December 2010

Papa Johns has become our default pizza joint in the last 6 months. We find the pizza to be good enough (no worse than what you can find at most San Leandro pizzerias) and the fact that it's 1/2 a block away from our house, so we can easily pick it up and thus avoid a long wait (pizzas are usually ready in 20 minutes) and delivery charges is very attractive. They no longer have the great deal that they had when they opened, but they usually have a deal that makes the pizza substantially cheaper than regular menu prices. BTW, the deals online are usually (but not always) better than those on the printed menus.

June 2010 Review

As I mentioned in my last posting, a Papa John's Pizza joint has opened at the former Peewee's site. We were out of food last night, so we ended up checking it out. The conclusion: it offer mediocre pizza, but, right now, at an unbeatable price.

We got an x-large pizza, half with extra-cheese and ham, and half with a bunch of meats, cheeses and pineapple. The pizza dough was fine, not too chewy, tasty but not particularly so. The sauce was a bit sweet, but not overwhelmingly so. The cheese was fine, but not very flavorful. The main problem with the pizza is that Papa Johns puts the toppings underneath the cheese, which means that they slide off the pizza very easily, taking the cheese with them. So it's a bit messy to eat. In all, it tastes OK, but it wouldn't be my first choice if 1) it wasn't so cheap (right now) and 2) it wasn't just across the street from my house.

As for the prices, the regular prices are quite high. A 16" specialty pizza will cost you $21. But right now they have a deal where you can have such pizza for only $12. And, if you order an extra-large pizza at whatever cost, you get a free three-pack of It's It ice creams. So yeah, it'd be hard to find a better deal. Delivery, btw, is $2.

In conclusion, I'll probably order pizza from Papa John's while they are having this deal, but I won't when they stop. BTW, I ordered online and it worked perfectly.

Papa John's
2198 East 14th St.
San Leandro
510-483-7272
http://www.papajohns.com/

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

Anyone who lives in San Leandro and has the lowest appreciation for good food, cannot but decry the state of our local restaurants. There are only a handful of acceptable restaurants in town, and none of them ever change their menu, which makes them boring on my book.

But after reading last week's San Leandro Times poll, it's no surprise that good restaurants avoid San Leandro like the plague. The SLT asked five random San Leandrans what their favorite restaurant in San Leandro was. The answers? Wendy's, McDonald's, some unnamed taqueria on East 14th, Los Pericos (which I like) and Tsuru Sushi (which I don't think much of). Yeah....

I'm also very sad to report that the old space occupied by Peewee's Pizza on East 14th by Estabrook (a stonethrow away from my house), has re-oped as a Papa Johns, a cheap pizzeria chain :-( Peewee's was no gourmet restaurant, but it was a cool place - a little dive that had been a family business for decades, and made quite good pizza. It had character, it was locally owned, we liked it. Alas, it burned down to the ground a few years ago and the owners did not have insurance. We kept the hope that they'd be able to get the money somehow and rebuild, but alas, it didn't happen.

What is even more pathetic is that we'll at least try Papa John's pizza.

Last week was my 41st birthday and Mike and the kids wanted to take me out for dinner. They wanted to go to a nice place - and so did I so I could doll up with some of the make up I've gotten recently from listia - but I really didn't want to spend much money. Our local Le Soleil might have been a good choice, but I've gotten bored with their menu - which has barely changed over the last six years (though my kids still love it). Fortunately, Phnom Penh House came to mind. I'd been there several years ago (see review below) with a group of girlfriends and I'd really liked it. I also remembered it as quite affordable. It was a great choice - the restaurant is quite nice (one of these "Asian Bistros", as I like to call them, serving modern Asian food in stylish surroundings at affordable prices) - and the food was excellent. More importantly for us right now, they don't seem to have raised their prices almost at all in the last six years. This restaurant may very well be the best bargain in the Bay Area.

We started our meal by sharing a "Noum om Beng" ($8), a crepe stuffed with pork, shrimp, coconut and bean sprouts, served with one of those ubiquitous light sweet-sour sauces so common at Thai restaurants. It was amazingly good, specially with the sauce. The thick crepe was very light, with some sweetness to it and it reminded me of egg custard. The filling was so tasty that I even ate the bean sprouts (which I usually hate, these ones were smaller and less crunchy that the ones I usually find in my chow mein). The kids didn't really give it a chance. The portion is large enough to provide a light snack to four people, but it's so good that you may want to share it between two people instead :-)

I wasn't very original in ordering the "sachkor ang" ($9) as my entree. This dish consists of been charbroiled on skewers and served with the same sauce as the crepe. I order this at Le Soleil all the time, so I might have wanted to try something different. But I was glad I ordered it. The beef was very tender and had an amazing charbroiled flavor. Camila loved it and ate a whole skewer by herself. The portion was definitely good enough for one person.

Mike ordered the "moarn bouk" ($9), chicken wings stuffed with lemongrass, bean thread and meat. They were also very tasty. The filling was a bit mild, but the wings themselves were tender and had a great flavor on the skin. The kids liked them (sans filling).

Finally, we ordered the shrimp fried rice ($7.75) for the kids and this was a big hit. It had a light smokey flavor, plenty of shrimp and it was a pretty large portion.

We skipped dessert, as we had birthday cake at home.

In all it was a great birthday meal.

Phnom Penh Restaurant
3912 Macarthur Blvd
Oakland, CA 94619
(510) 482-8989
http://phnompenhhouse.com/
--
2005 Review

Going through my papers I just run across the take out menu of Phnom Penh Restaurant and realized I hadn't written a review. It's been a couple of months since my visit, and I cannot actually remember specifically what we had, so I figured I'd just make a general note on it. If/when we go back again I'll write a proper review.

Phnon Penh has been a Chinatown institution for many years, but they now have opened a second location on Macarthur Blvd. and had given it what I call the "Asian Bistro" look. The walls and furnishings are stylish and trendy and yet comfortable and inviting - making it the sort of place where you can take anyone for any reason. And with a menu with entrees starting at $7.25, you can afford to. The portions are in the small side, so you'll want to order appetizers.

Phnon Penh offers Cambodian cuisine which in California it can mean anything, but which you can understand as a fusion of Vietnamese and Thai. As I said, i don't remember what we actually ordered, but the four of us shared several entrees and appetizers. Everything was very good, though obviously nothing was that memorable. I do remember particularly enjoying the deep fried bananas with coconut and ice cream ($4). The dish was large enough to share among the 4 of us.

One word of caution. Phnom Penh's secret is out (a glowing review in the Express hasn't hurt) and the restaurant is pretty small. When we visited in a weekday night there were people waiting in line outside the restaurant to come in. But they do take reservations, so call ahead.

Phnom Penh Restaurant
3912 Macarthur Blvd
Oakland, CA 94619

I got a coupon on the mail today for the Manor Grill, announcing its re-opening. I haven't been there for years and I didn't know it was closed, but I thought I'd share the news with you.

Let me know how it is if you check it out.

This is just an update on local eateries:

- I reported a couple of weeks ago that my friend Mauro had had a terrible dinner experience at Boulevard Burger. Despite that, we went for dinner there last night, and our experience was definitely the opposite. For one, there were few people there (probably because it's a neighborhood joint and word of bad service spreads quickly), which meant that the staff definitely had time to do their jobs. Our dinner was served quickly, accurately and it was very good. I have no complaints at all.

- Marita's Sweet Potato Pie, a bakery which sells cakes and pies only, has taken on the space next door to it (owned by Marita's owner), previously occupied by Cornerstone Cafe. They are still doing the same operation, but now they also have tables and chairs. I didn't go inside so I don't know if they also serve drinks to go with those cakes, but I'll check it out soon.

- The Golden Tea Garden in Hayward has new hours. It's now open Tu-F 11-4 and Sa-Su 11-5 PM. I understand that as the place gets empty later in the afternoon, but as we usually linger for hours when we go to tea, I'll sure our next tea there is no later than 2 PM.

A couple of unrelated additional comments:

- Does anyone else wonder what goes on at Mae's Soul Food on Victoria Circle in San Leandro? I go by there every day and the place is not open for dinner and only erratically opened for lunch. Indeed, I'd say it's closed more often than open. I can't imagine how the restaurant can make any money, if indeed selling food is their main business.

- I went to the Alta Mira Club's tea and fashion show last week. The fashion show - styles of dance dresses since the 1860's to the 1970's - was great, even for someone like me who has no interest on fashion. The tea goodies weren't bad, the little sandwiches (tuna salad, egg salad and shrimp) were super cute and the cookies weren't bad, but the tea was close to undrinkable, incredibly weak and tasteless. It didn't help that they only had half-and-half, entirely too heavy for the watery tea, and no milk. The tickets were $25, a bit steep, but it was an enjoyable afternoon.

- I've gone to the lunch buffet at Aroma Cuisine of India in Castro Valley three times now. The first two times I thought the small buffet was great - but yesterday all the food was lukewarm (even though we got there around 11:45 AM). I hope this is not an indication that quality is going down at Aroma.

Today I received a phone call from my friend Mauro complaining about the terrible dining experience he had at Boulevard Burger last night. He went there for dinner with his family and children and had to deal with bad service, mixed orders and food that just didn't make it to the table. Apparently, it took 45 minutes for some of the burgers and an order of fries to come to the table - his own burger and the remaining orders of fries never arrived. Other people were having the same problems and the waitresses seemed to be lost as to which order belonged to which table.

He, of course, complained both to the cook and the servers, who basically had an attitude of "deal with it". There were no apologies whatsoever.

Boulevard Burger is very much of a neighborhood joint, and it really cannot afford to antagonize its patrons like that. My experiences there have been good, but I have heard complaints about service from other people as well. I'm still willing to go back there, I do like their burgers, but I'm a bit weary bout it now.

Boulevard Burger
1027 MacArthur Boulevard
San Leandro, CA 94577
(510) 632-3100
Original Review

Update 4/10

Our first visit to Rocky's Charcoal Grill wasn't great and I'm sad to report that our second one, three years later, wasn't that wonderful either. This time we ordered some of the complete burgers (the Goldenburger, which with sauteed mushrooms in a sourdough bun - $6 - and the vanyburger with bacon, sauteed onions and BBQ sauce). Neither burger was very tasty. The mushrooms in the goldenburger were a bit bitter though mostly mild, but still gave the burger an unpleasant flavor and texture. They probably should have been sauteed longer, maybe with more salt.

The other burger was better, but still didn't have much meat flavor and just lacked an all-around oomph.

We both liked the onion rings, however.

I doubt we'll go back.

--
Original Review

I'm disappointed to say that I was not impressed by Rocky's Charcoal's Grill, the latest restaurant to take the space on West Estudillo and Haste, next to the San Leandro History Museum. The burgers we had there were OK, but pedestrian - and the chose your own condiments and toppings (sans tomatoes, which you have to ask for separately) was not a winner in my book. If I knew how to properly dress a burger, I'd make it myself :) The patties themselves were on the dry side, and they had only a slight charcoal flavor, though they are cooked on a charcoal grill.

On the plus side, Rocky's only uses fresh beef not treated with artificial hormones and given an all-vegetarian diet. I'd like to see more restaurants do that. The prices are quite affordable, with 1/3 lb burgers starting at $4.25.

I'm sad to not be able to give Rocky's a good review. The people working there were very nice, and I do hope the business to succeed. I should also note, that other people have raved about the place, so I'd recommend you go and judge for yourself.

Rocky's Charcoal's Grill
300 West Estudillo Ave.
San Leandro, CA
510-351-6228

Yesterday I went to lunch with a friend at Ono Hawaiian BBQ in San Leandro. We go from time to time as it's close to our house, the food is good enough and not too expensive, specially if you use one of the coupons you get on the mail.

Yesterday we had their $5 value lunch, and it's really a good deal. It consists of a small portion of an entree (there are 5 choices, I think, mostly chicken and no fish), a scoop of rice and some veggie (cabbage, I think). It comes with a small fountain drink, but you can get free refills. I had the chicken katzu, which I really like, and the portion was a perfect size for lunch. In all, I think this may be the best lunch deal in town.

Ono Hawaiian BBQ
13808 E.14th St., Suite C
San Leandro, CA

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

Sunday Mika and I went out to brunch at Emil Villa's in San Leandro. It wasn't my first choice for breakfast, but we were without transportation and Emil Villa's is only a few blocks away from my home. We had an OK, but not very exciting experience.

I'm partial to sweet offerings for breakfast, and Emil Villa's offers french toast, pancakes and a pecan waffle. Both the french toast and pancakes come plain, no fruit toppings or anything special, and accompanied by corn syrup. I got the sourdough french toast ($7, I think) and was disappointed that the plate consisted of four, thick but small slices of french toast and nothing more. It was sort of expensive for the price, specially given how plain it was. Mika got the pancakes from the children's menu. The two pancakes were HUGE, one would have been more than enough for a child under 12. She liked that they were fluffy, but they were nothing special. She probably wouldn't order them again. I think they were $5.

Service was very good.

Emil Villa's is a very popular place for weekend breakfast, something which I cannot understand. Grant it, all the breakfast options in San Leandro are dismal, but both JD and Palomares Cafe in Castro Valley offer far superior breakfast options for about the same price.

Emil Villa's
1800 E 14th St
San Leandro, CA
(510) 351-7427

Original Review

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

A new restaurant will be opening sometime soon at the old La Cocina de Raquel location (which previously housed andy & joe's, Taqueria, Kolbeh and Casa Maria #2 - all in the last 7 years). The new restaurant will be called Ming Tasty and will, presumably, serve Chinese food. I guess 5 Chinese restaurants within a 1/2 mile radius is not enough).

The new owners are spending over $200K in remodeling the place (wow!) and I can only wish them luck - they must have quite a bit of faith that the East 14th by Parrot St. location is not actually cursed. But in reality, the fact is that all the previous restaurants failed miserably because they served lousy/expensive food. If Ming Tasty is actually tasty, I'm sure it'll do well.

Other restaurant news:

The owner of The Englander is opening a new wine & tapas bar next door. The restaurant will be called The Vine and should be opening soon. I can't wait to try it.

Castro Valley's Pyzano's Pizza will be opening a branch in San Leandro, at the current Sergio's Pizzeria location. This is indeed a good thing as Pyzano's is much better than Sergio's.

The owners of Planet Cafe (which may be moving) are opening a new restaurant, to be called Creekside Bistro, in Creekside Plaza (Davis St. x San Leandro Blvd.). Seems like a great location for nearby businesses.

Finally, today I noticed that a new restaurant has opened (or is opening) near the Safeway on Washington Ave. (at the old Taco Bell location, I think). It's called Ha Ra sushi. Now, there are already three sushi restaurants in the immediate area, but none of them is very good. Still, is there a market for yet another one?

I also know that one of the restaurants on McArthur Blvd. will likely be closing, but no word as to which one it is yet.

Yesterday I took my girls to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. We arrived just as noon, and we were all starving - so we decided to give Caffè Museo, its restaurant, a try. The food was fine, but given the high prices, I was somewhat disappointed and I'd probably not go back.

I had their short ribs burger ($13) which actually consisted of shredded short ribs in a bbq sauce, served with coleslaw in a burger bun. It came accompanied with potato chips. The "burger" was OK - it had a very slight short rib flavor, but it really wasn't very different from a pulled pork sandwich, given the overwhelming bbq sauce. I wouldn't order it again.

The kids shared a Margherita pizza ($9.50), which they were happy with - but they aren't that picky. The thin crust pizza was probably 6-8" wide, fine for two kids to share - but definitely expensive.

Service was very good and the food came quite quickly.

Caffè Museo @ SFMOMA
http://www.sfmoma.org/pages/restaurant
151 Third Street
San Francisco CA
415.357.4500.
Th - 10:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
F -Tu 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Marga's Reviews of Venue Restaurants

Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

Last Saturday we found ourselves on Market Street, near the Tenderloin, in San Francisco looking for a place to eat, and chanced upon Showdogs Gourmet Hot Dogs. As we had three non-gourmet kids on tow, I was a little reluctant to eat at a place where hot dogs cost about $6-9, but the kids were starving so we figured we might as well give it a try. I'm glad we did, while expensive, the hot dogs were very good and clearly made with good ingredients. They were a bit on the small side for the price, but perhaps it seemed so because we were all so hungry.

Aegea, a 6 yo, had a plain hot dog and while I didn't get to taste it, she thought it was very good. Of course, she's not that picky. Camila and Mika (5 & 8 yo) had the chicken apple sausage, which came covered with an apple chutney. They didn't like the chutney (it was too sour), but they loved the sausage itself. And indeed, they were very good - with fresh and distinctive flavors. Mika covered hers with ketchup, though, which I thought was a sin.

I had the wild board sausage, which came with some other type of chutney (this one was pretty sweet) and micro arugula. I also was very impressed. The sausage was perhaps a little mild in flavor, though the charred parts were bursting with it, and the chutney complimented the sausage very well. The arugula offered a refreshing contrast.

We also ordered onion rings, and they were some of the best we've ever had. They were thin, lightly crusted in a glutten free batter and sprinkled with salt - they were very flavorful.

In all, it was a very good meal and I'd recommend it for a hot dog treat.

Showdogs Gourmet Hot Dogs
1020 Market St
San Francisco, CA
(415) 558-9560

Marga's Restaurant Reviews

My friend Mauro recommended Havana Cuban Cuisine as a good place to go for drinks with my girlfriends. He'd been there for a work function and had really enjoyed the mojitos - they have a wide variety. I figured it was worth a try.

We went there last Saturday night, as an early girls-only St. Valentine's day celebration, and were very impressed both by the food and the drinks. It's moderately priced and I would definitely go back.

The restaurant itself is not very impressive. The narrow rectangle dining room has white walls decorated by immense photographs of Cuba life scenes. The photographs are very pretty, but it was hard to see more than one from our table. In all, I thought the place lacked ambiance.

The menu is somewhat limited and features small plates and entrees. We were there mostly for drinks, so we only explored the tapas menu. We loved almost everything we got.

We started with an arugula salad, nicely dressed with in a walnut vinaigrette and topped with shaved Manchego cheese and some type of roasted seed. We got a large portion, which was good for 3 people. We all really enjoyed it - the contrast between the bitter leafs and the salty cheese was very nice.

I ordered the Mixed Grill, which consisted in two smallish skewers each with a chunk of marinated skirt steak, chorizo and pork tenderloin. It came with a chili mango sauce and sofrito rice. The steak and chorizo were both very nice, with strong flavors. The pork tenderloin was less so, but that's pork for you. The rice was stupendous, specially eaten together with the sauce. I'd definitely order it again.

Aamani ordered the scallops, served with a ginger citrus sauce. We all enjoyed them, though I wouldn't say they were particularly special.

Paz had the grilled shrimp which came with a cilantro-lime sauce. The portion was quite generous and the sauce was wonderful, even I enjoyed it. I think the shrimp came with rice.

Finally, we all shared a large plate of garlic fries, served with a sweet guava chipotle sauce and a chimichurri aioli. The fries were thin, crisp and had just the right amount of garlic. The sauces were also delicious, neither was spicy but they complimented the fries very well. Indeed, the fries were so good that I couldn't help eating them with bread.

The bread, by the way, was also very good. It was fresh and reminded me of the bread back home.

As to the mojitos, we all enjoyed them. I had the pineapple one and was happy that it wasn't too sweet or too sour - it didn't taste much of pineapple, but it was good.

The service was efficient and friendly, the waitress warned me about an unpopular strawberry mojito, glasses were refilled frequently and plates removed quickly.

In all, I had a wonderful experience which I hope to repeat some time.

Update I just realized that you can get discounted gift certificates for Havana at restaurant.com. As usual, make sure to google "restaurant.com coupons" to see if you can get a discount. Sometimes you can get a $25 off GC for as little as $2.

Havana Cuban Cuisine
1518 Park Street
Alameda CA
510.521.0130
http://www.havanarestaurant.net/

Marga's Restaurant Reviews

When our kids were very little, we used to go to Porky's Pizza Palace for dinner quite a bit. It's a large and noisy restaurant, and the kids could play with the game machines in the back. They could be loud and nobody noticed.

As our kids grew up, and started having better restaurant manners, we stopped going to Porky's as much - and I think it'd been three years since our last visit when we headed back there yesterday (to eat out for education). It hadn't changed much - though the place was pretty quiet at 7 PM.

Porky's menu seems to have stayed the same. This time we shared a "giant" (16") half Porky's Combo half cheese pizza ($25) as well as an order of half spaghetti/half ravioli with meat sauce ($7). We also had an order of their onion rings ($4).

Porky's onion rings are among my favorite, their ranch sauce is just right (not too bitter, not too sour) and they are served hot. The portion wasn't huge, but neither was the price.

The girls and I liked the pasta. The ravioli had a nice filling, and the meat sauce (apparently homemade) had a satisfying old-fashioned flavor.

The pizza, however, was just OK. Neither Camila nor I liked the very salty taste of the cheese pizza. I'm not sure if the problem was that the pizza didn't have enough sauce to stand up to the salty cheese or what, but it just wasn't too tasty. The combo part was better, though again a bit too salty. Porky's is very generous with its toppings (perhaps too much), and the toppings do tend to slide off the crust.

Still, we had a nice meal and I'd like to go back again, specially if our snooty friends would come along ;-)

Porky's Pizza Palace
1221 Manor Blvd.
San Leandro, CA
(510) 357-4323
http//www.porkyspizzapalace.com

Original Review

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

Last night it was a friend's birthday and we went to Tanjia for dinner, a Moroccan restaurant located in Oakland. It was a good experience, though somewhat ruined by what we found out at the end of the evening.

Even though it was Saturday night, Tanjia was rather empty - there were only four or five parties other than us. I'm not sure why that is, it's reasonably priced ($23 - $25 for a 5 course dinner), and it serves reasonably good food. The belly dancer is not very good (nobody bothered to look at her), but with so few Moroccan restaurants in this area, that doesn't seem like a strong reason to keep away. Anyway, the place is definitely not popular.

Reviewers in Yelp have repeatedly complained about the bad service - but I thought the service was fine. The waitress was sort of sullen and at one point she was rude to the birthday girl - but we didn't have to wait for service, water was refilled promptly and the dishes came at good intervals.

