Marga's Foodblog

San Leandro has more Hawaiian restaurants that I can count, and I'm not sure that Ohana was actually needed (and judging by the lack of patrons last Thursday evening, I may not be alone in that assessment), but it's not entirely unwelcomed. If you are at that shopping mall (you know, the one that has Home Depot, Walmart and the Pet food store - which was why we were there) and you are hungry, your choices are limited to Togos and whatever fast food place there is in Walmart. So Ohana at least presents another choice for food. And while it's a chain, it's well located in chain heaven.

Ohana presents a menu very similar to those in other Hawaiian restaurants. It includes BBQ meats, alone or in combination, chicken katzu, curry and a couple of chicken dishes with "special" sauces. They also have burgers and spam.

We weren't too adventurous that evening and decided to go with the Seafood BBQ Combo ($8), Chicken Katzu ($6) and BBQ Chicken Saimin ($4). The seafood combo was good, but it only contained one piece of fish!!!! There wasn't even enough to share. The chicken katzu was heavily breaded - as it usually is - but tasted fine, though I think I prefer Ono's version. I'd ordered the saimin for the kids and they weren't thrilled by it. It basically tasted like chicken noodle soup, so clearly the problem wasn't in the dish.

In all, Mike thought the meal was fine, and probably better than at Ono's (where we go from time to time as it's close to our house), while I think I rather go back to Ono, though the portions there have gotten smaller and smaller.

Ohana Hawaiian BBQ
Westgate Mall Shopping Center
1933 Davis St. #135A
SL, CA
510-383.9898
http://www.hawaiianislandbbq.com/

I don't know if I have any /regular/ readers of my Food Blog, as opposed to people who just drop by from time to time, but if you are a regular and you've missed me, I'm back. I haven't been blogging much 'cause, frankly, I don't have time to do everything in my to-do list, so from time to time I drop some activities for a while. But I like to blog about food, and I feel guilty about all the restaurant reviews I haven't posted, so in the next few days I hope to get back on track.

I'll start by blogging about the recipe I made last night: Orange Soy Braised Pork Ribs. Country style ribs were on sale at Safeway, and I wanted to braise them in some way. That recipe for Epicurious got good reviews so I tried it.

It was a very easy dish to make, juicing the oranges was what took the longest, and the ribs were very tender - just as you'd expect them to be after two hours braising in any liquid. BUT I wasn't thrilled with the flavor or the glace. By themselves, the ribs just had a mild soy-sauce flavor, nice but not very strong. On the plus side, the kids ate it without complaining. People had complained that it was hard to get the liquid to become syrupy. It did, when I boiled it long enough, but it then became very intense in flavor, I would say too intense.

Still, after rubbing some of the glace off, the ribs were pretty good and Mike enjoyed them.

I'd probably look for a different recipe for next time, though.

Sorry, no pictures. Hopefully I'll remember next time.

You heard it here first, Joplins has the best burgers in San Leandro, and I've eaten at enough places in San Leandro to know. If you like your burgers big and juicy - so big you won't be able to finish them, so juicy you better have a napkin ready - this is definitely the place to go. And you should hurry, both times I went there, there were only a few customers for lunch, which concerns me as I definitely don't want the place to close.

On both my visits I ordered their cheeseburger ($5), which comes with the usual ingredients (tomato, lettuce, onions) and is made to order. I already described it as being very good, so good that now every time I want a burger, I want a Joplin's burger (a Val's may be better, but they're too far away). I want one right now as I type this, btw :)

Fries come with some of their dishes, but not with the burgers. An order of regular fries will cost you $1.50, but I'd advise you to go for the garlic fries ($3.50) instead. They are made with real garlic, not garlic powder, and they are out of this world. I should say, however, that I liked them better on my first visit, when they were skinny fries, rather than in my second, when they were the thicker wedge-type. I should have said something to the waiter; next time.

I went with my sister Kathy on my first visit, and she ordered the fried chicken wings ($5). These were quite good as well, nicely seasoned but not too spicy, and came served with sauce on the side (so this might be a good dish for little kids too). Our only complaint was that chicken wings are a pain to eat, we would much have preferred fried chicken legs. One more thing to tell them. On my second visit I went with my friend Aamani who also had - and enjoyed - the burger.

Both times service was very good, attentive and friendly.

My one qualm with Joplin's is their menu. They have an amazing breakfast menu with things such as blueberry sour cream pancakes and bananasplit belgian waffles as well as several types of omelettes and combos - but their lunch menu is quite limited. They have some salads, a few sandwiches, a couple of burgers, friend chicken wings and shrimp, and, out of nowhere, some Mediterranean messe offerings (felafel, hummus, dolmas and salad). As much as I like their burger, I'd like to see more choices. On the plus side, all lunch offerings are extremely well priced, with nothing over $7.50.

Joplins opened a couple of months ago in the space vacated by The Blue Dish, on Victoria Circle in the Broadmoor. It's name after a relative of the owner who used to be a famous Jazz musician. They have jazz for brunch on Sundays and I definitely want to try that - and then I'll report back (on the food, not the music, as I'm tone deaf).

Joplin's
585 Victoria Court
San Leandro, CA
510.568.5100