Inventive Malaysian restaurant Mahila permanently closes in San Francisco
FacebookTwitterEmail
Mee Mamak with duck fat sautéed shrimp, turmeric noodle, squid sambal and egg at Mahila in San Francisco. The Noe Valley restaurant has closed.Stephen Lam / Special to The Chronicle
Mahila, San Francisco’s first restaurant to focus on Malaysia’s mamak cuisine, is permanently closing due to failed negotiations with the landlord, according to chef and owner Azalina Eusope. Its last day is Saturday.
The Noe Valley spot opened in 2019 as Eusope’s second and most ambitious restaurant following Azalina’s in the Market in the Twitter building, which shut down earlier in the pandemic. While Azalina’s sold casual Malaysian classics like laksa, a lemongrass noodle soup, primarily for takeout, Mahila specialized in the cuisine of Muslim Indians that’s often associated with Malaysia’s bustling street food scene and brought it to a sophisticated, sit-down setting.