Mallow: the Alola Trial Captain who cooks before she battles

Her specialty isn't just the Grass type: it's cooking. Mallow is one of Alola's Trial Captains, and the game gives her as many lines behind the stove at the family restaurant as on the grounds of her trial. She appears in Sun and Moon, then in their Ultra versions, which take the time to give her a secret.

Contents

• Trial Captain: A Role That Isn't a Gym Leader's
• Aina's Kitchen, the Family Restaurant in Konikoni City
• The Secret the Ultra Versions Give Her
• Tsareena, Shiinotic and an Apple Pie
• Mallow at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Trial Captain: A Role That Isn't a Gym Leader's

Alola replaces Gyms with the island challenge, and Gym Leaders with Trial Captains. A Captain is a Trainer who completed this journey themselves a few years earlier: they don't hold a title so much as they are a former challenger who has crossed over to the examiner's side.

Mallow fills this role for the Grass type, on Akala Island. Her trial takes place in the Lush Jungle, a leafy setting that suits her specialty and that will come back later in her personal story.

The difference from a Gym lies in the finale. It isn't the Captain the player faces at the end of the course, but the trial's Totem Pokémon, a Lurantis. So Mallow stays out of the decisive battle she herself set up.

Aina's Kitchen, the Family Restaurant in Konikoni City

Outside her trial, Mallow has an address. Her father runs Aina's Kitchen, a restaurant in Konikoni City, also on Akala Island, and she welcomes customers there as much as she works on her recipes.

The game insists on one specific point: her culinary inventions divide opinion. Not everyone is a fan, but they keep a loyal following, and her official description is careful to mention both halves of the opinion rather than pick a side.

The rest comes down to two crumbs of biography: she stands 1.60 m tall, and the game's trivia describes her as an admirer of Siebold. Her profile also says she's fond of Grass-type Pokémon in general, and of Tsareena in particular — a taste that ties in perfectly with her culinary theme.

🌿 The green section has its stars: browse the Pokémon plushies.

The Secret the Ultra Versions Give Her

In Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon she gets an extra discovery scene. During Mina's trial, the player comes across Mallow in the Lush Jungle and discovers what she comes there to do when no one is watching.

Her way of unwinding is downright unexpected: she lets the wild Pokémon in the area shower her with Aromatherapy, because the effect relaxes her. The detail is odd enough that the game turns it into a secret to uncover rather than a mere line of dialogue.

What happens next depends on the version. In Ultra Sun, Mallow battles the player herself before handing over the Green Petal; in Ultra Moon, it's Lana who takes on the battle, and Mallow simply hands over the Petal once the encounter is over. Ultra Sun is thus the only one of the two Ultra versions where she fights this trial battle herself; you can still battle her elsewhere, though: in Pokémon Moon, in the Lush Jungle in Ultra Moon, and at the Battle Tree.

Tsareena, Shiinotic and an Apple Pie

The mobile game added her on January 21, 2021, in her canonical outfit, with two possible partners: Tsareena for her default sync pair, Shiinotic for the alternate sync pair. The first confirms the taste stated in her profile; the second broadens her plant palette.

The seasonal version takes the theme further. In her Palentine's outfit, she sets out to bake the best apple pie possible for the holiday, alongside an Appletun that itself evolved thanks to a Sweet Apple. Cooking and team end up telling the same story.

The card game, for its part, got there four years earlier. Her first card came out in France on May 13, 2017, with the Sun & Moon—Guardians Rising expansion, and others have followed since. For a character who only gets a handful of scenes in the games, the trail she has left is far from slim.

Mallow at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Where does Mallow's trial take place?
  In the Lush Jungle, on Akala Island. It ends with a battle against the area's Totem Pokémon, a Lurantis, not against the Captain herself.
• Can you battle Mallow?
  Yes. In Ultra Sun, during Mina's trial, once you've uncovered her secret, she battles the player and then hands over the Green Petal; in Ultra Moon, Lana fights that particular battle in her place, but you can still battle Mallow in the Lush Jungle. You can also battle her in Pokémon Moon — never in Pokémon Sun — and at the Battle Tree.
• What is Mallow's secret?
  She comes to the Lush Jungle to be showered with the wild Pokémon's Aromatherapy, because the effect relaxes her. The player discovers this in the Ultra versions.
• Which Pokémon are associated with Mallow?
  Her profile says she loves Grass types and Tsareena. In the mobile game, she forms a default sync pair with Tsareena, an alternate sync pair with Shiinotic and a seasonal sync pair with Appletun.
• Does Mallow have trading cards?
  Yes. Her first card was released in France on May 13, 2017, in the Sun & Moon—Guardians Rising expansion, and other cards have featured her since.

In short

Mallow holds a discreet but distinct place in Alola's lineup: she runs the Grass-type trial without ever fighting its final battle, and most of her personality comes through the family restaurant rather than through strategy. The Ultra versions give her her only real personal scene, a relaxation secret in the middle of the jungle, and the mobile game carries the thread all the way to the apple pie. An examiner the game chose to define through her cooking.