Maluken Japanese Restaurant

I used to come to Malukens for karaōke in my college days. Sad to say, however, that this place is now CLOSED. It’s since been replaced by a restaurant called Fenmore American Bistro.

Was looking for a place to get takeout for lunch and saw that seamless offered 20% off here for first timers. Saw that they had lunch box specials where you would get an entrée, soup, side salad, California roll, rice and shumai or gyoza all for $ 7.95 pre-​discount and about $ 6.36 which sounded like a pretty good deal to me, so my family and I ordered 3 different varieties of them (beef teriyaki, chicken teriyaki, shrimp tempora).
When I got home and saw that the rice that came along with each meal was huge (see picture), the portions itself was average you get 3 pieces of california roll and 3 pieces of shumai or gyoza. Below is a breakdown of the chicken teriyaki I had:
California roll — As awesome as a california roll you can get, you can taste each distinct ingredient in it and at the end you can taste the sesame seeds
Shumai — Fried, not expecting them to be fried but it was nicely fried and tasted good, can’t really go wrong with these
Salad — Ginger sauce added was good but consistency not so much, the bottom of my plate was all watery from it
Chicken Teriyaki — This was not good at all, very bland in terms of sauce, chicken itself a little dry but even it it wasn’t I still wouldn’t get it. Even the food court chicken teriyaki place blows this one out of the water. Definitely not restaurant quality. Worst item of the plate.
Here is a lowdown of the beef and shrimp boxes, the beef was the same not good at all hard to chew through, and not the highest quality of beef used. Shrimp tempora came with 2 pieces of shrimp and about 5 pieces of fried vegetables. I should have gotten this even though everything is fried.
Overall I would not recommend this place based on the food I had, how is it possible that everything but the main item (in this case the chicken) taste better? Granted it was a great value for the amount of food but I would rather spend it elsewhere.

I have been to the place twice.
Both times the place was very quiet — no karaōke going on — with maybe two other tables seated beside mine.
Both times had Sashimi, Nigiri, and some rolls.
The rolls were ok — nothing special.
Sashimi and Nigiri were really good both times — particularly the second time.
I am trying to remember what days of the week I was there [thinking that maybe they have fresher fish on certain days?] but I am not sure… I think it was Monday the first time and Thursday the second time — both times around 7pm.
I really like their «combo boats» that have Nigiri and rolls.
I will definitely be back.

Three stars only based on good company
Pros: dumplings, $ 3 beer, karaōke
Cons: waitstaff sucks. Seriously. Karaōke music sounds like its played on a Casio, moron student crowd loud and obnoxious. Skip the chicken teriyaki. Trust me.

It makes me sad to write this review, because the first time I came here, I had a lot of fun. However, after this last time, I’ll never go back.
To begin with, when making the reservation we requested the private back room (with the pillows on the floor and low tables) and were told repeatedly that we would have it. When we got there we were told the room had been given to another group, and they claimed to have no idea that we had wanted it. Frankly, we should have left then because it only got worse, but this by itself wasn’t that big of a deal, so we stayed…
In the 5 minutes we were discussing what to order and waiting for the rest of our group to show up, the same waitress harassed us at least 5 times about ordering drinks.
When we ordered 7 sake bombs, they brought us 7 Sapporo (enough for at least 15 sake bombs) and 7 large hot sakes (enough for at least 25 sake bombs!) the cans were unopened, so we asked them to take back 3 of the cans and 4 of the sakes, which resulted in an argument (of which I don’t know details, I was at the opposite end of the table), the manager being called, and finally the pissy waitress taking them in such a huff that she spilled a full glass of water all over one person in our group– and then she walked away without apology or offer of napkins or anything.
Meanwhile, the karaōke had started (what we were really there for) and the tv kept breaking, which was annoying but probably not their fault. What was really annoying was that every time the tv broke and was fixed, they skipped the song that was supposed to be up next– which happened to mean our group kept getting skipped. The birthday boy only ever got half a song (tv broke in the middle) and our whole group only had 2 other songs.
After initially harassing us to order, the service moved at a snail’s pace– every drink order took 30 minutes of waiting for someone to notice us, and getting a water took 4 requests before it arrived.
but the REAL kicker came when we got fed up with all of the above and asked for the check– it came, we passed it around, everyone put in what they thought they owed. When we totaled it up, we found ourselves $ 50 short! We knew one couple had left early and already paid the server on a separate check, so I took the bill up to the front to see if that was the problem… and sure enough, as soon as I asked if they had already paid, the manager pulled out their receipt and subtracted that amount. Again, no apology– and no indication that they had anything in mind other than hoping we were too drunk to notice and would just pay that $ 50 again!
We left very little tip, something I very rarely do, and I’ll never go back. If you go to Maluken, don’t drink very much unless you want to be cheated!

