MAALAEA, MAUI >> Maui continues to be a launching pad for some of the most progressive farm-to-table restaurants in the state, and Oceanside Restaurant is one of the latest to take up the cause — to its credit — without most diners being the wiser.

All guests see is great food and what is referred to on travel sites as a “limited” menu. This “limit” has nothing to do with the staff’s capabilities, but with what Maui farms, ranchers and fishermen are able to deliver daily.

Executive chef and part-owner Gary King is the latest to try his hand at making a restaurant work in something of a hard-luck site, home over the past five years to a succession of restaurants: Saltimbocca, Maalaea Waterfront and Maalaea Grill.

It’s in a drive-by spot near the Maui Ocean Center Aquarium outside Kahului and en route to Lahaina. Few people have reason to stop at the touristy destination. Now they do.

Overlook the fact that King has been a Maui resident for only nine months. Before arriving here he worked in New York at Il Buco restaurant in NoHo, Cookshop in Chelsea and Moby’s East Hampton. It’s that East Coast style that drives his aggressive take on farm-to- table, one that extends to coffee and local beers on tap.

Over the years I’ve watched dining change from a pleasant, leisurely activity to a politically charged one that some approach with religious fervor. Some readers expect me to be an activist for their sustainable, healthy agenda, regularly sending me information on factory farms and the way cattle are destroying the planet. At Oceanside I feel I can relax because these food issues have been taken to heart without depriving anyone of pleasure.

The restaurant, housed in the Maui Harbor Shops complex, overlooks Maalaea Harbor. It’s open and sunny by day, painted in clean nautical white and blue.

Menus comprise about a dozen lunch items, with about seven to eight more entrees added for dinner. That might not seem like much, but the tight edit means every dish is worth trying.

The seasonal menus are also subject to change with availability of ingredients but will always showcase raw Pacific Ocean seafood, Maui farm veggies and entrees from land and sea.

When I visited, the raw selection featured ahi poke with chili, Meyer lemon and chives ($16) and kampachi ceviche with ginger, lime and toasted macadamia nuts ($16).

This was followed by a beautiful fresh beet salad ($12), the beet wedges arranged over avocado puree with slices of orange and the crunch of thinly sliced hearts of palm. Other salads are a kale “Caesar” ($13), spinach with Surfing Goat feta ($12) and Kula mixed greens. Add a side of ahi or chicken to any salad for $6.

Entree selections ranged from a local fish taco (recently batter-fried ono, $15) to a Maui Cattle Co. beef cheeseburger ($15) to ramen with pork shoulder ($16). Unfortunately, they had not started slow-cooking the pork shoulder in time for lunch the day I visited, but I heard it’s a favorite with the staff.

It would have to be very good, though, to beat the Malama Farms pork bahn mi ($14), the best bahn mi I’ve had in the islands. There’s no skimping on the thin, juicy and tender slices of pork coated in a verdant paste of cilantro, lemongrass, garlic and vinegar, topped with thinly sliced radish and daikon. Now that everyone’s adding banh mi to their menus, I suggest coming over to taste this one as the one to beat. I don’t think it’s possible.

Dinner saw the addition of ahi nicoise ($27) and cioppino ($31) featuring Kauai shrimp and local fish, plus specials of Kona lobster ($22) with heirloom tomatoes and baby fennel, and Maui Cattle Co. New York strip steak ($35) served with a confit of Maui onions, new potatoes and salsa verde.

It’s too bad the restaurant’s name is so generic, because the food is not. I long for that banh mi right now.

Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.