The menu was pretty much the same as the one they had when I visited in 2006. It's a set menu that consists of a small bowl of lentil soup (which I enjoyed), pickled vegetables and an eggplant dip (yummy, but more about this later), bastilla (not the best, but good enough), an entree of your choice, and a dainty piece of fried banana as a dessert (very good, though oily). I had the lamb with honey, and I enjoyed it a lot. The lamb was tender and had a subtle sweet flavor that complimented it very well. Nobody else raved about their entrees, but I didn't ask them how they liked them so I can't quite comment. Desiree did say that she wasn't happy that the bird advertised as "chicken" was actually cornish hen (which is much more bony and hard to eat). I don't know why they aren't honest about what they are serving.

The whole menu is supposed to be eaten with your hands (they bring warm water at the beginning and the end to wash them with), but as some of our group objected, they brought forks and knives. Much easier for the bony lamb and chicken.

The low point of the evening was to find out that the half-eggplants, used as a base for the brochettes/kebabs, are actually re-used into other dishes. We asked if we could take them home, and the waitress was quite honest in saying that they chop them up, cook them and serve them. That, of course, is illegal and quite gross. They could have fallen on the floor or been licked by previous guests, for all you know. This practice make me question what else they do in the kitchen to save costs. Well, perhaps I don't want to imagine it. It's sufficient to say that I would not go back.

Tanjia
4905 Telegraph Ave.
Oakland
(510)-653-8691
http://www.tanjias.com/

Yesterday was the first Wednesday of the month, so we went out to eat for the San Leandro Education Foundation Eat out for Education program. Basically, on the first Wednesday of the month, participating restaurants donate 10% of the bill to San Leandro schools. You do need to bring up a coupon, though - so make sure that you print one next month!

Anyway, even though Ernie's Seafood Original Restaurant (open since 1953) is only a few blocks away from my house, we hadn't been there in many years. I'm not sure why, as we both love fish and chips, I guess it just doesn't come to mind. That's too bad because we had quite a satisfying meal there last night.

Ernie's is not much to look at. The small dining room features formica tables and metal/leatherette chairs. It looks like a diner and the walls are only decorated with 50's like posters and a big wooden fish. Don't come here for the atmosphere.

The menu is quite limited and includes basic seafood (prawns, scallops, cod, clams & calamari) as well as burgers, seafood and chicken sandwiches. For some reason they also have a NY steak sandwich and gyros. Prices are moderate, with most sandwiches in the $7-10 ratio and combination seafood platters in the low teens.

We all shared onion rings ($4.25) and a shrimp cocktail ($6.25) appetizer. The onion rings were just fine, I didn't care for the overly salty but not very flavorful breading. They were not oily, however. The tartar sauce wasn't that great either. The shrimp cocktail was, in the words of my husband, "awesome". There were plenty of small tasty shrimp and cocktail sauce. My 8-year old also liked it a lot. She was also very pleased with the clam chowder she had for dinner ($3.75 for a quite large "small" bowl). Nobody else tasted it, so I can't give you the adult review of it, but she was happy to take the leftovers for lunch at school today. Camila, my 5 year-old, had the chicken strips from the kids menu ($5.25). The portion was a good size and the strips were OK, good enough for a kid.

Mike and I shared the large fish & chips platter ($12.75) which comes with 8 sections of fish (cod). I found the fish and the breading to be quite tasteless - I don't think they were at all seasoned, and I didn't like the tartar sauce either, I think it lacked acidity. BUT, the fish was actually quite good when salted. The pieces were warm and plump, nicely cooked and not at all oily, and very satisfying. I'd definitely would order it again.

The fries, on the other hand, were quite mediocre.

Service was probably the low point of the evening. Despite the few people at the restaurant, the waitress seemed distracted and she forgot to bring Mika's clam chowder until we asked for it. She also never brought us the vinegar we asked for. But she was otherwise competent.

In all, it was a good meal and I'd return - probably on the first Wednesday of some month.

On a final note, according to their menu Ernie's has a banquet room for up to 40 people.

Ernie's Seafood Original Restaurant
13775 East 14th St.
San Leandro, CA
510-357-2246
M-Th 11 AM - 8:30 PM
F 11 AM - 9 PM
Su CLOSED

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

We have returned to Boulevard Burger many times since it opened in December 2009. I'm always pleased with its perfectly cooked, juicy burgers. Their fries and onion rings are fine, nothing exceptional, as are their shakes. The menu now has several kids' choices,including chicken strips, for about $5. In all, Boulevard Burger is a great place to grab a burger.

Note: Here is an account of a not-so-pleasant experience at BB

I've been looking forward to go to Boulevard Burgers since I first heard it was opening, back in August. But I don't go out to lunch that often, so the opportunity didn't present itself until today - when our empty stomachs and a very dirty kitchen convinced us that a lunch out was a good idea. And, indeed, it was. Both Mike and I were very pleaed with our burgers and are sure to go back.

Boulevard Burgers is the latest venture from restauranteur Mike Wiesner, the owner of Paradiso. It occupies the space on MacArthur Boulevard where Sonoma's had been until a few months ago. Sonoma's had attempted to be a "nice" restaurant, but I was never enthralled with its food - though I hope that my negative review wasn't a major reason why the venture failed. Boulevard Burgers is a much less ambitious endeavor. It's basically a semi-upscale burger joint. Upscale in that they use "grass-fed, grain finished California Angus which has no steroids, antibiotics, hormones or pesticides" and which comes from a nearby ranch - but not quite gourmet as the burgers they offer are quite basic; toppings include four kinds of cheese, avocado, mushrooms, grilled onions and little else. Don't come here expecting a Kobe burger with saute foie gras and homemade Dijon mustard (if that's what you want, Hubert Keller's Burger Bar in San Francisco will be more your thing).

The important thing, however, is that the burgers are good. Both Mike and I had ours medium-rare, and they were perfectly cooked and very juicy (so much so that they did manage to soak the bottom part of the bun, a problem easily solved by just turning the burger around :-). I had jack cheese, bacon and avocado on mine - and the combination was very good. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The burgers are between 6.5 and 7 oz, a good size for a good appetite; I couldn't finish mine. They range in price from $5 for a simple hamburger to $8 for the "Whole Enchilada", a burger with avocado, bacon, sauteed onions, mushrooms, jalapeños and cheese. I think the prices are quite reasonable for the quality of the food. The burgers come solo, but you can order fries ($2), sweet potato fries ($3.50) or onion rings ($3) on the side - we got the fries (a HUGE portion) and found them to be un-exceptional. Thin, crispy and tasty enough, but not addictive.

Boulevard also offers grilled chicken sandwiches and a portobello mushroom burger. There are also salads. We didn't try them.

At Boulevard Burgers you order at the counter and have the food brought to your table. Service was quick and very efficient, and the servers/counter people were very attentive.

In all, we had a very pleasant experience and I'd definitely return.

Boulevard Burgers
1027 MacArthur Blvd.
San Leandro, CA
510-632-3100
http://www.boulevardburger.com/
Open 11 AM - 9 PM

Marga's San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

The San Leandro Education Foundation, an organization that fundraises to support local school, has a new program called Eat Out for Education. On the first Wednesday of each month participating restaurants give 10% of sales to patrons who present an Eat Out coupon. This is a great opportunity to support both schools and local businesses at the same time.

This December we decided to go to Mama Lupe's Cocina Mexican Restaurant in Washington Manor simply because I hadn't been there before. Unfortunately the experience was less than stellar, and I don't think we'll be going back coupon or no coupon.

I should say at first, that my personal experience wasn't too bad. I liked the chips and salsa and my chimichanga (basically a fried burrito) came with a wonderful green sauce, nicely citrusy and a bit piquant. The sauce almost made up for the fact that the chimichanga was 95% rice and only 5% beef. I could not believe how stingy they were with the meat, they might as well not include it at all.

Mike was not thrilled with his flautas, which he thought merely ordinary - but our friend Blaine was quite unhappy with his salad with grilled chicken. Alas, I don't remember why.

Mika, my 7yo, really liked the rice and Camila, my 5yo, was OK with her quesadilla. They both really liked the Mexican hot chocolate, and I should buy some to make at home.

On the plus side, dinner was very cheap, less than $50 for 3 adults and 3 kids. Still, it wasn't cheap enough to justify the mediocre food.

Mama Lupe's Cocina Mexican Restaurant
15033 Farnsworth St
San Leandro, CA
(510) 483-4545

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

Yesterday we went for lunch at Taquería Guadalajara, where we hadn't been for ages and ages. After a meal there, I remembered why that was.

I had their special of the day, a smoked pork chop torta (sandwich). The smoked pork chop was delicious on itself, but there was too little of it to compete with the bread, condiments and vegetables - you could omit it altogether and there would be no difference in flavor.

Mike had a burrito that he found very average.

I liked the chips and salsa, the latter has a lot of cilantro and some other lemony flavor, though they took a while to come to the table.

In all, not a bad meal, but not a great one either. We'll continue going to Los Pericos instead.

Taqueria Guadalajara
14327 East 14th Street
San Leandro, CA
(510) 614-7060
www.taqueriaguadalajara.com

Original Review

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

In the last few days I've gotten a couple of new (for me) cookbooks through swaptree.com, a service which allows you to trade cookbooks online. This is what I've got:

Ma Cuisine by Auguste Escoffier, the god of French haute cuisine. Ma Cuisine is directed to the home cook and I'm fully intending on doing at least a couple of recipes from there.

LA Vera Cucina Italiana: The Fundamentals of Classic Italian Cooking. I'm actually planning to read this book in addition to cooking from it.

I was also supposed to get The Cooking of Southwest France : Recipes from France's Magnificent Rustic Cuisine but the book seems to have been lost in the mail :-(

Anyway, I do have a fair number of cookbooks and I really should make a point of cooking a recipe from one cookbook (as opposed to epicurious) a week.

If you google "The Apple Peddler" the fourth link your get is one to my review of the Roseburg, OR location of that restaurant chain. I guess for that reason people have written to me with their impressions (read complaints) about the chain. In 2007, I posted this complaint about the Sutherlin Apple Peddler, and here is a recent one about the one in Burns.

We visited the Apple Peddlers restaurant in Burns Oregon on Sunday November 29, 2009, again, for the first time in several years . It was worse than the last time we decided to quit eating there, several years ago for the same reason.

The service was terrible, unfriendly and extremely slow. Waitress was more interested in cleaning tables and filling jelly racks than waiting on us and taking our order.

I ordered a hamburger with french fries. My husband ordered a senior omelet. When she finally brought our order, she brought two hamburgers and fries. She took the one back and reordered an omelet . My hamburger patty was so tough I could barely cut the hamburger in half, and the fries actually had ice crystals still on the inside.

I asked another waitress to return the fries and I received one that was just out of the fryer and quite pale, but edible. My Husbands omelet arrived and the cheese on it was not melted and it was very cold and tasteless, the biscuit was so cold it would not even begin to melt the butter.

We decided to give up and call it quits and took part of the hamburger to the dog. Dog refused to eat it ! So it was 17.99 down the drain as far as we are concerned.

We will not stop there again, which is very sad , as it is one of the few eating restaurants in Burns Oregon. McDonalds is a lot better and at least the food is cooked and hot when we receive it.

Betty McBee
Emmett, Id 83617

I think there are Sharis in California, but we have never felt
compelled to visit one until the night we were staying in Central Point,
OR and had nowhere else to go for dinner. Our expectations weren't
very high, so we were pleasantly surprised. While Sharis does not
offer anything close to a gourmet experience, the food is fine and
definitely merits a B ("Better than expected") in my
“road restaurant” scale.

The restaurant itself is your basic family restaurant/coffee shop. It
does not have a particularly gimmick, but it's pleasantly appointed; one
of its dining rooms has all booths and the other one tables and chairs.
We were offered a choice of a booth or a table, though we had to wait
for a few minutes for the former. Service was very good.

We all liked the thick beer battered onion rings, they were tasty
(though not very crispy) with and without the ranch sauce. My “baby
back” ribs ($10) were large and meaty, definitely not what you think as
babybacks, but there was plenty of meat. The BBQ sauce was very
average. It came with some mixed veggies, OK loaded mashed potatoes and
an absolutely marvelous slice of corn bread. Its texture was closer to
corn cake and it was rather sweet and quite delicious.

Mike had the fish and chips and they were pretty mediocre. He felt the
fish had too much breading and the fries were merely OK. The portion
was also not very large, though mine was generous enough to share. Mika
had the sliders from the kid's menu. Mike thought they were very dry,
but Mika loved them: “they tasted just like the ones from school,” she
said. Camila had the mac & cheese and was quite satisfied, but she's
not very demanding.

In all our dinner at Sharis was fine. I wouldn't go there if there was
an Elmer's around, but I'd definitely prefer it to a Denny's or Applebees.

Shari's Restaurant
210 Penninger St
Central Point, OR
(541) 665-7070
www.sharis.com

Marga's Chain Restaurant Reviews

Marga's Road Restaurant Reviews

Marga's Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

We stopped at Granzella's a Wednesday in November 2009 during a road
trip up north to visit my in-laws. The large signs by the freeway did
not necessarily convince us we'd find good food, but we thought the
place was worth a try. It was, but next time I'd probably try a
different restaurant.

Granzella's is as much a travel center as a restaurant, in the style of
Harris Ranch on I-5 heading south. There is a casual restaurant, a deli
counter, a coffee/gelato counter and a store selling a variety of
gourmet foods and drinks and cute knickknacks. Apparently there is also
a hotel associated with it. Unlike Harris Ranch, there is no stench of
cow poop around it.

The kids wanted to eat in the restaurant rather than the deli so that's where we headed. The
place has a cabin feel, with lots of wood, but the assorted decorations
are somewhat mismatched. The restaurant is pretty dark and not terribly
inviting.

The menu offers your typical family restaurant/coffeeshop fare. There
are burgers and sandwiches as well as pizza. I thought the prices ($9
for a plain cheeseburger) were a bit steep for this kind of restaurant
(and the quality of the food). There is a kids menu with your usual
choices for about $5; a soda or whole milk is included.

I had the bacon cheeseburger ($10), cooked medium rare as ordered. The
burger itself was probably fine, but it was served with so much yellow
mustard that it was impossible to taste anything else. I was not
impressed. The fries were average. Camila had the mac & cheese and it
must have been good as she ate the whole plate (not overly large). Mika
ordered the nachos, thinking it was the tortilla chip and cheese-whiz
concoction that she apparently gets at school, but refused to eat them
when she realized they had beans and not much on the way of cheese.
Mike had them later and thought they were mediocre. Both kids had hot
fudge sundaes ($2:50 each, I think), which they did enjoy. In all, I
thought the meal wasn't worth the $36 it came to after tax and tip.

I took a look at the cafe, deli and store and, as you may suspect, it
was grossly overpriced. I think 20oz cokes were about $2.25. Still,
some of their stuff is very cute and it may be worth a quick stop just
to browse.

Granzella's
451 6th Street
Williams, CA 95987
Restaurant: (530) 473-5583
http://www.granzellas.com/

Marga's Road Restaurant Reviews

Marga's Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

The Olive Garden. Yes, the Olive Garden. Look, we were staying near
the Westfield Mall in Vancouver, WA, and all of our dining choices were
chain restaurants. Frankly, neither Red Lobster, Chevy's or Azteca
sounded like a more appealing choice. Plus I hadn't been to the Olive
Garden in almost a decade. And you know what? It wasn't too bad.
Generic, uninspired? Sure. But the grub was tasty enough, even good,
and the prices reasonable as well. Would I go back? Well, let's just
say that I wouldn't go out of my way to avoid it.

The Olive Garden at the Westfield Mall looks from the outside as an
Olive Garden and from the inside as a mall restaurant. The textured
walls and Italianish decorations did not stand up against the flat roof
of our small dining room, ­ but it wasn't unpleasant. Service was swift
and attentive, though the waitress seemed somewhat taken aback when I
pronounced the food merely “fine”. Really, given my low expectations
that was a compliment.

The menu, as you can imagine, emphasizes pastas with a few heavier
entrees added for good measure. There are plenty of fried appetizers,
but Mike and I had had a late lunch and weren't /that/ hungry. Plus
entrees come with your choice of soup (several choices here) or salad,
and neither of these are skimpy.

I had the spaghetti with meatballs and the salad ($14)
and Mike had the tilapia and the chili soup ($16.50. The meals came accompanied
by their greatly advertised bread sticks, which were warm but still kind
of tough and otherwise unremarkable. The salad was large enough for two
or more, but also nothing to write home about. I personally found the
dressing too acidic, but Mike liked it. There was plenty of crispy,
white lettuce, a few onion and tomato slices and an amazing number of
croutons.

Mike found his chili soup watery. He was somewhat surprised it had
pasta in it (hello?! It's the Olive Garden!) and not much meat. Maybe
try one of the other choices.

My spaghetti with meatballs, on the other hand, was surprisingly good.
OK, the spaghetti was spaghetti, and the “meat” sauce had a generic
sweet flavor to it, but the meatballs were very nice. They tasted
pretty much like you imagine a meatball would taste; nothing gourmet,
nothing revelatory, but exactly what I was looking for that night. If
you are looking for classic meatballs, you could definitely do worse.
Mike thought his tilapia was “fine”, though I remember he liking the
sauce. The portion wasn't too big so he ate some of my meatballs (the
chutzpah!), which he also liked.

We were too full for dessert so we skipped it. Maybe next time, but
they are about $7 which I find a bit steep for dessert.

And that was it, a pleasant meal that exceeded our very low expectations.

The Olive Garden
8101 NE Parkway Dr.
Vancouver, WA
(360) 256-8174
http://www.olivegarden.com

Marga's Chain Restaurant Reviews

Marga's Restaurant Reviews

I just discovered that you can get coupons for San Leandro restaurants at http://www.openfence.net/coupons.cfm (they also have coupons for other businesses, but this is a food blog). Featured restaurants include The Englander, Creasian and Porky's Pizza Palace (but there are quite a few more). You have to register to get the coupons, but they are free - albeit limited in number and only good for a month after you get them.

They also have a couple of restaurant coupons for Castro Valley (Buon Appetito, Palomares and a couple of other ones) and Oakland (Mezze, Tropix, La Cucina Italiana). I suspect they're working on getting more restaurants, so it'll pay to check them out before going out to eat. I know I will.

The San Leandro Education Foundation, a new organization dedicated to fundraising for San Leandro schools, has a newish program called Eat Out for Education. On the first Wednesday of every month you can eat out at participating restaurants in San Lenadro and 10% of your bill will be donated to the foundation. It's a great way of supporting your local restaurants and San Leandro children at the same time.

In order for the foundation to get the money, please bring along this coupon and present it to your waiter.

An article in today's still extant San Francisco Chronicle reveals the Bay Area restaurants that have received Michelin stars this year. The French Laundry was, once again, the only restaurant to get three stars. Two stars went to Coi, Cyrus, Manresa and the Restaurant at Meadowood, and 34 restaurants got one star. Unfortunately only two restaurants in the East Bay got that coveted star - Soizic in Oakland, which had it one time, no longer does.

I'd love to try the 1 and 2 star restaurants, but given the economic climate I doubt that will happen. Indeed, two of the restaurants who received one Michelin star have already closed, which tells you we are not the only ones that have to be very careful with money.

I have just learned that Biggie's Brazilian BBQ has closed, just a few months after opening. I'm quite sad about it (I hope my review did not have much to do with it), it's horrible when people put their dreams and sweat on a business, only to see it fail after a short time. Plus, I really liked the food when we visited.

I learned about Biggie's closing only a couple of days ago when I got an e-mail from restaurant.com - I just called to confirm and their number has been disconnected :-(

I just realized that I have never reviewed the Mutt Hut, a humble restaurant with an exclusive menu of hot dogs, which is just around the corner from my house.

The Mutt Hut is a small place, they have 3 or 4 tables inside and perhaps a couple outside. They have hot dogs, polish sausages, hot links and a couple of other varieties. There are a variety of toppings (cheese, bbq sauce, etc.) but not much more. You can get chips and drinks and that's about it.

The hot dogs are good, but not extraordinary. This is basically a convenience place, where you can get a quick, cheap lunch. The owners are very friendly, there is always a newspaper around to peruse while you wait/eat, and the place is very clean. We come from time to time.

The Mutt Hut
1904 Washington Ave
San Leandro, CA
(510) 352-7794
M-Sa 11 AM - 5 PM

A couple of days ago my friend Mauro and I met for lunch, and he suggested going to Ohgane Korean BBQ Restaurant. They have a lunch buffet ($9 or $10) and he'd enjoyed previously. I'd never been to a Korean buffet and it's been ages since I've had Korean food, so I eagerly agreed.

I can't really comment on how good the buffet was, as I stuck to the meat options. But Mauro was quite happy with the vegetarian and seafood entrees. The meat entrees, basically Korean BBQ, were very good - in particular the short ribs. They had a smokey, meaty flavor I really liked.

The restaurant itself is sort of generic and not particularly inviting, the buffet dining room is large, with long tables that you share, and with sort of a dinning commons feel.

In all, it was a good buffet, though somewhat expensive, and I'd go again.

Ohgane Korean BBQ Restaurant
3915 Broadway
Oakland, CA 94611
(510) 594-8300

Marga's Restaurant Reviews

Last weekend we found ourselves hungry on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. We'd had pizza the night before, so I didn't want to have it again, but I wanted to have something cheap. We saw Naan n' Curry, and wrongly assumed that it'd make for a cheap meal. That it didn't do, I think I paid $24 for lunch, much more than an Indian buffet would have been, but the food was definitely better than what we'd had the last time we ate there. The portions, however, were in the small side - specially the lamb tikka masala. We had no leftovers besides naan.

As I mentioned, I got the lamb tikka masala. The lamb was tender but somewhat dry. The sauce was very nice, well balanced with a minimum amount of spiciness There was plenty of it, which we were happy to eat with the plain and garlic naan that I also ordered. Mike had the lamb chops tandoori and he was quite happy with it. I thought that the spicing hadn't really penetrated the meat, but it was OK.

All in all, I think that Naan n' Curry is too expensive for what it is, and I rather go to a buffet next time.

Naan n'Curry
2366 Telegraph Avenue
Berkeley, CA
510-841-6226
http://www.naancurry.com/
Hours: 11:00 AM to 11:00 PM

Original Review

Marga's Restaurant Reviews

Restaurant.com is selling its gift certificates for 90% off (use code NINETY). That means that a $25 gift certificate costs $1 and a $50 one, $2. There is usually a minimum purchase, about $35-$50 for a $25 GC and $100 for a $50 GC.

