"Chow and co-owners Brian Lew and Benson Chiu, who are all native San Franciscans, opened Little Aloha after traveling to Hawaii and falling in love with the cuisine. Chow said that during visits to Oahu and Maui, they explored off-the-beaten-path food trucks and mom-and-pop restaurants where meals were often less expensive than touristy spots and far more memorable. Among the standouts: fragrant garlic shrimp prepared from the popular Geste Shrimp Truck in the town of Kahului in Maui."
""We have to use quite a bit of ingenuity to come up with a menu that will appeal to enough people and stay somewhat true to the flavors of Hawaii that we want to replicate," Chow said. Scanning the menu prices at Little Aloha forced me to do a double-take. Affordable meals that are also worth the trip can be tough to find in San Francisco. But Little Aloha's half portion combo meal of garlic shrimp and sausage for $8.50 particularly piqued my interest."
Little Aloha opened in the Sunset District in March 2024 and offers a focused menu of seven Hawaii-inspired entrees, including spam musubi, hurricane shrimp and loco moco. Meals are priced between $6 and $16 before taxes, deliberately kept low to serve families and nearby high school students. The owners—native San Franciscans—drew inspiration from food trucks and mom-and-pop restaurants on Oahu and Maui, emphasizing simple, flavorful dishes such as fragrant garlic shrimp. Menu development balances broad appeal with fidelity to Hawaiian flavors, and budget-friendly combos like the garlic shrimp and sausage half portion cost $8.50.
Read at SFGATE
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