-Leslie Sbrocco: Hawaiian comfort food in Benicia... -The soy sauce, the umami, the sweetness.

-Sbrocco: Trattoria classics in Berkeley... Everything is better with butter.

-This type of butter?

Yes.

-Erin Hurd: Yeah!

-Sbrocco: And Malaysian curries in Pleasanton.

-It's like the Malaysian embassy of the Bay area.

-Sbrocco: Just ahead on "Check, Please!

Bay Area."

-Aurum Kathuria: You can tell when someone likes it based on how much of a sip they take.

That was a sip!

-It's so good!

-Hi, I'm Leslie Sbrocco.

Welcome to "Check, Please!

Bay Area," the show where Bay Area residents review and talk about their favorite restaurants.

We have three guests and each one recommends one of their favorite spots, and the other two go check them out to see what they think.

Joining me at the "Check Please!"

table today, are Senior Director Dashini Jeyathurai, healthcare administrator Rashawn Moore, and facilities coordinator Erin Hurd.

Welcome, everyone.

-All: Thank you!

-Sbrocco: Are you ready?

-We're ready.

-We're so excited to dive in.

-Sbrocco: Let's do it.

Alright, It's time to say aloha to Erin's favorite lunchtime hangout.

Offering island classics like fresh poke, spam musubi, and loco moco just steps from the beach, it's the perfect place to satisfy her Hawaiian comfort food cravings.

Located along the waterfront in Benicia, It's Got Plate Lunch.

♪♪ -I have your loco moco!

-Thank you!

-Myk Bigornia: The aloha spirit in Hawaii is probably like no other place in the world.

How are you guys doing?

You brought the whole baseball team!

We try to represent more of an island vibe.

-Happy birthday!

-Man: Happy birthday!

-Myk: Slower paced, more relaxed.

Got Plate Lunch is a restaurant that brings back the flavors of Hawaii that my wife and I grew up with.

-Plate lunch is a multicultural food.

Japanese, Chinese, Filipino... -Myk: It's derived from the days of the plantation workers, all different ethnicities, eating lunch together, and they didn't know how to communicate.

But through lunch, they did.

-Jamie: Plate lunch is two scoops of rice, meat entree, and mac salad.

Everything we make is fresh.

-Myk: Fresh ahi poke... -Bath time, kimchi.

Our Kalua pork and cabbage is smoked, slow cooked for 24 hours.

-This is my favorite.

-Jamie: So, it's flavorful, moist, and what we say in Hawaii... That means, like, it literally... -Delicious.

-Delicious!

-Myk: I love to eat the loco moco.

I eat it five or six times a week.

Ground beef patties seared on the flat top placed on top of rice with two over-easy eggs, and then smothered in our own proprietary brown gravy.

It's fabulous.

[ Chuckles ] It's fabulous.

I'm getting hungry thinking about it.

♪♪ In Benicia, I think there's three or four restaurants with a true water view, and everybody tells us that we've got the best view.

-Jamie: We get to see the sunset every night, so be comfortable and enjoy the view and enjoy the food.

-Alright, Erin.

Got Plate Lunch started out as a food truck.

Is that how you first found it?

-Hurd: Actually, no.

I actually found them at their brick and mortar store.

I was just craving some really good Hawaiian food that wasn't a chain restaurant, and had those comfort foods that I look for.

My favorite dish is absolutely, hands down, the ultimate loco moco that they have because it is so simple, yet so delicious.

Two scoops of rice and two hamburger patties on the ultimate, actually, and two pieces of spam, and then two runny eggs, and then you top that with some brown gravy and a side of mac salad.

And it is just all the calories, but all delicious.

-And a carb lover's delight.

-Absolutely!

-Sbrocco: Carb lover's delight.

-I'll usually start with a salad, I was going to be basic with, like, a regular garden one, but I'm like, no, let's not be basic.

What I had was the grilled pineapple salad and three different types of leaves, green leaves, and then they just grill the pineapple and then they make, like, a garlic pineapple vinaigrette.

