SF Peninsula: J & J Hawaiian BBQ

Back in November, my girls and I (and CL's boyfriend) went on an outing to Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve.  The original idea was to hit up a Filipino buffet for lunch, but we started the hike a bit later than planned, so instead of going further up the peninsula to Daly City, we decided to head south toward home instead.

Our backup lunch plan ended up being J & J Hawaiian BBQ:

While the other half of our group took a detour to check out the big houses in Atherton, CK, Abby, and I arrived at the restaurant to scope out the goods:

Besides traditional Hawaiian fare, J & J also offers take-out Chinese food.  For some reason, that's what spoke to Abby:

She meticulously inspected each entree on display and ultimately decided on this two item combo ($7.80):

Orange chicken?  Sweet and sour pork?  If we'd tried to order that at a real Chinese restaurant, we would've brought shame upon our ancestors.  But sometimes you just crave crappy Chinese food, you know?

At least that's how Abby explained it.

I, on the other hand, was more interested in the chicken katsu ($8.25):

It came with a dipping sauce, rice, and a side of macaroni salad.  The katsu itself was a freshly fried delight, but the mac salad?  No thanks.  It tasted like straight mayo.  We tried to fix it by adding some soy sauce (so, Asian, right?), but our usual cure-all didn't do all that much.

This ended up being a lot of food for three people, but we couldn't resist getting some musubi on the side.  We got the spam ($2.10) and the Portuguese sausage ($2.30):

We all agreed that the Portuguese sausage was nothing to write home about, but the original spam was pretty damn good.

Eventually the other half of our group showed up and placed their orders.  They pretty much got the same as what we did.  (Apparently everyone was in the mood for crappy Chinese.)  The only other interesting order was CL and DK's Hawaiian BBQ mix ($10.25):

It came with BBQ chicken, beef, and shortribs.

Unless you're really in the mood for some mediocre Westernized Chinese food, I would stick to the Hawaiian side of the menu at J & J.  You won't be able to escape the really strange mac salad, but the rest will be worth it.  Portion sizes are huge, prices are reasonable, and service is fast.  Just don't expect anything to really blow you away.

J & J Hawaiian BBQ

1170 Alma St 

Menlo Park, CA 94025

(650) 323-6137