Mama’s Hawaiian Bar-B-Cue

Very cool atmosphere and family friendly. Servings are not small by any means and their family meal is a good deal. I really enjoy their crusted fish plate and the Hawaiian chicken and pork. They also have pretty good service and plenty of seating. Unfortunately other businesses in this are have limited seating. So. If you want a good amount of food and good service where you can bring your kids this is a great place to pop into.

My husband and I love this place! It has become our go to in Sahuarita. The food is always good, generous portions, clean & friendly staff. The food takes a while but worth the wait.

I’ve given Mama’s a few try’s. The food isn’t great nor is it bad. Kinda in between on this one. You choose your main course like chicken, beef, pork etc and you choose sides like salad, rice, macaroni salad etc. The price is a little high since half your plate is white rice. I know people who love it and hate it so it depends on the person.

Food was very good and worth the wait. We waited around 20 minutes for our order. The only issue I had was I asked for the meal to go and the cashier made it an eat in order. I ended up buying drinks and staying there though because I wasn’t in a rush. When we were brought our food he also brought us napkins, and forks so we wouldn’t have to get them.
Food quality: The chicken katsu is a little different than I’ve had in California but it is unique and good. What I enjoyed was the breading on the katsu wasn’t oily, plus there was just the right amount of breading. The chicken meat was clean and fresh. I had mahi mahi and I know when fish is good or bad, I lived by the coast all of my life. Let me tell you the mahi mahi is WAY better than any mahi mahi I’ve had in California at a Hawaiian BBQ. Fish was cooked just right and wasn’t dried out. Rice wasn’t under or over cooked. Macaroni salad was sweet and had a good flavor to it. It was mild tasting, no strong tastes.
Portions were generous: 2 large scoops of rice, large scoop of macaroni salad and a good amount of chicken and a large piece of fish.
Worth the price for the amount and taste.

They get awards for up holding Pacific Islander Heritage. But they can’t afford to use proper short rice instead of cheap long grain. Maybe the owner should rethink what it means to say serving Hawaiian food. No one but the tree huggers in Hawaii eat long-​tailed rice. Seriously dude! HAWAIIAN my ass…

excellent food with friendly service. the hawaiian twist on american bbq is a great concept

Being responsible for the Health Department’s restaurant inspections from Washington D.C., and having food borne illnesses in extreme measures in the past, I’m always one to be harder on restaurants and in my reviews, to be as unbiased as possible and enjoy the experience to the maximum intent as possible. With that, you need to be forgiving too… Also being a new community resident here in Rancho, I’m pleasantly able to recommend with HIGH remarks, the incredibly consistent quality food, impeccable service and friendly atmosphere provided at this location. Our options on the Sahuarita exit are limited and Mama’s performs each and every time we enter for a meal. The smiles, free Wi-​Fi and delicious meals are never a let down and in fact fill you up much faster than you expect. I hope they maintain this through management involvement and tight cleanliness intervals to uphold this standout restaurant and it’s friendly staff. KUDOS to MAMA’s!

We were very excited to see that they have Hawaiian food here in AZ. There was about 3 people inside when we ordered. 30 minutes later (I thought maybe they make the food fresh) I followed up on our order — they «lost» our order. Not sure exactly how that happened. The lady tried to give us a free dessert… We didn’t take it.
Food review: pretty close to local food. The Mac salad wasn’t what We are used to … Don’t think they used mayo.
Even though we didn’t have a great first impression, we’ll probably go back since it’s a great alternative to home cooking when we are running behind.

Very tasty food. Opened and colorful space makes it great for children. The Portuguese sausage tastes great.
I recommend and will definitely be back to try other dishes.

Purchased dinner here for my family tonight.
We are consistent in what we get. Teriyaki Beef, Chicken Katsu, my husband gets the sausage with eggs when available.
Food is great. Everyone is always friendly and the music is so relaxing.
We got our order to go tonight and they forgot to put or brownies in the bag. :(we were looking forward to those too as they looked delicious

I will never return to Mama’s Hawaiian Bar-​B-​Cue because of the following issues:
Poor Customer Service:
We waited forty five minutes in the nearly empty restaurant for two dinner plates to arrive. That is an inexcusably slow pace, and to make matters worse no explanation or apology was offered for this delay.
Quality and Taste:
The kalua pork was soaked in salty cooking water and the BBQ sauce was not sweet at all as one would expect — it was also extremely salty. That is, both of these items were salty to the point of being inedible. The white rice had clearly sat in water all night and was steamed then steamed again and again so that once it reached the plate it was no longer rice but had transformed into two blobs of tapioca-​like paste. In addition, the teriyaki chicken was simply grilled chicken that was dry. When I order teriyaki chicken I expect grilled chicken that was marinated and basted in teriyaki sauce as it was cooked, not plain chicken with teriyaki sauce on the table. Perhaps re-​naming this dish is in order. I will admit though, the Costco frozen bagged re-​steamed vegetables were edible.
Price:
The price of this atrocious meal was surprisingly expensive for less than mediocre quality food and ingredients.