I even asked them, I was like, "What do y'all put in here?"

And they were like, "We can't tell you!"

And then, I'm tasting it, I'm like, "I know exactly what that is."

So, I'm going to try to make it at home.

I haven't yet, but it was so good.

I love the smokiness from the grilled pineapple.

I've never had that on a salad before and it was amazing.

And then, I had the loaded tater tots.

-Jeyathurai: Ooh, I got that, too!

-Moore: So good, with the smokiness from the meat, and it had, like, honey mustard sauce, but then it had a lot of tang and really upped it.

-Jeyathurai: I loved how crispy those were.

I like the salad idea next time.

-You go straight for the loco moco.

-Oh, I absolutely do.

I mean, I do have, there's the spam muwasabi, and so, that has a actual wasabi aioli that they put on top.

Sbrocco: That's a little creative twist, right?

-Hurd: Yeah, it has that little bit of kick, but not too much, from the wasabi.

and it's amazing.

-I got the Portuguese sausage musubi.

It was so good, not like normal musubi.

It comes with the rice on the top and the bottom, has a little bit of a sweet teriyaki sauce in the middle, and then, it's wrapped in seaweed.

The Portuguese sausage has a little bit of a smokiness and the sweetness, and it's just really, really delicious.

-Hurd: I also had Da Mixed Plate, which has Portuguese sausage, there's spam, and then there's also some teriyaki chicken, and it's just perfectly grilled, loaded with the soy sauce, the umami, the sweetness.

And that chicken just has the perfect amount of char on it to where it gives it flavor, but not bitterness.

-I also had an udon noodle dish which came with vegetables.

We had cabbage, peppers...

This one was a little more on the sweet side for me.

I would love something a little bit more savory, but we took it home, added some hot sauce to it, and got it to my flavor.

-Unbelievable.

-I do get the saimin, which is very Hawaiian, traditional.

It is just like this big bowl of these egg noodle saimin, and it has slices of spam.

It just has all of this umami and flavor.

It's just so delicious, it takes me right back to Hawaii.

-Sbrocco: And they do have sort of Hawaiian drinks, and Hawaiian, you know... -Moore: Yes.

-Hurd: Yeah.

The last time that I went, they had something called the sun mosas.

-Sbrocco: Ooh!

-Hurd: So, they had a flight of mimosas that were mixed with different flavors of wine.

-Sbrocco: That'll really put you in the island mood.

-Hurd: Oh, yes.

Absolutely!

-Jeyathurai: I got one of the ube mochi desserts, which was really delicious.

I brought my 7-year-old with me, and so there had to be a dessert ordered at the end of the meal.

One of the things that I noticed about this place was that it reminded me so much of, like, restaurants that I'd gone to in Hawaii.

It's a really great, like, chill island vibe restaurant, which was great.

-I went there right when it opened, and within the next 20 minutes, it was packed.

And a place that's so far away and by itself, you wouldn't expect it to be super, super packed, but they was coming in.

-Alright!

If you would like to go to Got Plate Lunch, it's located on West 9th Street in Benicia, and the average tab per person without drinks is around $25.

Rashawn's a culinary school grad who dreams of having his own restaurant one day.

In the meantime, he's happy to perch right up at the counter at his neighborhood trattoria, watching the chefs prepare all the classic Italian fare his heart desires.

Located in Berkeley, it's Via del Corso.

-Massimo Orlando: Via del Corso is a neighborhood restaurant.

Come in, relax, and just have a great time.

-Via del Corso is a boulevard in Rome.

A lot of the regions of Italy have their names on the streets that come in to that boulevard.

It's a landmark in Rome.

When we opened the restaurant, we thought we didn't want to just cook one region.

-But all over Italy.

-Peter: We've been working together for about 22 years.

He's from Emilia-Romagna.

My grandfather was from Tuscany.

So, we argue about seasoning... -My dad from Sicily.