More or less on par with Fin’s in terms of sashimi quality with particularly fresh shiro maguro on the day I ordered the sashimi dinner. Delivery was friendly and prompt too, no complaints here!

Years ago my friends and I visited this place. It was in the early years of college and we weren’t supposed to be drinking, but that didn’t stop us.
Neither did Maluken.
We ordered an app or two between the 3 of us and started out with a Sapporo and a large sake each. We later split one more large sake and a final beer. It was pretty good, but it was also my first and last time with sake.
Needless to say, all of our pounding and yelling sake bomb (I’m sorry, this was YEARS AGO, but I hate myself for even doing this in public) we were hardly the loudest there. Who knew karaōke could be such a godsend?
So, the bill comes and naturally we’re all confused. We ordered 4 large sakes, 4 beers, and 2 apps (both well under $ 10 each). So, I figured $ 30 for the 4 Sapporos, $ 20 for the apps, and I believe the sake was $ 10 per bottle, so $ 40 ish for that.
So, basic math would have you thinking that this little rendez vous put us back less than $ 100 (with tax) maybe $ 120 with a generous tip. So imagine my surprise when I went the bathroom and the waitress approached me, telling me that I owed $ 60 (tip included). I figured one of my friends didn’t pay her, so me and one other guy were splitting the bill, I fronted the cash and figued I’d deal with it later.
On the walk home, we were talking about how it got pretty expensive even though we hardly ate (some dumplings, maybe) and imagine my surprise when my 2 other friends said the waitress asked them each for $ 60 at the table while I was in the bathroom.
They thought they were covering for me, and I thought the same for one of them. So… regardless of how great the spicy tuna roll may (or may not) be here. I’ll never go back.
And college kids, be warned! If you’re not sober enough to do the math, you’ll pay for it… literally.

Always a Good Time at Maluken!
Let me start off by saying that I don’t think I’ve ever actually eaten a proper meal at Maluken.
I tend to end up at Maluken every year in March for one of my friends’ birthdays, and get totally blasted every time!
We drink beer and sake, and sing karaōke late into the night. The atmosphere is boisterous, and the fun is guaranteed.
I would give it more stars, but the song catalog is a bit sparse, and it lacks some of the real hits that make up my repertoire.

I emerged drunk from a bar up the street in Kenmore and was seduced by the Maluken. I do drive by this place everyday coming home from work so I had to try it out. I had high expectations as they advertise Karaōke and Sushi, two of my favorites in life.
The place is kind of a hole in the wall, with miss-​matched rooms instead of an open flooring plan. The Scorpion Bowl was really watered down, didn’t hold much alcohol. The beer is overpriced for a place that is more than a dive than a nice bar or restaurant. The sushi doesn’t seem fresh and I was a little nervous about getting it. The portions are huge, but the food is not great.
The Karaōke set up is not fun at all and is kind of like being in a closet. Overall, go to this place once and never go again.

Maluken, will you marry me?
Maluken was «my sushi place» when I lived in the area for a couple years. I must have gone there every couple weeks, and after introducing my friends to the place, they all went there, too. They recognized me after a while, and always gave me free appetizers. I went back recently (while in town on vacation), and while they didn’t remember me, I was pleased to see that everything I loved about it was the same!
The basics are that it’s a fun/​funky place… sometimes there’s awkward karaōke videos in the background (no one singing, though), sometimes they just play hits from the early 2000s. These are not necessarily good things, but remember, you’re not going for the ambiance. It’s the food, and the food is great. The salads are huge and delicious, and the rolls are sized well. I’ve noticed that the rolls don’t rely on rice for bulk. Try the spicy tuna (or spicy anything)… they add something, perhaps panko, to give it a little crunch. Or try the sweet potato tempura roll… warm and a little sweet. Sometimes they roll the rolls in tobiko just to be nice. Love it!
Great food, quick service. It’s an unassuming place. Not a hole-​in-​the-​wall, but still delicious. And not too expensive.

Thought I would try out a new sushi place, so ordered takeout through
(which I recommend because you get a free spicy tuna or salmon roll!).
Fast delivery (to the North End), reasonable prices, amazing sushi. Also got the spring rolls and shumai dumplings which were very good. Will definitely be ordering from here again!

