Merriman's Maui

I became familiar with Merriman's because of Top Chef.  The final elimination challenge was done at the restaurant.  The first thing i noticed was the stunning views Merriman's offered up.  They are stunning.  They have a great deck that looks out towards the ocean, and serves as their outside bar.  So if you can't dinner this is a possible option.  However, the bar get very full around sunset.

Da Pine

However there is more to Merriman's than just their views and some delicious cocktails.  It is about the food, and that 90% of the food and ingredients are locally sourced.   You know everything you will eat, if it came from the land or the sea, it did not have to travel very far to get your table.

You begin with homemade honey bread that comes in a woven basket and served with a fresh tomato dip with veggies. We started with the Kalu Pig and sweet onion quesadilla with house made kim chee and mango chili sauce.  When in Maui I tend to eat alot of fish, because you are in Hawaii, and it is always good.  So it was nice to have a little piece of meat to start.  They were very tasty with with onions.  The kim chee was ok, but I don't think it was really needed or went with the quesadilla.

Now looking at the menu there are alot of great options, and I hard time deciding.  I am assuming this might be the case with other people, because Merriman's offers Merriman's Mix Plate.  The Mix Plate provides you with a mini tasting menu of items from the land and the sea.  It includes:

• Sauteed Mahi Mahi with Beet Ponzu - the mahi was cooked perfect.  I'm not a fan of beets, and was a little worried this might overpower the fish, but i was wrong.  It was light, yet a little creamy and did not have that dirty beet taste.
• Filet of Beef with brown butter sauce - this was the best part of the plate.  The meat was so tender it cut like melted butter.  The meat sat on top of creamy cheddar potatoes(similar to scalloped potatoes) and topped with savory onions.  All so food, and would get the big plate of this dish.
• Hawaiian Wok Charred Ahi with a wasabi cilantro vinaigrette - this was my least favorite dish.  I did not like the preparation of the ahi, and made it a little rubbery, and lacked flavor.  The rest of the dish had a nice flavor

My boyfriend had the special salad and entree.  The salad was strawberries, tomatoes, maui onions, and goat cheese.  It was such a nice fresh salad, and full of wonderful flavors.  The entree, was cajun style prawns, mahi mahi on top of mashed taro.  The boyfriend seemed to like both dishes.

I love lilikoi (passion fruit), so when I saw lilikoi tart was on the dessert menu, I had to have one even though I barely had enough room.  The tart has coconut molasses crust, and house whipped cream. It had the right amount of passion fruit and so good I somehow manged to eat the entire dessert.