This Maui Pizza Lands James Beard Pick. Does It Deliver?

When we recently asked readers where to eat on Maui, Sale Pepe in Lahaina kept coming up in the many comments we received. We listened, and we’re glad we did. You did us a favor by putting this one on our radar.

Then we saw that chef and co-owner Michele Di Bari was named a 2026 James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific. Okay, consider us curious.

Reader enthusiasm plus national culinary attention got us through the door. The question was whether what we found at Sale Pepe justified using one of our limited Maui meals and the money that goes with it.

Maui visitors have been telling us they still want memorable meals out, but at current prices, they’re choosing those meals far more carefully than ever before.

We’ve already seen that tension in our recent look at why Hawaii restaurants aren’t what they used to be, when longtime visitors told us that rising prices have changed how often they eat out at all. We saw it again when we looked at how Hawaii now leads the country in dining-out spending. The casual long-time habit of booking a table “simply because” has been replaced by a much more calculated approach to vacation spending, including dining.

Sale Pepe is a Lahaina fire survivor.

This isn’t just a restaurant that moved after the Lahaina fire. Owners Michele and Qiana Di Bari deliberately chose to rebuild here, even though going to South Maui would have been easier.

The original Front Street restaurant was destroyed. Their friends and business partners started a GoFundMe for the rebuilding effort without being asked, ultimately raising about $100,000.

In March 2025, Sale Pepe reopened at Emerald Plaza on Kupuohi Street, becoming the first restaurant lost in the Lahaina fire to fully rebuild and reopen in Lahaina town. The Di Baris described returning as more than a reopening. They had spent years watching and being part of their customers’ celebrations there.

The new Sale Pepe isn’t oceanfront, so the ambiance can’t sell you on dinner before food even arrives. There is no resort either, and no famous view included. The food and hospitality have to carry the entire experience.

Sale Pepe didn’t know Beat of Hawaii was coming, and as always, we paid for our meal in full.

Choosing where to sit at Sale Pepe was surprisingly confusing.

Our first question actually came before we arrived. The reservation system offered different seating choices, including downstairs, upstairs, bar, and outdoor seating, without making it particularly obvious to a first-time visitor how those experiences would differ.

For the time that worked for us, our choice was between upstairs and the bar. We chose the bar because we wanted to be closer to the restaurant’s activity rather than separated from it.

The bar put us right in the middle of everything, which was exactly what we wanted, but we quickly realized just how small Sale Pepe really is. The downstairs dining room, bar, and work areas are packed into a remarkably tight space, with an upstairs dining room, reached by two flights of stairs, of roughly the same size, and additional seating outside. It was energetic and interesting for photography, but once dinner service got underway, the whole place, except for the upstairs, felt intense in a way that might not appeal to everyone.

What we ordered at Sale Pepe.

We wanted dinner to concentrate on the food that seems most central to what Sale Pepe does best. The restaurant makes its pasta in-house and puts considerable emphasis on its Italian ingredients, including imported flour, mozzarella, olive oil, and (food editor Jeff’s favorite) San Marzano tomatoes. Based in part on your comments, we decided on one pizza and one pasta that would tell us considerably more than ordering our way casually around the menu. We also added salad.

We started with the $17 Insalata Romana, made with local baby romaine, lemon yogurt vinaigrette, and Parmigiano Reggiano. It sounded almost too simple to mention, but the lettuce was excellent, and the bright dressing made this far better than any obligatory restaurant salad.

Our $32 pizza was the Stracciatella special, essentially a Margherita-style pizza finished with stracciatella after it came out of the oven, rather than baking the cheese into the pie. This was easily the standout for us. The crust, tomatoes, and creamy cheese worked beautifully together. The pizza was one of the best we’ve tasted in Hawaii.

We also shared the $36 Fusilli con Pesto Trapanese, featuring Sicilian almond and cherry tomato pesto, basil, and Parmigiano Reggiano. The pasta itself was nicely made, and the dish was good, but it didn’t reach the same level as the pizza for us. It wasn’t as flavorful as the other dishes we tried.

Sale Pepe’s pizza and pasta – a simple test.

Italian cooking can be surprisingly unforgiving when the dishes are simple. Pizza doesn’t leave much room to disguise mediocre crust, tomatoes, cheese, or seasoning. Fresh pasta is similar. If the pasta itself isn’t exceptional, making it in-house doesn’t mean much.

