This newish Japanese restaurants will put a smile on your face
“You want to go for Japanese food?” Mike was surprised. I don’t eat sushi, so I only tend to eat at Japanese restaurants when I want to treat my older daughter. Mike loves Japanese food, though, so he was game when I suggested we go to Hanami, a relative new restaurant in the Broadmoor neighborhood of San Leandro.
Hanami had attracted my interest unwittingly. The picture that showed up next to its very-good-review of Yelp was that of a cheesecake. I had wanted to make a Japanese cheesecake when I cooked Japanese food several years ago, but I never quite got around it. So I was intrigued with the possibility of actually trying one. Still, it was the thought of having ramen that attracted me to Hanami. In all my year of eating Top Ramen, I’d never actually had gotten ramen at a restaurant, and I thought it was about time. As it happened, it really wasn’t.
Our first impressions of Hanami were pretty positive. The little restaurant is very casual and it functions under the misfortune of having a very square room, but it manages to capture the kitschiness of Japanese material culture without going overboard. It was, overall, a pleasant place to eat at.
We sat by a cupboard with little nick knacks, which provided visual stimulation while we waited. I totally love the rabbits wearing kimonos.
We started our meal with the Gyoza ($7). These deep fried dumplings were served with soy sauce. Mike really liked them and I thought they were good, but the flavor of the shell overshadowed the subtle pork filling. I’m not sure I’d get it again but Mike would.
Mike got the miso soup with his combo, and we both really enjoyed it. It has a very bright, fresh miso broth that was refreshing on a hot summer day. We’d both definitely have it again.
Mike had the Combo F ($27) which came with an unagi roll, three pieces of salmon sashimi, two potato croquettes, two tempura shrimp and some edamame, in addition to the aforementioned miso soup. It was a lot of food on top of the gyoza and he brought most of the roll and the croquettes home.
He enjoyed everything very much. The unagi roll was fresh and very tasty as was the tempura shrimp. He did feel the salmon sashimi was bland – but then again, that’s what you expect from raw salmon and there was lemon and soy sauce to brighten up. The croquettes were delicious, I was amazed at how much flavor they packed. In all, he really enjoyed the meal and would order it again.
I got the ramen ($17) but I messed up, big time. You get to choose our protein and your broth. I decided on chicken katsu, as it’s a favorite, and a pork broth, as I didn’t see a chicken broth in the menu. But then I thought about it some more, and didn’t think that pork broth and chicken would necessarily go together, and not knowing what would work I went with the curry broth. This, as my best friend Lola told me later when I described to her this fiasco, is not a regular broth for ramen – though curry sauce is often eaten with chicken katsu.
The problem came because while I can use chopsticks, I’m not the most competent person with them. And grabbing the noodles of the bowl without dripping the bright yellow broth on my white shirt proved impossible. Every attempt led to an unwashable stain – at least I wasn’t greatly attached to the now ruined shirt I was wearing. The thick spoon with which the ramen was served proved to better. I couldn’t even manage to keep the noodles on it, much less use it to bring them to my mouth. Little kids at other tables were managing alright, so this is just proof of my own clumsiness, but it did make it clear restaurant ramen is not for me. So much for my plans – formulated between the appetizers and the main dishes – of traveling to Japan.
I did eat the chicken katsu and it was… bland. Without katsu sauce, there wasn’t much flavor to it. Dipping it in the broth risked those pesky drops falling on my shirt, so I mostly ate it plain. I wouldn’t order it again.
I took the ramen home with me, packed in a large plastic bowl thick enough that I’ll reuse, and ate it the next day – with a fork and metal spoon. It was quite good. Not out of this world good, but just like you’d expect a generic curry broth to taste. Still, I wouldn’t have it again. What I would have next time is more of that amazing miso broth.
It was finally time for what I really came here for: the cheesecake. They had several flavors in addition to cake slices. I went with the mango cheesecake ($6) and it was everything I dreamed of. Flavor and consistency wise it reminded me a bit of the cheesecakes at Junior’s in NYC. It wasn’t as sweet as a regular cheesecake and a bit chalkier. But it was bursting with flavor, particularly from the pieces of mango – which tasted oh so fresh on that hot summer evening. The thin crust – was it even there or did I imagine it? – tasted like sponge cake, something else that reminded me of Junior’s. In any case, I loved it. I wouldn’t go back just for a slice – it was relatively small and while the price is not excessive for a restaurant, I’m still not used to current prices, but I’d certainly love to eat it again.
We got sodas with dinner, which were $3.
Service was good and attentive. You order by circling what you want with markers on a laminated menu, which helps avoid miscommunications.
In all, I’d go back – probably when my sushi loving daughters is back in town – but I’ll order something else as a main . I’ll still get the cheesecake.
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