One of our goals when we went back to Maui was to go to the Haleakala National Park and watch the sunrise from the summit of the volcano. One of my dealers is a Hawaii veteran and he was telling me that after we left the peak that we had to go have breakfast at a little place on the road back down the volcano. "Don't go to the lodge," he cautioned me. "it's just down the road from this place and I don't think the food is as good." The place he was telling us to go was to the Kula Sandalwoods Cafe in the small Upcountry town of Kula.
The Kula Sandalwoods Cafe is part of the Kula Sandalwoods Lodge that sits at 3300 feet in elevation, a little less than a third of the way up the Haleakala volcano. (see map) It's a little family run business that incorporates a handful of cottages along with a small eatery that is somewhat renown for their breakfasts made from scratch.
We left the summit of Haleakala around 7:15 a.m. and started back down the steep road toward the north side of Maui. On three or four instances we were held up in bicycle traffic - yep, bike traffic. A number of companies offer excursions to the summit of Haleakala and then allow people to ride bicycles back down the volcano. These groups can number up to 25 people and there's really no way to pass them on the curvy mountain road. They have a guide who runs at the front and who will pull over at designated areas allowing cars behind the bikers to pass. It's slow going for those portions of the trip back down when you get behind a line of bikes.
Getting into Kula Sandalwoods Cafe around 8 a.m., it turned out that we were the only ones in the place initially. The "place down the road" that my dealer was talking about is the Kula Lodge Restaurant which is a larger place, has a great vista overlooking the valley below, the ocean beyond and the West Maui mountains in the distance. While the Kula Sandalwoods Cafe only serves food until 3 p.m. (12 noon on Sundays), the Kula Lodge Restaurant serves food all day and into the evening.
At the Kula Sandalwoods Cafe, we were greeted by the proprietor, a lean man by the name of James who offered us to sit anywhere we liked. He brought over a couple of menus for us and said that he would be taking care of us that morning. We took a seat at the window that looked out toward the west side of the island.
The interior of the Kula Sandalwoods Cafe definitely has the Maui Upcountry vibe going for it. Wood paneling along the walls and the ceiling gave it a rustic and laid-back feeling to the place. Sturdy wooden tables and chairs were scattered throughout the dining area.
They have an outdoor seating area at Kula Sandalwoods Cafe. The trees across the highway sort of block much of the good views down to the coast. But the restaurant is off the road a ways so the sound of traffic going by isn't obtrusive.
The menu at Kula Sandalwoods is pretty basic - it features a couple of omelets, basic eggs with a choice of meat, pancakes and a breakfast sandwich called the Lokelani - scrambled eggs with ham, topped with Swiss cheese and an herb aioli on a toasted sesame seed bun. While we looked at the menu, we both got an orange juice. For good measure - and to help keep me awake after a 4 a.m. alarm to get us up to the summit of Haleakala for the sunrise - I got a double espresso. It turned out the espresso was pretty weak and watery compared to what I'm used to.
For her breakfast, Cindy got the eggs Benedict - possibly the signature breakfast at Kula Sandalwoods. She got the 1/2 order - only one egg Benedict - along with what turned out to be a ton of hash browns. The hash browns nearly covered her whole plate giving the single egg Benedict a small piece of real estate on the edge of the platter. She thought the egg Benedict was just all right, at best. "I don't see what the big deal about the eggs Benedict really is," she said as she was finishing up her breakfast.
I ended up getting the Portuguese sweet bread French toast. It was a pretty presentation with six half-slices of the French toast pin-wheeled around the plate and topped with powered sugar and a dollop of butter. The taste of the French toast was fine, not quite the taste sensation I was expecting from the Portuguese sweet bread as it seemed to be a little bland. But it was good enough for what I was wanting that morning.
I would rather patronize smaller "mom-and-pop" joints like the Kula Sandalwoods Cafe, but this breakfast was just pretty average in my book. While it was a nice little rustic Upcountry establishment, the food we had wasn't all that overwhelming other than the large portions we received. Breakfasts are big in Hawaii and there's a lot of good places to get breakfast on Maui. But I'll have to say that Kula Sandalwoods Cafe is not one of them.
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