I do a lot of southern Italian cooking, as well.

My cooking started when I was a really young age from my grandma.

We used to make ravioli during holidays.

The love of food, that's how we started.

-These are beautiful truffles.

We use products that a lot of people cut corners on.

Prosciutto di San Daniele that's 20 years, not 10 years.

Burrata that's made by a women-owned cooperative in Puglia and it's just to die for.

Real aceto balsamico tradizionale.

We make pasta uovo, which is fresh egg pasta.

One of the signature dishes is tagliatelle al ragù.

People call it bolognese, but it is not bolognese.

It's a ragù from the countryside of Emilia.

-Massimo: My grandma used to cook me tagliatelle.

-Peter: People go nuts for that.

We really like that dish.

-Can't take that off of the menu.

-Yeah, that's right.

Our wine list is exclusively Italian, which is rare in California.

Wine is part of the meal in Italy.

We had to have a glass of wine before we left the table when we were 7 years old in my family.

The biggest comments we get from people is that it's such a great vibe.

People tell me that almost every night.

-It's a small place, and yes, it's a little bit loud, but the food speaks for itself.

-Peter: We're trying to really ring the real memory bells of Italy cooked here in Berkeley, California.

-Fantastic.

That's fantastic.

-Alright, Rashawn, is this the next best thing to, you know, being on a trip to Florence or something?

-Absolutely.

Might even be better.

[ All laugh ] -You have to deal with the hassle of the plane.

-Yeah, exactly.

No plane rides.

Being born and raised in Berkeley, you know, I've watched a bunch of different restaurants come and go.

This one has been there for years.

Great chefs, great service, great wine.

-What do you order first?

-So, I always start with the lattuga, and it's almost like a Caesar salad, but heavy on the citrus and the lemon.

It also comes with the parmesan cheese on top.

This romaine lettuce is really crisp.

There's not a wilted leaf in there at all.

Very lightly dressed.

It's perfect.

-Alright.

Did you start with the salad?

-I did not start with the salad, but I did have the burrata and prosciutto.

-Sbrocco: You can't go wrong with that!

-Hurd: You cannot, it's drizzled with this aged balsamic that's sweet, yet has a little bit of tang to kind of balance out the creaminess of the cheese.

And then, the saltiness of the prosciutto.

It's a healthy portion, too.

I split it with my dining partner, and we just devoured that.

-What did you start with?

-I think it's a trend.

Erin and I are not starting with the salads.

[ All laugh ] I got the crostone.

This came with a mound of tuna, beans, and I love the amount of herbs that they had on this because it gave it a really citrusy, bright flavor and that really gets your palate going.

-Where did you move to after that first delicious burrata?

-I had the tagliolini alle vongole.

It was just filled with so many manila clams, and the fresh pasta was to die for.

It was absolutely my favorite.

Just had all this, like, buttery, winey sauce.

Definitely a shareable amount.

You know, we had expressed that we were going to be sharing our dishes a little bit, so they were more than happy to bring over an extra plate, some extra forks, just extremely hospitable.

-Sbrocco: So, good service.

-Absolutely.

-My go-to dish is the pollo alla sostanza.

It's a chicken breast cooked in brown butter, and it's perfectly crisp on the outside and very, very juicy in the middle.

-Jeyathurai: You know when you're at a Mexican restaurant and the fajitas come out and there's the sizzling sound -- that had that effect because you bring that out and everyone looks at what you're ordering.

-Moore: And there's that nuttiness that you get with the brown butter.

And it's perfect for that bread, as well.

-Everything is better with butter.

-Yeah.

This type of butter?

Yes.

-Yeah.

And it comes with a slice of lemon.

So, you can just squeeze that right on top, and it really balances it.

-Moore: Another dish I had was the braised oxtail stuffed ravioli.

It has, like, really great savory flavors complemented by white wine sauce.

Another one of those dishes that people are like, "I want that," you know, from the other table.

It was great.