Food portion was small for a $ 20 meal. the teriyaki chicken was bland and not what I expected. I also ordered a Lemon Lipton tea and they gave me the wrong tea. It may not be that big of a deal but for paying all this money you’d think you’d get more for your money. Needs some more improvement. The delivery woman also was kind of rude and handed me the food and walked away very fast before even saying anything even though I tipped via credit card.

Pretty good shredded pork and macaroni salad! A tad on the expensive side for lunch but I would eat here again.

Excellent family meals at great prices. We go to the Sahuarita location. It is always something our family looks forward to when we choose to eat out. We love the chicken teriyaki and the kalua pork with white rice. The staff are always friendly and the service is prompt. You won’t be disappointed!

Bad customer service and below average quality food at too high a price. It is too bad that Sahuarita doesn’t have better food options.

I eat here probably once or twice a week. The prices just keep going up. Tonight I was going to order online and decided to save a few bucks in delivery and go pick it up. I would have saved by having it delivered. I’m just done. I won’t eat here anymore. This restaurant can die a miserable death like the rest of the restaurants in Sahuarita and I hope Chipotle moves in. Go to Pub 22 instead. The food is not even consistently good.

I ****HATE**** complaining but I am afraid I have to on this occasion. I have been to Mama’s once before and the food was so-​so.
My mum is over from England and my daughter came over to visit for the day so I decided that it would be nice for us to take my mum to Mama’s Hawaiian Bar-​B-​Cue for a late lunch. Well … mum ordered the short ribs and fries and a side salad… myself and my daughter being vegetarian ordered the tofu and brown rice and side salad (I had reviewed the menu online and was happy that tofu was listed). Our side salad came prior to our main meal and Mum was kind of upset that the salad was served on small paper plates and fell off all over the table. When we got our main meal the ribs were not at all what was expected — TONS of fat and bones and hardly any meat (the meat was dry and really not edible, mum only ate a couple of bites)!!! The fries were hot on the outside and looked somewhat appealing but tasted uncooked in the middle (could not eat them either)!
OK — onto the tofu — 4 small slices of tofu with a spattering of sauce on them, they were not marinated, had no taste and were barely warm (we covered the tofu in BBQ sauce to add a bit of flavor). The brown rice with the tofu was hard and barely cooked!
All in all this was a terrible experience and I will not be returning. The young guy who served us was very pleasant so we had no complaints towards him. The food was awful and I was embarrassed as I had thought this was a cool place to bring my mum visiting me but I was wrong! I cooked for her when we got back home :(

Tonight’s dinner WAS mahi with two mac salad. Nice size piece of fish in a huge to go container so the helping of mac was very generous. I am full and happy. :p.
I also got loco moco to go and will have that for breakfast tomorrow. The over easy egg firmed up on the way home and will be more so when I rewarm it tomorrow. Be that as it may, I expect it to still be good, tasty, and filling.

Being that I am from Hawaii, I will be a bit more critical with this one.
I’ll start off with what I liked about Mama’s… As soon as you walk in, you are greeted by an awesome and friendly staff. Plus, the music takes me back home. I like that they opened one here in Sahuarita, saves the drive to Tucson when I’m craving those kalbi ribs =) Been here a few times before. (I normally do take out though.) A bit pricey, but I gotta satisfy those cravings! Lol. The kalbi ribs are the reason why I come back. Make sure to ask for extra teriyaki sauce to pour over everything! The chicken katsu is good too. Good portions are always given.
The overall plate lunch is just ok I guess. The sides that I usually order with my plate are the macaroni salad and rice. I don’t know why I order it, but I only always have a few bites of each! Soooo not like the sides from back home. (If you’re from Hawaii or have ever had a plate lunch in the islands, you know what I mean. I gotta make my own rice before I eat… lol) I wonder if I could just order a la carte next time?
If it wasn’t for the Kalbi & the friendly staff, I think I would have rated lower. By the way, they also have some desserts on the menu. I bought a coconut macadamia lemon bar, which was a pretty big piece! It was yummy! =)

Living in Rancho we dont have many food options & I think this is one of the better choices. I really like the teriyaki chicken but thats where it ends… I dont like the Kalua pork it was very salty and soggy the guy told me its authentic hawaiian flavored lol but I recently returned from Hawaii where we stayed on Oahu and Kauai and the Kalua pork tasted nothing like the sloppy mess Mama’s is serving, the macaroni salad was not good either!!! I would come again but only because the choices are slim!
EDITED AUG 2013
Not sure what happened but Mama’s has stepped it up the once medioca macaroni salad is now on point its delicious and we LOVE the Teriyaki Chicken (we always order extra of the sauce and pour it over our chicken, fries rice) I am glad I gave Mamas a 2^nd chance… we are now regulars.
If you once werent happy with this place try again its got much better!