The Preserve Kitchen & Bar

Delicious food, great wine selection, beautiful setting, very friendly and attentive service. Pricey but worth it. Would definitely return and recommend.

The mai tais are fabulous, and there’s a great wine list. But the food is only OK, and way way way overpriced. (Like, WAY overpriced.) The service at the bar was great. But just know you’re going to throw money away if you eat here.

Bland food. Sounded great on the menu but ended up putting hot sauce on everything. View was beautiful though.

The Preserve is the new, merged incarnation of the old Ka’uiki Dining Room and Paniolo Bar at the Travaasa Hotel. The restaurant has solved some of the problems after taking over from the Longhi family, but regrettably not all. Here’s a rundown of what works and what doesn’t:
— Ambiance: nothing new to report here. There are still two separate dining areas: the bar side of the house and the dining room side of the house. The bar is marginally more informal with a little more energy than the dining room, as you’d expect, but not dramatically so. Both are pretty darn casual and pretty low energy. The bar features fun live music on Thursdays and Sundays, while the dining room is a quieter, romantic vibe. Both have patios.
— Menu: There are different menus for the bar and the dining room, but it all comes from the same kitchen and you can have food from the one in the other. The menu has been thankfully updated and upgraded from what it was before. There are a better range of options at all price points. That’s pretty much the end of the good news.
— Price: It’s still pricey for what you get. I’ve given up complaining about it, and generally just steer myself to the bar menu if I’m feeling more price conscious (but it’s still pricey). You’re advised to do the same: it’s just not worth the mental energy. Pricing never has, and never will change here, and the numbers are printed right on the menu before you walk in. I’m just trying to talk straight here…
— Food: The hotel unfortunately isn’t giving the food any more love or attention than the previous ownership. It’s a shame to serve a tiny portion of mahi mahi with a couple pieces of lukewarm, wilted bok choy for $ 45, but it’s more of a crime to brutally overcook the fish. The saimin was delicious one night and inedible another night. Don’t worry, it’s not all bad — and on occasion it can be quite good — but the general feeling is that no one who cares is manning (or womaning!) the helm in the kitchen. I feel bad for the folks in the kitchen who aren’t getting direction.
At the end of the day, The Preserve is a perfectly fine choice given that there aren’t too many other choices in Hana for a sit down meal. It’s just sad to see the wasted potential. They’re just short one professional, motivated, non-​hotel, food-​first chef. In this day and age where qualified chefs are a dime a dozen, it’s hard to imagine not being able to attract one to Hana…

Ate here our first night and came back again the next night it was so fabulous. Beautiful view, attentive service and excellent fresh food. Tried mahi mahi, Ono and pork chops. Kitchen gladly accommodated dietary requests. Best Mai Tai in Maui. Shout out to Styles who is a great server!

Very nice dinner. The seafood linguine was delicious with fresh Ono and a nice selection of prawns, lobster and scallops. Also had the beet salad and shrimp curry special appetizer. Our server, Jay, was very attentive. They’ve renamed the restaurant The Preserve Kitchen and Bar. The patio seating was very nice with a beautiful view of the hotel gardens and the ocean. Nice evening. Similar pricing to nice resorts in Southern California.

Definitely the best in Hana, which is easy to do since there is not much there. If you want a nice dinner with your spouse and expect to spend «nice dinner» type of money, then this is your place. Don’t bring your little kids, take them to the food trucks. They had very good salads and entrees. Everything was well done and the open air beauty was great like anywhere else in Maui. Waitress was very nice and efficient, but it wasn’t very busy when we were there.

Best Mai Tai in Maui! The food the drinks all very well done we were here for the New Year dinner. I would recommend this place for dinner and drinks.

Terrible food… the food was bland and not tasty at all… we ordered a guacamole app, which was just ok. the sweet potato soup was plain gross… the beet salad which was at best a C+… a flatbread pizza which was just OK. and sashimi… super over priced and mediocre to say the best… the fries were undercooked and were soaked in oil… would NEVER be back to eat this terrible food again… one would think that so called «fine dining» would be held to a little bit better standards…