Ohana Hawaiian BBQ

Hawaiian is probably the one food I never have a craving for. I just can’t get into rice with macaroni mayonnaise salad and something deep friend on top. Just don’t get it.
So 2 stars because the Kahlua pork wasn’t bad even though the portion was ginormous.

***CLOSED***
Now zpizza is in this location

They’re toast, there’s a Zpizza going in.
— — — — — — — — — –
I didn’t care much for this place anyway, but i think they’re out of business now. They’ve had an «On vacation» sign out for over two weeks now, and stuff is piling up outside the door.

I’m giving 3 stars for the cheap prices and huge portion sizes. Unfortunately, the quality here isn’t that great. You get a ton of food, but it’s oily and bordering being overcooked.
Great place to go if you have a craving for Hawaiian food or just want to stuff yourself with huge portions of greasy food. I will admit the mayonnaise salad (macaroni salad) was deliciously full of greasy mayo goodness.

I have actually had very good experiences here. The parking can be tough to find, but once you get in its fine. My husband’s family grew up in Hawaii so we are always trying out new places. We like their katsu better than L & L’s although not L & L’s are created equal, and they have pretty good short ribs. I mean technically it is a fast food place, so I am not saying it’s the most amazing food I have ever had, but for what this place is, it’s good. They have never been out of anything when I have gone, and they are always really nice. We have only been a here a few times, but so far we like it, and will probably go again.

Like the last reviewer, when we ordered the mochiko chicken, the cashier said they didn’t have any left. So we ordered the katsu instead. A few minutes later, the cashier brought our food out and we dug in. The katsu was just okay, your standard oily pieces of chicken. The rice was slightly mushy, like it had been in the warmer all day. The mac salad was undercooked so a little chewy.
In any case, we won’t be back. We prefer J&J Hawaiian Barbecue on Stevens Creek. Too bad Kauai BBQ closed down. we would have never tried Ohana in the first place. Boy do we miss Kauai BBQ!

Dear Nobu-​san,
I now understand your sushi-​nazi-​ness. I understand how something that you know has become nothing more than pseudo-​FXXXN-​SXXX!!! I truly understand how your/​our culture has been butchered.
As you know, cooking is all in the sauce. It’s the sauce that makes a dish what it is. Chicken teriyaki is still just chicken without the sauce. Pasta is only noodles without the sauce.
Anyone can cook. Not everyone can make it taste good too. That is the difference between olive garden pasta and pasta pomodoro. That’s the difference between the bacon dog cart and wienerschnitzle. That’s the difference between the french laundry and french fries.
My son and I went to this Ohana place. Chicken katsu, which we had, is still just breaded chicken with katsu sauce. The katsu we had was thinly sliced so that it wasn’t too difficult for the breading to be thicker than the chicken. The sauce was watery.
We tried originally to order the mochiko chicken. But they didn’t have any. WTF??? What is the point of having something on the menu if they don’t carry it? Coudn’t they make it a one day a week special or something! They shouldn’t put it on their menu just to look cool.
I humbly suggest that we open our own restaurant, which will serve Korean, Chinese, and American food. We will make kim chi with wasabi, bonito, and ketchup; instead of garlic, brine, and peppers. We will offer beef chow fun but use somen noodles. And when the white people come in, we will give them gobo
and tell them it is carrots.
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I’d be much more flattered if they made it better or called it their own after personalizing it. But when they claim to be authentic and are far from it, it really is an insult.
Ohana Hawaiian BBQ was psuedo-​jive-​ass poop. The bandwagon for Hawaiian BBQs has been full for a little while now. The market is at its saturation point. Any other newcomers would have to have something really special to make it in the Bay Area.
Please consider my proposal, as I begin our marketing strategy and business plan. Your prompt attention to this matter is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Kevo