The pizza answered that question most assuredly. We’ve certainly had equally memorable, or even more memorable, pizza elsewhere, including in cities where pizza-making itself is considered a competitive sport, but that’s not the comparison here. On Maui, or across Hawaii, this was excellent, and the stracciatella added after baking gave a very simple pizza enough smoky richness without burying the crust and tomatoes.

The fusilli, on the other hand, was well made and enjoyable, but if we returned specifically for the food, the pizza is what we’d be thinking about.

Sale Pepe’s 2026 James Beard recognition raised expectations.

Michele Di Bari was one of 20 semifinalists named for the 2026 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific, a region covering Hawaii, Alaska, Oregon, and Washington. The recognition is for the chef rather than Sale Pepe itself, but it carries considerable weight. The James Beard Awards are among the most recognized honors in American restaurants, and the Best Chef category considers both culinary skill and the work culture chefs build around themselves.

Di Bari also came to Maui by a decidedly indirect route. Born in Milan, he left Italy at 17, worked across Europe and Central America, then opened restaurants in Miami and New York before he and Qiana moved to Maui in 2013. They opened Sale Pepe the following year.

We’ve seen firsthand how Maui restaurant reputations can take on lives of their own. Our firsthand visit to Mama’s Fish House produced some of the most divided restaurant comments we’ve had, with readers arguing over whether even one of Maui’s most famous dining experiences still justifies its high price.

Sale Pepe comes with a different set of expectations, with all of the attention here squarely on the cooking.

The pizza made the James Beard attention easy to understand, far more than the pasta did. Nothing about it was elaborate, which was partly why it stood out. The ingredients were allowed to remain distinct, the crust held everything together with a combination of crispness and softness, and the finished pizza was excellent.

Di Bari himself connected the James Beard recognition directly to Lahaina, calling it an honor for his team and “a testimony to the resilience of our Lahaina community.” After losing the original restaurant in the fire, rebuilding in Lahaina and reopening in March 2025, the recognition arrived less than a year later.

That makes the award more interesting to us than simply another credential on a chef’s biography. Sale Pepe survived an existential crisis, came back to the same community, rebuilt its following, and then attracted national culinary attention. Food aside, that trajectory is remarkable.

Is Sale Pepe worth it on Maui?

The question for many Maui visitors isn’t simply whether Sale Pepe is good. It’s whether the restaurant is good enough in every way to justify one of the relatively few meals they may eat out during a vacation. That’s exactly what readers told us when we asked where we should eat on Maui, and it’s one reason we’re approaching every restaurant on this trip more deliberately than ever before.

Our server, Calvin, had recently arrived on Maui from Illinois and handled a demanding room very well. He was personable and attentive even as the restaurant became increasingly busy. Co-owner Qiana Di Bari was also notably warm, welcoming us when we arrived and again as we left, while Michele Di Bari was seen working in the kitchen during service.

And then there is the test we keep coming back to with restaurants on this and every BOH trip: knowing what we know after paying the bill, would we return again? The answer is yes, for the pizza.

What we’d tell you about Sale Pepe.

Sale Pepe isn’t a relaxed, sprawling Maui restaurant where you settle in and watch the sunset. It’s small, busy, and intense once dinner gets going, and we’d want to know that before making a reservation. But that energy is also part of the experience of a restaurant, where a remarkable amount happens in a very small space.

What we’d most clearly tell readers is to order the pizza. That’s what we’d go back for, and it’s also what made us understand why Sale Pepe and Michele Di Bari have attracted so much attention.

So, does it deliver? The pizza certainly does. Sale Pepe, however, does not. If you’d rather take one home, there’s a useful trick: we were told to arrive right when Sale Pepe opens at 5 p.m. and order at the bar, before dinner service gets too busy to easily accommodate takeout.

And because so many of you were the reason we came here in the first place, you deserve the last word on this one. You did us a favor by sending us to Sale Pepe. Now we’re curious whether those of you who’ve been there agree with our findings.

If you’ve been to the new Sale Pepe, did it live up to its reputation for you, and what was the one dish that you’d go back for?

Sale Pepe Pizzeria e Cucina is at 157 Kupuohi Street in Lahaina. Reservations suggested. Open 7 days a week from 5:00 PM to 8:30 PM.

Photo Credits: © Beat of Hawaii. Lead photo shows chef Michele Di Bari on the right.

By Rob and Jeff, Beat of Hawaii.

Some of the most meaningful parts of Hawaii are the ones visitors walk right past without knowing they are there. We’ve spent nearly 20 years finding them firsthand for BOH as full-time Hawaii residents reporting on travel, culture, and island life, and telling you what they mean for your trip. Join us →