New York City-based Magnolia Bakery opened in the vaunted Ewa Wing of Ala Moana Center on Nov. 12 amid about 5 tons of hype.

It closed 13 months later, with officials saying opening the cafe as a full-service restaurant as well as a kiosk at the same time turned out to be more than the franchisee could handle. Honolulu’s Magnolia Bakery Cafe was touted as the only Magnolia location in the U.S. with a full-service restaurant.

At the same time, the Japan-based parent company of Hawaii Magnolia franchisee Sweetstar Hawaii LLC was selling off its music distribution and a majority stake in its restaurant businesses. Instead, publicly traded Red Planet Japan Inc. put its focus on establishing and operating hotels, for which it was buying land.

It is unclear whether the corporate changes and the focus of its new owner, Japan-based Food Planet Inc., had a negative impact on the Hawaii Magnolia operations. Company officials declined to be interviewed.

What evidently did have a negative impact was the quality of the food and beverages as well as the service, according to customers.

After the initial opening hubbub had died down, Malia Johnson of Kakaako ate breakfast there with her family.

“The menu sounded exciting, with the skillet (dishes) … and then when we got it, it was totally disappointing, there was no care from the back to make a ‘wow factor,’” she said. For the same price, breakfasts at other restaurants are far superior, she said.

Her husband “drinks coffee everywhere he goes, but he actually could not drink the coffee” at Magnolia Bakery Cafe. “The waitperson did say, ‘we’ve had complaints about it, but this is just what we serve,’” Johnson said. “I wasn’t surprised when they closed.”

Yasuo Ogawa, president of Cowabunga! Computers, received a cup of coffee with what he called a “mystery visitor” floating at the top. He received an apology, but still was charged for the coffee on his check, he said.

Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties Realtor Biz Kellam, a Hawaii real estate agent for nearly 27 years, ordered a grits dish. “I’m from the South, I know what Southern food is, and I was like, ‘What?’ ” She asked the server to inquire of the chef what kind of grits the restaurant was using. The chef relayed to Kellam that the restaurant used instant polenta in the grits dish. “If you’re going to bill yourself as a certain food genre, please be true to it,” Kellam said. “It was a cute place, it just wasn’t Southern, y’all.”

That said, she added that “the key lime cheesecake was to die for; I will mourn that.”

In addition to food complaints, customers’ concerns also revolved around slow and inattentive service, including wait staff standing around paying attention to their phones instead of to customers’ needs.

“Service was really bad. It was slow. We had to flag our waitress on multiple occasions to refill our water and juice,” said Arlina Agbayani of Honolulu.

She ordered Magnolia’s croque monsieur (French version of a ham and cheese sandwich), and “it was not good. I was not impressed.”

Agbayani and her friend decided to split the bill, but Agbayani was charged for the whole check. The manager “was apologetic, and I got my credit for that transaction, and then he offered to do a ‘do-over,’” she said. “He invited my friend and me to have lunch again, and service was slow. I think it was the quality of people that they hired.”

As for Magnolia Bakery products themselves, “I enjoyed the lemon bar and the banana pudding better than eating inside. The quality was better. The bakery … the kiosk part, they were OK, but the restaurant, no,” she said.

Ala Moana Center officials declined comment on Magnolia Bakery Cafe, but said the kiosk soon would be home to Island Vintage Shave Ice, which also has a location at Royal Hawaiian Center. It has other locations branded as Island Vintage Coffee, which has been doing business in Hawaii since 1996.

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