Me: Can I have the seafood barbecue combo?
Cashier: Oh, I’m sorry. We probably don’t have any shrimp anymore. Let me check. Chef, do we have shrimp?
Chef: Rice?
Cashier: No, shrimp?
Chef: Yea, we have rice.
Cashier: I said shrimp!
Chef: Yea, we do.
35 minutes later after I am starved half to death. The cashier, who also serves food, rushed over to our table.
Cashier: I’m sorry, but we don’t have fried shrimp. Well, we never did. Can we give you fried Mahi Mahi?
Me: I will seriously eat anything you have. Just feed me!!!
Smell and taste-​wise? Good.
Will I go back again? After they figure out the differences between shrimp and rice.

some folks just don’t learn their lessons very well, or yet quickly. and that’s including the beau!
he kept coming back at this not so great of a place to get plates of hawaiian bbq fare… and last week, i think he had it.
he ordered a bowl of chicken saimin and it was a total blow. the chicken tasted funky, raw in a kind of way and the broth was too salty.
moreover, i was really excited when i saw on the menu board that they serve mochi chicken… so, without a doubt i ordered a regular plate of it!
with high hopes that this mochi chicken was like the one i had in kailua, hawaii… it was the absolute opposite…
the chicken was chewy, seemed like that they didn’t use enough sugar & soy sauce to marinade & it kept me thinking while eating, that they didn’t really use mochi flour, but just an all-​purpose flour…
i felt i was gypped!!!
however, the spam masubi was the only one that was pretty decent, which was ample in size!
in addition, they have nice outside seating

Its really too bad because this place has a lot of potential. High traffic location, completely different food than anywhere else on Castro, cute place overall.
And then the food comes. Errr. Wait. Then the WAIT for the food comes. We were grabbing a bite to eat before a concert over at Shoreline and we wern’t in the mood for more sushi or mexican. Ohana (which means «family» as I learned in Lilo and Stitch) looked like a radical departure from the usual.
The problem was it was very slow inside and it took 22+ minutes to get a pair of chicken and rice bowls.
As others have said, the food seemed really greasy. Portions were huge but the caked grease on my tounge made it unediable.

I like it better than other places I’ve managed to eat in the bay area. The spam musubi is pretty good and the bbq plate too. It’s not Hawaiian food as to me Hawaiian food is laulau, lomi lomi salmon, haupia, pipikaula, poi, etc, but it is local style food.
Born and raised in Hawaii I have to say that the food is decent and better than it’s other competitors like J&J, Lukoki, etc Kind of the same as L&L which is popping up all over the place.
I have yet to find a place that has great haupia, mac salad, chicken katsu, and loco moco. If anyone knows of such a place please let me know.

Again… I’m not expecting a whole lot from a place like this.
The food is warm. there is a decent amount of it… and it’s not bad at all.
It’s not necessarily good for you in that it’s starchy with alot of carbs in rice and mayo and mac, and the chicken still has the skin on it. .but those are options that you can take or leave.
It’s really not bad… if you can’t think of somewhere else to go, then you might end up here… it’s that kinda place.

Well, what can I say it’s Hawaiin Food. It’s large portions that sit heavy in your stomach and it’s cheap.
Once in a while it’s good to have but alot of thier food to me seems really greasy.
I mean the smoothies are great. I enjoy those but in terms of quality you are better off going to the Kuai/​Filipino place on the other side.

Adding yet another castro lunch joint to my ever-​growing list of silicon valley eats.
This place just isn’t that great. It’s not horrific or anything, and they give you a ton of food, but most people don’t want a plate of greasy fried chicken that can feed a small country, much less one that comes with a side of mediocre macaroni.
Not sure how this place is in business considering the competition, but then again it is pretty fast and doesn’t seem to ever be that crowded.
I’ll take a burrito over this any day.

Cheap prices, good tasting food UNTIL…
I noticed a pubic looking hair in my spam loco moco. I took the dish back to the cashier and told her there was hair in my food. She then takes my plate and yells to the cook «here’s another one with hair!»
Can we say EWWWWWWWWWWW!!! I will never eat at this place AGAIN.

