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It is a business where you can get direct satisfaction. Jon: What do you like about the restaurant business?ĭana: Every day is different. We are really blessed with the opportunity to do it in paradise. Mike and I are two of those lucky ones that love what we do and make a living at the same time. Jon: What do you like about living on Maui?ĭana: The perfect weather, great people that live here, and meeting new people from all over the world. Back then, we did not have enough money to hire a staff. There was a time when we opened and closed the restaurant ourselves every day, cooking, washing, and marketing. We mainly do not ask something from our staff if we cannot do it ourselves. The best thing about being chefs is knowing what you want out of your kitchen. Jon: Do you and Mike do the cooking at any of the restaurants?ĭana: Now that we have five, we mainly focus on organization, marketing, and concept. We know we have done well when we have many locals recommending us. Mike and I are happy we get honored but it is not so important to us. We are on the Frommers, Fodors and Trip Advisors preferred restaurants. You can see that on our daily specials.ĭana: We have won Hale Aina, Maui news, Maui Times. We give our chefs quite a bit of room for their creativity. The different items will be influenced by the Chef de Cuisine and what they specialize in. Jon: Is the menu the same at all five restaurants?ĭana: All the restaurants have a core Cafe O’ Lei menu. Because of my background and the diversity of Hawaii, we put a lot of Asian twist to the flavors. We call it comfort American food using many of our local products. Jon: How do you select items for the menu? Do you invent the recipes yourself?ĭana: Most of the items on the menu are Mike’s and my recipes. Jon: How many Cafe O’Lei restaurants are there now, and where are they?ĭana: We have 5 restaurants on Maui right now: Napili, Kihei, The Dunes in Kahului, Wailuku, and Waiehu. My mom had a bakery and catering business so it was in the blood growing up. I went to school for hotel and restaurant management. Jon: Have you had formal training as a chef?ĭana: Mike had been chef of many hotels, Hyatt, Sheraton, Lodge of Koele to name a few. The name stuck for our later restaurants. We called it Cafe O’ Lei as a play on words with a Hawaiian touch. It was a 5-table cafe mainly serving sandwiches, coffee and tea. After moving to Maui, I started a small cafe in Makawao in 1997.
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Jon: When did you start in the restaurant business?ĭana: We had several restaurants in California. We both worked for the Hyatt Regency Maui. I interviewed Dana after dinner at Cafe O’Lei Napili in 2011.ĭana: Mike and I moved here from Chicago initially in 1982. Here are links to pages with reviews, menu lists, and food photos, from Cafe O’Lei restaurants: Kihei (south side), Dunes golf course in Kahului (central valley of Maui), Napili (closed but formerly west side), Wailuku (closed but formerly central Maui). This makes them very popular with Maui residents as well as tourists.ĭana usually works at the Cafe O’Lei at the Dunes in Kahului, but I interviewed her at Cafe O’Lei in Napili in January of 2011, to learn more about her and her husband and these excellent Maui restaurants.
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These restaurants have some of Maui’s best food, but they are moderately priced, unlike Maui’s much more expensive fine-dining restaurants. Dana and Mike Pastulaĭana and Mike Pastula are the chef-owners of the Cafe O’Lei restaurants on Maui. See below for some specific Cafe O’Lei Dunes menu items as well as photos.įor reviews of mid-priced restaurants on other parts of Maui, see moderate Maui restaurants. This restaurant is not in the usual tourist areas of Maui, so it’s usually less crowded than other places with food this good. You can eat inside or outside, and gaze across the golf course at the West Maui Mountains, with their ever-changing lights and shadows and mists. The view at Cafe O’Lei at the Dunes is beautiful. This company also does a great job at their more upscale AmiAmi at the Maui Coast Hotel (Closed at 4 PM on Mondays.) The food is excellent and the prices are reasonable, just as at the Cafe O’Lei restaurant in Kihei. Phone 80.Ĭafe O’Lei at the Dunes serves breakfast 8:30 AM to 10:30 AM, lunch and dinner 10:30 AM to 7:30 PM. Cafe O’Lei is the restaurant in the clubhouse at the Dunes at Maui Lani golf course, just south of Kahului in Maui’s central valley.