It’s been a while since, I’ve done a plate lunch post. I’ve been mainly sticking to Da’ Kitchen, but I decided that I needed to branch out a bit and took a drive down to National City and dropped by Ohana Hawaiian BBQ.
Ohana Hawaiian BBQ resides in the same busy mall as Seafood City, Golden Chopsticks, and Asian Noodles. Whenever we’re able to find a parking spot on our first go-round, the Missus will say, "hey, it’s your lucky day, did you buy a lottery ticket?"
The interior of Ohana seems very lively with splashes of green and orange to go along with the bright lighting. The word "Ohana" in the broadest sense, means "family". So I would guess that I would be treated as extended family by eating here. So as I walked up to the counter I was greeted with a "Yeah"…….no hello, no can I take your order, but just "yeah"…… Well if you think about it, we actually do greet each this way in my family. So maybe Ohana is trying to make me feel right at home. What was interesting was that the entire time I was waiting for my food, a Gentleman and a Young Lady were hunched over a calculator, intensely "crunching numbers"! I guess he was trying to figure out how feed His "Ohana".
Of course I ordered a Loco Moco($5.95):
The first thing I noticed when I opened up my Loco Moco was all of the little grains of black "stuff" on the eggs. Now what causes that? Answer! A grill that hasn’t been cleaned! Believe me, Wok Hay is great stuff, but I’ve never heard of wok hay from a griddle. The eggs tasted of burnt soy sauce.
So the grade on the Rubio Scale? Here goes:
BURGER: Pre-formed mass production burger, bland, dry as heck, cold, and obviously been 
sitting around for a while. – 1.0
EGGS: Over cooked, the yolk was solid, any respectable Loco Moco should have soft cooked yolks. Crunchy, bitter, charred black bits all over the egg. Terrible! – 0.5(The only zero is if they forget the eggs all together, or I get food poisoning)
RICE: Well cooked; I also enjoyed the placement of rice under the eggs, burger, and gravy. – 3.0
GRAVY:Dark and smooth, but under seasoned and on the bland side.- 2.5
STUFFS: Good macaroni salad. – 3.0
Overall score; 10 points, the lowest so far.
I also ordered the BBQ Chicken all Rice($5.99):
As I opened up the container, I knew where the black crunchies came from. I think the eggs had been cooked on the remnants of the chicken. Not good eats! The chicken was well seasoned, though on the dry side, but nicely caramelized, and though the outside was nice and warm, the interior was quite cold. In summary; an average Hawaiian BBQ chicken, no better, no worse then what I get from any other Hawaiian BBQ.
Ohana Hawaiian BBQ, is pretty much an L & L knock-off. Though there are some interesting items on the menu like Mochiko Chicken, Volcano Chicken, and Spam Loco Moco. I don’t know if I’ll be returning though.
Ohana Hawaiian BBQ
1430 E. Plaza Blvd
National City, CA 91950