The Kinaole Food Truck has a nice, feel-good story. When owner Becca Thomas, who’d visited her condo for years, decided she wanted to make the move to Maui full-time, she decided changing her small catering operation into a food truck operation was the way to go. It took about 11 months from food truck purchase to opening their Kihei location, but now they have a following. In fact, they now have a second truck that spends four days in Kahana.
Coconut shrimp is their signature dish, with about six plates sold just during my last short lunch visit, but I love their calamari. Thomas says she preps and hand-makes all the food every morning and that’s what makes all the difference. She then hand-breads the pounded calamari steaks cut into finger-sized sticks. These are fried to order, and are very tender and tasty. She also makes all the sauces, and the lilikoi cheesecake, too. Their seared ahi also comes with a delicious wasabi cream.
Thomas says she’s planning to switch the sauce with the coconut shrimp because everyone serves it with Thai chile sauce (the new sauce will be guava butter). Expect to see that at the truck in a week or so.
I asked her what she puts in the salad dressing because it’s so good–creamy, sweet and tangy. Thomas says the credit for the salads goes to Kumu Farms–she says it’s their fresh-picked greens that supplies the flavor. Thomas’ truck experienced a breakthrough when they decided to stop serving mac salad; suddenly, the space opened up for so much more in their kitchen. Today, plates come with green salad and their excellent rice pilaf.
The Kinaole Food Truck posts up on the corner of South Kihei Road and Alanui Ke Alii Road from 11am to 7:30pm every day.
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Kinaole Grill
73 Alanui Kealii Dr, Kihei, Hawaii
808-280-9048
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