I've used restaurant.com gift certificates several times now, and I've not have any problems with them.

It's been over five years since the last time that we ate at Pyzano's in Castro Valley. We usually either get pizza delivered to our house or go to Angelina's in San Leandro, we like their pizza and they have a little section where children can sit and play.

Our plans for tonight were to go to Berkeley, get a slice of pizza at Blondie's or Fat Slice and walk around. Alas, there was a home football game and it was impossible to get to Berkeley, much less find a parking space close to campus. So we postponed the visit to another time.

Meanwhile, Camila wanted pizza so, after some deliberation, we decided to go to Pyzano's. I was hoping that they would have their cooks tossing the pizza dough and that Camila would get a kick out of it - unfortunately it appears they are not doing that anymore.

I was kind of surprised to find Pyzano's only half-full on a Saturday night (about 6 PM), but I guess the economy has been affecting everyone. I should also say that Pyzano is pretty pricey for a pizzeria - I think Camila's mini cheese pizza was about $7, while our large "Primo" (pepperoni, salami, smoked ham, bacon, Italian susage, and linguica) was about $23. Drinks were an extra $2.50 each, not cheap. But Pyzano makes up for the prices by serving a high quality pizza. The thick dough is very tasty by itself and works great with the other ingredients. All the toppings in our pizza tasted fresh and went well together. We really liked it.

We also ordered a portion of meatballs ($8 for 5 meatballs and 4 slices of cheesy garlic bread), and I have to say these were the best meatballs I've eaten at a restaurant. They were incredibly light, with very little filling, and perfectly seasoned. They came in a tomato pasta sauce that reminded me very much of the one once served at Pirro's (a little Italian restaurant in Berkeley which I used to go to when I was in college). The garlic bread was also good, in particular when dipped in the sauce.

In all, we had a very good meal - and so much pizza left over that we'll be eating it for the next couple of days :-)

Pyzano's Pizzeria
3835 E Castro Valley Blvd
Castro Valley, CA
(510) 881-8878
www.pyzanospizzeria.com

Marga's Restaurant Reviews

A reader asks whether someone can confirm that there was a Prings satellite restaurant in Hayward (on Mission, near Cal State) in 1965. If you can confirm, please let me know (marga@lacabe.com. Thanks!

2010 Update: Double B has closed. Sylantro Vietnamese Cuisine has opened in its location.

---

I thought I had written a review of Double B Ranch & Grill a couple of months ago, when Mike and I had dinner there. However, I can't find it anywhere, so it must only have been written in my imagination. Of course, a couple of months are a long time and I now don't remember the meal in great detail, so I'll do the best I can :-)

My general impression of Double B Ranch & Grill was that it was an OK restaurant, but grossly overpriced for the atmosphere and food. The restaurant is located in a strip mall, and the inside looks like it, though it's been spiffed up with a cowboy theme. The menu is brief, specializing on grilled items, with prices in the mid-to-high teens for most entrees - even for lunch!

I had a cheeseburger ($10), despite the fact that they will not cook it medium rare (one good reason to not go back). It was OK, a bit dry as it was overcooked. The cook also forgot to take the piece of paper that separates cheese slices, so I found myself eating paper! Not a big deal, however, just somewhat amusing.

Mike had the ribs (and he had them again at a subsequent lunch visit) and he liked how off-the-bone tender they were, but he found them too dry. The BBQ sauce was OK, nothing spectacular. The portion was generous (it should be, for $17!) and came with beans (which he liked) and run of the mill steak fries.

In all, it wasn't a bad meal but not one I'd have again at those prices.

Double B Ranch & Grill
967 Manor Blvd
San Leandro, CA
(510) 352-1874

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

Marga's Food Page

Sonoma restaurant, on McArthur in San Leandro, has closed for good. I'm not surprised - while the concept was good, it failed on execution: the food just wasn't that good. I gave it several tries, but it just underwhelmed me.

I'd be sorry to see it go, but the rumor is that Mike Wiesner of Paradiso is taking over the space and opening a (gourmet?) burger joint. He will also serve breakfast. The food at Paradiso is pretty good (if also overpriced), and I think that San Leandro could really use a good burger place. There are several, but since the closure of Joplins, the only one that does a good burger is Vila Cereja (though I haven't been there for quite a while).

Anyway, I'm looking forward to trying the new place.

Sweet Fingers is San Leandro's only Caribbean restaurant. Located on East 14th, near the Oakland border, it's relatively inconspicuous. From the outside it looks like a bar, from the inside, like a third-world restaurant. The tables are cheap, the light is dim and the bar quite prominent. It's the kind of place you go to hang out, listen to some reggae or just have some great Jamaican/Caribbean food. That's what we did last night, when we had our monthly informal SLCAN meeting at the place.

Everything we ordered was a winner: B. loved the jerked tofu, T. became a fun of the shrimp curry and D. enjoyed his oxtail stew. R. and I had had dinner earlier and weren't planning to eat, but we had to order the fabulous friend plantains ($4). After we enjoyed them, the waitress was nice enough to bring us a plate of jerk chicken to share. It was dark and moist and nicely spiced - I'm always afraid that jerk chicken will be too strong for my taste but that is not a worry here. In all, I regretted not having gone back to Sweet Fingers since my first review a couple of years ago. Service, as you can imagine, was really good.

The prices, however, are a little high - most entrees are in the mid-teens. However, you can usually buy a $25 gift certificate to Sweet Fingers for $10 at restaurant.com (just do a search for restaurants within a mile of 94577). There is a $35 minimum food purchase. Once in a while restaurant.com has specials which allow you to buy said gift certificate for $2 or $3 - keep an eye on dealdetectives.com.

Sweet Fingers is very friendly to vegetarians - their new menu features 11 vegetarian entrees. With over 15 meat and fish entrees, it's also pretty friendly to carnivores.

Sweet Fingers will be celebrating the launch of a new menu this Sunday (the 16th) at 3 PM. Everyone is invited to come and party with them. They will have food, music and they'll be selling tickets to the Monterey Bay Reggae festival which will take place during labor day weekend. Sister Alice, Sweet Fingers' chef and own reggae artist, will be catering the event.

The new menu keeps many favorites such as the jerk chicken, but adds new dishes such as brown stew goat ($16), braised blue mountain lamb ($18) and ginger orange chicken ($16). Some of the dishes are daily specials.

Sweet fingers is also increasing its musical offerings. They will have music every day but Monday from 10 PM to 2 AM. There will be live music every Sunday.

They will have a happy hour from 3-6 PM with half-price appetizers.

I'm unlikely to go for the music or the happy hour, but I'll definitely return for the food.

Sweet Fingers
464 E. 14th St.
San Leandro ,CA
510.553.9869
http://www.sweetfingersrestaurant.com/

Marga's Original Review

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

I just received the following e-mail which is clearly a scam. In the e-mail a purported company wants to make reservations at "your" restaurant. They ask for a set menu and offer to provide their credit card details for full payment.

Now, I'm not sure *how* this scam works exactly* - but I know it's a scam because of several "clues":

-The letter is written in the ultra-formal/non-idiomatic/contrived English that Nigerian/African scammers usually use.

-It purports to come from a representative of the company, but it uses a yahoo.com reply-to address. It's sent, however, from a bluehost.com server.

-It does not name the restaurant where they are making the reservations, just calling it "your restaurant". Same with the location of the restaurant, "your area".

-There is no info online on "Exxon Energy Plc.", and a search of the address or phone number lead nowhere.

If you know how this scam works, please comment here. If you do have a restaurant and receive this - PLEASE BEWARE!

Date: Mon, 03 Aug 2009 09:05:36 -0600
To: marga@lacabe.com
Subject: Enquiry.
From: Stewart Graham

Hello,
I am Stewart Graham, Public Relations Officer (P.R.O) of Exxon Energy Plc. United Kingdom. Your restaurant has been approved by my company for dinner reservations for my workers visiting your area for a project, so i therefore want to book dinner for this group of workers.
They will all come for dinner in your place as from AUGUST 18th, 19th and 20th, 2009 by 8:00pm each day. They are fifteen (15) in number.

**NOTE THAT IT WILL BE THE SAME 15 GUESTS EACH NIGHT**.

We will appreciate if you prepare a 3 course menu for my group for the dinner. No special dietary. Also your suggestion will be appreciated since this is our first dinner in your restaurant.
Kindly provide the total cost of the dinner for the 15 persons for the 3 nights dinner so as to provide my credit card details for full payment confirmation if there is availability in your restaurant.
Your swift response will be appreciated.
Regards,

Stewart Graham
40 Lothian Road
EH3 9BY,
Edinburgh,
SCOTLAND.
Phone number:+44(0)7024014792

*NOTE Here is an explanation of how the scam works.

We were on I-5 again, returning home from LA, the kids were hungry and the next stop was Buttonwillow so we headed there. We hadn't been to the Willow Ranch restaurant before, and we figured it might be better than the other choices. In reality, it was not - we only had breakfast, but their breakfast left some to be desired. I'm rating it a solid "D" for Dennys-like quality.

I had the French toast (2 bread slices for $6) that came with a side of bacon or sausage. I got the bacon and it was overcooked and tough. The French toast was OK but not exciting, a rather small portion for the price (but I wouldn't have wanted more). It was served with regular syrup.

Mike had the "hearty" breakfast ($8) which included pancakes, 2 eggs, sausage, and I think bacon. The pancakes were fine, but his eggs over medium were actually runny. Without any potatoes or bread to soak the yolk, they were a waste. The kids had the pancake and egg breakfast ($3) and were both happy, but they are easy to please. With 3 hot chocolates and a glass of milk the bill came to $30 after tax, expensive for a very mediocre breakfast.

The Willow Ranch is a modest, western-style restaurant and I think they specialize in BBQ foods, so their BBQ may be good - but I wouldn't be rushing back in in any case.

Willow Ranch Restaurant
27770 Lagoon Dr.
Buttonwillow, CA
(661) 764 - 6605
http://www.willowranchrestaurant.com/

Marga's Road Restaurant Reviews

I'm sorry to say that I have not added restaurant reviews to my website for many months now. I was waiting for Mike to edit them, but I don't think it's going to happen any time soon, and some of them are over a year old! So here they are, unedited:

Asmara - typical Ethiopian food on Telegraph Ave.

Bijou - This new French restaurant in Hayward fails miserably in ambiance and food.

Cafe Majestic - I went there for my birthday last year, alas, it seems to have closed before I posted my review :-(

The fig cafe & winebar - a great lunch spot in Glen Ellen

The Golden Tea Garden is a relatively new tea house in Hayward that has quickly become my favorite.

Highland Dell Lodge Restaurant - Less than successful food at this German/American restaurant.

Pizzaiolo - unusual think-crust pizzas in North Oakland

Skates on the Bay - I loved the atmosphere and burgers at this Berkeley institution.

Soizic - a very nice Californian restaurant near Jack London Sq. has a Michellin star and killer mushrooms.

There are three more reviews from the Vancouver, WA area that are in Mike's computer so I can't post now. When they are ready, they'll be at http://www.marga.org/food/rest/other/

As usual, you can find my restaurant reviews at http://www.marga.org/food/rest/

A couple of days ago I went with my friend Mauro to lunch at Khana Peena. He likes it quite a bit, but I was not crazy about the buffet. It had many of the usual dishes: chicken tikka masala, a lamb curry, chicken tandoori, naan, rice and so forth. It was $10, including soda.

The place itself is very nice, in particular the outside patio which has benches and pillows and lots of fresh air. Inside it looks a bit more elegant than your run-of-the-mill Indian restaurant.

I wasn't thrilled with the food, though. It was OK, but I thought the curries needed more "ummph", not necessarily spiciness, but something to complete the flavor. The chicken tandoori also wasn't very flavorful, but most importantly, it was quite undercooked. The rice and naan were nice.

I wouldn't be rushing back to Khana Peena, but I won't mind if Mauro suggests it again.

Khana Peena Indian Cuisine
5316 College Ave.
Oakland, CA
510-658-2300

Marga's Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

Note: La Bella Italia has re-opened in the same location under the name Tuscany.

--
As I announced a couple of days ago, La Bella Italia has become "My Ultimate Tandoori". Its old Italian menu is not changed, but it's now complimented by an Indian menu. The new menu offers a plethora of entrees from all over India ($8-13 a la carte, $12-17 with plain naan, rice, salad and lentils), including quite a few vegetarian entrees. There are several appetizers and desserts in their take-out menu, but they were not included in the dine-in menu that we were given (after asking for it, they gave us the Italian menu by default). Appetizers in the take-out menu include vegetable (but not chicken) pakoras for $5 and chicken samosas for $6. They also have a variety of naans ($1.25 - 4), but not kabuli naan. Though not in their menu, they do serve lassis. I had a sweet lassi, which was OK. For some reason it was pink - it tasted a little bit of curd, but mostly of sugar; it was extremely sweet. I think next time I'd ask them to make it less sweet.

Dinner started with their usual rolls and butter - the rolls were warm, but a bit stale this time. They also brought us papadums, which were very crispy but too spicy for my taste. They were not served with the cilantro and sweet-sour sauces that usually accompany it at other restaurants.

For dinner we had our "staples": chicken tikka masala ($9), lamb korma ($10), a plain naan ($1.25) and an onion kulcha ($3). I also ordered rice ($2, I think).

The tikka masala and korma sauces were quite similar - the korma being more spicy (we ordered them medium). They were thick, flavorful, without much in the way of sweetness. The tikka masala lacked any pretension of smokyness, and the korma was probably bolder and less creamy than other kormas I've had. I wasn't crazy about them, but that's probably a matter of individual taste. I did eat them all (helped by naan), I just didn't love them. The chicken, unfortunately, was quite dry and the lamb a bit too tough.

I'm not an expert on identifying rice grains, but I can tell you that the rice served here was not basmati. The grains were pretty thick, and it was stickier than it should have been (perhaps it was a tad overcooked). It also tasted very plain, without the nutiness of basmati. Interestingly, I found that the curries were horrible when eaten together with the rice - fortunately we had the naan.

The naan and the kulcha were quite nice, and I would order them again.

Dinner came up to $40 after tax and tip - a little steep, I think. Service was good, though the waiter failed to let us know about the Indian menu, and he did not tell us what we could order off-menu (such as appetizers, desserts and lassis).

In all, we had a pleasant meal but not one we would be rushing to have again. The food at Favorite India, in Hayward, is considerably more to my linking and its entrees are a dollar or two cheaper. My Ultimate Tandoori delivers with a $30 minimum order; Favorite India does as well, but only to parts of San Leandro.

Still, I'm quite happy that Ultimate Tandoori has opened and I imagine I will go back with friends when we don't want to have an Indian dinner in the city. I'm also planning on trying their lunch buffet ($7 without a drink - 11 AM to 3 PM daily) (see update below)

My Ultimate Tandoori
15015 East 14th St.
San Leandro, CA
510-278-5899
Daily 11 AM - 3 PM and 4 PM - 10 PM

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

Marga's Indian recipes:

Balti
Bengali

Update

Today I went to lunch to My Ultimate TAndoori with a couple of friends. The buffet lunch had regular salad, raita, plums (I think), vegetable pakora, chicken tandoori, a seafood curry, a lamb curry and chicken tikka masala (I think). It also had rice, some spinach dish, daal, a vegetable curry (I think) and, for dessert, gulab jamun and a rice pudding. The buffet was $7, with drink and tax it came out to $10. A hot butter naan is served at the table.

All in all I thought it was an average Indian buffet. The naan and the gulab jamun were simply delicious. The chicken tandoori was a little uneven, the first piece I got was very good and flavorful, others less so. The meat curries tasted about the same as they did the other night. They were thick and tasty, but they were missing something. Perhaps they have not simmered for long enough. Once again I found the chicken somewhat tough, and I preferred to eat the curries with the delicious naan. I didn't try the vegetable selections. One of my friends really liked them mixed with raita - the other one didn't do so and found them too spicy.

In all, it was an OK buffet, though not one of the best I've had. I expect that I'll go there from time to time and you should give it a try too.

--
Update 12/09

We went again to My Ultimate Tandoori around Xmas time with my parents and I think we had a pretty experience. Mike and I had Indian food and my parents Italian. It's been a while so I don't remember what we all had, but we all liked the food. However, we all felt it was overpriced, which is why My Ultimate Tandoori is not my choice for either Indian or Italian food, despite the fact that it's relatively close to my home.

The economic situation is being tough on San Leandro restaurants - and many of them are resorting to coupons to get people in the door. Whereas a few months ago, there were only a couple of San Leandro restaurants in restaurant.com, now you can find quite a few of them.

Restaurant.com lets you buy $10 gift certificates for $3, and $25 gift certificates for $10. There is usually a minimum purchase ($35 or $50 for the $25 gc) which may exclude alcoholic drinks. The real deal, though, is that sometimes you can get these certificates for 70-80% off (keep an eye on dealdetectives.com), so our savings can be really substantial.

The San Leandro restaurants on restaurant.com now are:

-Biggies Brazilian BBQ
-El Amigo Mexican
-Los Cabos Seafood Mexican Restaurant
-Luke's Grill
-Porky's Pizza Palace
-San Gaspar Restaurante
-Sweet Fingers Restaurant
-Tito's Mexican Restaurant
-Vo's Restaurant

There are also a bunch of new restaurants in the surrounding areas, so remember to check out restaurant.com before going to dinner anywhere.

It has happened! San Leandro has finally gotten an Indian restaurant. We've hoped for it, begged for it, and it's finally here. Alas, I haven't been there yet, so I don't know how good it is, but it's here.

My Ultimate Tandoori has opened in the space previously occupied by La Bella Italia. The owners of La Bella Italia are themselves Indian (from the Punjab, I'd guess, as they are Sikh) - but their true love is Italian food. Alas, La Bella Italia was not very successful in its current location, I rarely saw anyone there, so they seem to finally give in and give San Leandro what it really needs: an Indian restaurant. They'll continue serving Italian food, however. We had desert there last month, and it was quite good, so they'll hopefully keep that.

As for the new menu, it includes your usual North Indian dishes (they have chicken tikka masala and lamb korma, my favorites), but a bunch of others as well. Indeed, I wonder if their menu is not too ambitious. They have a daily lunch buffet for $7 (11 AM - 3 PM).

I hope I'll get to go this week - I'll let you know what I think.

My Ultimate Tandoori
15015 East 14th St.
San Leandro, CA
510-278-5899
Daily 11 AM - 3 PM and 4 PM - 10 PM

I'm not a big Japanese food eater (indeed, I don't eat sushi), but my husband and kids like it, so we go to sushi restaurants from time to time. Of the handful of sushi restaurants in San Leandro, Ozeki Sushi Teriyaki was our favorite. I even liked their teriyaki. It changed names (to Fat Fish), and probably ownership, quite a while ago - and we hadn't gone back since. Today, however, when I agreed to have Japanese food for lunch, that's where we headed. I'm sorry to say that the food quality has gone down considerably. Even though I'm not crazy about the other Japanese restaurants in town, I would definitely not go back to this one.

I had the beef teriyaki plate ($8). The beef was tender and lean, and the portion was quite generous, but the beef had not been salted and, in the words of my husband, it was "the blandest piece of meat I've ever eaten". The teriyaki sauce tasted mostly of soy sauce (and yet, not a salty soy sauce). A little salt improved the meat considerably, but not the point of actually calling it "good". Unless you like bland food, take my advise and skip it.

You may also want to skip the Lion King roll (a California roll with baked salmon & tobiko). Mike speculates that the salmon & tobiko had been added to the top of the pre-made roll and quickly microwaved - the roll had both hot and cold spots. Needless to say he was not impressed.

The miso soup and unagi ($1 per piece) were fine.

In all, a disappointing experience.

Fat Fish
14701 E 14th St.
San Leandro, CA
510-614-8900
M-Sat 11:30 AM - 9:30 PM
Sun: 5 - 9:30 PM

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

I had been looking forward to my short trip to Barcelona almost as much for the food I was going to taste as for the places I was going to see and the people I was going to see. With the advent of restaurants such as El Bulli (where I have not been and which does not serve Catalan food) and Manresa (in the Bay Area), Catalan cuisine is achieving some sort of recognition in the US. My sojourn through Catalan cuisine was quite successful and I now wanted to see what Catalan dishes would taste like when cooked right. Alas, I ended up being disappointed, not as much as in the cuisine, as in my own experience with it.

The first problem was that for whatever reason I became a bit stomach sick after arriving in Barcelona - whether the culprit was airline food or a Burger King burger from Kennedy airport, I will never know - but the fact was that I didn't feel like eating anything my first day in Barcelona. A small lunch at Restaurante Taxidermista in Barcelona's Plaça Reial was my first introduction to Catalan food - but its brief menu only allowed me to taste pa amb tomaquet (bread with tomato) and some Catalan sausages. They were both very good, however.

I didn't eat again until the next day, when I ended up by accident (i.e. telling myself "I'll sit down at the next restaurant I find") at a Galician restaurant somewhere. Here I had some more pa amb tomaquet, some ravioli with sauce and some grilled quail - neither of which impressed me. Once again I skipped dinner that night.

The next day was the start of the meeting I was attending. I had lunch with my colleagues at Restaurante Mango, on Aveda. Diagonal 635, very near my hotel. Mango does not actually serve Catalan food, instead concentrating on pizzas, salads, pastas and paellas. I had the Tropix pizza (E12) and it was good, though nothing special. My colleagues seemed happier with their salads and pastas - so maybe pizza is not the way to go here.

That evening we had the buffet dinner at Restaurante Contraste, the restaurant of the Hotel Princesa Sofia, where we were staying. This was probably the best buffet dinner I've had. Though the selection wasn't terribly broad, everything they had was fresh and great tasting. I had a simple salad (beware that there are no ready-made dressings, though) and then two of the three pre-made entrees. I think one was cannelloni and the other some stewed meat, very good though a bit salty. There were plenty of desserts, I tried the crema catalana which once again did not impress me - but most of the other bites were quite good. They also have a grill station which I didn't try, my suspicion after several meals is that Spanish/Catalan beef is not particularly good in the first place. Other people seemed quite happy with their selections, though. I think the buffet is about E45-50, but we got a special group rate. In any case, if you want to eat at the buffet you may want to inquire whether it's cheaper if you pay for it when you register.

