I knew it had to come one day … maybe I just wasn’t expecting it so soon or from Marco’s, but here it is, the first bad Maui restaurant review.
    I have eaten at Marco’s in Kihei a couple of times, and the food was always fine. Nothing too great but always good. With this in mind, Natalie and I decided to stop in and try Marco’s in Kahului. I am always a little leery of any restaurant in a strip mall, but proof is in the pudding. Entering Marco’s we were greeted quickly, seated and given menus very quickly as well. The decor is sparse, decorated in blacks and whites and much more comfortable feeling than I would have expected.
    For starters we ordered the bruschetta. The mixture of basil, onions, tomato, garlic, romano and capers was nice, but the dish was not what we were expecting. The tomato mixture was served cold on top of what appeared to be commercial garlic bread. Usually when I think of bruschetta, I think of thin sliced bread topped with whatever mixture and cheese then baked or broiled crispy. The bruschetta wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t great, or what we had expected.
    Next we decided to try the bleu cheese salad. This was a nice sized salad which I would say was a good deal at $9.95. There was plenty of bleu cheese, and we both agreed it was very good.
    For our entrees Natalie ordered the seafood pasta ($24.95). This dish looked and smelled great. Unfortunately, I couldn’t try it due to my shellfish allergies. It looked like it had a ton of seafood in it and Natalie said it was great. I ordered the chicken parmigiana($17.95) which is served atop fettucini with marinara sauce. This is where things really went south. The food was delivered by one of the other servers, and my “chicken” should have never left the kitchen. When the plate arrived at my table, the chicken was black and charred. I mean it looked like a charcoal briquette. I decided to at least give it a bite, and surprise it tasted like charcoal. While that is pretty bad, it could have been solved by an attentive service staff. First, a dish badly burned should have never been sent out of the kitchen. Second, a server should have noticed the condition of the dish. Lastly, if our server had come around to check on us, we could have had it remade or ordered something else. Instead I waited over 15 minutes for a server to come to our table. I know this because there is a clock right above the server area where my server was standing talking to co-workers while I tried to catch eye contact with him. By the time the server came around, I didn’t feel like waiting for another one and the manager took it off the bill.
    A few more problems, I know that we had bruschetta as an appetizer, but we were never offered bread service with our salad or entrees. The manager when I spoke to her about the meal seemed very nonchalant, and as we were driving away appeared to be laughing with our server.
    One more thing, if you charge for soda refills … tell the customer before refilling the soda. I could go on a rant about this alone. The two dollars or so, is not a big deal, it is about greedy owners or servers gouging customers. The cost for a glass of soda is well under 25 cents, that means that four refills would still return a 100% mark up. If you are a waiter doing it to beef up your tips, you might search the internet and see how many people simply deduct refills from their tips. It’s just something I have never understood (unless you are being served canned soda) given the high mark up of soda. Anyway … enough of this rant.
    Bottom line, the food that we were able to eat was good (Natalie really liked the seafood pasta), but the service was lousy and to serve a meal that is completely burned is completely unacceptable. I’m afraid I’d have to give a pass to dining at Marco’s in Kahului.