OSHA THAI RESTAURANT

Mary:

I've eaten lunches at Osha before, and always enjoyed the food and the decor, especially the amount of light that enters from the wall-to-wall front windows. It gives the place a clean, crisp feeling. Someone has been overdoing the decorations (flowers and birds on the metal cut-out panels on the wall). It looks a little kitschy now, downgraded from elegant artistic.
I decided to eat off the appetizer menu. It seemed easier than trying to pick out an entree--mainly because they all sounded so good. So I had the lettuce wrap (Jesse did too, so I'll let her describe the ingredients.) The wraps were very good. The stir fried chicken and minced veggies were blended with a great-tasting sauce. The leaves of the lettuce were crisp and rounded so they were easy to fill and eat from. No juice and tidbits dripping down my fingers and arms. 

The Beef Wasabi Rolls were formed around julienned carrots and celery, with mint, wrapped with sliced grilled steak on watercress with a rich wasabi sauce poured over the top. I liked them, but they didn't quite make it to perfection. Something to do with the sauce and how it didn't blend into the other ingredients. I liked the bite and flavor of the wasabi sauce, and the best part was eating the watercress at the bottom which had been sitting in the sauce. It was more pungent and hot than what remained on the meat. The sauce on the saturated cress came just shy of opening up my sinuses. Just how I like it.

Shirley:
Osha is good corporate Thai food.  There are a bunch of them, so consistency is key. I always appreciate the thought and care given to please the eye in all their locations. Not sure I like the current trend in many restaurants toward hard surfaces that amplify sound, and I miss the dark grey mesh that separated the wall decor from the dining area. It created a subtle suggestion of depth that the black adorned grates lack. And the touch of whimsy of the "butt" chairs always tickles my fancy.

I enjoyed my meal a lot. It may be my southern background, but good peanut-butter makes me happy. So I chose two dishes that were "peanutty" and very satisfying.
The Osha Fresh Spring Rolls with tofu (you can get shrimp instead) had carrots, cilantro, lettuce, mint, all very fresh, and wrapped in rice noodle skins. The sweet & sour peanut dipping sauce was thick and tangy, with a tiny bit of heat.

The Beef Praram with peanut curry sauce and steamed spinach was served with rice. There were other options for meat (tofu, shrimp, pork, chicken) and options for rice (Brown Rice, Coconut Rice, Ginger Rice, Curry Rice or Sticky Rice). It's fun to mix and match. The beef was tender, the spinach sauted just right, bright green just barely wilted. A few slices of brocolli stem were thrown in there it give it some crunch. Altogether, a nice, well-balanced dish. And, of course, the peanut sauce was just what I needed.
The staff was pleasant and helpful. Some language confusion made for a slight challenge, but not enough to greatly hinder communication. Try asking a waitperson "What's in the shrimp-paste?" if you want to kill some time.
So, we are back to acknowledging Ray Crock for the concept of standardized menu and food prep. Osha is a chain, but one of the good ones. Give it a try on a medium-exciting day.

Jesse:

   I love the interior here. Very restive and a bit of elegance and whimsy. An orchid flower is served with most dishes.

     As usual I started by informing our waitstaff of my food allergies to see if anything I was interested in would be ok for me to eat. I was heartened by the statement at the bottom of the menu: Please advise us of any food allergies before ordering. Perfect, they are aware and knowledgable of food allergies.

     They turn out to be very helpful but as Shirley hinted at, there is a language barrier here. Their first language is not English so I could not be 100% sure that my food was really void of allergens. Here's an example. I was interested in their crab fried rice which contained shrimp paste. When I asked what was in the shrimp paste, I was told it was in the crab fried rice, and around in circles we went as if we were in an Abbott and Costello skit. 

     

So we decided on the Lettuce Wrap with Wok-fried minced chicken, red & green onion, cilantro, mint, lemongrass in sweet chili paste served with lettuce for $9.95. I asked for medium hot chili without soy sauce. It was good but had no heat at all and was pretty bland. Fish sauce and chill oil didn't even help too much.

     I also ordered the Crab Fried Rice, with crab claws & shredded crab, shrimp paste, green peas, carrots, egg, onions, garlic, cilantro & green onions for $14.95. No soy sauce and medium chili. It was even more bland and unimproved by liberal doses of chili oil and fish sauce. I would not order that dish again. Too expensive for too much bland. 

     The interior of the bathroom is similar in tone to the main dining area. Restive and a bit elegant. I love their floor tiles made to look like river stones.

Ratings: 1-5 stars. 5 being tops

Food: 3.5 stars 

Bathroom: 3.5 stars

Ambiance: 3.5 stars

     I would eat here again but probably just for a lunch. I would not come here for a big, celebratory meal. Their food isn't quite good enough for that.