The next two lunches were at the University, where we were served 3-course meals which included wine! Leave it to the Catalans :-) The food was quite good though not terribly exiting. Our second dinner was at a popular restaurant in the Gothic quarter - unfortunately I don't remember the name. We had popular Catalan tapas/appetizers such as croquettes, tomato bread and several things I didn't recognize - but everyone seemed quite happy with them. I had the veal with brie, which seems to be a popular dish in Barcelona, and it was nice but also not too exiting - the veal wasn't as tender as you'd wish. I ate it assuming that baby cows are not mistreated in Spain the way they are in the US - I hope that's true.

Our last dinner was at La Botiga, also close to the hotel. It was also quite good.

So, what am I left with? Well, my impression now is that Catalan food as randomly served in Barcelona is good and solid, but not magical. My standards, however, may be too high - I've been cooking a lot of really good Mediterranean food lately (you'd be surprised at how many "C" cuisines are in the Mediterranean), and, if I say so myself, I'm quite a good cook, so it takes a LOT to impress me.

I had my first meal in Barcelona at Restaurante Taxidermista about a week and a half ago. I was quite hungry after having roamed around the old part of the city
for a while, but I was being too picky as to where and what to eat. I
wanted to eat outside, somewhere that had a prix-fix menu that fit my
mood. My pickyness was irritating me to no end, so I finally cajoled
myself into agreeing to sit down at the next empty table I found at
the Placa Reial, where I was as I was carrying on this internal
conversation. That ended up being the Restaurante Taxidermista, not
altogether a bad choice.

The main reason why the Restaurante Taxidermista was not a good choice
was that it has a very limited menu, a few appetizers, a couple of
sandwiches, maybe some seafood stuff I glanced over, nothing much or
much varied. I could have done better elsewhere. Still, there I was,
and there I was eating so I ordered a portion of pa amb tomaquet (E
1.75), literally, "bread with tomato", a dish consistent of (French
style) bread brushed with a generous amount of olive oil as well as,
well, fresh tomato. It sounds simple, and I had meant to make it when
I cooked Catalan food, but it is such a Catalan specialty that I wanted to try it. And indeed the dish is no more and no less than the sum of its ingredients, it tastes just like you expect it to taste
(though perhaps fresher, given that we are more used to having cooked
tomatoes on our bread), and that´s pretty good. I enjoyed it.

I also had a plate of butifarra, two Catalan sausages with sweet sauteed onions
(E 4.30). The sausages didn´t look that great, but the onions were
nicely caramelized (clearly with the help of some sugar), and the
sweet and hearty flavors went well together. I also enjoyed it.

And that was it. Really. I did have a small coke (E 2.30) and got
some Italian ice cream on the way home, but that was it for my first Barcelona lunch. Pretty sad.

Restaurante Taxidermista
Placa Reial 8
Barcelona
Spain
93 412 45 36
http://www.taxidermistarestaurant.com/

Marga's Restaurant Reviews

La Botiga is a 3-restaurant chain of mid-priced contemporary Catalan restaurants in Barcelona. A few colleagues and I had dinner at the one located near Avenida Diagonal last Tuesday night, and we were all quite pleased with the experience. We had a very pleasant dinner in the outside patio, the food was good and the service attentive and accommodating.

La Botiga's menu offers perhaps half a dozen appetizers, plus some salads, and perhaps a dozen entrees (mostly priced E12 and under). My colleagues were all happy with their appetizers which included croquettes and fritters, very fresh asparagus with some sort of sauce and, of course, bread with tomato. They seemed to be pretty pleased with their entrees as well - and they were surprised that the hamburger surprised plate consisted of a stuffed hamburger patty with no bun. I thought my steak kebab lacked ummf and didn't like the undercooked potatoes it came with, but it was all in all alright. My desert of crema catalana was a little lacking BUT after having made it once and eaten it two or three times, I've come to the conclusion that crema catalana just can't compare with its French cousin creme brulee.

Service was professional and quick - we never lacked for anything, and the waiter happily let me use a credit card to pay part of my bill.

La Botiga 2
Gandesa, 10
Barcelona
Spain
93 410 48 47
http://labotiga.angrup.com/

Marga's Restaurant Reviews

Marga's Catalan Menu

Note: Biggies has closed.

Biggies BBQ has been opened for a couple of months already, but I didn't find out about it until the San Leandro Times did a story on it last Thursday. Of course I had to go - not just because it's my moral imperative to review each and every restaurant in San Leandro (except for those that are obviously bad), but also because I like Brazilian food. I will note that while Brazilians love meat and their espetos corridos are legendary, their meat is unfortunately not as good as that from Argentina. Then again, nobody's is.

Biggies BBQ is a very most restaurant located in the Marina Faire shopping center in San Leandro. It looks like a shopping mall restaurant, it has no decorations or ambiance and the tables/chairs are the cheapy kind. But that in itself is an advantage, as it suggests cheaper food. We went there for dinner the Friday night after the article about them came out, and while the place was pretty empty when we got there, it really filled up by 7 PM or so. Alas, they weren't prepared for this - the lone waitress could barely keep up with the needs of every table, and every table in the restaurant was occupied. The kitchen seemed to have the same problem, while our appetizers came right away, we had to wait over one hour for our entree. And believe me, an hour with hungry/antsy kids is just not fun.

Biggies' menu needs to be redone. As it is it lists appetizers, drinks, daily lunch specials, weekend specials and desserts. No, it doesn't list entrees, which makes it quite disconcerting. Apparently this is because they have different offerings each night (though only a couple of these), though they have the Brazilian BBQ plate ($13) every day. Many of the offerings, furthermore, are listed by their Portuguese name, and the menu doesn't explain what they are. This all means that the waitress needs to spend some time explaining the menu to each table - which, of course, makes service even slower.

We started with two pasteles, which turned out to be large, square, fried empanadas-like pastries filled with minimum seasoned ground beef ($3 each). Despite the lack of meat I really liked them, the dough was both crispy and doughy and had a nice flavor, the meat was also nicely seasoned (not in the least spicy). The kids liked them too.

We followed by what I thought was the esfirra ($3 each) but, looking online, might have been a joelho (not in the menu), a baked sweet bun filled with cheese and tomato (I think, though the waitress said it was ham). This was also very good.

After an hour or so we had the Brazilian BBQ which consisted of two chunks of beef, a tiny Brazilian sausage and a small chicken leg. The meat was a little tough and overdone (medium rather than the medium rare I'd requested), but it had a great flavor. The intense marinade brought up, rather than hid, the gamy taste of the beef and I loved it. The only problem was that the marinade was too salty. The same can be said about the sausage and the chicken. The latter had a very crispy skin and moist meat. The meats were served with a large quantity of rice and (refried?) beans (which Camila liked).

In all, I was very happy with the food, but Mike and I thought that it was a tad expensive - HOWEVER, I just realized that you can buy gift certificates for the restaurant (dinner only) at restaurant.com - a $25 gift certificate usually costs $10, so you'd save $15, but sometimes you can get them for as cheap as $2 (keep an eye on dealdetectives.com. That would be a savings of $23!!! I wish I had thought about checking restaurant.com yesterday! I don't know how they can make any money at those prices, which worries me a little (I want them to stick around!).

I will definitely go to Biggies BBQ again - though in several weeks, when it becomes less busy :-)

Biggies BBQ
13700 Doolittle Drive #110
San Leandro, CA
(510) 352-2371

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

The downtown San Leandro farmers' market is back again for the summer season. It opened yesterday with some band playing that fortunately wasn't as loud as bands last year. We found most of the same food stands from last year, in addition to a new prepared foods stand: Casbah Exotic Food. They serve a short, but eclectic, list of dishes - if I well remember Moroccan chicken, curry chicken, gyros (I think beef) and a steak sandwich. I'm pretty sure they had another item as well. I think all the plate were $5.

I had the Moroccan chicken plate, which really was a chicken gyro. It consisted of a pita bread covered with lettuce & some tomato, and some pieces of pretty bland chicken. I ate it but did not enjoy it, and I was hungry afterwards. Mike had a slightly better experience with his gyro. He liked the marinated beef, but thought that the portion was also too small. $5 is not much, but I rather pay a dollar or two more and be satisfied.

Fortunately Meyers BBQ is back with their chicken teriyaki and huge hot dogs.

Ana Rosa's occupies the space previously occupied by El Novillo, also a Mexican restaurant. It's only a few yards away from my house, so I was hoping it'd be great - or at least good. Alas, I'd qualify it as simply "OK".

I went last night, with Mika and Camila, to "celebrate" Cinco de Mayo. I was too lazy to walk all the way to Los Pericos, my favorite taquería in town and too unprepared to make something at home either. So Ana Rosa's it was.

I ordered a beef quesadilla ($7), while Mika had a regular chicken burrito ($5) and Camila had a small plain cheese quesadilla ($5). The menu did list the plain quesadilla at $5 - but when the waitress asked me if I wanted a large or small quesadilla, I assumed that the small one would be less. My bad, I paid $5 for a tiny tortilla filled with a little bit of cheese. Outrageous.

My beef quesadilla was larger - it consisted of an oversize flour tortilla, filled with cheese and diced beef, folded in half and toasted. It was served with a scoop of guacamole (the thin, runny type), sour cream, lettuce and a slice of tomato. Personally, I don't really like toasted tortillas. I much prefer the method used at Los Pericos in which a large flour tortilla is steamed, filled with the beef, cheese, salsa, guacamole and sour cream (and lettuce, if you want), and then rolled as a burrito - but that's why Los Pericos is my favorite taqueria. This quesadilla tasted just fine, the flavor of the meat was overwhelmed by the toastiness of the tortilla, but there wasn't anything disagreeable - or particularly agreeable - about it. I just didn't dig it.

Finally, Mika's burrito was quite large, filled mostly with rice. Mika didn't like it, or at least didn't eat it, so Mike had it for dinner later on. He found it to be completely bland, he says that he's liked every other burrito he's had more - there was just nothing to this one.

As for the restaurant, Ana Rosa's has a very small dining room - but it was full when we went on a Tuesday around 5:30 PM. They have sit-down service, and the lone waitress amazingly managed to serve the whole dining room and calculate the checks by herself. She was very pleasant and the service was good. As for the place, there is no atmosphere to it - just a place to go and have a quick bite to eat, not to linger.

All in all, I'm sad to repeat that Ana Rosa's fails as a taqueria that I would frequent. I can imagine I'll go again, but just because it's so close to my house. But even then, I can't imagine it'll be anytime soon. I'll get off my butt and go to Los Perico's.

Ana Rosa's Mexican Restaurant
2089 E 14th St # C @ Estabrook
San Leandro, CA
(510) 357-3022

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

The following is a message I got about a restaurant on the road between SF & LA. I haven't been there - but after that recommendation, I'll definitely try it.

My wife and I stop at the Planeta Rojas Café in Button Willow each time we travel to L.A. and return.…it is down the way from the Taste of India…in back of the Shell Gas Station.

While you have to push past that they prepare their food out in front in a portable “Taco Coach” and you order inside the red building…the food is excellent. I am a Mexican Food lover and connoisseur…I grew up in L.A….spend a lot of time in Mexico..and know the best places in the Bay Area. Nobody, not any restaurant from Mexico City to any place in the Bay area….touches their Chile Relleno…it is all made fresh…this is not fast food…but, they serve it quickly. Try the Chicken Tostada if you’re on a diet. The prices are cheap…and a complete lunch for 2 is $13 to $20…including a soda.

One other thing…you might think the owners are just arrived from Mexico…a married couple…they’re not, both hard working & very friendly and proud parents of a new U.S. Marine stationed in San Diego…just joined and doing his boot camp. He joined for 6 years to become an Military Police. You won’t be disappointed.

Mike Emley

Marga's Road Restaurant Reviews

Saigon 2, a Vietnamese restaurant, has opened in San Leandro. I haven't been there yet, so I can't report on it, but it's getting mostly postive reviews at Yelp.

That said, do we really need a new Vietnamese restaurant in San Leandro. As far as I know, we already have 5: Vo's, Le Soleil (my favorite), Pho Anh Ha, Tu Tai (where I haven't been) and Halan (is that the one near K-Mart?). There might be others (if so, let me know). Now, in a town with just one Thai Restaurant, with no Indian, no Ethiopian, no French, no South American and no Middle Eastern restaurants - do we need six Vietnamese restaurants? How about some variety!!!!

Anyway, I may or may not give it a try. If you do - please let me know what you think of it. It's located at 2113 Marina Blvd (between Menlo St & Doolittle Dr) and there is a 10% off coupon in last week's San Leandro Times.

I also saw in the San Leandro Times an add asking for waiters/staff for a new restaurant in Manor Square. The restaurant is called Double B Bar & Grill and I know absolutely nothing about it. They don't have a phone number in the ad, so I can't even call and ask. Again, if you know something about it, comment here or e-mail me.

My friend Penelope and I went to Makiyaki for lunch a few days ago. This time I had a bento box with ton-katsu and chicken teriyaki. It was fine. The teriyaki seemed tastier than the time before, while the ton katsu was sort of bland and had the texture of chicken instead of pork, but at least was tender. I thought the dish was a bit expensive for what it was, but I don't have any major complaints. I'd probably go there again, but really, this is a place to go for sushi, not teriyaki.

Makiyaki
134 Pelton Center
San Leandro, Ca
510-895-0488

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

Last night I had my monthly dinner with my friends Katrina & Parker (the rest couldn't come), and we went to Ghazal Indian Cuisine in Oakland, California. As usual when I'm with the girls, we had great restaurant karma - not only did we find free parking very close to the restaurant, but we all enjoyed our meal.

Ghazal is a relatively new restaurant in the Jack London area. It's front room is sort of generic, but its dining room is pretty nice - not in the least tacky. There is a wall with square recess shelves, decorated with nice ceramics. The room itself is too square and brightly lit for my taste - the light is too white. With a little more care it could have a very nice ambiance.

We were there on a Wednesday evening, and unfortunately (for them) the restaurant was almost empty - there was only one other party. I think the major reason is that the Jack London. Sq. area is a major dud, a complete failure of a project. It's a nice place, but for some reason nobody seems to go there. If that was true during good economic times, it'll be even truer with our current recession-depression.

In any case, Ghazal is a relatively nice place to go for dinner. It features a pretty much standard North Indian menu, thought there are more choices than at most similar restaurants. It's also pricier than most Indian restaurants. That said, I still ordered what I always order: chicken pakora ($7), lamb korma ($12), kabuli naan (here it's called kashmiri naan - $3) and two sweet lassis ($2.50 each).

The chicken pakora was quite nice, the chicken was quite moist, though the breading wasn't very crispy. The portion was a good size. I also liked the lamb korma - the lamb was amazingly tender - but I thought the korma was lacking something. Perhaps some salt? The white rice that I ordered with it was yellow, but otherwise fine. Both dishes were pretty spicy, even though I'd ordered the lamb "mild". The naan had a good amount of filling, and it was yummy and soft. The lassis, meanwhile, were delicious - perhaps a tad too sweet, but very refreshing and just nice.

Katrina and Parker shared several vegetarian dishes - I didn't try them, but they said they were very good. In all, we were all happy to have dined there. As I said, we have good restaurant karma.

Ghazal Indian Cuisine
131 Broadway
Oakland, CA
510-268-9950

-Cocina Poblana in Jack London Sq. showed me once and for all that I don't like moles.

-Messob, an Ethiopian restaurant on Piedmont Ave. was OK, not worth a second visit.

- Misty's Grille / Character's Lounge: The restaurant at the Red Lion hotel in Medford, Oregon. We went there because we were staying at the hotel (the cheapest place to stay in Medford, bid $50 in priceline) and we were too tired to go anywhere else. It sucked.

-Applebees in Salmon Creek, Washington, is among the worst restaurants I've ever been in my life. It was definitely the worst burger I've eaten in many years.

-Black Angus in San Lorenzo provided me with a decent steak and a disappointing dessert - and a long wait for the kids' mac&cheese.

More soon.

I first went to Elmer's in 2007 when we went to visit my in-laws in Washington state. We liked it, so we stopped there last November when we went to visit them again. What follows are my updated reviews. You can find the original review here.

Elmer's - Springfield - 11/09

The kids had their usual chocolate-chip pancakes ($4 for 4 small
pancakes). This time we had them share one portion and they barely
finished even that. We also knew better than to order two full
breakfast entrees (they are quite big) so instead we ordered the
Hazelnut pancake combo ($9.50, comes with your choice of meat and eggs)
and a side of potato pancake ($3.30), this was enough for Mike and I to
be satisfied but not stuffed. The potato pancake was once again good,
though it needed a bit more seasoning. The bacon was great but I was
somewhat disappointed with the pancakes. I was hoping that they were
stuffed with ricotta, but either the cheese was completely absorbed into
the batter or the batter was made with it, as there was no ricotta to
taste. Without the cheese, the pancakes were rather dry; they were
nice in those bites that had hazelnuts in it, but too plain in the
others. I would not order them again.

Service was good, the restaurant was nice and clean and I'd stop there
again ­ just order something different.

Elmer's Restaurant
3350 Gateway St
Springfield, OR
(541) 726-1261

Elmer's Grant Pass - 11/09

We stopped here for lunch and, once again, we had a pleasant experience. I was unhappy to find out that in Oregon it's against the law to serve burgers cooked less than well-done. Well done burgers are dry and tasteless, so I opted not to have one that day. Instead I went for the NW Cheese Steak Sandwich ($10), which I had with the optional onion rings ($1 extra). It was a good choice. The pot-roast sandwich was very good, the pot roast actually had a grilled flavor to it (probably the peppers) and the cheese was neither skimpy nor overwhelming. I was very happy. The portion, in particularly when coupled with the onion rings, was also large enough that I could save half for later. The onion rings, on the other hand, were somewhat of a disappointment. They were cut very, very thick and the gritty batter needed more flavor. They were also too oily. On the plus side, there were plenty of them.

Mike had the BBQ chicken sandwich ($10). He was happy that the chicken breast was an actual breast, not some reconstituted heresy. He liked the BBQ sauce and was all in all pleased. He also had the onion rings and was not impressed.

Camila had a cheese sandwich ($4) which she liked. I tasted it and it was plain (and therefore dry) but tasty enough. Mika had the cheeseburger ($4) and she was very pleased with it, she thought it tasted great (but she's no gourmet, she likes the ones at her school cafeteria quite a bit). The burger was served plain (as it should be, kids are picky!) and it was large enough that she could not finish it by herself.

For dessert we had the sundaes and we were disappointed in them. Mika's sundae had the triple berry topping and she found it quite sour. Camila's had plain chocolate syrup (rather than fudge) and it was just OK. I wouldn't order them again.

Elmer's
175 Agness
Grants Pass, OR
(541) 474-0740

Elmer's Medford - 11/08

Our one dinner at Elmer's was perfectly fine. I had the flat iron
steak, which I think came with a perfectly acceptable clam chowder.
It was perfectly cooked medium rare (which means towards the rare side
of medium rare), and quite tasty. It wasn't particularly large (for
once!), but still a good deal at $14. My only complaint is that it
did not have the consistency of a flat iron steak, it was more like a
sirloin (but a well cooked sirloin).

Mike had the small chicken salad ($10) and was happy with it. The
veggies were fresh and he liked the dressing. The kids shared a mac &
cheese ($4), which was definitely large enough for both of them.

Our two breakfasts at Elmer's were just as good. The kids loved the
chocolate chip pancakes, which they'd had the previous year. Each
portion includes 4 medium-size pancakes, so be smart and order one for
two kids. I liked the pancakes quite a bit as well. My first time I
had the caramel banana french toast, which was delicious. There is
just so much sugar I can take, however, so I wasn't close to finishing
it, even with some help from Mike and Mika. My second time I went for
the potato pancakes with bacon & scallions. I can't say these are
delicious, but they are satisfying. I'd definitely order them again,
and I wish it wasn't such a pain for me to peel and shred potatoes,
otherwise I'd make them myself. My only complaint here is that there
wasn't enough sour cream. I had the pancakes with a side of bacon,
and the bacon was very nice and meaty. Once again, however, I
couldn't finish the whole plate. Both times Mike had some sort of
skillet, which he declared to be fine. He's never very excited about
these breakfast dishes, however.

So I suspect that we'll be going back to Elmer's on our next drive
through Oregon.

Elmer's
2000 Biddle Rd.
Medford, OR
(541) 772-2000

Original Review

Road Restaurant Reviews
Chain Restaurant Reviews
Restaurants Beyond the Bay Area

Last night Mike and I went to Watercourse Way, our favorite spa in the Bay Area. Before we stopped for dinner at Siam Royal Authentic Thai Cuisine on University Avenue in Palo Alto, which is pretty close by. I had been there many years before with my friend Lola, but couldn't remember whether I'd like it or not. My conclusion this time was that it's a pretty average Thai restaurant, there is no compelling reason to go there or to avoid it.

We started the meal with Angel Wings ("Deep-fried stuffed chicken wings with ground chicken and vegetable, served with sweet and sour sauce" - $8). The wings themselves were pretty tasteless, the stuffing was in great need of some spicing. The sweet and sour sauce was pretty good, on the spicy side, though the wings were too big for the sauce to coat every bite. We wouldn't order them again.

My entree was Gai Yang ("Char-broiled marinated chicken with Thai herbs; served with sweet and sour sauce." - $8). It was also OK. The skin was nice and crispy, but the chicken itself was a bit dry. As with the wings, the sauce helped quite a bit - but I also wouldn't order it again.

Mike was happier with his Panang Salmon ("Simmered salmon in coconut milk, peanut curry sauce and string beans." - $12), which also came with broccoli. The salmon was perfectly cooked and the sauce was very tasty, with just the right amount of spice. The portion seemed generous enough, though he still ate some of my chicken, but then again, salmon is not that filling. I think he'd order it again.

We skipped dessert because we were in a hurry to get to our spa appointment - they have the obligatory bananas cooked in a number different ways.

Service was fine, though we had to ask for the bill - they brought it quickly once we did so. The dinner, with one drink and one side of rice, came to $37 after tax and tip. Not precisely cheap, but not too bad. I'm not sure I'd go there again, there are many other choices on University Ave., but it was OK for what it was.

Siam Royal Authentic Thai
338 University Ave
Palo Alto, CA
(650) 329-8129
http://www.siamroyalthai.com/

Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

It'd been quite a while since I'd gone to Bella Italia for lunch, and I thought it was time to give the restaurant a try. So last Wednesday, when Lola came to visit me, I decided we should go there and see how the restaurant is faring. Alas, the answer seems to be "not very well". In the hour or so that we were there, no other party came to have lunch. Granted, it was New Year's Eve, so a reduced crowed is expected, but nobody?

