The 25 Best Maui Restaurants, According to a Local Expert
After the 2023 fire destroyed Sale Pepe, the beloved Italian bistro where local chefs ate on their days off, the restaurant’s owners, Qiana and Michele di Bari, pledged to rebuild. Through sheer will and aloha, they succeeded. The new Sale Pepe, up the hill from the old one, announces itself with marquee lights. The di Baris gave the industrial space a full makeover, cleverly tucking a pasta lab between the first and second floor. Start your meal with a Campari spritz, and you might just think you’re in Milan, Michele’s hometown. The bianca pizza, topped with sausage made in-house from Malama Farm’s kurobuta pork, is perfect. But it’s the pasta that tugs at the heartstrings: hand-twisted strozzapreti, wide ribbons of pappardelle, and tantalizing spaghetti neri studded with fresh clams and smears of spicy Calabrian ’nduja. Upstairs, lights on the ceiling spell out “Lahaina Per Sempre,” or Lahaina Forever.