I will never set foot in this place again:
–Really rude servers.
–Crumby karaōke situation — no stage? It’s like a glorified sing along.
–And the food wasn’t good. We ordered something that should have been served hot… it was ice cold.
–Even for Beacon St. it’s hellllla overpriced.

The first time I tried sushi was at Maluken and I’ve been a sushi addict ever since. I’ve been here about twenty plus times now (keep in mind I had my first bite of sushi this summer). I come here just for the sushi (I’ve never gotten anything else), so my review is based purely on the quality of their sushi, which is super fresh. Their rolls are very well made and bite sized, which is important to me. I hate it when some places make their rolls so big that I have to take two bites out of each roll. It ruins the experience for me. Anyway, I always get the Spicy Tuna and Idaho maki. The Boston maki is also quite delicious, as well as the Spicy White Tuna. I went here for a birthday dinner once and got two boats and everything on it was super scrumptious so I can safely say that almost everything they have to offer is pretty darn good.
The staff is also extremely friendly and attentive. I come here so often that one of the waitresses recognizes me now, which is pretty nice. makes it more personal :).
Also, the mochi ice cream here is to. die. for. If you ever make time to come here for the sushi, or whatever, make sure you try the mochi ice cream. You have no excuse not to, each one is only a dollar! My favorite is mango.
I also love that it’s only a five minute walk from my building. Being a college student without my own kitchen, it’s nice to have the option to take a quick walk to Maluken when the selection at the dining hall gets a bit boring.
I generally tend to go in during odd hours on the weekdays so it’s pretty quite and service is really fast but I did go in on a Saturday night last week and it was extremely busy and it took awhile for our sushi to be ready. That said, I would suggest either going in for an early dinner during the weekends or try it out during the week if you aren’t a fan of waiting or if you’re starving.

If you have any discerning tastebuds in Japanese food, you’d be much better off not going here. Conveniently attached to the Buckminister hotel, sometimes you might grab a bite to eat here simply for convenience. And I say for those that don’t have any concerns about Asian food it would be fine. But otherwise… meh.
I had the chirashi bowl which was alright. Some of the fish was gummy and not that fresh, and not cut very well. Flavor was alright, but certainly nothing I’d come back for.
Now the funny part… karaōke. They use a dated Chinese karaōke system rife with the weirdest background videos, rife with typos, and sometimes off-​sync.
Really, this whole place is weird and the food is beyond mediocre especially for the price.

We stumbled into this place as way made our way thru Landsdown in search for a wait that is less than 30 mins after a Red Sox rainout. I haven’t been here for many years and surely things have changed for the worse.
They provide the worst service I’ve been to for a full service Japanese restaurant. My friend dropped a tomato on the table while he was eating the complementary salad. The server never bothered to clean it till the end of the meal. What an eye sore!
We told the server we were sharing everything when we ordered; but the server didn’t bring us sharing bowls for the Nabeyaki Udon. On top of that, we had to ask for tea refills. Even when refilling, she automatically refilled the cups closer to her and asked the inside crew if they want refills. I thought that was the point of asking her to come over? Most disgustingly is that she stuck her thumb into my friend’s teacup as she was trying to clear the table at the end of the meal. O please let me me squeeze a wedge of lemon in there so she can just wash her hand in it while she’s at!
To my dismay, the food was far from decent. The curry pork katsu don was bland. The beef stir fry, whatever it was that my friend ordered, was just full of corn starch and pepper. As for the sushi, the maki was bleh. I can’t say I can do better but I certainly had much better maki. For example, the spicy white tuna maki was ill prepared. One would expect the tempura crumbs to be crunchy. Not here!
Maybe I’ll come back in another 10 years. Just maybe.

You get a whole boat of sushi for not much money, so your sushi is mediocre, but still okay. Eatable and will probably satisfy your sushi craving. This is not the BEST, but its good. Scorpions bowls are quite good.
I think they get better reviews because of the karaōke. There is free karaōke, imagine drunk college students who just had a few too many sake bombs singing «My heart will go on… and on and on and on» It was funny. Dont go here for the food, go for the show. Food is your ticket.
Staff is a little snobbish, but they do have to listen to the karaōke on the regular basis, I think they maybe just have been scarred for life, so be nice to them.

