In brief: You'll probably want to avoid Cafe' O'Lei in Kihei if you want a GF experience. The wait staff tried to help us but we seemed to have fallen victim to cross contamination.
I was hoping that the first restaurant review on our blog would be a five star GF winner... unfortunately that was not to be the case.
For those of you who have visited Hawaii you know that there are some great restaurants on the islands. Some good friends ranked Cafe O'Lei on Maui in Kihei as a small but great place to eat so we decided, since it was within walking distance of our condo, to eat there the night we arrived in Maui.
My wife carries a few laminated cards that explain what her dietary needs are and the cards clearly lists the ingredients that can't be included in her meal. We ordered these cards from Select Wisely (http://www.selectwisely.com/). So, armed with our GF cards we were ready for our first dining experience on Maui.
The waiter listened attentively as she explained her dietary needs and when given the card he promptly took it to the kitchen to get some advice as to what they could prepare for her that would be safe. This was a great sign! From experience we've learned that a wait staff that is willing to engage the kitchen helps the odds go in our favor that the meal will be GF. However that was not to be the case tonight...
The waiter returned and suggested she order some sushi and that it would be GF. We know that we won't be able to eat the soy sauce from the table, but we are very happy to hear that the sushi and the sushi rice are GF! We explained about the dangers of 'cross contamination' and the waiter assured us that the sushi bar would be clean and not to worry.
Well, it turned out that the sushi was not GF and my wife had a rough night... We're guessing that it was a case of cross contamination.
Since the wait staff tried to help us out; I feel bad not giving them any stars. However, 'getting glutened' is the worst experience for those with celiac so no stars for Cafe' O'Lei in Kihei.
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