Photo: Mari Taketa
ddon’t go to Mama Guava for pancit or adobo; you won’t find them in a menu on a page. Opt for the lumpia, a crispy wonder rolled up with a fun silky texture and touched with spicy chile oil. Or the utog burger, whose beef patties are shredded with longanisa sausage and smothered in a pickled onion and banana ketchup sauce. In the former Pig & the Lady space on King Street, Mama Guava is the modern Filipino-American restaurant we’ve been waiting for.
There’s a lot to say, because I’ve eaten here five times since it opened in October. Here are the main points:
- Just as Pig & the Lady is Vietnamese-inspired but not a Vietnamese restaurant, Mama Guava is Filipino-inspired. The dishes are sometimes modern American, sometimes global, sometimes close to chef-owner Monique Cadavona’s Kalihi-girl heart, and almost all show a Filipino bent.
- It won’t be there much longer: The five-day-a-week lunch pop-up will close when its lease expires at the end of February. After that, Cadavona, who cooked at Zippy’s, Pig & the Lady and MW Restaurant before honing his skills at New York’s Michelin-starred restaurants, says he’ll likely turn to private catering.
Photo: Mari Taketa
So go now for the fun-looking lumpia ($15) and the equally memorable bowls of crispy fried chicken skin ($7).
Photo: Mari Taketa
Go for the utog burger ($18), which lives up to its name (look for it) but is almost overshadowed by the umami-rich garlic fries that come with it. And if eating blood isn’t your thing, Dinuguan Sausage with Pickled Green Papaya Strings ($19) can be your entree. Cadavona’s version opens with soft notes of lemon and closes with a soft earthiness that makes me sick of red wine.
Photo: Mari Taketa
The skewers are newer and include barbecue pork, fish balls, quail eggs, or grilled tender chicken glazed with kalbi sauce ($5-$14 per skewer). Also of note is the surprisingly light salt-and-vinegar boneless fried chicken with rice and calamansi soy tomatoes ($20).
Standout dishes include stir-fried ong choy ($13) and tortang talong ($18) of charred eggplant with egg and garlic fried rice. Dessert is grilled butter mochi and chocolate chip cookies; and drinks include a matcha latte with banana hill puree and a cold house custard beer.
Photo: Mari Taketa
If three chicken dishes seem like a lot for one lunch, this was my brain overcompensating for the speed of Cadavona’s perpetual creativity. Their menu changes. Favorite bestsellers are being let go to make room for new ideas, so I missed out on previous chicken iterations like salt and pepper karaage chicken and a crispy chicken burger. The anatomically red, crispy banh xeo I’ve ordered every time is gone, as is a popular fish curry with roti. So is the homemade Shaved Pork Belly, Mushroom and Fishball Hotpot that was my first hint of a combination of heart and skill that you don’t often see here.
“Where does the smoky flavor of the broth come from?” I asked as Cadavona put down our next dish.
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“Hondashi,” he said, the powdered bonito soup common in local Japanese kitchens, and his answer took me back to Sheldon Simeon’s early days at Lineage Maui, where the humbler pan-Asian flavors of his Hilo childhood were menu stars. Simeon also used Hondashi.
“I’m so glad you said that,” Cadavona said. “He and Andreu [Le of Pig & the Lady] they were my inspirations for this site.”
Monique Cadavona. Photo: Mari Taketa
As it exists now, Mama Guava is likely to become a fleeting part of our restaurant scene, one you’ll remember years after it’s gone. This is not just because of the lease. Cadavona’s cooking is driven by curiosity and connection: In New York, homesick during the pandemic, she cooked and served lunches of local-style dishes out of her apartment; and left La Jardinier, which has a Michelin star for its new French cuisine, after a few months because “I couldn’t find any joy in food,” he says. “The food at Le Jardinier I couldn’t connect with and the food I can’t connect with, I have no illusions.”
Marrying the flavors of her heritage with what brings her joy, Cadavona’s food at Mama Guava connects. Try it while you can.
Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., 83 N. Hotel St., Chinatown, mamaguavahnl.com, @mamaguavahnl
Mari Taketa is editor of Frolic Hawai’i and dining editor of HONOLULU Magazine.