-Jeyathurai: And I also got another pasta dish, something called torchio, and this was a really interesting pasta, I'd never had it before, and it came with leeks, as well as chanterelle mushrooms.

But what surprised me was the butternut squash in there.

So, it added this sweet flavor that I wasn't really expecting with the pasta.

But another one that I really enjoyed.

-I had a seasonal mocktail that they had listed.

It was a Bellini-type cocktail and it was so delicious.

-Moore: The bartender's really knowledgeable, too, so you can go up to him and just be like, "Hey, these are my flavors," and Justin literally will put a whole bunch of ideas in your head and you're like, "Whatever, I'll try everything."

-Now, did you have room for dessert?

-Absolutely.

-Sbrocco: Okay, good.

-Hurd: I had the affogato -- vanilla, so I went classic.

And the little shot of espresso, I love that it came separate because I was able to pour a little bit on, eat a little bit, pour a little bit more, finish it, but then I definitely drank out of that little dessert bowl.

-Sbrocco: So good.

-Hurd: It was so good!

I also had the creme caramel di zucca, and it was so delicious.

It was like this pumpkin cheesecake sprinkled with crushed Amaretti cookies, as well as two big pieces of Amaretti cookies right next to it, beautiful dessert, and it was such a perfect ending to our evening.

-Sbrocco: And do you feel like, you know, it was a reasonably priced restaurant for the atmosphere and for the quality of the food?

-Absolutely.

Especially for the standard of service that they provide and the quality of food.

That was, like, a perfect date night kind of restaurant.

-What I noticed when I walked in immediately was just how buzzy the vibe of the restaurant was.

It just was like a really warm energy that translated through the whole restaurant, so I loved that.

-And it saves you the money of going to Italy.

-Right!

[ All laugh ] -Hurd: We love that.

-Yeah.

-If you would like to try Via del Corso, it's located on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley, and the average dinner tab per person without drinks is around $70.

It's been more than 20 years since Dashini moved to America from her native Malaysia, and in all that time, she's dreamt of finding a restaurant offering authentic flavors of home.

Luckily, she's finally found a spot that serves up all her childhood favorites.

Located in the heart of Pleasanton, it's Curry Leaves Bistro.

♪♪ -Curry Leaves Bistro is a Malaysian restaurant specializing in Malaysian street food.

Mee rebus.

I'm originally from an island called Penang.

You ask any Malaysian, you know, "When someone says Penang, what is the first thing that you say?"

They'll say "Food."

We like our gravy a little bit thick.

Truth be told, we eat seven or eight times a day.

It's just the way we are.

♪♪ Defining Malaysian food is not an easy task.

There are so many cultures and influences from all over the world.

You want something savory, something sweet, you want something spicy, there's something for everyone.

Curry leaf is something that all cultures in Malaysia primarily use.

The Indian, Chinese, Malay, and the Peranakan cultures, they all use curry leaf.

One of my favorite things to cook is char koay teow.

It is a flat rice noodle similar to Pad Thai.

Char koay teow is a favorite of everybody in Malaysia.

Drinks are part of the Malaysian cuisine, but you know, our most popular item, which is the teh tarik, which is literally translated to "pulled tea."

We mix them and cool them down by pouring from one cup to the other cup as high as possible.

-Group: Wow!

[ Cheers and applause ] -Thank you.

-Don't change a thing.

-Okay, okay, okay!

The best compliment that I can get from any Malaysian who comes in here is like, "Wow, this is just like going back home to eat.

Now, I don't have to fly back to eat."

Your regular.

It makes me feel good that I've done justice to our national food and to my favorite dish.

♪♪ -So, Dashini, it's been a challenge for you, hasn't it, to find real Malaysian cuisine?

-It has been, I tend to try and get the adjacent cuisines like Thai food, et cetera, but it's not the same, and I've been on the hunt, and I finally chanced upon Curry Leaves Bistro and lo and behold, it's like the Malaysian embassy of the Bay Area.

