Since its arrival in Mill Valley in 2022, Mamahuhu has been serving up delicious Chinese-American food in Mill Valley natives Justin and Tyler Catalana’s former Mill Valley Beerworks space at 173 Throckmorton Ave.
Mamahuhu, Michelin-starred chef Brandon Jew’s more casual restaurant and his first move outside of San Francisco, has engaged engage the community in a variety of ways, from churning out deliciousness at the Mill Valley Music Festival and launching a book club with support from the venerable Mill Valley Public Library to hosting a Lunar New Year event. Mamahuhu in Mill Valley turned two a few months ago, and while many guests, according to Forbes contributor Gary Stern, come for the tasty reimagined Chinese dishes, sweet & sour chicken, chicken & broccoli, and fried rice, many also stay for an uncommon dessert: its soft-service ice cream sundaes. And few patrons might expect a scrumptious ice cream sundae at a Chinese restaurant, which sounds incongruous.
But noted chef Brandon Jew, who received a Michelin-star for his Mister Jiu’s in San Francisco, is full of surprises at Mamahuhu, which he opened with partners Ben Moore and Anmao Sun in January 2020 in the Inner Richmond neighborhood of San Francisco.
In fact, in a travel article of what to do in 36 hours in San Francisco, the New York Times wrote that Brandon Jew’s “Chinese-American fast-casual restaurant Mamahuhu is worth a visit for its soft-serve sundaes alone.”
Co-founder Ben Moore explains the concept of Mamahuhu as chef Brandon Jew “breathing new life into Chinese-Americans classics we grew up by focusing on creative culinary twists and proud ingredient stories that so many diners value today.”
The name “mamahuhu” stems from a Chinese idiom that means “horse horse tiger tiger,” or boiled down to “so-so,” or “just okay” or even “careless,” Moore relates, proving that the restaurant doesn’t take itself too seriously since it’s clearly much better than okay.
The inspiration for the soft-serve ice cream sundae stems from “chop-suey sundaes,” which were served in Chinatown during the soda foundation era, Moore explains. “Fast casual restaurants like our own do well when they have a single but unique dessert offering,” he says. At the beginning, only the regulars were clued on to it, but Moore says now “We serve a couple thousands across our 3 stores in the average month.”
Most of its ice cream consists of banana oat milk flavor topped with cherry and red bean. People order it after lunch when they want something sweet or after dinner as a topper, Moore suggests. Jason Kaplan, CEO of New York City-based JK Consulting, a restaurant consulting firm, noted that signature desserts can play a role in a restaurant by becoming “must-order items. No experience can be complete without ending the meal with it. Some customers become such die-hard fans that they go just for that item.”