For some reason, the owners have greatly expanded the restaurant from the size it was in its Prings days. I guess that makes sense if they are renting the place out for parties (and if you are looking for a banquet room in San Leandro, this may be a good choice for you), but it does it seem even lonelier when you are the only party at the restaurant. The place does look as nice as it can, given the architecture of the building (which was built as a coffee shop). There are cloth tablecloth and napkins, nicely made up tables and a new wooden bar that seems very well stocked up. Still, it doesn't have much of a "date" or "nice dinner out" atmosphere.

It's perfect for lunch, however, specially given the very low prices. The lunch menu offers salads, sandwiches, pizzas and pastas, dishes are mostly in the $6-8 range and they come with warm bread rolls and (unsalted) butter - there is also olive oil and balsamic vinegar at the table.

I had the lasagna bolognese ($6 lunch, $11 dinner) and I thought it was pretty good. It had a good combination of cheese to meat to pasta. The sauce wasn't my favorite, and it was nowhere as good to the lasagna I made myself a few weeks ago, but it's a safe dish to order.

Lola had one of their pizzas, I forgot its name but it was the one that came with ground beef. She didn't feel it tasted particularly Italian (she's spent a fair amount of time in Italy), but she thought it was OK. I'm usually not a thin-pizza sort of person, but I liked it. It thought there was a good balance of toppings to bread, and the sauce was not overwhelming. Lola didn't seem to like it that much, but Mike thought the leftovers we brought home were very tasty. I think I'd order it myself.

Service was good and attentive, and I can't believe how cheap lunch entrees are. I'd definitely go again for lunch.

La Bella Italian Inn
15015 E. 14th St.
San Leandro, CA
510-895-2792
Original Review

Restaurant.com, a website that offers discount gift certificates to local restaurants, is having a "sale". Now, you can get a $25 gift certificate for $2 (regularly $10) and a $10 one for $.60. The gift certificates usually require a minimum food purchase of $35 to $50 (for the $25 one), and they attach an 18% tip to the pre-discounted bill. As I usually tip 20%, that doesn't bother me.

The restaurants that offer gift certificates are all over the place in terms of cost and quality. I got a gift certificate for Jordan's at the Claremont (which I may use for my 40th birthday, as that place is expensive), to Kenkoy's (a Filipino restaurant in Hayward), to Shashamane Int'l Bar & Grill (an Ethiopian restaurant in Oakland), to Cocina Poblana in Jack London and to Unicorn Pan-Asian cuisine in Berkeley.

The gift certificates do not expire in California (they expire a year from purchase in other states), so it doesn't matter when we go.

To get the discounted price use the code CELEBRATE

January 2011

I just went to Vo's for a late lunch with my friend Cynthia. I hadn't been there for a while, and once again I was not overly impressed. The food was fine but not exceptional, and even at discounted prices sort of expensive for what it was.

Cynthia and I shared the chicken wings appetizer ($3.50, usually $7). There were five or six lightly spiced wings, deep fried, that were well cooked but completely unremarkable. They came with a very nice peanut sauce which was better by itself than on the wings.

Cynthia had the Vietnamese peppered beef sandwich ($4). It was described as beef sauteed with green peppers and onions, so she was disappointed that most of what she found in the bread was cucumber and other light veggies. She also wasn't fond of the cheap-tasting baguette the sandwich came with. I got a chicken sandwich for Mike and he had similar complaints, he found there was too much bread, too little chicken and not enough flavor.

Cynthia had the banana and mango dessert ($5, I think) and she thought it was pretty good, she liked the tapioca sauce which had a generous amount of coconut milk. I had the fried banana with ice cream (also $5 or so) and while it was good, it wasn't exceptional. There were two pieces of banana wrapped in eggroll skins and a very so-so ice cream. I've had a much better version of this dessert at other restaurants.

In all, it was a nice lunch, but not good enough for $40 after tax & tip.

Nov. 2008 Review

Last night, Mike took me out to dinner at Vo's to celebrate our brief childless status (we do miss the kids, though). I had been there last a few month prior with the girls, and I'd had a pretty good meal. This one, however, was lackluster - the food seemed tired and lacked shining flavors. Part of the problem may be that Vo's seems to specialize on seafood (its specials menu featured only one meat dish), and that the choices for non-seafood eaters are very limited. After a few visits to the restaurant, you would have tried them all. I think it's time that they revamp their menu, at least vis a vis meat choices.

Mike started with the crab puffs ($8, I think) - five or six little purses fried and filled with crabmeat. He liked them, but in particular enjoyed the mustard sauce. I had the crispy rolls ($8), an old favorite. I had loved the very light and crispy skins and the flavorful filling. This time, the rolls tasted like egg rolls in any other restaurant. They lacked flavor, and even the dipping sauce couldn't help them much. I wouldn't order them again.

My main dish was the caramelized pork & shrimp ($14). I'd had this dish before, and I think I'd enjoyed it, but this time it was pretty average. The caramelization hadn't added much sweetness to the dish, and I think the meat was underseasoned to begin with. The sauce was very one-dimensional. It wasn't bad, indeed it was perfectly acceptable - but there wasn't much of a reason to eat it other than being hungry and having ordered it. I wouldn't do it again, either. Also, the portion was on the small side (something I've noticed to be an issue with Vo's from the start) - if you came in moderately hungry and haven't had an appetizer, you'll still be hungry after eating it.

Mike had the lemongrass catfish filet ($16) from the specials menu. He didn't think it was that great. The sauce was too viscous and bland, but at least the catfish was properly cooked. He wouldn't order it again.

Probably the worst part of the meal, however, were the desserts. Mike had the caramelized bananas with ice cream ($7, I think), and the dish consisted of perhaps half a banana sliced and covered in caramelized sugar, it was served with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream. The banana slices were nice, but again, nothing special. And given how small the portion of bananas they serve was, the dish was grossly overpriced.

Worse still was the cheesecake ($8). I knew that they didn't make the deserts on site (with the exception, I imagine, of the two banana dishes) - but they really need a better dessert provider. This cheesecake ($8) was flavorless and had been badly defrosted. While part of the cheesecake had the unpleasant texture of ice crystals, the other was thawed to the point of almost melting it. I'm not sure if they did it in the microwave, or how they managed to mess it up so much. The portion was pretty small for the price, but in this case it really didn't matter as the whole thing was a waste of calories. If I do eat at Vo's again (and I may very well do so, if I go out with friends who insist on going there), I will make sure to avoid dessert here.

Service was adequate (though the waitress did not ask how our meal was), but the timing of the dishes was off. Our entrees came before our appetizer dishes had been removed from the table. In all, it felt like it was a pretty rushed meal. Which is strange, as the restaurant was almost empty on a Friday night.

Dinner came to about $82 after tax and tip. I used a $25 gift certificate that I got at restaurant.com for $3 (they are usually $10, but they were running a special) - but I felt that even at $60 the dinner was overpriced. Too bad, because I like Vo's, or at least the concept of Vo's - somebody just needs to get back in the kitchen and shake things up a bit.

Vo's Restaurant
277 Parrott St.
San Leandro, Ca.
510-357-6600
Original Review

Update 12/10

Another year, another Chrismas, another dinner at the Oriental Tea House. This Christmas day we got there around 5 PM, and the place was completely empty. It started filling up around 6 PM, but there were still a couple of large tables empty by the time we left (6:20 PM or so) - so next year we won't go as early. As we did go when the place was empty, service was more relaxed. The food has increased a bit in price, but it's still very affordable. We got 6 dishes plus fried wontons for 5 adults and 4 children and we ate everything! I was happy with all the dishes (beef chow mein, Mongolian beef, chicken with two mushrooms, kun pao chicken, sweet & sour pork, veggie platter) my favorite was probably the kun pao chicken, the Mongolian beef was a close second. In all, another good meal.

Update 12/09.

As usual we went to the Oriental Tea House, in San Leandro, for Xmas dinner; this time with my sister Kathy and my brother and his family. Once again, service was hurried - the Oriental Tea House is very popular on Xmas day - but efficient. Food came on time (except for the sweet & sour pork which was delayed) and it was generally good (and cheap). Mike was happy with his beef with snow peas, as was my sister-in-law with her broccoli beef. My brother David ordered the beef curry, not on the menu, and his dish was pretty good, though very mild. I'm not sure if that was because the waitress misunderstood that he wanted his dish spicy (the English language skills of the workforce at Oriental Tea House are very limited), or because they just have a different understanding of spicy than we do. In any case, it was mild.

I ordered the roast duck, having liked the roast chicken in the past, which was a mistake. The duck was nicely cooked and very flavorful - but it had the obligatory thick layer of fat and my chopstick skills are not advanced enough to allow me to get to the meat between the fat and the bone. I had a fork, but without a knife it was an impossible endeavor. Next time I'll stick with the less fatty chicken, which is also very good.

Finally, Kathy had the sweet & sour pork, which she liked but Mike and I thought was quite unappetizing - with fat pieces of pork and a slimy sauce. To each its own.

In all, it was a good meal and we'll definitely be going there again next Xmas.

December 2008

We celebrate Christmas Eve rather than Christmas itself, so in the past we've found ourselves at a loss as to what to do for dinner on the 25th. After a huge Xmas Eve dinner, and a kitchen full of dirty dishes, the least I want to do is cook again. So some years ago we started a tradition of going out to the Oriental Tea House, in San Leandro, for Xmas dinner. The Oriental Tea House has pretty good American-style Chinese food (though given the large number of Chinese that eat there, I suspect they may have a second menu as well), it's cheap (most dishes are around $7), and most importantly, it's actually open on Xmas.

This year was no exception. We probably got there around 6 PM or so - I recommend you go early as the place gets packed by 7 (on Xmas, at least). Service was rushed but attentive, and the food was up to standard.

I liked the roasted chicken quite a bit. The skin was impossibly crispy, and the meat was nice and moist. It's rather bland by itself, but add some of the accompanying seasoned salt, and it's delicious. The beef with oyster sauce was pretty good as well - nothing extraordinary but competently executed. I liked the thick-noodle chicken chow mein, it was flavorful and devoid of too many bean sprouts (I'm not a fan). I wasn't thrilled about the doughy sweet & sour pork, however, but then again, I wasn't in the mood for anything sweet. I thought the pieces of pork were too chewy and the sauce too sweet.

In all, it was a good Xmas Eve experience, and I look forward to going there again for our next Xmas dinner.

Oriental Tea House
604 MacArthur Blvd.
San Leandro
510.562.2828
Original Review

Perhaps it's sad to say that Round Table Pizza is the best pizza in San Leandro - but after tasting most of them, that is my conclusion.

Round Table Pizza is relatively new to me. I think I'd eaten at the restaurant a couple of times, years and years ago, and the pizza hadn't made much of an impression. Then I had it at my friend Charlotte's house a few weeks ago, and I was surprised at how good it was (as I said, better than anything else in San Leandro). I had it again in a pizza buffet during a trip, and finally a couple of days ago when I had nothing in the house to cook and we were too lazy to go shopping. It was good.

The kids got the plain cheese pizza ($17 for a medium, probably 12-14"), and that was fine, though nothing terribly special. They liked it quite a bit, though, but I don't know that they are that particular. I thought it was terribly, terribly overpriced, however. Alas, that's what they eat, so I'm not sure there is anything I can do about it.

I had the Maui Zaui (ham, bacon, pineapple, tomatoes, red and green onions, with 3 cheeses), and it was positively delicious. I particularly liked the bacon, but all the toppings were very nicely balanced. I definitely would order it again. I had it again the next day (microwave for 30" per slice), and it was good, though of course not as much as they day before. Surprisingly, the pizza was only $2 more than the plain pizza.

I will probably order again from Round Table. The only thing that makes me hesitant are the prices. After tax and tip, the two relatively small medium pizzas came to $42 - more than the cost of a dinner out for the four of us, and this didn't include drinks.

Round Table
1359 Washington Avenue
San Leandro, CA
(510) 581-9994
http://www.roundtablepizza.com/

Fatty Patty's is the worst restaurant I have never eaten at. I had read the reviews of the place, and they were pretty positive. Granted, they were mostly about the breakfast and how huge the portions were, but they did say the food was good. What they didn't say, was that the food was bought pre-cooked.

We went there for lunch while we were visiting my in-laws, and I requested a cheeseburger cooked medium-rare. They told me they couldn't do that because they bought the patties pre-cooked, and all they did was warm them up! My God, even McDonalds grills them themselves (they are frozen, granted, but at least they are raw). I can't imagine how sucky these must be. Alas, they didn't really have much in the lunch menu that wasn't patty-based, so we actually walked out of the place.

It's a pity, because I love those mom-n-pop, all-American, hole in the wall breakfast places. I don't expect the food to be great, and usually a visit is enough for me, but visiting one is like traveling to another country.

I don't know that I'd go to Fatty Patty's for breakfast either, the hamburger experience scares me away (I'm imagining commercial frozen-pancakes, warmed up in the microwave). But at least it was a (short) experience.

Fatty Patty's Restaurant
10501 NE Highway 99 # 31
Vancouver, WA
(360) 574-4940

Marga's Restaurant Reviews - Outside the Bay Area

I hadn't been to Daimo for several years, because I was disappointed in the food during my last foray there. So when Lola came to visit a few days ago, I thought we might give Daimo another chance. The results were quite mixed.

We went to Daimo for lunch, and partook of their lunch specials which include a dish of your choice (for their list), soup, salad and rice for $7 - a pretty good deal given how huge the portions are. I also ordered an appetizer of a green onion bread (I forgot what they call it) for $4 - this was a large, flaky, pancake, reminiscent texture-wise of a Malaysian roti canai - sprinkled with green onions. It was pretty good by itself, but it would have been great with some kind of dipping sauce.

Lola had the beef with tofu, and she was quite happy with the dish. It included large chunks of tofu, and very tender slices of meat in a nice, balanced sauce. She enjoyed the dish at the restaurant, and Mika enjoyed the leftovers.

I had one of the worse versions of sesame chicken I've ever had the displeasure to eat. There was very little chicken under the thick breading, and what was was there was more akin to chicken fat than flesh. The thick, glutinous sauce wasn't too sweet, but had nothing going for it either. The portion was large, but I barely ate any of it. Sesame chicken is such an easy dish, that I can't understand why they couldn't make a more palatable version.

I had a coke, Lola had water, and lunch came to $25, including tip.

I won't be hurrying back.

Daimo
1456 E. 14th Ave
San Leandro, Ca
510-351-8131
Open daily 11 am to 12 am

Original Review

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

Hawaiian restaurants do not seem to last long in San Leandro - probably because at one time there were too many of them for this market - but Alohana Hawaiian Grill has the fortune of being located near Target in the Bayfair Mall. Given how atrocious the food at Target is, I'd imagine that hungry people shopping there would not mind stopping at Alohana for some food.

We went there a couple of weeks ago, after watching a movie at Cinemark Theaters, and it was a good experience. The food was good - just as good as our Hawaiian restaurant of choice, Ono - and the portions were very generous. I can't say much more than that, and that I'd definitely come back if I was hungry while shopping there.

Now, don't get there expecting any kind of ambiance. The dining room is very small, this was definitely planned as a take-out place, but it's serviceable.

Alohana Hawaiian Grill
1555 E. 14th Suite 319
San Leandro, CA
510-481-8888
http://www.alohanahawaiiangrill.com/

I just got this message as a response to my review of Pomegranate, a Middle Eastern restaurant in Berkeley. I haven't been there since my review, so I'm happy to hear it's still good :-)

"My husband and I went to the Pomegranate restaurant last night based upon your review (that we found by googling restaurant reviews in Berkeley) and it was every bit as good as you said it was. Thanks so much for the tip. We will definitely go back (and Jerry, our waitperson, was awesome)."
Cindy and Fred

Mike wasn't too excited Friday when I suggested that we go to Luke's Grill for lunch. Though we hadn't been there in years (thus my reason for wanting to return), he didn't have particularly good memories of it. Still I convinced him, and we ended up with an OK meal.

Mike had the chicken gyros, which he said were pretty good. I didn't try them, so I can't comment. I had the beefteki, which now comes in a pita bread with lettuce, tomato and feta cheese. The beefteki itself is a large, oblong piece of herbed burger. I thought it was OK, but nothing beyond that. The whole composition was too salty - largely the fault of the cheese - and the beef was too dry. I didn't really enjoy it much.

Both dishes came with fries, which were just average.

In all, I won't be rushing back to Luke's Grill, but I may give it a try again in a couple of years.

Luke's Grill Restaurant
1509 East 14th St.
San Leandro
510-614-1010

Original Review

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

Berkeley/Albany

Paragon @ the Claremont
Rendezvous Cafe - French
Unicorn Pan Asian Cuisine

Oakland

Cocina Poblana
Messob
MoNo
Nan Yang
Pizza Rustica
Tamarindo Antojeria Mexicana

Hayward/Castro Valley

Bijou Restaurant & Bar
Sampan Kitchen

Note: This restaurant has closed. A burger joint may
open in its place.

I like Sonoma's. I like the casual neighborhood atmosphere and I like the friendly owner - I even like the menu (though it's grossly overpriced). Really, my only problem with Sonoma is the food. It really needs to be better and cheaper.

I last went a couple of weeks ago with Mike and a bunch of other people, who do love the place. We were there mostly to converse and drink wine, but we were hungry so we also ordered some food. The Coquilles St. Jacques ($10), scallops served in a creamy sauce were very popular, and everyone scooped off every last bit of the sauce. The mushrooms milano ($8), mushrooms sauteed in a sherry sauce, were also very yummy. The sauce was sweet, as you could expect, but not overwhelmingly so and complimented the mushrooms quite well. The portion was a bit small for the price, however.

The big disappointment of the evening was the main dish we shared, the veal saltimbocca ($20), veal sauteed with prosciutto and sage, then topped with mozzarella cheese and baked. It was so overwhelmingly salty and rich that I could not have more than a couple of bites of it. The prosciutto was completely wasted in the whole mess, and why you'd inflict it on a subtly flavored meat like veal is beyond me. It just did not work. Mike, surprisingly, agreed.

I had, on a previous occasion, had the veal marsala ($19) and I remember it being good, so next time I go to Sonoma's I'll probably order that again.

Sonoma's
1027 Macarthur Blvd
San Leandro, CA
(510) 636-1143

Original Review

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

I've been waiting for Pho An-Ha, the new restaurant at the corner of East 14th & Estabrook to open for several months now. All the restaurants in the immediate vicinity of my house are of questionable quality, and I don't always want to cook. I figured, if Pho An-Ha is any good, I'll patronize it often.

I was in such hurry to try it, that I took the girls there for dinner last Friday night - opening day. The place was very busy, almost all tables were taken, and yet the service was responsive and attentive - though do bear in mind some of the wait staff has limited English. Still, it seemed like the whole Vietnamese community in San Leandro had come over for dinner, and they handled it very well.

I was a little bit disappointed with the menu. It's pretty heavy on pho and other noodle soup dishes ($5.75-$6.75), and I am just not one for soups. In addition they serve grilled pork, chicken and/or shrimp over rice (most $6.25-$8) or vermicelli ($6.75-$7.50). There is the possibility of getting beef stew over rice ($6.25), but that's about it: soup and grilled meats. In other words, not much in the way of variety.

I ordered the grilled pork with vermicelli for Mika and had the Pork chop with rice. I also ordered the grilled chicken appetizer ($6) to share. My conclusion was that the meats were quite good, but the portions were on the small side. The grilled chicken, in particular, consisted of 3 tiny skewers of marinated chicken that would not compare favorably (in size) to the sate you get at Thai restaurants. Still, they were almost as expensive as an entree, but they were served plain (though along with your typical vinegary sauce). In comparison, you can get a much larger portion, served with veggies, for a couple of dollars more at Le Soleil, our favorite Vietnamese bistro.

The same can be said about the two main dishes we ordered. The meats were very flavorful and very nicely grilled, but the portions of actual meat were quite small - not a good deal in comparison to Le Soleil.

I should note, however, that each diner gets a free soda (not necessarily a good thing when you are having lunch with little kids - they don't offer juice or even lemonade as an alternative). They do have strawberry milkshakes, however. The one we had that night - before Mika spilled it all over the table, the floor and herself - was delicious, almost as good as those at Vo's. But when we went a couple of days later just to get a couple of shakes, someone else was making them and they weren't that good. Camila didn't even drink hers (which really, given how caloric these things are, wasn't a bad thing).

The restaurant itself is devoid of ambiance. The place used to be a video store, and later a hip-hop clothing store, and it hasn't changed much. There are a couple of large screen TVs mounted on the sides, though thankfully the sound was turned off while we were there.

Service, on the other hand, was fantastic. After Mika spilled the shake on herself, we hurried home to change her, promising to come back later (we live a hundred feet away). We did, and I guess they hadn't believed our promise, for they had cleared our table and stopped our orders. They were so apologetic for that, however, that they hurried our orders, gave us more free soda and discounted our meals - and they didn't even include the shake we'd wasted on the bill. So yeah, I feel a little bit bad writing that the place is not necessarily a good value.

In all, I liked the food at Pho Anh-Ha and given the proximity to my house, I imagine I'll eat there often - but it won't replace Le Soleil as my favorite Vietnamese restaurant.

Pho Anh-Ha
2089 E 14th St Unit A1
San Leandro, CA
510-357-6888
M-Su, 10 AM - 9 PM

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

I put a bunch of new restaurant reviews online. Many of them are from my trip to the wine country this year, so I decided to create a web page exclusively for restaurants in Napa & Sonoma. It's available at http://www.marga.org/food/rest/napa.html. Mike (who edits my reviews) still owes me a few more, but for the time being here is what I have:

Bear Republic Brewery Co.
Good burgers at this famous Healdsburg eatery

Bistro de Copains
An upscale restaurant in Occidental managed to serve me a cold steak

Howard’s Cafe
Also in Occidental serves a pretty nice breakfast

KC’s Downtown Grill
Good coffee shop food in a dead town, Windsor.

