Day 6: House of Soul Food

Mmmm, BBQ… or is is barbecue?  Whichever way you want to spell it, it all spells delicious. We find ourselves this night at the House of Soul Food at 635 E. 14th St., the first of many restaurants on my list I’ve never been to. Now don’t ask me why I thought this, but for some reason I always thought this was a Korean BBQ place - maybe there was one there in my past life, who knows.

I dove right in here, forgetting that I was on a mission to document my quest for all of you.  I ordered, and then consumed, half the meal before remembering I should snap a few photos. I was so eager to come here after canceling plans to go on our normal Thursday nights, since a giant Newfoundland dog crashed into my dinner partner. Then, an attempt to go on the following Tuesday found they are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

We did see that everyone recommended the fried chicken ($12) on the interwebs, so that was a no brainier, as was the copious amount of BBQ-ed meats.  So we tried the three-way platter with hot links, brisket and pork spare ribs ($20). Both entrees came with two sides and they were all fairly large portions too. Normally one of the sides I default to is greens, but with the bumper crop of kale and mustard greens in our garden, I’m a bit over them.  So I tried the candy yams, sweet corn, green beans and potato salad.

In my opinion, one of the earmarks of good BBQ is the sauce that comes with it. This sauce was just right, not too spicy, not too vinegary and not too boring. We were informed by our waiters that the brisket had just come out of the smoker and was ready to eat. Brisket is my favorite type of BBQ, with ribs a close second. The links could have used a bit more spice and reminded me a bit like the texture of a hot dog. The ribs were falling off the bone as they should be, and not too fatty as spare ribs can sometimes be (trust me, I know ribs, I used to work at a Tony Roma’s). I’d usually get baby back ribs because they are a bit more tender, but that’s not an option here.

Most of the sides were OK, albeit probably prepackaged or out of a can. The one that was inedible in my opinion was the candied yams. They were WAY too sweet, and had a overpowering cinnamon taste. The corn seemed like frozen corn with butter, and the beans were mushy, but at least had an interesting flavor that I can’t describe.  We took the yams home and made a mini pumpkin pie-type dessert, so they were saved that way. 

The fried chicken was perfectly cooked and there was a lot of it. I didn’t get to eat too much of it since there were many other animals on my plate to eat, but I was reassured that it was in fact delicious.

The restaurant was empty except for one other table, but it was early on a Wednesday, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.  I did notice they do a lot of take out, and thinking back, remembered that most of the places we’ve visited do an amazing take out business.  I guess us San Leandroids just love eating in our own dining rooms, or in our back yards. 

The one thing that still blows my mind is the use of styrofoam containers for everything!  I though we had all learned that styrofoam is bad for the environment.  It might be an artifact from the past when styrofoam was way cheaper than anything else, but now with all the eco products out there, it’s only about 5 cents more expensive for a eco takeout box.  I’d love to see this paradigm shift in the Dro-Joe. 

Oh! This just in, apparently San Leandro City Council expressed support of a styrofoam ban at its meeting last night about this issue! Yay!

Back to House of Soul Food, the decor is cute, I just love the fake flowers all over the place. Don’t ask me why, maybe they remind me of grandma’s house or some other nostalgic memory. The tables were super nice, they looked brand new and nicer than a lot of other restaurants I’ve been to. The whole restaurant was clean, which can be difficult when serving sticky BBQ sauce on almost everything. The staff was friendly too, joking around but not being intrusive at all.  Much appreciated.

Bottom line is this is good BBQ, and not super expensive either (especially compared with my old favorites back in Berkeley).

—-

New feature!  I’ve also decided to map out how far I’ve traveled to get to these places, and back home again.

House of Soul Food: 1.0 miles round trip

Total traveled: 4.1 miles

Originally posted at: broadmoortobayfair.tumblr.com