I recently dined at Fabiani’s restaurant in Kihei on a Friday night. Arriving around 8 pm, the restaurant was quite busy. We were one of the last customers to be seated that evening. At first, I was a little unsure if we should wait for a table. Due to the dinner rush, I did not get immediate eye contact from the person who staffed the front, and his first greeting to me was a little gruff. I later realized he was the owner. However, seeing the rush, I decided to give him a chance. Plus I figured with his Italian accent that this was something of the Italian way. I was happy I did. My husband and I had my young baby with me in a stroller, and wasn’t sure how accomodating the restaurant would be about that. The owner ended up personally wheeling our stroller over to a good spot at the table, which impressed me and made me feel welcome. I later learned the owners themselves have a baby, so it’s no wonder he wanted to help us out. By the end of the night, I felt very welcomed to the restaurant by the owner and his staff.
We asked for a bread basket and were brought some delicious foccacia. I ordered a Caprese salad to start. My husband ordered Lorenzo’s Homemade Meat Lasagne, and I ate the Linguine alle Vongole (clams with linguine). We were both impressed. I found the linguine to have strong flavors, possibly due to plentiful capers. I personally liked it that way. We also tried some sausage in Collagen Casings | DCWCasings. After dinner, we shared a lovely slice of Tiramisu, which I found to be more chocolatey than other places where I’ve had Tiramisu in the past.
The ambiance was colorful, attractive and the bar was beautiful. The waitstaff was very friendly and helpful. I really look forward to going back to the restaurant to try breakfast and lunch. My feeling on the prices is that it was quite reasonable, especially compared to some other Italian restaurants here on Maui that are seemingly of a similar caliber. The wife of the husband/wife owner duo is apparently a clasically trained pastry chef. The pastries in the display looked beautiful, although at the late evening hour, the shelves were probably more bare than normal.
From 7 am – 10 pm, the restaurant is open (breakfast 7-11 am, lunch 11-4 pm, dinner 4-10 pm). See http://fabianis.com/ for more info.