Ravenous
Good food and a relaxing dinner at this Healdsburg gem

Sunflower Caffe
Great gourmet sandwiches in a funky patio

And coming back to the bay area, I posted a pretty old review of:

Sonoma’s
A San Leandro restaurant that unfortunately does not live up to its potential.

and a more recent review of:

Verbena
Good food in an office building in downtown Oakland

Today at noon Mika and I found ourselves at Zocalo, with an hour to wait before picking up Camila from daycare. We hadn't had lunch, and Mika was hungry, so we studied the alternatives in the area (Bancroft & Dutton). There is Paradiso, which is good but expensive; Villa Portofino, which is not open for lunch, Al Attles' California Cheese Steaks, where Mike and I had had lunch yesterday, and the Cornestone Cafe. Clearly, the Cornerstone Cafe was our only choice (OK, we could have walked a couple of blocks and eaten at Mae's Soul Food or Tuttle's Sea Garden, but I didn't think of it, and I don't think Mika likes fried fish/chicken anyway). So to the Cornerstone Cafe we went. All in all, we had a nice meal and I'd go back with her there again.

The Cornerstone Cafe has a pretty short menu, it includes some salads, soups, pastas and sandwiches, as well as daily specials. They also have a brief kids' menu, heavy on angel hair pasta. Mika had the plain angel hair pasta, with butter and Parmesan ($3). She was very happy with it, and ate every single bit. The portion was a bit small, but it did come with bread and butter.

I once again tried the burger, this time with cheddar cheese and avocado. I ordered it medium rare, and it was a bit overdone. It was moderately juicy and it tasted better than I remembered. In all it was fine, better than what you get at most coffee shops, but not particularly great. I didn't like the fact that the burger was ready at least 5 minutes before the pasta, and they let it sit in the counter so they could serve both together. They really should work better on their timing.

The burger comes with your choice of salad, fries or something else. I went for the fries and I didn't like them. They were a bit dry and unseasoned.

Mika had a fresh-squeezed lemonade, which she liked, but found too sweet. I had a coke.

We ate at the counter and service was great. The waitress and the guy behind the counter kept checking on us, and making conversation with my little girl.

Best of all was the bill, $15.50 for the two of us. That's definitely a bargain for that type of restaurant. As I said, yesterday we ate at the Cheesesteak place and spent over $22 - granted it was for two adults, but still.

Cornerstone Cafe
600 Dutton Avenue
San Leandro
510-562-2535

Original Review

Earlier this week I noticed that a small cheesesteak restaurant had opened on Bancroft near Dutton, and today I had the opportunity to go give it a try. It was an OK experience, it's a place I'd go back but not rush back to.

Al Attles' serves hoagies and rice plates, and on this occasion both Mike and I had the steak & cheese hoagy ($8). We also ordered a portion of onion rings ($3.25).

The onion rings were fine. The breading was less flavorful than what I would have liked, and they weren't served with ranch dressing, which I would also have liked, but they tasted as if they were made with fresh oil. They weren't greasy, which I did like.

The hoagies were also much less greasy than those served at other local establishment. The meat was mostly lean, the vegetables (grilled onions, green peppers, lettuce and tomatoes) fresh, and the sandwich quite large. It was a bit unwieldy, however, and the meat kept falling off, so I mostly ended up eating a veggie sandwich. The flavor was fine, the meat (when there) was a bit overwhelmed by the other flavors, but all in all, I liked it. It didn't awe me, though.

Service was very good. The small restaurant doesn't have anything resembling ambiance, but it's a cheese steak restaurant after all.

Al Attles' California Cheese Steaks
571 Bancroft Ave.
San Leandro, Ca
510-639-3458
M-Th 11 AM - 7 PM
F 11Am - ?
Sa 12 - ?

Yesterday we went to the Washington Manor Library to see animals the Oakland Zoo was bringing, and decided to stop for lunch at the Great Wall Restaurant before the the "show". We hadn't been there before.

They serve a standard Chinese-American menu. Most lunch plates and a la carte entrees are about $5-7. We started with the fried pork wontons they also have plain wontons). They looked like money purses of fried dough around a pork meatball. I didn't think the meatball was very tasty (the kids didn't like them), but the fried dough was good with the standard sweet-sour sauce.

Mike ordered two of their set lunches ($5), one with sweet and sour pork, fried rice and chicken chow mein and the other with almond chicken and fried rice. I had the lemon chicken ($6).

The fried rice was very nice, the diminute pieces of bbq pork were smokey and full-flavored, and they imparted the whole dish with their flavor. Mika really enjoyed the chicken chow mein, and I thought it was quite flavorful as well. The almond chicken was very nice, it had a standard flavor but a lot of it. I was less crazy about the lemon chicken and the sweet and sour pork. The problem with the former was that the sauce failed to adhere to the chicken, and the chicken by itself was rather tasteless. The sauce was good, but not spectacular. The sauce on the sweet and sour pork, however, left much to be desired. It managed to be neither sweet nor sour, and was mostly "blah". The meat wasn't fatty, at least.

Service was good, the waitress was accommodating and the food came very promptly to the table. In all, I'd go to the Great Wall again if I was in the neighborhood and had a hankering for Chinese food.

Great Wall Restaurant
15048 Farnsworth St
San Leandro, CA
(510) 352-8343

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

I noticed that Cafe Sorriso has changed ownership. If anyone goes and has a comment, please put it in my original review page (like above).

Horatio's Lounge is undergoing a renovation - the whole bar was close on a recent visit, so we had to have our desserts at the restaurant. But it's opening in the next few days. I'm not sure if I'll get there any time soon, so if you go, let me know how it looks. The desserts we had at the dining room weren't as good as usual, they tasted stale. Hopefully, it's a momentary glitch.

It seems that the Italian restaurant on Bancroft and Dutton is actually getting ready to open and the Vietnamese restaurant at East 14th and Estabrook, is progressing.

Anyway, if you know of something happening in the vibrant San Leandro restaurant scene, please comment here.

I was visiting my parents in the SF Valley this weekend, and my sister Kathy suggested that we go to Thai West for lunch, a favorite restaurant in the neighborhood. Alas, it was close for Sunday lunch, so we went hunting for another alternative. Raaga was the first such alternative we found - and I was glad we did.

We got to the small strip-mall restaurant around 12:30 PM on Sunday (July 2008). The place was deserted, and they were just putting out the lunch buffet. I hope people in the area are late lunchers, because no one came while we ate.

The food was very good. The buffet consisted of three meat dishes (chicken curry, goat curry and tandoori chicken), and 2 or 3 veggie dishes - I noticed a vegetable sambaal and some daal, I'm not sure if they had something else. There was also rice, vegetable pakoras, raita and things of the sort. They brought fresh nan to the table, and it was very good, thick and warm.

I loved everything I had. The tandoori chicken lacked the red dye that is usually used to give the dish its distinctive color, but it was juicy and very flavorful, without being spicy. Indeed, Mika, my picky 6-yo, ate quite a bit of it. The chicken curry was both rich and deep, a tiny bit spicy and somewhat sweet, with layers of complexity. It was not the sort of dish you tend to get in a buffet - I really enjoyed it. The goat curry was almost as good, well balanced, rich in flavor, giving you something new, yet familiar (to eaters of Indian food). Kathy tried the veggie pakoras and she thought they were very good as well, Mika even ate a couple of bites without complain.

Service was great, if silent.

The bill came up to $38 after tax. They only charged us for 3 buffets (there were 3 adults and 3 kids, but the kids mostly ate rice), and we had 4 drinks. In all, I thought it was very affordable for the quality of food.

Raaga
10110 Topanga Canyon Blvd.
Chatsworth, CA
818-407-8898

Marga's Restaurant Reviews

Never say never, right? Reading back my old review of Pea Soup Andersen's, it sounds like I'd sworn never to go back - but last weekend we found ourselves driving down south and hungry by the time we got to Santa Nella. And your choices for food in Santa Nella are limited: Pea Soup Andersen's, the restaurant at the traveler's center (which might have changed names since that review), and fast food. So I thought we'd give Pea Soup another chance. I probably wouldn't again.

It's not that the food was particularly bad. Mike actually enjoyed his croissant club sandwich ($9 or $10). But it wasn't particularly good either. My BBQ Western Burger (~$10) came with bacon, 2 onion rings and BBQ sauce (I asked for it on the side), but it was cooked medium-to-well-done, rather than the medium rare I had asked for. As a result it was dry. It still tasted fine, however. The portions were very generous, though I wished they were smaller and so was the price tag. I've noticed that prices of burgers at restaurants have gone through the roof (I recently had a $17 burger at Adagia), but come on! - if I pay $10 for a burger I want it to be good, if not excellent.

Anyway, I think next time I may actually drive a couple of miles out of the way to Los Baños and have something to eat there instead.

Pea Soup Andersen's
I-5 Exit 407
12411 S Highway 33
Santa Nella, CA
209-826-5534

Original Review

Marga's I-5 Restaurant Reviews

Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

I have one restaurant left to review from my trip to Sonoma & the Lake Country, and that is Omelette Express, a breakfast and lunch joint in Windsor. We had breakfast there last week, when visiting the area.

I only had a bagel with cream cheese and a mocha, so I can't really say much personally about the food. The bagel ($2.50) was a little bit too soft, but otherwise fine. The mocha ($3.50 or so) was pretty nice, but not stellar.

Mike had ham, onion, bell pepper and cheese omelet ($11), which he thought wasn't very good. It came with potatoes that were under-salted and sort of soggy, they left much to be desired.

Service was friendly and efficient.

In all, I wouldn't go back not just because of the mediocre omelet, but because they don't offer the sort of things I like for breakfast (pancakes, waffles, etc.), and because they seem quite overpriced. However, if you do go, pick p one of the paper take-out menus they have around. When we went, they had coupons for $3 OFF breakfast and lunch.

Omelette Express
150 Windosr River Road
Windsor, CA
(707) 838-6920
M-F 6:30-3 PM
Sa-Su 7-4 PM

Marga's Restaurant Reviews

Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

Last weekend we headed to Sonoma and the Lake county for a little vacation. Our last evening, a Monday night in July 2008, we stayed in Clearlake Oaks, a very small town on the eastern side of the lake. Monday night is a bad night to eat at Clearlake Oaks. There are very few restaurants to begin with, and none of them were open that evening. Our only recourse if we wanted to eat was to drive to the city of Clearlake proper - not a very long drive, but it was getting lake.

There are a few Chinese and Mexican restaurants at the entrance of Clearlake, as well as what I imagine is an American restaurant at one of the hotels. Mike wanted something else, however, so we drove all our town, unsuccessfully as it turned out. We ended up at the Cactus Grill almost by default. It wasn't a bad thing, as our meal, though not spectacular, was satisfying enough.

The little restaurant has a small dining room and patio - the dining room wasn't air conditioned and it was an extremely warm night, so we decided to eat outside. It was quite pleasant.

Service was quite good, the waiter brought us chips immediately - though I had to ask before being told that they had a salsa bar inside. They had about 8 salsas to chose from, both mild and hot, the one closer to pico de gallo that I chose was pretty good.

Mike had one of their burritos, and he was quite pleased with it. It was large and tasty. I had the carne asada plate - which came with rice, beans, guacamole and salsa, as well as huge, very hot, flour tortillas (corn tortillas are also available). It wasn't really different from a fajitas plate. The carne asada was a bit (only a bit) tough, but it had a very pleasant, somewhat vinegary, marinade. There wasn't a lot of it (specially as I don't eat either rice or beans), but I was satisfied. The guacamole tasted commercial, the type of bagged guacamole you can get at Safeway or Costco. It wasn't bad, but I would have preferred homemade, fresh guac.

In all, it was a nice dinner. I wouldn't be hurrying back, but if I was in the area I might visit it again.

Cactus Grill Restaurant
3900 Bayliss Ave
Clearlake, CA
(707) 994-0905

Marga's Restaurant Reviews

Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

It'd been a couple of years since I'd last gone to Buon Appetito in Hayward. I'd meant to go back and try the pastas, but for one reason or another, it never came back. Finally yesterday, Lola and I were looking for a place to go to dinner, and Buon Appetito popped into my head.

The place looks just like before, though prices have gone up a few dollars. The menu, featuring pastas and Italian main dishes, is available online.

Dinner starts with fresh French Bread served with a sauce made from garlic, Parmessan cheese, olive oil, and either red pepper or tomatoes (I couldn't tell what was giving it that red color). It was delicious, and I ate much more than I should.

Lola ordered the Ravioli con Pomodoro, ravioli filled with spinach, swiss chard, pinenuts & ricotta cheese, that comes with a tomato & artichoke hearts sauce. She felt it tasted very Italian, like the pastas she'd enjoyed in Florence, but felt it was underseasoned. I don't think she'd order it again.

I went with the Gnocchi al Sugo di Carne - pottato gnocchi in a beef and carrot sauce. I liked the consistency of the gnocchi, they were dense without being heavy. The meat sauce was hearty, with chunks of stewed meat and carrots. There was nothing wrong with it, but I didn't really like it. I'm beginning to think that I may prefer Italian-American food, to that which more closely approximates the style of the mother country. In any case, I enjoyed my dish and the leftovers, but I wouldn't necessarily order it again.

Service was very good, and the kitchen boxed my leftovers for me - the type of service you rarely get anyway.

In all, I will return to Buon Appetito, but I may stick with the main dishes, which were so good last time.

Buon Appetito
917 A Street
Hayward, CA
510.247.0120
http://www.buonappetitorestaurant.net/

Original Review

Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

Thai Satay is San Leandro's only Thai restaurant, and as such we visit it from time to time. Mike often gets pad thai from there to take to his School Board meetings, and we go there for lunch once in a while. Yesterday, my friend Lola was visiting, and we decided that Thai sounded good.

I had the roasted duck, which comes in a bed of spinach and rice, accompanied by a strong, somewhat sweet sauce. The duck was nicely salted and tasted great, but it was very, very fatty. There seemed to be more fat than duck. I sort of enjoyed it, but I wouldn't order it again. The sauce was pretty good with the rice, however.

Lola had a combination of masaman curry and basil chicken. The curry was good, though a bit heavy on the potatoes, but the chicken was unbelievably dry. The flavor, mild and inviting, was very good, but Lola couldn't stand eating it. She did like the soup and salad which came with lunch.

At $9 each, the dishes were a bit pricy for lunch, but from time to time you can get "buy one, get one free" coupons at the SL Times.

In all, while Thai Satay doesn't have the best Thai food in the world, it does have the best and only Thai food in San Leandro.

Thai Satay
1376 E. 14th Street
San Leandro, Ca
(510) 351-2345
http://www.thaisatay.com/

Original Review

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

Mike and I found ourselves in Lakeport on our way to the Lake county from the Alexander Valley. We were hungry and Jack's Gaslight Grill was pretty much the first restaurant we came across. It wasn’t a bad choice for lunch.

The restaurant looks like it used to be an old tavern. There is a nice wooden bar with mirrors, and a relatively small cooking area. The menu is coffee-shop style, with burgers and sandwiches.

I got the steak sandwich which was just OK. The meat was tough but tasted fine. The onion rings it came with, were quite good. Mike got the burger, which he said was very good, juicy and tasty.

Service was very friendly, and the place is worth a try.

Jack's Gaslight Grill
135 N. Main Street
Lakeport, Ca.
707-263-0188

Restaurant Reviews

Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

Last week I went out to Adagia with my friends Parker, Aamani and Dolores. We had all had desserts there a few months before and Parker was eager to try it for dinner. All in all we had a good experience, and I would go back.

I had their famous burger with provolone cheese, avocado and house cured pancetta. At $17.50 it was the most expensive burger I've ever eaten, but it was quite good. The meat was juicy, the toppings balanced, and the pancetta, in particular, was delicious. Still, I had an equally good burger at the Auburn Alehouse a few weeks back for only $11. I'm not sure that I'd order it again, but only because of the price. The fries that came with it were good, but not special.

Dolores had the Gorgonzola and walnut ravioli ($14.50) which came in a white wine cream sauce with arugula. I tasted the dish, and I liked it, but I think I'd grown bored eating the whole plate. Still, it's a good option for vegetarians.

The baked casarecce pasta ($16.50), which Aamani and Parker shared, could have been better. It had a very mild taste and was screaming for more kale (or so I'm told), neither would order it again.

Finally, both Parker and Aamani were happy with their shared falafel crusted halibut ($24), though I didn't hear any screams of ecstasy as in other occasions.

After our experience last time with the chocolate bread pudding, we all ordered it again and once again it was both delicious and satisfying.

Adagia
2700 Bancroft Way
Berkeley, Ca
510.647.2300
http://www.adagiarestaurant.com/

Original Review

Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

We stopped at the Old Village Grill in Arroyo Grande yesterday for lunch. We were driving down 101 and were famished by the time we got to Arroyo Grande. Mike remembered that we'd been to the Old Village Grill before, and he thought it was good. This time I thought it was merely OK.

I got their sourdough burger which came with cheese, shredded lettuce, tomato and not-sauteed-enough onions (~$6). The patty was rather small and the whole burger was unwieldy to eat. It tasted good, however. Mike had their BBQ bacon burger and he liked it, it was tasty and juice and the BBQ sauce did not overwhelm the flavors. We shared onion rings that were a bit overcooked, but nicely seasoned - though the accompanying (ranch?) sauce was too salty. I had a peanut butter shake which wasn't flavorful enough. The bill came to $19 before tip.

In all, I think next time I may try a new place.

Old Village Grill
101 E. Branch St.
Arroyo Grande, Ca
(805) 489-4915

It's been several months since I've uploaded restaurant reviews to my website (blame Mike, my editor), so I'm making up for that now. Here are the new ones up:

Tiger's Garden is a very good Thai and Laotian restaurant in downtown Vancouver, Wa.

Elmer's is a Northwestern chain of pretty good restaurants. We had a great breakfast at their Medford location and a pretty good dinner at their Roseburg branch.

Mike and I had a disappointing meal at Oakland's Doña Tomás in 2004, but my 2007 meal there with "the girls" was great!

We finally made it to Chez Simone in Oakland, where we had a nice meal - though nothing I couldn't make at home.

Our last girls' night out with Eddie was at Absinthe in San Francisco. The food was quite good.

The Rotunda, the restaurant at Neiman Marcus in San Francisco, offers what is probably the worst cup of tea in town. Avoid at all costs.

And finally, I celebrated my birthday with my family at El Morocco in Pleasant Hill - an old favorite.

A couple of weeks ago I was in Berlin for a conference and I had lunch at Cafe Stresermann, which happened to be in front of my hotel. I had a wiener schnitzel (E. 9) and a coke (E. 1.70). The coke was fine, but the wiener schnitzel left much to be desired. The meat was tough and underseasoned, and the breading wouldn't stick to it. I was expecting much more of a wiener schntzel in Germany. The potatoes it came with were fine, but not memorable. I don't know if I'll ever return to Berlin, but I won't be eating there again.

Cafe Stresemann
Stresemannstr. 90
10963 Berlin, Germany
+49 30 2611760

I returned from a short trip to Berlin yesterday afternoon, and the first thing I did, after coming home, was head to the Farmers' Market. We were there a little bit later than usual, so we didn't see all our friends as has become the custom, but we did see enough to make me remember what I so love about this place. We also found that amidst the eating choices the market offers (tamales, corn-on-the-cob, teriyaki sticks & hot dogs and steak & sausage sandwiches), there was a new one: Indian food from (I think) India Gourmet in Watsonville. Of course, I had to try it, and the choices were not bad.

India Gourmet offers wraps (for about $6, I think), rice plates ($8) and full dinners ($12), which include rice and veggie sides. The main entrees include chicken curry, lamb curry and two or three vegan options to which I paid no attention (sorry). They have daal, nan ($2) and mango lassis (no sweet ones, though).

Both the chicken and the lamb curry were pretty good. They were well portioned, enough food to eat, though not too much that there were leftovers. Neither was particularly spicy, but they had enough of a kick to keep my oldest kid away. The curries were well balanced and the meats were tender. They weren't my favorite curries out there, but I'd have them again.

The nan was also very nice, on the thick side.

Wednesday evening we went to the Downtown Farmers' Market again. This time they had family entertainment and a few different stands, including one that serves coffee drinks and another one selling beautiful baskets. There is also now a place selling corn-on-the-cob, which the kids enjoyed.

Mike and I had the teriyaki chicken and beef at Meyers BBQ stand. They were both quite good, but not exceptional. The meat was very thin, tender and a little fatty. The portions were large enough for dinner, in particular if accompanied by rice. Chicken skewers are $6, beef $7, add $2 for a large portion of fried rice (which wasn't that good).

Lola and I spent a nice weekend in the Gold Country which culminated with a late lunch in Auburn. We basically headed to the old town, and had lunch in the first place that caught our eye - we got lucky, because Auburn Alehouse serves very good food.

The restaurant is stylish, and doesn't really look like a beer joint. We were seated by the window and had a nice view of the antique market going on that weekend. Though the place was somewhat noisy, it was pretty relaxing for us.

The menu offers sophisticated versions of American classics. For example my burger was made with Kobe beef. Prices are a little high with appetizers averaging $8-9, sandwiches for $9-12 and main dishes from $10-25. But portions are very large and you feel you get your money's worth.

As I mentioned, I ordered the Kobe burger, a 1/2 lb patty that comes with bacon, avocado, American cheese, tomato and lettuce ($11). I substituted the fries for onion strings ($1 additional). The burger was cooked a little bit browner than the medium-rare I ordered, but it was still very juicy. The meat itself was very tender, but I otherwise could not distinguish a special taste to the kobe beef. The whole thing worked very well together, and I enjoyed it. The crispy onion strings were severely underseasoned, but they were good with some salt added. In all, I enjoyed the dish and would order it again.

Lola had the BBQ pork sandwich ($8.50) with a side salad. The BBQ pork was excellent, very flavorful with an intense BBQ sauce. I'd definitely order it myself. She liked the salad which had a simple vinaigrette, she particularly enjoyed the arugula and felt the greens were quite fresh. She also couldn't finish the whole thing.

We decided to skip dessert as they are all quite pricey ($7.50!).

I'll definitely eat here again next time I find myself in Auburn.

Auburn Alehouse
289 Washington Street
Auburn CA
530-885-2537
http://auburnalehouse.com/

Restaurant Reviews

Yesterday my friend Lola and I went to California's Gold Country, for our yearly girls' weekend out. We drove east until we heat 49, and then north. We stopped in Sonora for lunch. We picked Alfredo's as it was the first restaurant we walked by after we parked.