Having just come back from Hawaii I really knew my stuff. There are similar places to this plate lunch joint but I’m gonna have to say this one is a cheap impression with a plus sign. I had the grilled teryaki chicken plate which was plentiful, but the meat still had the fat on it and the mac salad was just as bad as rainbow drive ins! So even though my food was edible, it only got one star above rainbow drive in. Guess I can’t really stomach fast food places anymore. :(

Same chain as the one over at Pacific Commons in Fremont I reviewed before.
This place is larger than the Fremont location, outdoor seating available.
This time around I tried something different. Loco Moco. I got 3 patties, pile of rice and scoop of macaroni salad. Can’t complain.
Mahalo.

I’ve never eaten in this place, but my company has ordered lunch from them a couple of times. The main thing I like about their food is the fried mahi-​mahi cutlets, they are spectacular! I’ve never been to Hawaii and I’m a haole, so they may be really awful by HI standards, who knows. All I know is that they seem really tasty to me. The Kalbi ribs are pretty good too, although they should be way spicier.

This was bad Hawaiian. Allow me to explain. I will probably give them 1 more chance to see if there are any redeeming qualities, please note, as this review was based on 1 trip there.
First, it’s decorated like it’s a Caribbean restaurant. It uses the wrong color scheme, and that always bugs me.
Second, I got the chicken katsu saimin, and it had issues. The saimin wasn’t saimin, it was ramen, and it was mush. No noodle was longer than 3 inches, and disintegrated the moment the chop sticks touched them. The broth was flat, tasteless, and shockingly for a Hawaiian place, did not have enough salt. The chicken katsu was moderate, but the sauce that they gave on the side was soupy, thin, and lacking in flavor. Most people get this out of a bottle, so I really don’t know how it can be screwed up.
Third, this is the only Hawaiian BBQ place I’ve seen where there isn’t an option to get a mini-​sized meal. Knowing the average portion at a Hawaiian BBQ place, that doesn’t fare well for them.
I saw at least 2 people walk in from the outside and just hang out in the kitchen. I’m pretty sure this is a health code violation or something.
On 1 positive note, their Hawaiian Sun drinks were very well priced, but that is about it for positives at this point.
Also, I’m not a fan of being served saimin in a restaurant in a styrofoam container with a plastic lid. At least pretend to do it right and get the cheap noodle bowls from down the street. Whew! Venting done, and on to the rest of my life.

After watching the World Cup game and seeing it go into overtime and penalty kicks, I was dying for something to eat. I had driven by the Ohana storefront a few times and they were still under construction but noticed that they were open last week. So I headed on down with a friend to see what this place was about.
From their website they originated from a deli on Waimea and now boast more than 2 dozen locations. This MV location is the latest in their expansion. As we walked in, there was definitely an aura of «brand new». Furniture, paint, signage, etc, were all very vibrant, almost sparkling. The colors of the restaurant are very bright in oranges, yellows, and reds while the employees were decked out in the tropical hawaiian traditional shirts.
The menu has quite a few items so we decided to split the BBQ and Seafood combos to sample a breadth of the items. This selection gave us:
BBQ Beef
BBQ Shortribs
BBQ Chicken
Mahi Mahi
Fried Shrimp
This came with the traditional two scoops of rice and a scoop of mac salad. The seafood I thought was well cooked but they lacked flavor. The texture of the shrimp and mahi were just right, the batter being thin and not too greasy. But again salt and pepper was needed for any taste to occur. The Chicken was also cooked well and the flavor was average as Hawaiian BBQ places go. The winners were definitely the beef and ribs. They were highly flavorful and very tender, probably from long times in their marinade. Both combos came out to $ 20 for 2 people. I think knowing now that the beef is the winner I will probably try some of the other dishes such as the Kalua pork, spam loco moco, and volcano or mochiko with a side of said beef.
Fairly fast service, cheap prices, and a brand new location make this a decent place for a quick meal. They also have an outside area with a few tropical umbrellas and plants for those nice days.