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MAHALO GRILLE By Melissa Swanson Late winter, even in the temperate East Bay, begs for a tropical breeze. The huge arrangement of birds of paradise and red Hawaiian ginger that greets you at the entrance to Mahalo Grille may not be a week on Maui, but it’s a welcome reminder of island warmth and a tempting signpost of the flavors and hospitality that lie ahead. The island-themed restaurant, which is richly decorated with copper, dark wood, and colorful handblown-glass light fixtures, opened on Pleasanton’s Main Street to keen public interest last summer. It’s an ambitious and polished restaurant, compared to many of the casual, family-oriented eateries in the area. The concept is that of Rick Ring, a restaurateur who lives in Pleasanton’s Ruby Hill. His company, R. Ring Enterprises, owns two neighboring spots, Pastas Trattoria and the soon-to-open Tres, as well as five Hilton Hotel–based steak house restaurants throughout the West. According to regional chef Don Nolan, several of Mahalo’s investors are Pleasanton residents who travel to Hawaii regularly and wanted a taste of their favorite vacation food at home. The menu celebrates the ingredients of the seafood-rich Pacific Rim, but often employs European cooking techniques and styles. Much of the food has Asian and Polynesian origins: miso sake sea bass from Japan, pho noodle soup from Vietnam, vanilla prawns and lo mein noodles from China, and Maui onion rings and a luau pupu platter from Hawaii. But the list of rum-based cocktails borrows from the Caribbean at times, and dishes like fritto misto, cioppino, and paella steer the menu toward Italy and Spain. Mahalo, which means thank you in Hawaiian, sits in the spot long inhabited by the Chinese restaurant Tong’s, and although it doesn’t have any other locations yet, Mahalo feels like big business. A corporate marketing director fields most press questions, and chef Nolan, who travels the world for inspiration, is not based full-time at Mahalo. With the help of Ring, Nolan designed the menu and oversaw the opening of Mahalo’s kitchen. Now, Nolan sweeps through periodically to check the work of executive chef José Garcia, who cooks and runs day-to-day operations. The food is fresh and of high quality. Delicate side dishes, such as perfectly cooked haricots verts, perky bok choy, and sautéed whole baby carrots accompany many of the entrées. Instead of buying a standard spring mix, Mahalo makes its own blend. Crisp, bright lettuces star in the Mahalo greens, an enormous chopped salad with chunks of mango, shards of macadamia nut, and halved grape tomatoes. The salad is dressed in a cilantro-lime vinaigrette and served on a nest of crispy rice noodles. The many ingredients work well together. That same attention to ingredients is evident in the vanilla prawns, a popular Chinese dish that harkens back to the Tong’s menu. In Mahalo’s version, the chef tosses large, plump prawns in a tempura batter complete with real ground vanilla, fries them, and then coats them with a sweet mayonnaise sauce. Golden brown walnuts, caramelized with honey and sesame seeds, top the prawns. The well-executed dish is one of the restaurant’s most popular, but some might find the flavors overwhelmingly sweet for an entrée. On our visit, a fish special—grilled mahi mahi—shined. The high-quality fillet, which the grill chef cooked to silky perfection, got a bright counterpart in a mango and red onion salsa. The fish came on one of the restaurant’s three island combination plates, which included a filet mignon. The beef was not the Kobe variety, and although it was tender it wasn’t exceptional. Still, considering the fish and the meat, along with a pleasant heap of jasmine rice and a handful of fresh vegetables, the dish offers an enjoyable variety of flavors. The kitchen, although clearly skilled, sometimes stretches the menu’s pan-Asian spectrum too far. A pho noodle soup, for example, had some of the right elements—a rich beef broth, thin strips of rare beef, jalapeno, and basil—but still lacked the weightless finesse of the traditional, less expensive versions you might find in, say, Oakland’s Chinatown. The same shortage of authenticity occurs in the vegetable rice paper rolls, in which bean sprouts, carrots, and cabbage get tightly wrapped in a soft sheet of Vietnamese rice paper. The rolls, which themselves are cold and mild, are traditionally served with a tangy red chili sauce. Mahalo’s version of the sauce is bland, sweet, and overly gelatinous. Any missteps on the main menu, however, will be hard to remember after dessert. Our favorite was the sorbet trio—refreshing lime, sweet strawberry, and mellow mango on our visit. But then you can’t go wrong with the Kona chocolate (the islands provide the right climate for both coffee and cocoa) brownie sundae, a warm hunk of walnut-studded Hawaiian chocolate brownie generously topped with ice cream and whipped cream. And the key lime pie, although not strictly Hawaiian, is light and tangy. After a meal at Mahalo, it’s hard not to feel a little inspired by the islands yourself. It seems that Ring and his partners have hit on a restaurant concept worth its Hawaiian salt. Mahalo Grille
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