Alfredo's occupies a very nice room in historical downtown Sonora. The main wall is brick with recessed shelves here and there displaying Maya and Aztec ceramics. Other walls have orange hues and there are couple of large stereotypical Mexican wall paintings. It's both stylish and informal at the same time.

Service was very good, the waiter was very attentive - and chips and drinks, and then food, came quickly to the table.

The major problem we had with Alfredo's was the food. It was just bland. Nothing had been adequately salted or spiced - it's as if they were cooking for middle-American seniors with high blood pressure (which may be their target audience, for all I know). The menu was your typical Tex-Mex, with entrees at $9 to $12.50. There is also a children's menu.

I ordered the Botana Combo ($8.75), which included four different appetizers: a good portion of guacamole, 4 beef taquitos, 1 plain quesadilla and 3 bacon wrapped shrimp. None of it was good. I love guacamole, but this one needed some lemon to perk it up. You could taste the corn tortillas on the taquitos, but the meat filling was to bland to come through. The quesadilla was just a cheese stuffed tortilla, with nothing to make it special. And while I didn't try the shrimp, as I don't like shrimp at all, Lola thought they were quite mediocre.

Lola had the same complaints of blandness vis a vis her entree, a combo plate of a beef tamale and a chicken enchilada ($10.55). She described the enchilada as "just an American enchilada" and while she praised the fluffy and light masa of the tamale, she thought the filling was bland and unsurprising.

As you'd expect, we wouldn't stop at Alfredo's again - but if you prefer bland food, this may be the place for you.

Alfredo's Mexican Restaurant
123 S. Washington St.
Sonora, CA
(209) 532-8332

I've returned to Zen's many times since my original review. I think it's by far the best deal for lunch in town, the food is delicious and the lunch buffet very nicely priced. It's well worth the trip to the Marina.

Zen's has been open for two years and I only read about it today, which tells you I'm not as in tune with the San Leandro restaurant "scene" as one might think. And a great pity it is, because if its buffet lunch is any indication, Zen may very well serve the best food in San Leandro.

I found the restaurant on TripAdvisor.com while looking for restaurants in San Leandro I might have missed. I suggested it to my friend Aamani, who I was meeting for lunch, and she was all for trying it - so we headed towards Doolittle in the hopes of finding it, which we did easily. It's located in a strip mall, just off Fairway.

The little restaurant is pretty cute with a tiki-bar kind of feel. It has, however, two annoying flat screen TVs showing Filipino shows. They are very loud, making conversation difficult.

The buffet consisted of about 10 dishes, including a chicken soup, chicken and pork adobo, BBQ chicken, Filipino steak, chicken in a coconut sauce, and a few other dishes I don't remember now. There was one noodle dish I didn't try, and one green-bean dish. There was nothing else for vegetarians, so they may want to keep away.

Everything I tried was excellent, the meats were tender, flavorful and not exceedingly fatty. The sauces were full of flavor, the bbq chicken was delicious. My experience with Filipino food had been limited to adobos and lumpias, what I tasted seemed like a fusion of western and Asian foods - as you would expect.

According to its website, Zen's is also open to dinner until very late. They have music and karaoke some nights, so you may want to call them if you are just going for the food. I know I'll go back.

Zen's Filipino Cuisine and Ihaw-Ihaw (BBQ) House
13876 Doolittle Drive
San Leandro, CA
510-351-3312
http://www.zensfilipinocuisine.com

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

As I reported here a couple of weeks ago, Blossom is the last restaurant to occupy the space on East 14th previously taken by Good Food and Szechuan Restaurant. I will bet that it won't be the last.

We ordered food from there Saturday, when I was too involved in the preparations for my birthday party that evening (which I'll soon blog about), to attend to lunch. Kathy suggested it because they delivered, and I always want to try new places in town. Oh well.

Blossom offers your typical Chinese restaurant menu also at typical prices - generally $6-9 for entrees. The portions are large, though not as large as those of other restaurants, which is not necessarily a bad thing. My problem was with the food itself.

We found the fried wontons ($3.25) to be a bit limp - though that may be because they don't travel well. In any case, I like them crispier.

The sweet & sour pork ($6) had a lot of breading, little pork and a syrupy sauce that just didn't taste good. Nobody liked it. Mike and Kathy did like the Szechuan beef ($6.55), but I thought it was very one-dimensional, it was too spicy for the kids to try. None of us liked the orange flavored chicken ($6), full, scrawny chicken wings with a thick, spicy sauce. They were difficult to eat and just not very tasty. The chicken chow mein ($5) was pretty good, Mika liked it.

In all, I was unhappy with Blossom and I see no reason to order from there again. New Hong Kong also delivers and is much better.

Blossom Chinese Restaurant
14807 E. 14th St.
San Leandro, CA
510-614-8112

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

Last night, Kathy, my sister who is visiting from LA, wanted to go to Chevy's for dinner. Alas, we'd been there only last week and the experience hadn't been that great, so I wasn't eager to repeat it. I suggested Chili's, as I figured one generic, mediocre, chain should be easy to substitute for another.

My first experience at Chili's in San Leandro had actually been positive. Granted, Mike and I were in a date so that might have rose-colored our glasses, but we thought the BBQ ribs were pretty good as was the rest of the food. We visited again a few months ago, this time with the kids, and I wasn't as happy with the experience. I found the food to be tired, with boring rather than vibrant flavors. It wasn't bad, just not exciting.

Still, our choices, here in San Leandro, are dismal, so I figured we might as well go there. Once again it wasn't exciting, but it wasn't bad.

None of us were particularly hungry, so we decided to split an order of baby back ribs ($17 for a full rack) and get an additional half-rack for Kathy ($7, if ordered with another entree). Mike got the habanero ribs, and he liked them quite a bit. He thought they weren't very spicy, but I disagreed. Kathy had the honey chipotle ones. She thought they were OK, but that they lacked flavor. I liked my honey BBQ ribs, they were fall-off-the-bone tender and had a pleasant, sweet, flavor. So far these have been my favorite.

I had ordered the loaded mashed potatoes as a side, but either the waitress didn't hear me (it's a rather loud restaurant), or she made a mistake, as she brought us french fries and veggies instead. The former were very disappointing, they were limp and not very flavorful. The veggies were OK.

We also ordered onion strings served with jalapeño ranch sauce ($6, I think). Mike and Kathy thought they were pretty good, I thought they lacked flavor, and wasn't too happy with the sauce.

Both kids got mac-n-cheese. It is Kraft, but Mika said it was just OK. Both she and Camila ate quite a bit, though. Neither touched their corn on the cob, however :(

In all, it wasn't a bad meal and I'd go back once in a while for the ribs.

Original Review

Prince Dim Sum House opened a few months ago, I think, at the space where East Village used to be. The restaurant underwent renovations before it opened as Prince, so I'm not sure if the owner, as well as the look and the name, have changed. The menu is pretty similar, as are the prices. I'd been to East Village several times, and this was my second visit to Prince as such.

Esthetically, they spiffed up the room a little bit, putting new furniture and a wine wall and removing the unattractive handwritten "specials" posters from the walls. Still, the room is square and has a flat ceiling, and there isn't that much you can do with it to make it attractive. The place is nice enough, but it's not and does not pretend to be, a "date" or "special occasion" sort of restaurant.

Service leaves something to be desired. We were seated quickly, but it took quite a long time for someone to come to take our orders. As we were waiting we saw the host chatting with people at one table, and one of the waitresses clean up another table, so I don't think the problem was that they were just busy. Once we ordered the food came to the table quite quickly, which we liked as we were starving. It took a little bit, though not as long, to get our bill. Prince, just East Village before it, has a printed dim sum menu and you chose what you want to eat and then give the completed form to the waitress. They have several dozen items, costing $2-$5.25 depending on the ingredients. In all, lunch here is comparable in price to lunch at most non-sandwich restaurants.

I'm not the best person to review a dim sum place - which is why I'm writing about it on my blog, rather than in one of my more formal (and edited!) restaurant reviews - as I don't really like most of what appears in dim sum menus. I do love pork buns, however, and that's what kept bringing me to East Village, and now to Prince.

Prince's baked BBQ pork buns are very good ($2 for 3). They are small and have a sweet glaze, they also have a nice amount of pork. I fear that they may be too sweet for some people, but they are my favorites in San Leandro. If you go, you should give them a try.

This time we also tried the Baked BBQ Pork Tart ($2.75 for 3). These are longish, thin pastries, also glazed and filled with BBQ pork. The dough is very flaky and Kathy liked it very much. I found them somewhat dry (though not nearly as dry as other versions of this dish) but also very yummy. We ordered a second serving.

I'd never had the Hong Kong Fried Bread Sticks ($2 for 3) before, but I was curious about them. They ended up being very light pieces of fried dough. They were a bit salty, but I thought they'd be delicious dipped in sugar - alas, there was none on the table. They were a bit oily, and kind of boring by themselves, and I wouldn't order them again.

The fried chicken wings ($5.25 for 4) were plump, juicy and very hot. They were lightly spiced and salted, so you could really appreciate the taste of the chicken, and I liked them quite a bit - but I thought they were too expensive for what they were.

Finally, we had the Layered Egg Custard Cake ($2.75 for 3 small slices). Neither Kathy nor Mika were crazy about it, but I thought it was OK if you like Chinese cakes. I do think Mika would have been happier with a custard bun.

In all it was a good lunch, and I'll go back to Prince again for those pork buns.

Prince Dim Sum House
14736 E. 14th St.
San Leandro, CA
510-667-9888

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews
Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

Yes, I should have known better, but a few days ago prompted by a desire to neither cook nor experiment, and a "buy one, get another one for $4" coupon, we went to Chevys in San Leandro. I, of course, avoided the baby back ribs. Instead I went for the beef fajitas, my ever favorite. The plate (see below) was semi-empty, I guess Chevy's has decided that roasted veggies are too expensive and that presentation is overrated anyway. I had requested the beef medium rare, but as you can see there was no hint of pinkness on the meat. The portions of sour cream, guacamole and tamalito were also significantly reduced since the last time I've had the dish - and there was no pico de gallo at all. I know that food prices have gone up, but that was just ridiculous. The meat tasted fine, but clearly they are tired and bored of this dish.

Mike had one of the seafood combos on special. He thought it was fine, what he expected from Chevy's, fairly consistent, decent food. The girls nibbled at their quesadillas.

For dessert we had their chewy sunday which was large enough for the whole family to share. It wasn't as good as the desserts at Chili's, but it was satisfying.

In all, I think I won't be getting a hankering from going back to Chevys anytime soon.

Chicago Blues Cafe is a tiny restaurant and coffeehouse located in the parking lot of the Palma Plaza shopping center. It started as a place where you could get coffee, then branched out into hot dogs, and has since become pretty much a full fledged restaurant, serving late breakfast, lunch and early dinner (they are open from 11 AM - 7 PM weekdays, from 9 AM - 7 PM Saturdays and closed on Sundays). The owner, Mark Tichy, is a colorful character currently running for city council.

I went to Chicago Blues Cafe for breakfast a few weeks ago, and had a very nice crepe, and I have since been wanting to go back to try their BBQ. The opportunity finally presented itself yesterday (my birthday) when Joaquin Deli, my first choice, was closed.

Chicago Blues offers a large menu of hot dogs, sandwiches, BBQ items and deep-dish pizza. My friend Cynthia had had the latter and has enjoyed it. Prices are moderate, with pizza slices starting at $4, and BBQ lunch plates averaging around $8 (it goes up to the low teens for dinner and combinations). You order at the counter and can either eat inside their little covered area or in one of the unshaded tables outside. There isn't really much room for more than 2 or 3 parties inside - but I find the place cute. We ate outside, however.

Mike had the links BBQ plate with potato salad. He wasn't happy with it. He thought the links tasted mostly like plain sausage covered by BBQ sauce, rather than by the slowly smoked links we usually get at our favorite BBQ joint. He found the medium-spiced sauce to be quite spicy, but otherwise unremarkable. The potato salad was also pretty pedestrian.

My dad had a hot dog with sourkrat and he was very happy with it. He thought the baked beans were very, very good.

I had the pulled pork sandwich, which is often on special for $5. The sandwich was huge, and definitely a great value, but I didn't find the pork very appealing. It had the look and texture of pork that had been boiled rather than smoked or baked. The flavor was quite mild (Camila liked it). I also found the vinegary mild BBQ sauce unremarkable, though better than commercial products. In any case, I wouldn't be rushing back to have this dish. All this said, with E&J's around, my standards for BBQ are pretty high.

In all, I'm glad that Chicago Blues Cafe is around, and I'd definitely go there for breakfast or for a hot dog, and might even give the pizza a try, but I wouldn't go for their BBQ again.

Chicago Blues Cafe
13802 E. 14th St
San Leandro, CA
(510) 352-3053

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews
Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

Rainforest Cafe is an international chain of themed restaurants which feature a jungle-like atmosphere with large and pretty realistic looking animatronics. I've only been to the San Francisco branch, both times during a slow time, and I found the restaurant sort of sad. It's pretty dark and it reminded me of the dining area at the zoo, soon before it closes.

The first time I went to the Rainforest Cafe in San Francisco was last March, when Desiree and her kids joined my kids and I on a ferry trip from Jack London Square to Pier 41. We ate at Boudin, but we toured the Cafe to please the kids. They liked it, and I thought that we should probably eat there next time we were in the area. The opportunity presented itself yesterday when my father and sister were visiting from L.A., and I decided to repeat the ferry trip from last March. Mika insisted that we go there and I saw no reason why not to. My dad, who'd been there before, did say the food wasn't very good, but I am an optimist. The Rainforest Cafe made it clear that I shouldn't be one.

The menu at the Rainforest Cafe features typical American restaurant food, burgers, pastas, wraps, pizzas and meats. Prices are pretty high, with appetizers averaging about $10 and main dishes in the high teens to twenties. Children dishes, which don't include either drinks or dessert, are about $7. The place ain't cheap.

We weren't terribly hungry - I'd actually eaten before we left - so daddy and Kathy split the fried mozzarella sticks and the buffalo wings while Mika had the pasta marinara. Neither the cheese nor the wings were special, the wings were a bit spicy but otherwise unmemorable. The pasta - penne - was very unwieldly for a 6 yo (she ended up getting most of it over her shirt) and innocuous enough. The portions were in the small side, considering the prices.

I wanted to try "The Volcano", their signature dessert ($15), and I was also disappointed. The dessert consists of a mass of ice cream shaped in the form of a pyramid and sided by large slabs of brownie. Chocolate and caramel syrups complete the effect. The description (and price!) suggests that it's large enough for 2 or more people to share. Three adults and three kids couldn't finish it at our table - it's really immense. It's also not that great. The vanilla ice cream is generic, the brownie could be chewier and more chocolaty, and the sauces could have stronger flavors. I can only speculate that the problem is the lack of quality ingredients - so much money has gone into building the restaurant, that there can't be much left for the actual food.

The waiters, at least, were trying. Ours overheard my sister say it was my birthday and he brought me a complimentary ice cream sundae (just what I needed). They also sang me happy birthday. Yes, I was mortified. The kids enjoyed it, though.

In all, given the quality of the food and the prices, I'd avoid the Rainforest Cafe if I was you. You can, however, go and tour the place, have your kids see the animals, and avoid the food.

The Rainforest Cafe
145 Jefferson St # 400
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 440-5610
http://www.rainforestcafe.com/

Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

I just received a menu for "Blossom Chinese Restaurant on East 14th. A quick search online shows that this is the old "Good Food Restaurant", which just a little while ago was "Szechuan Restaurant". I haven't been to the restaurant, under any of its incarnations, but Blossom offers delivery for $1, so I will try it sometime.

No. Not yet. But it's coming!

Yesterday, as we walked past the corner of our block (at East 14th & Estabrook), we found that there were people finally working inside the building that used to house a hip-hop clothing store after housing a video store. The shop has been empty for over a year, one more of the empty storefronts in San Leandro.

But apparently (at least according to the workers inside), the store is becoming a Vietnamese restaurant. I've no idea when it'll open, definitely not very soon given that they are at the very beginning stages of the work (I assume they have to build a kitchen), but eventually we'll have a Vietnamese restaurant in the corner. As you can imagine, I'm thrilled. Yes, it's true that we have at least 3 Vietnamese restaurants in San Leandro, and that two of them are within walking distance, but the point is that this one will be mere feet from my house.

Anyway, I'll keep you informed as to what happens there.

Last weekend we went to Berkeley for Cal's Day - a day in which UC Berkeley opens to the public with a myriad of activities for adults and children. The kids saw and got to play with lots of animals, made pottery and watch African dance.

Mika and I were quite hungry in the midst of this all and decided to go off-campus for lunch. I wanted a place where we could sit down, and my first choice was La Vals, a pizzeria I frequented during my college days, but it has closed down. After much discussion we decided on the Chinese restaurant in that tiny restaurant mini-mall almost in front of the old La Vals building. There is a donut shop there, and there used to be a Nation's, again, in my college days.

I have no idea what the restaurant was called but it was very good. I had a huge portion of crispy chicken - very much like Hawaiian katsu - which was impeccably fried and quite tasty with the accompanying sauce. Mika had the chicken chow mein, again a huge portion, and she loved the chicken. I thought it was very tasty too, a couple of notches above your run of the mill chow mein. I don't remember the prices, but they were quite reasonable. If I was in the neighborhood and wanted some Chinese, I'd definitely go back.

It was time for Moms Night Out again, this time with my new mom's group (two of the original members moved out): Parker (of course), Aamani, Dolores and me. I wanted to go somewhere cheap, and Parker suggested Naan and Curry - or at least that's what I thought - because we ended up at House of Curries on College Avenue instead. House of Curries is similar to Naan and Curry in that you order at the counter and sit where you can. They do bring the food to the table, however, and the place in general is a little bit nicer than Naan. Still, it's the same type of formula. They are also a chain with several locations in Berkeley and one in Oakland.

I was quite happy with the food. They did not have lamb (or chicken) korma, but their lamb curry ($7), was quite tasty - with moist, tender lamb and a pleasant if pedestrian curry sauce. All the other lamb dishes have vegetables, so I would probably end up ordering it again. The chicken tikka masala ($6) was much better. The smoky sauce was just delicious, barely spicy and well balanced. I'd definitely order it again, though I thought that the chicken was somewhat dry. The fish tandoori ($10) was also a winner. I didn't try it, as the fish was salmon which I dislike, but Parker was happy with it. She also liked the Sada Bhindi (okra cooked with ginger, garlic & spices - $6), though she didn't think it was as flavorful as it could be.

The sweet ($3) and mango ($2) lassis were quite good. Self-yourself chai is free with the meal and they also have canned sodas for purchase.

The naans ($2 for garlic, $3 for keema) were huge and quite nice, though the keema filling had fallen all to one side and I was left with just the bread. I'd definitely order them again.

Dinner for the four of us, including rice, came to $13.50 each after tax - a bargain for our moms' night outs.

If I was in the neighborhood, I'd definitely eat here again.

House of Curries
2984 College Ave.
Berkeley, CA
510.841.1688
www.houseofcurries.com

(branches also on Telegraph/Durant and Solano, and Hegenbergor Road in Oakland)

Wednesday night, after the anti-China rally in SF, the girls wanted pizza. Mike had a meeting, so i decided to stop at Sergio's on our way back. I'd had the pizza there before and found it OK. Well, this time it sucked.

The onion rings were good enough, even if their ranch dressing couldn't match the Italian one at Angelina's. But they were crispy and it was a good-sized portion (for about $7, it better be).

Their pizza, however, left much to be desired. I did not like the sweet tasting sauce, the only plus was that there wasn't much of it. The cheese didn't stick to the pizza, so it was pretty messy to eat. The tiny pieces of pineapple were not good quality, and the linguiza wasn't my favorite either. In all, it was not a pizza I enjoyed. The kids were also not happy with it. I would not order it again.

The coke also has a medicinal taste to it.

The one plus of the evening was the service, the waitress was quite nice.

Still, I'm sure it'll be a long time before we return.

Sergio's
150 W. Juana Ave.
San Leandro, CA.
510-895-0880

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

I first heard of Chicago Blues Cafe when I found out that its owner, Mark Tichy, was running for city council. The little restaurant occupies the space that belonged to a flower & coffee shop in the parking lot of Palma Plaza. It's expanded its size and now it features a small, covered dining area. It's pretty cute.

The cafe serves an extensive breakfast, lunch and dinner menu (though I think they close early, perhaps at 7). They seem to specialize on pizza and bbq. My friend Cynthia has had their chicken pizza and she said it was very good, it featured a thick crust that reminded her of Zachary's.

I went for breakfast, however, and ordered their caramelized banana & nutella crepe (about $4.50, I think), one of the three crepes they offer (all with nutella). It was *very* good. It was huge, with very generous amounts of both bananas and nutella, and it was delicious. I would definitely order it again, but this is a dish to share - it's just too sweet to eat it all by yourself.

The only problem was that it took a long time to get it. We'd plan to eat at the restaurant, but I I had to pick up Mika at a set time. It probably took them a good half an hour to prepare it.

I'm planning to go back to Chicago Blues Cafe, this time to try their BBQ.

Chicago Blues Cafe
13802 E. 14th St
San Leandro, CA
(510) 352-3053

December 2010

We go to Emil Villa from time to time. We usually get a BBQ ribs combo to share - 3 types of ribs with two sides for about $22. We all like the ribs, Mika in particular. The other food is less successful. Breakfast, in particular, is best avoided.

March 2008

Last night Mike went out with an old friend to dinner (he went to La Provence, in the Mission, where he had an OK soup and some awesome ravioli) and I was left at home with the kids. I was feeling pretty jealous, so I decided to take the kids out to dinner myself. I'd been in the mood for BBQ ribs for a while, and Mika couldn't resist the smoky aroma of Emil Villa's, so that's where we headed. Even though Camila was a little devil, it was a good choice.

We decided to share the ribs platter, which has gone up in price (it's $21 now) and gone down in variety/amount of food (it now comes just with two sides and buns, no soup or salad). Still, the ribs were enough for a mom and one kid (Camila only ate 1 rib). We enjoyed all of them. My favorite were the baby back ribs which had a very nice glace and did not need any extra BBQ sauce. The other ones were definitely helped by the sweet sauce, which wasn't too spicy even for Mika. I'd definitely order this again.

The french fries and mashed potatoes we ordered were pretty ordinary, nothing to write home about.

