JoCo restaurant’s ‘healthy’ fast food gained a loyal following. But now it will close

After 16 years, restaurateur Dave Hedrick said he’s made enough teriyaki bowls.

So Saturday will be the last day for his Maui Express, a fast-casual Hawaiian-themed restaurant at 8750 Santa Fe Drive (at Antioch Road) in Overland Park.

Hedrick previously lived in California and missed the Hawaiian restaurants there. He opened his restaurant in 2005 with the slogan: “Enjoy the taste of Hawaii.”

Hedrick added a second location at 7702 Shawnee Mission Parkway, Overland Park, in late 2018. But during the COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders, he closed it to concentrate on the Santa Fe location.

Maui Express offers a short menu of teriyaki bowls with grilled meats, shrimp or vegetables, along with white or brown rice, and spicy or regular teriyaki sauce. It also has wraps and sandwiches, soups, salads, fruit salad and Maui iced tea sweetened with pineapple juice.

Beef, chicken and shrimp are grilled on an open flame, and vegetables are steamed.

“Our food is extremely healthy. That’s what the customers have always come in for. I wanted it to be a healthy alternative to the fast food industry,” said Hedrick, who is retiring. “The customer base has been so loyal. That has probably been the most miserable part, customers saying ‘What are we going to do without our Maui Express?’”