Maui Maui Hawaiian BBQ

*** Maui Maui Hawaiian BBQ is now Sieu Sieu BBQ. You can find an updated post here.

A few months back I noticed that the little Japanese Restaurant in one of the many strip malls on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard was gone. And a few weeks later, a Hawaiian BBQ restaurant called Maui Maui had taken it's place.

Yikes, another Hawaiian BBQ? Seems like they're everywhere nowadays, but this is the first one in this area. So on a recent weekend, I decided to check it out.

I like the interior, very bright and clean. The menu is typical Hawaiian BBQ in nature....BBQ Chicken, BBQ Short Ribs, blah, blah, blah...... a typical L&L knockoff menu, I wish I could get some other plate lunch fare....like Beef Stew, and other stuff, but it looks like these Hawaiian BBQ places all want to serve the exact same food.

Maui Maui does offer Combination Plates, mixing items like Lau Lau, Kalua Pork, and Seafood, with BBQ Beef, Chicken, Short Ribs, or Chicken Katsu.

So I decided to try the Lau Lau and BBQ Chicken combination($7.95):

The plate came with the typical 2 scoops rice, 1 scoop macaroni salad, 1 small piece BBQ chicken thigh, and a Lau Lau. The mac salad was not bad...good ratio of mayo to macaroni, perhaps just a bit short on salt.

The chicken was well marinated in a sauce with a higher soy sauce to sugar ratio, almost like what my Mom made, and thus was more on the salty side. The thigh had good flavor, but was on the dry side.

The Lau Lau was interesting, it was served super piping hot, which was a good start, but the luau leaf wrapping was very mild, and didn't have the nice smoky-rich-green flavor I enjoy. As I tore the Lau Lau open I made one observation that I expected, and one that I did not....

First off, having had my share of Lau Lau on the mainland, I pretty much knew that there wasn't going to be any salted fish in the Lau Lau, and expected that. But I quickly noticed that there wasn't even a piece of fatty pork in the Lau Lau, this really made the Lau Lau fall short in flavor, and made it kind of dry. It was probably the healthiest Lau Lau I've ever had, in relative terms of course..... But still, even though I thought this was a bit over-priced, it was not bad.

So you know what that means right? Another visit! One this visit, I decided just to grab a "Mini" Chicken Katsu($4.75), all rice(that means another scoop of rice, to replace the mac salad). I got home and opened the styrofoam container up:

Where's the Katsu sauce? Oh well, I had a bottle in the frig, and it's usually much better than the really bad, runny, sweet-sour stuff that most of these Hawaiian BBQ places serve. The Katsu was barely okay, dry, and the breading on the soggy side......

Since my first lunch was decent, not really good, but okay, I thought I'd give Maui Maui one more visit, and get.....what else? A Loco Moco, one of my favorites. I suddenly realized that the last Loco Moco I had was on Maui........ I ordered a "Mini" Loco Moco($4.95). So check out this "loco" and tell me what's wrong with it?

Yep, it's pretty obvious...WHERE'S MY GRAVY? Talk about a gravy malfunction.......sigh! After the Katsu Sauce malfunction on my previous visit, I shoulda known to check my food before I left.... Bummer! The mac salad was also pretty bad on this visit...really runny, and the macaroni was mushy. The patty as I expected was preformed, though the egg was okay....I ate 2 bites, and gave the rest to Da' Boyz.

Man talk about disappointing. Just in case Maui Maui served some kinda really weird Loco Moco(it would still be heresy!), I checked out the take out menu:

It does say "brown gravy" right? And notice the "salted butterfish" under Lau Lau(it's "Ti" leaves, not "Tea" leaves, BTW)? Hmmmmm..... I thought about taking it back, but I wasn't going to drive all the way back to Maui Maui, I tried calling but no one picked up.....

