*** Mahina’s has closed
The storefront of Mahina’s looks familiar, doesn’t it?
It should if you’ve been reading mmm-yoso long enough. Mahina’s used to be Shaka Hawaiian BBQ, I’m sure you’d recognize the powder blue and bright orange colors.
Same bright(well, now not so bright) orange interior as well.
Something that caught my attention immediately was that this was the exact same menu as Shakas, except that Label Maker Tape with "Mahina’"s on it was placed over "Shakas" on every menu item. If you don’t believe me, here’s a close-up.
So what was a "Shaka Pac" on my last visit was now a "Mahina’s Pac" and so forth. All done with with a strip of label tape….. Because of this, my first impression was that Mahina’s is a bare-bones operation.
This being a bit on the early side of noon, I decided to go with the Shakas, ummm Mahina’s Loco($7.99), I placed my order with some difficulty, the Young Lady had a hard time understanding me, and I her. After finally getting through, she relayed my order to the Young Lady in the back in Korean. I had a seat, and in a few minutes my "loco" was ready:
Looked like the typical Loco Moco, the eggs were a decently done easy-over, but the preformed hamburger patty tasted a bit "off", so I set it aside. The gravy was really bland, and had the texture of glue. The macaroni salad lacked salt and had apple in it…..which has no place on a plate lunch, it made the mac salad too sweet, and the salad wasn’t dressed with enough mayo.
What made this loco moco a Shakas Mahina’s Loco was the addition of Spam and Portuguese Sausage. I fished out a piece of Spam, and what I thought was another slice of Spam.
After examining both slices I noticed the color difference. The slice on the left was Spam, in all it’s nitrite glory, some cynical part of me expected Treet(nothing worse than fake Spam!!!) which tastes like really bad luncheon meat, but this was the real deal. I would rather have had my slice of Spam a bit caramelized. The dark slice to the right, is supposed to be Portuguese Sausage(does it look like a slice of sausage?). It had some spice, but no real rich pork flavor, or depth of flavor, the meat had a grainy texture, and there was a distinct lack of fat. It was just plain strange
…..
I’m kind of at a loss….I really don’t know what to make of this meal. Could it really be this bad? I really wasn’t impressed with Shakas, but this was worse.
An idea popped into my head as I typed this. Mahina’s can’t possibly be this bad, can it? So, if anyone has any idea of something that Mahina’s does well, please let me know, and I’ll make an effort to try it. So let me know what I’m missing, ok?
Mahina’s Hawaiian Food
1315 Garnet Ave
San Diego, CA 92109