OSHA THAI RESTAURANT Mission Street

				OSHA THAI RESTAURANT Mission Street Welcome to Osha Thai Restaurant on Valencia
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La Rondalla

Shirley:
Ah, La Rondalla, your history and reputation inhabit a friendly space in my memories. I used to eat regularly at your old incarnation, waited patiently through your remodel and drama and finally ate in the clean, spacious place you have become. Your food is great but I have some issues with both the food and the environment.
My suspicion is that this restaurant went the way of the old Roosevelt's Tamale Parlor on Mission - same place, same name, but gentrified and fusioned by different owners. La Rondalla used to be a "mom's-cooking-in-the-kitchen" kind of place, nothing fancy, just standard Mexican fare. It used to be dark, dingy, even a little dirty, with so many layers of years of decorations that you almost missed the archival photos of dead animals and fish on the walls. Almost.
It is not that now. So, I will refrain from comparison.
The Burritos Mojados De Chile Verde Y Chile Colorado (two wet pork burritos of chile verde and chile colorado topped with sour cream) were delicious. The pork was cooked to perfection and each sauce was a distinct delight, yet complimented the other. It came with a little salad with the Mexican version of Thousand Island dressing; nothing to write home about, just a little crunch of iceberg. The sauces were deep and flavorful. So, good food. Not homey Mexican good, more upscale, modern good. 
As for the interior of the restaurant, it was cavernous, cold and loud. Even the warm colors and leftover St. Patrick's Day decorations (?) could not warm the place up. Sound ricocheted off the hard walls, ceiling and tile floors, so that any conversation had to be conducted in a shout. I cannot image what the sound level is like if the place is busy because it was pretty empty when we were there and we left soon after eating, just so we could talk to each other.
So, if you want some good almost-Mexican food, it is a great place to eat. But do not go if you are nostalgic for the old La Rondalla because it has gone through a metamorphose into something not better, not worse, just different. I actually resent establishments that are trying to attract folks back to something that no longer exists. I would prefer they be open about their new interpretation of an iconic destination and not try to pass themselves off as something they are not.
Eat, drink and be merry

Mary:

I’ve been hearing about La Rondalla for a long time. It’s been shut for about ten years and whenever we walked past it’s empty self, I wondered what would become of that site. So it’s opened again, same site, same name and the manager is a relative of the original owner.

The food was excellent. I had Fajitas De Carne Asada: grilled skirt steak sautéed with tomatoes, onions and bell peppers served with sour cream, guacamole and pico de gallo. ($15.50) I ordered this dish because it reminded me of my favorite meal at the now defunct Mom is Cooking. I wasn’t disappointed. The meat was tender, and the vegetables were fully cooked and crisp…pulled off the heat at just the right moment. Very delicious. A sweet old gentleman passed by our table several times asking if everything was to our satisfaction. We muttered that it was, with our mouths full. I wish I had spoken more to him because I suspect that he was the original owner…but I was distracted by the good food. I tasted from the plates of my tablemates, and everything was good enough to consider ordering. 

The décor was bright, clean. The ding to this experience was the din. La Rondalla is large with high ceilings, so it’s almost impossible to hear the conversation at a small table for four. La Randalla is definitely a good place to savor good Mexican food. It’s definitely not a place to converse and expect to hear or be heard.

Jesse:

     At long last, La Rondalla is back!!!! WOOHOO!!  I am delighted to see what the new restaurant is all about. In my twenties, I spent many hours, after hours actually, sitting in one of their booths after a delightful evening of dancing on Valencia St. I loved the decor. Their food was so so, but the decor and patrons were great. So many layers of Christmas decorations sparkled everywhere. I loved it. I'm a big fan of Christmas and Mexican food, but not so much the photos of the hunters, fisherman and their dead animals that also decorated the walls in this establishment. But somehow, it all worked and I was very comfortable here to eat, lounge and  watch the  people go by. Yum.

     Well, the new place is very different. Same huge interior. The bar is in the main room now and there are still two large dining rooms with high ceilings. No more lovely funky decorations tho. I didn't really expect it, but I hoped it would have some character. This place looks like all the other modern Mexican food joints. A bit boring. Clean and boring. So, hopefully the food will be better. One good thing is the kitchen is open and you can watch while they cook. I always enjoy that.

     As my friends have mentioned, the high ceilings let the place get  LOUD really fast. It was maybe a third full and it was already too loud to hear each other. 

     So we speak really loud and commence to enjoy our food, which is really, really good. Much better than the old place. The waitstaff is knowledgable and helpful with food allergies. I ordered the Tampiquena, strips of tender beef sauteed in a home - made red salsa with sautéed potatoes (french fries), jalapeno chile, onion, tomatoes and bell peppers for $13.50. Yum. Would order this again even if I had to yell to do it.

     They have two bathrooms and one has a diaper table. Boring but pretty clean.

Ratings: 

Food: 3.7 stars out of 5

Ambiance: 3

Bathroom: 3

 

Herbivore

Jesse:       

     We thought we might have to skip this restaurant. Many of their entrees were made with soy, including the meatless meat dishes. But I decided to call first before we scratched them off our list. Hey, if Dosa could whip me up something to eat when most of what they serve includes coconut, then anyone could right? Wrong. 

     I call the restaurant, and start by just asking about soy and it took all of 10 seconds for them to tell me in a very bored tone that No, there was Nothing on their menu that I could eat. Hum, I got the distinct impression that they did not give a rat's ass about accommodating me.

     Farewell Herbivore, I'm glad I didn't get to know you.

Rating:  0