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Island Barbecue (Closed) (Hawaiian cuisine)  $

 7.25
JaT Rating

637 South B Street, San Mateo, 94401  (Directions)


650.373.7878


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Hawaiian style barbecue plates at reasonable prices and gigantic portions


Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 1040
Reviewed: 10/19/2004
Rating: 7.5
My photo gallery 		Island Barbecue is celebrating their grand opening or reopening. Im not sure but since I was in the neighborhood, I wanted to give them a try. Located down the street from Charlies Taqueria and Santa Ramen. When you first walk in, you cant help but notice how bright the interior is...yellow and orange like the sun. The people were extremeley nice and greeted me with a smile.

The have a couple of pictures of their dishes about the menu but went with something that wasnt pictured. I got the Mahi Mahi plate which comes with 2 scoops of rice and 1 scoop of macoroni salad. I also ordered a side of deep fried shrimp.

Mahi Mahi - they unloaded so much fish on my plate, i thought they doubled me up. It was huge!!! Although the portion were sumo-sized, I wasnt expecting the fish to be deep fried. Im used to having Mahi Mahi grilled. The fish was ok and batter wasnt too heavy. Overall it was ok, but I probably would have been happier getting a barbecue plate.

Rice - sticky and perfect.

Macoroni salad - I dont eat this stuff so I cant rate it

Deep Fried Shrimp - Hmm...they need to change their recipe. I dont think most people like their shrimps splitted and heavily battered-breaded. You can barely taste the shrimp. There were clumps of batter that were harder than rocks. I would recommend keeping the shrimps whole and lightly battering then.

From the review, the food rates in at a 7 but their hospitality boosts them another half point. Im certain this place will jump another half point or so if I eat their speciality....barbecue. Ill be back...I have faith.

**** Updated 07.1705 ****
Passed by today and it looks like they closed. Its been turned into a vegetarian restaurant.
 
  RETURN VISIT for Jason! 10/23/2004 - 7 Rating: Made a return visit for dinner on Saturday and ordered the short ribs. Once again the owners were nice and unloaded a lot of food. I was anticipating something very good but was left disappointed. The short ribs were tender but it was one of the saltiest-oiliest ribs I had ever had in my life. The ribs are laid over the rice and Im not kidding you but my rice was swimming in oil.
Im not here to bash Island Barbecue but they need to layoff the soy sauce and oil.

Believe it or not, I going to make 1 more visit for the spam...wish me luck.
 
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