Maui Express

This place is a cheap knockoff of a cheap restaurant. In other words it’s a wannabe L&L. Macaroni salad tastes like nothing and my food smelled like wet dog food. To add insult to injury it took 20 minutes to get my crappy food!

This honestly is way better than L&L. And tastea in Chula Vista. I was able to cut the meat with plastic knives and fork. Service was kinda slow tho.

A lot of the reviews seems overly critical, this is a mall food court Hawaiian place. Let me start by saying I don’t have any island credentials, never been. I have ordered the spam musubi, and I would put it on par if not better than l&l’s I would prefer more sauce but I also never ask, now the customer service I have received there EVERYTIME is great, I will continue to come back.

Food is pretty decent for food court style food. But this full star review is for customer service. My girlfriend ordered the chicken combo. She mistakenly picked up the wrong order. And the gent behind the counter still provided her a secondary plate to make sure she got a full size order.

Love this joint & the sweet couple that run it! My Thai tea was delicious, and teriyaki chicken so tender & juicy. They prepare your food quickly and it’s perfect for your lunch break. They also have chicken katsu, spam musubi, and different flavors of boba! Yum!

For $ 7.99 for the BBQ mix plate was not worth it compared to L&L’s. Better off there! They forgot our short ribs. The chicken was too chewy and rubbery for me. The BBQ beef was the only one that was tasty for me. This food court in grossmont center is a nope!

Orange pineapple chicken was really good I’m giving it to stars because I was a little bit grossed out the owner she had all kinds of dandruff in her hair if she use her fingers that is just testing hopefully she didn’t touch anything, I suggest them buying gloves

I got super fresh food and nice service here! Seems like an old asian couple was working when I came here. They took our orders and I was surprised they cooked it to order. I ordered teriyaki chicken with the fried rice and my friend ordered the bbq short ribs. We saw the woman scooping out steamed white rice to make the fried rice from scratch and the man taking out fresh/​raw chicken to make the teriyaki chicken. Both were good and simple, with distinguishable flavor, the boba drinks are not too bad either. Very affordable too! This is located in the grossmont mall’s foodcourt, and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality. So, 5 stars for what would seem like a typical fast food place.

Been coming here since I was only 9 years old, and having spent the majority of my childhood in Hawaii, I can say that these people have always done the best they could with Mainland resources. As a child, I would always get Manapua and chicken katsu. That was my thing, and I can tell you for sure that the food here tastes just as good if not better than any crappy L&L out there. I frequently get either the chicken teriyaki plate, or two spam musubi and a mac salad these days. And god, I can’t even begin to tell you how delicious both are. And so filling! (Plus a thai tea.) Please take my word for it when I say I love this place to death, and I’ve been loving it for years. I’ve only ever seen two employees here, and both of them always treat my Fiancé and I so nicely, and are so willing to alter orders if I ask. I genuinely would go here everyday if I could. When you’re stopping by Grossmont center and looking for an easy bite to eat, come here!

Couldn’t even finish eating this c**p

This place is revolting! I have lived in Hawaii and since moving back to SD I frequent Hawaiian establishments quite often. I ordered the Kailua pork mini plate. When I opened the container I knew it was all bad just by looking at it. It was mush not meat. The mac salad was disgusting. After 2 bites I threw it away.

Never again! I guess the cook was worried about her bangs other than her food. Dry paper thin meat… where is the kalbi? Fake hawaiian fronting haoles!!! I rather starve than eat their bootleg food. Dry, just dry I mean really dry! White girl cooking hawaiian food… wow!!!

Came in for some katsu n mac salad. Never again! The katsu was old n overr cooked! The mac salad was bland no taste! Yuck! Stay away!!!

My husband and I have been frequenting this joint for years now. They have been consistently good, always friendly, and usually quick. Our only beef is we both hate macaroni salad and we always ask for all rice. About half of the time we get it anyways. Its a very small issue that doesn’t keep us from coming back. This is one of two places I’ll go to in that food court, period. Personally I think the teriyaki chicken is the best.

I come here once or twice a month because it is convenient at times, and though the food is not «to die for» it is still pretty good. It’s a 3.5 star place for a mall food spot.
The food is consistently the same so I have not had any bad experiences, or times where I was disappointed. For a mall food court spot, it’s better than most in my opinion. I’ve never had to wait too long for my food & the service has always been friendly & pleasant.

At L&L, my norm is the Chicken Katsu, so whenever I try a different hawaiian plate lunch place, I usually start with that. Maui Express offers a combination plate with both chicken katsu and bbq chicken, so I went with that. The chicken katsu was a little bland compared to L&L; the bbq chicken was tasty. I have to admit that I like the mayo-​y mac salad at L&L so I wasn’t a huge fan of the mac salad here. Portion size seemed okay for the price.

«yay! i’m a fan.» is EXACTLY right.
i can only comment on the garlic chicken because it’s the only thing i ever order from this spot, but it is THEEEE shit. it kinda reminds me of salted pepper chicken wings, but nuggets instead. love the macaroni salad, it isn’t too mayo-​y like l&l’s. love the hawaiian fried rice, it’s the only time i’ll eat spam. nice, large portion at an average price. they are not cheaper than l&l’s but you can expect that their quality of food is no less either.
it’s a little spot in the food court of grossmont center so it’s very convenient to do some shopping before or after. i normally do my shopping afterwards to burn it all off. it’s run by the same 2 people i see every time i visit and both are very friendly. i assume they are husband and wife. on a busier day, you might have to wait a little bit longer because one will be taking orders while the other cooks.
extra kudos for the fact that they gave me free macaroni salad. turns out, if you order the hawaiian fried rice with any combo (instead of the regular steamed rice) you also replace the macaroni salad. i didn’t notice this on the menu, so when i asked where it was, the owner said «i’ll give you some this time at no charge.»
happy
camper
here.

It appears this is a franchise Hawaiian Plate Lunch chain. It looked like mom and pop were running this one. We stopped in the food court at Grossmont Center after a movie to feed the kids and the place caught my eye. I was introduced to Hawaiian plate lunch at one of the L & L Hawaiian places in Kona a few years ago and so that is the stick by which I measure Maui Express.
I would have to say this little booth in the food court compares very favorably to the giant L & L. I ordered a chicken teriyaki bowl and a piece of spam musubi. The meal was as good or better than L & L. Had I been more hungry I would have loved to try one of the plate lunches but you can bet I’ll be back soon.

We dropped in here today for a quick meal and the food was still very good. I was impressed with the quantity of food they give also – I got the mini-​size of Kalua Pork and it included a scoop of both macaroni salad (still good) and rice plus cabbage. I ate about ²⁄₃ of it on an empty stomach and still couldn’t finish it. H. got the chicken combo and also couldn’t finish even though he’d told me he was starving when we headed over there. I like the owner/​manager – he talks to you in a down-​to-​earth way and explains which items are shipped in from Hawaii and what they make on the premises, plus gives a very good description of any dish you enquire about. I hope they hang on to the place for awhile.