[ All laugh ] -You found it!

You found it!

-Jeyathurai: I found it, yeah!

-And what is it?

What do you, you know, draws you in the door?

-Oh, the dish that brings me into that restaurant is char koay teow, which is a childhood favorite.

And char means, sort of, stir-fried.

And it's rice noodles cooked with soy sauce, bean sprouts, green chives in there, tons of shrimp, which I love.

This real flavor from the wok that it's cooked in that sense of, I think it's called wok hei, and that is something that char koay teow from Curry Leaves Bistro has in spades.

So, that's one of my go-tos.

-And what did you start with when you went in?

-So, as a starter, I had the roti canai, which is, like, the roti crispy bread paired with the curry.

And I have a weakness for, like, layered crispy bread... -Who doesn't?

-Right, exactly.

And it was so buttery.

And then, you just dip it right in that curry, and it was so good.

-Super delicious to just dip it inside the curry that had a piece of chicken in it that was an actual piece of chicken with a bone still in it.

[ All laugh ] -Right!

-Like, it was great bang for your buck for just this one plate.

And I also had the mee goreng, and it is kind of like a Chinese chow mein.

That's what it reminded me of.

It came with a healthy portion of shrimp, and calamari, and just beansprouts for crunch, and green onions for freshness.

And it was just a delicious, delicious meal.

-So, one of the dishes that I really like to also get there is called nasi kandar.

And that means carried rice, and it was brought to Malaysia by Indian immigrants who would sell rice on wooden poles.

And so, that rice dish comes with a beautiful curry as well as a side of pickles.

So, it's a nice complement to the spiciness of the curry.

Always comes with some kind of protein, I get it with chicken, but my daughter is vegetarian and so she got it with tofu and really enjoyed it.

And we got something called mee rebus, which was a noodle dish that came with a potato gravy.

-Jai: It's a sweet potato based gravy.

-Sounds dodgy, but it's actually very good.

And on top of it was a couple of crispy shrimp.

It has udon vibes, but yes, I went to town on that, loved it.

-Did you have any of those dishes?

-I didn't have any of those dishes.

-Sbrocco: But now you know.

-Yeah, exactly.

And I will get everything that you just said.

-Next time!

I also got a fried chicken, kind of traditional fried chicken, but spiced very well.

-We double fry our chicken so that it is moist and crispy.

-Moore: And yeah, it's really simple, but it's really crunchy.

-And is that a Malaysian traditional dish or no?

-We love fried chicken.

[ All laugh ] You know, I mean, in Malaysia, you could get fried chicken for breakfast.

So, you can eat it any time of the day.

-Moore: It was the spices that really got me.

You know, it's not seasoned how a normal fried chicken... -That's right.

-Moore: You know?

It definitely had the seasons from Malaysia.

Then, I got a rose drink.

Very smooth, almost like horchata vibes.

-Yes!

Bandung?

-Bandung, yes, exactly.

It was so different because I've never had a floral drink.

I got a large, and it was just like, I have to drink all of this.

-So, I tried it, and I'm not much of a floral kind of person, but you know who drank all of it was my 3-year-old!

[ All laugh ] She said, "Ooh, it's a pink, pretty drink!

And it tastes sweet and delicious!"

-And did you feel like the portions were big?

Just right?

-Decently sized.

-Absolutely.

-Did you bring any home or did you eat it all there?

-I ate it all.

[ All laugh ] -Well, it's a real discovery, isn't it, for everybody.

-Jeyathurai: I love that!

-And hard for you to find!

It was hard for you to find.

-Jeyathurai: It was hard to find but now we've got our spot.

[ All laugh ] -If you would like to try Curry Leaves Bistro, it's located on Las Positas Boulevard in Pleasanton, and the average tab per person without drinks is around $25.

And now, reporter Cecilia Phillips samples South Asian treats and beats in the heart of San Francisco.

-Bhangra and Beats is an all-ages free night market that celebrates South Asian culture through food, through music, through dance.

