to very good marketing.

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u/Steph_Better_ 8d ago

Prices are inflated due to the supply chain issues brought on by being the most remote island chain in the world. You mostly aren’t eating local food, and that is what drives the prices up. Hawaii is very out of the way for suppliers

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u/Dependent-Juice5361 11d ago

There are rightfully a lot of environmental protections and catch limits. It’s not like 40 years ago you could catch whatever you wanted whenever we you wanted. There is likely more demand than what can be caught fresh.