Ask the internet where to eat in Kihei and Coconut's Fish Cafe answers back a thousand times, which usually makes a local suspicious. Here is our honest report after years of sending guests: the hype holds. The fish is genuinely fresh, the tacos are genuinely enormous, and the strip-mall setting is genuinely part of the charm.
The tacos, explained
The house move is the loaded fish taco: grilled fresh catch — ono and mahi most days — stacked on tortillas and then buried under an avalanche of cabbage slaw, mango salsa and a coconut-kissed dressing. The published topping count runs well into the double digits, and eating one gracefully is impossible. Lean over the plate like everyone else.
Grilled-not-fried is the house religion, and it is why the tacos eat lighter than they look — you leave full, not flattened. The fish changes with the boats; when the counter says the ono is good today, believe the counter.
The rest of the menu deserves its own visit: fish and chips for the traditionalists, seafood pasta that regulars swear by, fish burgers, and a kids' menu that makes family dinner effortless. But the first visit is tacos. There are rules.