-Lift them up and walk!

-Phillips: I heard that tonight's celebration was especially important because this is the first time that San Francisco has put on an event that celebrates Diwali.

-Vicki: Yes, Diwali is a time to reflect, come together, give thanks, and to remember the beautiful things in life.

There is such a massive population of South Asians in the Bay Area, and to be able to have their culture celebrated at a platform like this is absolutely amazing.

♪♪ -New Delhi Restaurant is a mixed immigrant family legacy business serving the most freaking Dey-licious Indian food.

-Phillips: Dey-licious.

A play on your last name, Dey?

-Ranjan: Absolutely.

-Phillips: Okay.

-Ranjan: This is called joy bomb.

A rice ball covered with panko batter and fried.

And you will be so joyful, you will tear up.

-Oh, okay, alright!

Somebody grab me a tissue.

-Then you can do, screw the light bulb, pet the dog.

-Is that the dance?

-Dance move!

-So, it goes like... Like that?

-Yeah!

There you go!

-Alright, so I've danced.

Now, can I eat?

-Yes!

-I do feel myself starting to tear up.

-Oh, yeah.

-That's beautiful.

-[ Chuckles ] -Wahjeewah specializes in Indian barbecue street food.

-So, Wahjeewah, what does the name of your business mean?

-It's an expression, when you eat something amazing, you're like, "Wow, that's fantastic."

When you're satisfied, your heart speaks like "wahjeewah."

This is the lamb kebab.

We wrapped it in a naan bread that we cooked fresh here.

It has some pickled onions, some chutney on the side for some heat.

-Phillips: Here we go!

Honestly, like, the lamb is so tender.

Oh, my gosh, this is wahjeewah for sure!

-Barfia is a unique Indian confections and dessert business.

Barfia's almost like a fudge, but it's not made out of chocolate.

It's made out of dried milk powder, ghee, and sugar.

Here we have khoya, raspberry white chocolate, peanut butter, ube, Oreo, mango coconut, pistachio, celebration cake, and orange blossom.

-Happy Diwali!

Here we go, okay!

-Here we go.

Phillips: It's a really light, very subtle flavor of pistachio.

Mm, delicious.

-Delicious, right?

-That's so good!

-Aurum Kathuria: Naya Delights is all about the love of rose.

And these days, I find a way to infuse it into every little thing I can.

Here, we've got our rose chai -- oat milk, chai latte, and then we add some rose water and rose syrup to really give it that rose flavor.

We top it with crushed pistachios and fresh rose petals.

-You're in pink.

I got a little pink here.

And a pink straw.

Wow, you're really on brand.

[ Both laugh ] -[ Laughs ] -Oh, my gosh, it's so light.

I want more.

[ Cheering ] ♪♪ -I have to thank my fabulous guests on this week's show, Dashini Jeyathurai, who shared a taste of Malaysia at Curry Leaves Bistro in Pleasanton, Rashawn Moore, who can't get enough of the butter-basted chicken at Via del Corso in Berkeley, and Erin Hurd, lover of the loco moco at Got Plate Lunch in Benicia.

Join us next time when three more guests will recommend their favorite spots right here on "Check, Please!

Bay Area."

I'm Leslie Sbrocco and I'll see you then.

Cheers!

Did you have fun?

[ Glasses clinking ] -Moore: Yeah.

-Absolutely.

-All: Cheers!

-Hurd: Whoo-hoo!

-Bhangra and Beats is a brainchild of Into the Streets, a non-stop Bhangra.

It's so time to come together, eat good food, dress up in beautiful clothing and just celebrate being together.

-Phillips: And dance!

-Woman: And dance.

-Can you teach me, like, one dance move so I have something... -Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Okay.

So, clap, clap, dance.

-Oh, my gosh!

Am I doing Bhangra?

-You're doing Bhangra!

[ Both laugh ] -All else fails, you just have to bounce your shoulders.

-Just bounce the shoulders.

I can do that.