Maui Maui Hawaiian BBQ
7420 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

Comments

[nhbilly]

Well at least they got the description of the food correctly on the menu but their delivery seem to be a really big miss. WTF - no gravy/sauce on 2 dishes is pretty bad when that's what makes the meal slide down easily if you don't plan to chew ;-)

Another miss for you...sorry!

[Kathy]

oh no, that is the most depressing looking loco moco in the world. ever! what an awful representation of local hawaiian food.
at least you had katsu sauce in the fridge. thank god :)

[howie]

I'm a big fan of pork fat. A healthy lau lau seems like a contradiction in terms :-)

[mizducky]

Bummer. Thanks for taking another hit for the team, man. You deserve a much better loco moco after that travesty they served you. How forlorn it looks in your photo! :-D

[Reid]

Kirk,

How disappointing. I had a great loco moco for breakfast the other day. I'm sure you would have loved it!

[RONW]

yeah, one lau lau I bought (in Hawaii) didn't have the meat much less the cube of fatty pork. Only taro leaves, which I attributed to the newly hired help.

[Captain Jack]

I never met a Loco Moco I didn't like....until now. That runny mac salad from the second visit looks terrible. With all the competition these days, that place won't last.

[Fred]

I think I ate at that location once, when it was a Japanese restaurant. If it's the one I'm thinking of, I was the only one there that day and I was pretty unimpressed with the food and prices. As my dad would say, some restaurant locations just have bad fung shui!

[Christine D.]

Wow, that second macaroni salad is straight-up supermarket deli style. Bummer...

[Kirk]

Hi Billy - Well, I keep trying, you never know....

Hi Kathy - You've just described that loco moco to a tee......depressing!

Hi Howie - Yes, you're right....healthy and Lau Lau really shouldn't be in the same sentence!

Hi Reid - I'm so very jealous!

Hi RONW - Now that is depressing....you got steamed luau leaves? Bummer....

Hi CJ - Well there are no other plate lunch places in the area...hey, maybe we should open one up? he-he-he That mac salad with the loco moco was terrible.

Hi Fred - Yeah, it was called Yakimono....several people I know liked it...but I went once and never went back.

Hi Christine - That mac salad was really bad....

[Pam]

oh my! no gravy on a loco moco is sacreligious!

[dietchilicheesefries]

you're right about the L&L knockoffs... used to get excited when i saw a new hawaiian place popped up, but now you kinda already know what's gonna be on the menu... yawn... i think "hawaiian" just replaced "teriyaki" in the whole marketing scheme of things...

[Kirk]

Hi Pam - Oui Oui! Sacre-bleu!!!

Hi DCCF - I know exactly what you mean....the menu's are all the same, and unfortunately so is the food.

[Passionate Eater]

To get a loco moco without gravy is like getting a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without peanut butter OR jelly! It is like a day without sunlight, a book without words, a rainbow without colors... It is like life, without life!

(You are probably thinking, "Shut the heck up PE!")

[Kirk]

Hi PE - "It is like life, without life!" LOL! You are right, though....

[friendly]

I used to work at the Japanese restaurant, Yakimono, that used to be there. I just saw last night when I was driving by that it was gone. I was pretty sad about it...I worked there for three years. But I'm eager to try the new place out...I hear that they are popping up here in North County too (I live in San Marcos now).

[Ama]

I just ate there for the first time today. There are a few indications that I should have noticed earlier to let me know this wasn't a good place to eat. First of all, my boyfriend and I walk in to find the workers the only people sitting in the customer table area. Second, it was lunchtime and there was no indication that anyone had been there before me (ie. napkin on the table or a piece of rice on the tables). Third, one of the workers came back with food for everyone else from SOMEWHERE else, meaning it wasn't even good enough to eat there. Anyway, we ordered BBQ beef saimin, spam musubi, and kahlua pork. It was terrible! I felt like I was an old person who lost their sense of taste. There was no flavor to the food and I even doused it with soy sauce. I'm never going back!

[Kirk]

Hi Ama - I've noticed that there is almost never anyone in the restaurant when I walk or drive past. Doesn't bode well......