For under $ 20, you get a boat of sushi. I named mine Jenny. Steal that name and I’ll punch you in the soul.
For $ 7, you get a Sapporo tallboy. So damn cold you’ll freeze the fingertips cracking it open. Seriously, you will. Stop laughing Martin, this is a real threat happening to real people. Would you laugh if your dad froze his fingertips off? Thought not.
For free, you can sing karaōke EVERY EFFIN NIGHT ALL NIGHT. I speak truth. What they don’t tell you: the US hits from yesterday and today are slowed down. My theory is kinda prejudiced, I guess: the reduced tempo is to help those who keep English as a second language. Witness «Quit Playin’ Games With My Heart» by *NSYNC. Shit was slow. Any questions?
Still, this little attic that could will draw the crowd, fizzled mics and all. PS I love Malena and the way she screams during Hey Jude. Chud puked up Scorpion Bowl. Classy.

This review is purely for everything except the food, as I have never actually had the honor of dining at Maluken. I’ve closed the place down at the end of the night, yes, but that was purely by the power of the three S’s: song, sake bombs, and scorpion bowls. If you’re thinking karaōke night, you’re correct, yo.
Karaōke at Maluken is downright bizarre. When you first enter the restaurant, it looks like any other nice, quiet sit-​down Japanese eatery. Pretty furnishings, nice artwork, waitstaff with cute floral-​print dresses, and so on. Then you make a right turn. And one quick left. Suddenly you are on what seems to be another planet, a planet that consists of rowdy, shocking mishmosh. And this planet has a soundtrack.
There’s no stage. There’s not even really an area that you could call a stage. But the creative folks always know how to improvise, right? It’s in the blood of any true performer. So you stand in your seat. on your seat… on the table.
And you can tell that the waitstaff wants so little to do with you, and in reality you can’t really blame them when you and forty of your closest friends (and the close friends whom you just haven’t met yet) are belting out the tunes one after another as scorpion bowls are sucked down triumphantly… as the glorious banging of one’s hands as another sake bomb is good and done for effortlessly matches the familiar beats of a Springsteen 80s hit for what seems to be the fourth time that very evening…
And before you know it, it will be a quarter to one and it’s down to the last few people in the place and you wonder how it got to be so late so soon… and you feel silly and wonder how you are going to re-​enter the real world after being on Planet Maluken, and no one would really argue with you, that is, if they have been there too.
It’s not for the faint of heart… not for the shy, the claustrophobic, and those who want a quiet date night in the back room. But if you are ready to just let it all out, bring it. The recipe calls for you, add as many friends as you can, four straws and a drink fulla rum and colors and fruity goodness… and a penchant for singing without boundaries. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I was looking at the menu and was like «Omelet rice»? WTF?! So of course I ordered it. And i got what I asked… an Omelet with ketchup over rice. It was gross.
My friends were wiser and went for safe choices like… errr I dunno.SUSHI. I should have followed their example.
I didn’t like the noise… bad singing. Yeah. I don’t like this place. Go with a bunch of friends to go karaōke somewhere else. I prefer my meal in peace.
…Don’t get Omelet rice. DON’T DO IT.

HADOUKEN!
Ok, when I read the name of this restaurant, I think of the fireball attack both Ryu and Ken use in Street Figher 2 to win their battles so they can face off against M. Bison. They’ve got that blue fireball thing, and everyone’s like, aaaaaah! But then they get up as though, oh, I didn’t get hit by a freakin’ blue fireball. I don’t care if you lived in Siberia, or if you’re a green guy, or if you have claws: if you get hit by a giant blue fireball, it’s probably going to hurt.
So, why does this explanation of Street Fighter 2 matter? Actually, it doesn’t, beyond the point that Maluken’s karaōke is like a hadouken. It’s strong, but you’re left wondering whether there should be something more. Whether it’s the lack of Journey in their repertoire, or the weird video projector backgrounds that evoke some European/​Canadian landscape, it’s a weird experience.
Now, on the plus side, it’s an incredibly fun experience. Their karaōke list isn’t too bad: a nice mish mash of 1980s and 1990s standards coupled with some public domain stuff (yes, you can sing «Baa baa black sheep»). You’ll want to come with a group though, as it’s far more fun that way.
As for the food/​ambiance, food is quite good: I got a box dinner for $ 9 which satisfied me quite well (miso, salad, rice, shumai, California roll, and chicken teriyaki). And the beer/​sake were good as well.
One quick thought: the bathrooms smell a little too much like mothballs. It wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever dealt with in a bathroom, but it was a little disconcerting.
Overall, this is a nice place and a great place to do karaōke with new friends, old friends, and especially Unilocalers :)