Don’t Forget The Ice-Cream Sundae At San Francisco’s Chinese/American Mamahuhu

Sure guests at one of the 3 Mamahuhu fast-casual eateries in San Francisco and the Bay area come for the tasty reimagined Chinese dishes, sweet & sour chicken, chicken & broccoli, and fried rice, but 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.”

A fast-casual Chinese eatery Mamahuhu in San Francisco has become known for a signature dessert.

Chef Jew was inspired to open a fast-casual Chinese eatery, rather than a more formal dining room, because “We wanted to do a small, nimble, casual restaurant with a simpler business model. How do we do it simply and let it spread and grow, without softening quality?” Moore posed.

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Not Your Usual Chinese Fare

For example, sweet and sour chicken, one of its most popular dishes, is traditionally made with fructose and white sugar, but its dish consists of honey, pineapple juice, and hawthorn berry with a dollop of sugar, says Moore, a native of Rye, New York, who graduated from Georgetown University where he learned Mandarin.

Its broccoli and beef (note the vegetable comes first) consists of organic broccoli, cauliflower and dino kale, and several vegetarian dishes such as broccoli and mushroom, in place of beef, are popular.

When the San Francisco Mamahuhu proved successful, they opened a second location in Mill Valley, just across the Golden Gate Bridge, in 2022 and then Noe Valley, also in San Francisco, in 2023.

A Silent Investor from China

In capitalizing the initial eatery, they had one “silent” investor, a Chinese food company, whom Moore and Sun met when working in restaurants in Shanghai, that also financed the two follow-up locations.

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.”

In fact, Kaplan noted that chef Brandon Jew is taking out a page out of dessert chef Christina Tosi’s playbook from David Chang’s Momofuku Milk Bar’s restaurant in NYC when she popularized its cereal milk ice cream. “This innovative combination led chefs across the country to put their own creative twists on soft serve,” he noted.

Most of the audience that frequent the 3 Mamahuhu’s tend to be “young people plus young families. We aim to bring back some of the nostalgic joy of eating Chinese takeout (that almost every American has memories of) but with ingredients you can feel good about,” Moore notes.

It’s also moderately-priced at a time of rising prices. Single diners with a beverage spend about $20 and sundaes with all the fixings go for $7.

About half of its business derives from take-out and delivery services, Door Dash and Uber Eats. And most of the restaurants accommodate 30 to 40 guests. “We design food that can travel well,” Moore explains.

Expansion On the Way

Moore says that it’s fourth Mamahuhu is due to open in Palo Alto in the San Francisco Bay Area in the first half of 2025. “We want to grow. We’d love to be a multi-market brand, but we’re looking most at West Coast sites where we know the supply chain and where to get ingredients.’

“We view ourselves as moving Chinese food forward but not breaking away from traditions. We want people to fall in love with Chinese food again,” Moore notes.