The last time we were on Maui, one of the front desk associates at the Grand Wailea recommended we check out Restaurant Marlow in Pukalani. We did, but it left me wanting more. So, this time, we planned out a proper meal at the restaurant, with a sit-down dinner to follow our hike in Haleakalā National Park.
If you’ve been following along with this series, you’d know that we spent our one full day on Maui at Haleakalā National Park. There, we did the “Rainbow Bridge” crater overlook hike and a bit of bird spotting. We finished up in the area in the late afternoon and drove over to Pukalani. Our reservations at the restaurant weren’t until around 6, so we hung around the area and checked out ʻokoʻa Farms a couple of doors down. It was a really cool shop that had a huge variety of fresh produce, prepared items, preserved items, and more. If we had more luggage space, I probably would’ve picked up several items. But I digress.
Restaurant Marlow Location
As I mentioned earlier, Restaurant Marlow is located in Pukalani. The area is technically part of Makowao and, together with Kula, is considered Up Country Maui. In fact, it’s fairly close to the path you take when driving up to the national park. Parking in the area is easy, as there is a private lot (which can fill up) along with tons of street parking out front.
I should note that reservations are virtually mandatory for dinner. The restaurant is on the smaller side and is very popular, so they can fill up really quickly.
Restaurant Marlow Service
Every single person we interacted with at the restaurant was incredibly warm, friendly, and gracious, which matched perfectly with the restaurant’s ambiance. It’s a gorgeous space that feels timeless and elegant but isn’t pretentious or stuffy. The place has a serious neighborhood favorite vibe but elevated. At any rate, the staff was very patient and helpful as we struggled to decide on our orders, and paced things perfectly for us.
Restaurant Marlow Menu
The menu at Restaurant Marlow is primarily focused on pizza. However, they also offer a variety of small bites, entrees, and sides. While the main focus for us here is the pizza, as it should be, we ended up getting stuck on trying to figure out what starters to get, and didn’t get enticed by one of the entrees. There are also nightly specials, one of which we did end up ordering this time around.
What We Ordered
To start that night, we went with the special Arugula & Beet Salad. The menu describes this salad as arugula, orange, onion, pecorino, and sherry vinaigrette. As you can see, the salad looks like a mound of greens with a generous dusting of pecorino. However, there’s more to this salad than meets the eye.
If you look closely, you’ll notice that the onions in the salad are crispy fried. That added an extra punch of flavor and complexity to a nicely balanced salad of nutty/lightly bitter arugula, sweet roasted beets, sweet/tart oranges, and a tart-umami vinaigrette.
Next up, we got the “6oz Crispy Skin Kampachi,” which comes with Maui onion soubise, arugula, pickled onion, and rayu (roasted sesame chili oil). Man, let me tell you, this was one of the best fish dishes I’ve ever had in my life. The fish’s skin was so perfectly crisped, while the flesh was so succulent and flakey. The onion soubise was lightly creamy with an excellent sweet, cooked onion flavor. The light bitterness of the arugula and zing of the pickled onions perfectly balance the rich fish and sauce, while the rayu adds a light spice and nuttiness to it all.
Of course, we couldn’t visit Restaurant Marlow without ordering pizza. However, we ended up ordering two. While we tried the Margherita last time around, we decided to go with more loaded-up pies on this visit, including the Salsiccia and the Braised Pork.
As you’d guess from the name, the Salsiccia is a sausage pizza. In this case, it’s a red pie topped with a little mozzarella cheese, Italian sausage, and caramelized onions. While I love the purity of a good Margherita, this pizza was bursting with flavor! The rich, perfectly spiced sausage (and a generous amount at that), with the creamy cheese, sweet onions, and tangy sauce, was really difficult to stop eating.
The Braised Pork pizza doesn’t sound all that interesting by name, but the description changes that. You see, the menu states that this pizza features arrabbiata sauce, mozzarella, and lilikoi butter in addition to the braised pork. Yep, you read that correctly. Lilikoi butter. That’s ultimately what caused Mrs. Island Miler to order this pizza. As it turns out, though, the lilikoi butter works really well here, providing a faint sweet fruitiness to the pie that helps to tame the intense spice of the sauce and cut the richness of the braised pork.
Final Thoughts
We over-ordered and ended up taking a good chunk of our pizzas back to our hotel with us. Naturally, we didn’t order any desserts. Oh well. Restaurant Marlow has some amazing-sounding desserts, but it’s based on availability, which is also at least partly based on what pastries they bake that morning for breakfast. On this night, there wasn’t anything available aside from gelato.
Speaking of, Restaurant Marlow’s breakfast menu, while small, looks fantastic! I’d love to give that a try, too, but we’ll have to save that for another time. At any rate, when on Maui, I strongly recommend checking this place out.