This time we weren't too full for dessert (when is a 6 yo too full for dessert?), and Mika ordered the chocolate cream pie ($4 a slice). It didn't look that chocolaty to me, but she liked it. I had no complaints about the banana cream pie ($4 for smallish slice). It was bananaish and creamy, and very good. I may make a banana cream pie today myself :) Camila had some chocolate ice cream ($3), which was unwisely served on a saucer. It was very chocolaty.

Dinner for the 3, including 3 drinks, came to $39. Not cheap, but those were pretty good ribs.

Emil Villa's
1800 E 14th St
San Leandro, CA
(510) 351-7427

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

How is this possible? I have blogged about almost every restaurant I went to in Kenya - but I forgot Carnivore! Carnivore, of all restaurants? The most famous restaurant in Nairobi, if not Africa, by any measure? How could I forget?

And yet, I remember writing about it, but where? I can't find it in any of my blogs. So I will have to blog about it again. For Carnivore is a restaurant that deserves some attention.

First of all, I'm sad to announce, that Carnivore no longer serves game meat. There seems to be a law against the selling of game meat, so the only thing in the least exotic in their menu is crocodile (which is bony and has a mild fish flavor). They also had ostrich meatballs, but ostrich stopped being exotic, at least in California, quite a long time ago. The meatballs were pretty good, though.

The way it works, at least for those ordering meats, is that for a fixed price (I don't remember how much, about $25, I think), they bring large chunks of meats which the carve for you tableside. The meats are cooked in Maasai swords over a large BBQ pit at the front of the restaurant. Most are marinated, and most of them were pretty good. The first round of meat comes pretty quickly, but if you want seconds you will have to chase the waiter.

Among my favorites that night (early March, 2008) were the sweetly basted chicken wings, the also sweet but not very meaty pork ribs and the nicely seasoned lamb chops. The sliced meat and pork were too dry for my taste, though the fruit sauce helped the pork a little. The chicken was not bad either, though also a bit dry, as was the leg of lamb. They also had several things I didn't bother trying: chicken gizzards, turkey and sausages.

Avi, who keeps kosher, had food from the vegetarian menu. I don't remember what he ordered however, but his first dish was so bad he had to send it back. He rather enjoyed the one he got to replace it. The vegetarian menu is also all-you-can-eat.

Luke had several dawas to drink, while I stayed with cokes. I think Avi had wine.

For dessert I first ordered the blondie with ice cream, but that thing was inedible, it tasted like dry, dense cardboard. Fortunately they had no problem exchanging it for some OK ice cream. Avi and Luke shared a pineapple cake which wasn't bad, and a cheesecake that tasted and felt more like light lemon pudding.

The restaurant itself was pretty empty in early March, though I'm sure as tourists return to Kenya, the place gets very loud and crazy. I'm not sure if that would be for the better or worse. In any case, it's a place I wouldn't mind going back to.

Dinner came to a little over Ks 7000 for the three of us (upwards of $105) - which really wasn't too bad for the experience.

Carnivore Retaurant
Nairobi
Kenya
605933-7 602786

The Moonflower restaurant is located at the Palacina Residence and Suites - an apartment building not far from our own in Nairobi. A colleague lives there and we decided to join her for dinner there a few nights ago. It was a pretty good experience and, but for the price, I wouldn't hesitate on going there again.

The Moonflower is mostly an open air restaurant. They have a few tables inside, more in a veranda and some on the law. There is even one within a very nice looking Arabian style tent. The place is very nice. I'd describe its menu as serving California cuisine, or at least new American cuisine. There are pastas, ribs and even duck. Most dishes are around Ks 1000, ($15) - which is not really expensive if you think in western terms.

This time we decided to have a full-fledged meal. We started with appetizers. Gabriel had the shrimp and Brianna the asparagus (I think they were about Ks. 600 - $9). They both liked them. I had the baked brie (about the same price), which was OK. Everyone liked it, but I've had better. It was definitely good with the apple slices, but three lilliputian slices didn't go far. It'd have been better, of course, if served with some good quality balsamic vinegar.

My main dish were ribs (Ks 1100, $16.50 for a full rack, Ks 800, $12 for half a rack), which I shared with Gabriel. They were good, the glaze was pretty nice - sweet and tangy - but they weren't really tender. I don't know if it was a problem with the meat or knowing how to really cook it. Brianna had the fish and chips, a dish which she enjoys often. She was very pleased with this version. Gabriel had a pasta with salmon, a dish which he also often orders. He thought this version was nice, but his expectations weren't great either. As for Fiona, she went for the duck. This was probably the worst dish of the evening. The half duck was glazed with some sweet black sauce that didn't make it look particularly appetizing. Its main problem, however, was that it was quite dry - very, very overcooked. The glace was nice, but the meat itself wasn't well seasoned. I'd definitely not order it.

Fiona was luckier for dessert. She got the berry pavlova and she liked it a lot, the bite I had was very nice. I had the flourless chocolate cake, and it was also good though not outstanding. I don't remember how much desserts were, but they weren't cheap.

In all, we had a very good time at Moonflower - it was relaxing and enjoyable and if I was ever in Nairobi again, I'd revisit it.

Moonflower
at the Palacina Residence & Suites
Kitale Lane, off Dennis Pritt Road
Nairobi
+254-20-2715517
http://www.palacina.com/moonflower.asp

This afternoon we went to lunch to Basilico, a pizzeria a the Ya Ya Center in Hurlingham. My colleagues wanted to go to Osteria del Chianti, but I'd just been there Monday night AND Wednesday night, and there has to be a limit at how often one patronizes a restaurant! Plus it's not like I like their food that much.

So when Gabriel, a colleague from work, suggested that there was an Italian place at the Ya Ya Center, and Brianna (my boss) said it was OK with her, I was quite happy. And indeed, I had a pretty good eating experience.

Basilico is your typical shopping mall deli-style restaurant, don't expect much in the way of ambiance here. But it's cute enough. It offers sandwiches, pizzas, pastas and a few main dishes. But being an Italian place I decided to go for the pasta. I had fusilli (I think) with a tomato mushroom-prosciutto sauce. It was quite good, just the sort of hearty Italian pasta I like. The pasta itself was not cooked al dente (it wasn't soft either), which was a big plus for me.

Gabriel was less happy with his pasta with a gorgonzola cream sauce. He'd had it before and he'd enjoyed it, or maybe he misremembered. Brianna had nothing bad to say about her fish & chips, and as someone who has hang out in London quite a bit, that's probably a high recommendation.

Prices were in the mid hundreds, my pasta, for example, was Ks. 600 - $9. Outrageously expensive if you ask me, but that's the name of the game in Nairobi.

Basilico
Ya Ya Center
Lenana Road
Nairobi
0721 618886

Punjabi by Nature is one of the restaurants in the foodcourt at "Prestige Plaza", where the closest Najumatt to our apartment building is. They have several restaurants/stands, offering Kenyan, Indian, Turkish, Chinese and other foods. I've had the Turkish stuff before and it wasn't bad. The mutton korma I had tonight at Punjabi by Nature wasn't particularly good.

Its main problem was that it lacked complexity, the sauce was spicy but otherwise bland (if that makes sense). I ate it - and the hot naam with which it was served was pretty good, and the mutton was tender. Still, I probably wouldn't go there again.

The mutton korma was Ks.450 - $6.75, about average for the restaurant.

Punjabi by Nature
Nakumatt, Ngong Road
@ Prestige Plaza
1st Floor, Food Court
Nairobi
0721625900

I've been in Nairobi for two weeks already, and yet I have seen little of the city. I commute between my apartment and my job, 300 yards away, and my greatest excursions are to the supermarket or Ya-Ya center. Once I went downtown. It's sad.

Fortunately, our colleague Lee came to my rescue and that of my friends Luke and Avi last night. He decided we had to sample Nairobi fare outside our little district, and took us to the Indian part of town. On the way we saw a couple of amazing looking temples. Our destination was Diamond Plaza, a little, very informal open-air small mall that offers a myriad of restaurant stands that serve you while you eat in the semi-open air or in your car. Most of the offerings are Indian - though there is also Chinese, ice cream and a couple of juice stands.

I can't recall the name of the stand from which I got my food - I can only tell you that its waiters wore bright yellow jackets. I can also tell you that my chicken korma (Ks. 350 - $5.25) was delicious, not as sweet as other kormas I've had, but with depths and vibrancy. The portion was very generous and I endeavored to eat it all. I also got some naan (Ks. 50 - 75c), which I used to scoop the chicken. Kenyans are not big on eating utensils.

Avi got a bunch of south Indian snack food from another stand. Most of it was quite good, he never gets to eat this type of food at home, so he was quite happy. Luke got a mixed grill from yet another stand, and he was happy with it - though he confessed his food wasn't as good as mine. I had a bite of a marinated kebab, and I liked the strong flavor and the fact that the meat was actually tender, but it was too spicy for me. Lee had a scrawny looking chicken tikka leg, he didn't mention whether he liked it.

We loved the atmosphere, the lights and the people - but it was a Thursday night and comparably quiet. It's supposed to be a mad house on weekend nights, so I wouldn't try it then.

Diamond Plaza
Parklands
Nairobi
Kenya

I ended up at Alfajiri Bar and Grill Tuesday night. I'd asked my Kenyan colleague, Lee, to meet over dinner to give me some background information on Kenya. I'm here, after all, but I still know so little about the country. He was nice enough to come and bring a couple of friends with him - I brought Luke and Avi myself.

Alfajiri was Lee's idea, and I wondered if the restaurant was mostly geared towards a Kenyan clientele. Its menu, on the other hand, was quite eclectic and international - it had everything from steak dianne to lamb korma to steak fajitas. Indeed, it was the steak fajitas that I went for. I'm not sure what I was expecting but what I got was a tortilla-like-wrap (but not quite a tortilla) filled with marinated meat. The meat was tasty, though it had an African rather than Mexican flavor. I couldn't quite recognize the spices, though.

I tried the samosas and they were very tasty, a bit spicy but nice.

I didn't ask my friends what they thought of their meal, but I guess everyone thought it was good enough.

We all had a couple of beers with dinner, and the whole bill came to about Ks 1000 - $15 each, not the cheapest place around, but not that bad.

The restaurant itself is a bit disconcerting. It has a few rooms inside, the one we originally chose had banquettes and low tables, but with music and the TV on, it was too loud to carry out a normal conversation. They also have a patio area, as well as some tables dispersed throughout the lawn. We chose one away from the music and were able to enjoy our conversation.

Service was pretty good.

Alfajiri Bar and Grill
Malim Juma Road
Nairobi
Kenya

I liked The Hood restaurant. It reminded me of the modest parrillas you can find throughout Argentina and other Latin American countries. It's mostly an outdoor restaurant, with a plethora of tables situated in a lawn under tents and hatches. There is some inside seating too (and given that the rains are coming that's probably a good thing).

They specialize in grilled meats, though they also had other more elaborate dishes (which I can't remember now). It's moderately priced - dishes averaged $6 or so -, lunch for two was Ks 860 - $13, including three non-alcoholic drinks).

I went with Luke, a team member and new friend, and we had a nice time talking in the fresh air. What we did not enjoy was waiting for over an hour for lunch. Not only were we hungry, but we did have to get back to work! So my advise is to go here only if you are really not in a hurry.

As for the food, Luke got the grilled goat and I had the grilled beef. A chunk of bone-in meat is bbq'd whole and then the waiter (or actually, someone other than the waiter) cuts it into bite-size pieces tableside. Both the goat and the beef were quite good, the goat in particular, and they both were pretty tough. The beef was quite fatty as well. You are meant to eat the meat with your hands, and they bring a kettle with warm water to wash your hands before lunch, but we decided to go western and use forks and knives instead. It helped for cutting the fat. I have yet to encounter tender meat in Kenya. The meat was well done - I'd forgotten at first to ask for medium rare, and later I thought that I might as well not chance it anyway.

I had fries on the side, which were good. Actually all fries in Kenya taste pretty much the same way, they must be cooked with the same oil (I must inquire as to what they use). They are usually not very crispy, but tasty.

In all it was a good meal, in pleasant - if not elegant - surroundings.

The Hood Restaurant
Kasuku Road Kilimani
Nairobi
Kenya
2371410
1731181

We're lucky that our apartment is situated in an area where there are several restaurants. We eat out practically every night, and it's good to have variety. Last night it was our turn to try Ethiopian food - and Red Sea in particular. It was quite good.

I went with Paul and Avi, two of my colleagues, and both Paul and I had the mixed meat plate. This includes 4 different meat "stews" and a hardboiled egg with sauce. There is also some veggies and cheese. The whole thing is served on a huge platter, on top of injera. A couple of the stews were spicy (but not very spicy) and the other two were mild. They were all very good, among the best ones I've had at Ethiopian restaurants.

Avi, on the other hand, was less lucky with his fish. He ordered something that looked like fish sticks with a sauce. He wasn't that pleased with it.

Service was good and friendly.

The restaurant itself has an outdoor bar area - where we ate - which is rather informal, there is even a TV, but can be pleasant on a warm night. There is also an indoor dining room which I didn't check out.

The meal, which included a few non-alcoholic drinks but no desserts (all they had were fruit salads, came to about Ks 2200, $33.

Red Sea
Lenana Road
Nairobi

The Java House is a little mall restaurant in the Ya Ya center serving coffees and pastries, as well as sandwiches and burgers and breakfast foods. The prices are the same or a little bit above what you'd pay in America - and the food can be pretty good. I've been there twice, already, and we'll probably go back again.

On my previous visit I ordered their BBQ beef sandwich. I wasn't incredibly happy with it, the sandwich was pretty dry and the bbq sauce scant and not that tasty. I wouldn't order it again. Today I had their cheeseburger (Ks. 380 - $5.70) and once again I wasn't happy. The hamburger was well done and very, very dry. I guess I could have ordered it less cooked, and that would have helped, but I'm not sure that I want to eat ground beef in Kenya that it's not well done. Not that I have any reason for this prejudice. The flavor was good enough, but I wouldn't order it again. It came with fries which weren't particularly crispy - all the fries I've had here have been on the soft side - but were tasty.

My colleague had the double chicken sandwich (Ks. 580 - $8.70). He thought it was very good.

We took home an avocado, cheese and tomato sandwich for another colleague (Ks. 300 - $4.50), and I hear these are quite good.

Java House is part of a Nairobi chain.

Java House
Yaya Center
Nairobi
http://www.nairobijavahouse.com/

I will finish my restaurant blogging for the night by mentioning The Cedars, a Lebanese restaurant located a few hundred feet from our apartment building. I haven't there yet, but last night we ordered their Mezze for Two platter (I think Ks.2600, $40) and I was quite impressed with the quantity and quality of the food - enough to feed 3 with leftovers. I can't quite remember everything included but the meal consisted of little containers of mini cheese and meat empanadas (slightly sweet), kofta, hummus, babaghanoush, yogurt and pita bread, potatoes, a tomato salad, dolmas, vegetables, and a bunch of other things. Most of it tasted quite good, the kofta were particularly tasty.

The Cedars supposedly does not deliver, but my team mate Martin is so amazing, he can get most people to do anything for him, so they did bring us the food.

I'm sure we'll order from there again, and I'll comment about it below.

The Cedars Restaurant
Lenana Road
Nairobi
02-710399

I've been in Nairobi for about 10 days, and I've eaten food from Osteria del Chianti already 4 times. It's not so much because it's a favorite of mine, but because the people I'm with really seem to like it. They also have the incredible advantage of delivering (I'm not sure what their delivery area is, we live within a few hundred meters).

The menu includes pizzas, pastas and meat dishes. The pizzas are all individual size and Roman style - the owner is indeed Italian. They have paper thin crusts, a lack of abundance of cheese but fresh, tasty toppings. The prosciutto in the raw prosciutto pizza tastes Italian, and the abundant arugula in the gorgonzola and arugula pizza is clearly very fresh. In all, if you like Italian-style pizza (and I'm becoming a convert), they are pretty good. If I well remember they average about Ks. 600-700, $9 - 10.50. They are not really big enough to share.

I've had both their gnocchi and their meat lasagna so far, and both were OK. I liked the somewhat heavy consistency of the gnocchi, but the sauce needed bolder flavors. Abundant Parmessan cheese helped. It was a very generous portion.

I'm not sure what I didn't like about the lasagna - other than the fact that the noodles were cooked al dente and that it could have used more cheese. I guess the sauce just didn't buy me over. I've had better and worse.

I've only eaten at the restaurant once, and it was a very pleasant experience. It has a large patio, with shaded tables - which makes for a great dining experience in a warm day. Alas, the March rains have arrived in Nairobi, so eating inside may be a better option now. Their dining rooms are quite elegant.

I am sure that I will eat at the Osteria del Chainti again, and I'll probably comment here about those meals.

Osteria del Chianti
Lenana Road
Nairobi
2 72 31 73

I just came back from dinner at Misono. Ok, I /think/ I just came back from dinner at Misono. I did go to dinner at a Japanese restaurant - I don't know the name, but given that it's close to where we are and Misono is located on Lenana road, I'm willing to bet that's the one I've been to. It was quite good.

Misono offers a variety of dining options. You can have sushi (though its menu is quite limited), teppanaki (meat or veggies fired grilled as you watch, a la Benihana - a complete meal starts at around $25 pp), or order from the main menu. That's a much cheaper option, and we decided to go for it.

I had the chicken katsu and while I liked the tender fried chicken, the sauce itself was too thick and tasted too vinegary and ketchupy. The chicken was definitely better without it. It came with a salad, too vinegary for me to eat. The portion was a good size.

Unfortunately our conversation was too interesting for me to even remember to ask my colleagues what they thought of their food (one had sushi, the other steamed dumpling looking spring rolls and fish), though they made approving noises. The consensus was that we'd go back.

It's a bit disconcerting being attended by so many bowing Kenyans, but you can't help but applaud their spirit.

Misono
Lenana Rd.
Nairobi
(254) 20 - 3868959

The Ya Ya center is an unbelievably modern luxury shopping mall, featuring all sorts of western and Kenyan stores selling all imaginable kinds of products. If you want a brand-new camera, a safari outfit, a carved bedroom set or a violin, this is the place to get it. Expect to pay around the same than you would at home (though it could be more, specially now that the dollar is so weak).

It also features several restaurants. Saffron is its Indian offering. We went there for lunch today, and I was pretty impressed. The food was quite good, the service was excellent and the company, of course, was great. The restaurant itself is open to the mall, so it doesn't have much on the way of atmosphere, but it's nice enough.

The menu features many dishes that are familiar to western Indian food aficionados. There is chicken korma, tikka massala and tandoori. There is rice and naan. There are plenty of vegetarian offers. They have lassies (Ks100 - $1.50) - though my sweet lassi was too sour and not sweet enough - and massala tea (Ks 90 - $1.35). In other words, if you are in the mood for Indian food, chances are you can find something here to fit your mood.

I was about to play it totally safe and order the chicken korma, my favorite, but decided to go for the Kashmiri lamb curry (Ks 450 - $6.75) instead. It was quite good, sweet and with balanced flavors. I'd been concerned about the tenderness of the meat, but it was cut in very small portions and it wasn't at all tough. The portion was quite generous (as were all), specially when eaten with rice (Ks 170 - $2.55). I did ask for the curry to be "medium" spice, but it was pretty mild. If you like a little fierness, go for hot.

One of my colleagues had chicken naji and another had the fish naji (Ks 550 - $8.25 each). I didn't try the fish, but the chicken was moist and while the curry was a little too tame for my taste, it was very pleasant, with sweet, soft flavors. My colleague really liked it.

The naan (Ks 60 - $1) was fine, your typical naan, as was the pappadum (Ks 40 - $.60). The sweet and sour sauce had a nice punch.

In all the lunch was very pleasant, we spent quite a lot of time over it, and I'd definitely go back. Lunch for three, including drinks and tax, came out to Ks 2560, $38. It seems expensive, but Nairobi is quite an expensive city.

Saffron
Yaya Center
Argwings Kodhek Road
Nairobi
387-7236

A couple of weeks ago, I got together with my usual dinner group and we went to Phnom Penh II. For dessert we headed to Adagia, on the recommendation of a friend of Parker's. I'd been there before with Mike, but I couldn't remember at all how the desserts were.

Well, I'm here to tell you that their chocolate bread pudding is out of this world. Rich and yet light, very chocolaty and sultry in texture. I think three of us got it and we all enjoyed it.

We weren't as fond of the spiced semolina cake. It was still good, but I think it may have been better had it not been spiced. The tea creme brulee was a little bit disconcerting, a new flavor. I'm not sure that one that I'd go back for, but it did enjoy it. I'm not one for fruit desserts, but the port poached pears were delicious.

Service was impecable, we went late and they didn't kick us out :) In all, a great place to go for dessert (and get that bread pudding).

Last week our friends Arthur and Eddie suggested that we go out to dinner at Tequila Grill before the kids headed to a show at the library. I'm always in the mood for not cooking (well, that's not really true, but I thought it sounded cute), so I thought it was a splendid idea. Well, perhaps not splendid as I haven't been impressed with Tequila Grill in the past, but it's nice to get out. And alas, it's good I have that attitude because Tequila Grill failed to impress me yet again.

I had the milanesa sandwich, and the milanesa was nice and tender but not very flavorful. There was also too little meat to bread ratio. The fries it came with were perfectly fine.

I also ordered some guacamole and I did like it a lot, it was fresh and well balanced. Alas - there were no chips to eat it with (I did ask for them, they just never came). I found out that french fries with guacamole sort of work.

Mike had the flautas and he thought they were just OK.

I didn't ask Arthur and Eddie what they thought of their dishes, but Cynthia - who'd come with us along with her kids Orestes and Aegea, didn't seem very impressed with whatever she ordered. Orestes' actually found his burrito nauseating, though he couldn't quite figure out why.

The younger kids seemed fine with their quesadillas (I didn't try them).

So no, I won't be rushing back to Tequila Grill, though I imagine I'll end up there again some time.

Tequila Grill
1350 E. 14th St.
San Leandro
(510) 895-5351

(More San Leandro restaurant reviews at http://www.marga.org/food/rest/sl.html

Last Friday, we took our friend Paz to dinner at La Note. I'd been there once before with my friend Regina, and while my burger hadn't been that good - Regina's dish had been wonderful. We'd won a $25 gift certificate at the Girls Inc.'s Women of Taste event a few months ago, and I figured I'd use it and give La Note another try. My experience, once again, was mixed. Mike had a great dish, while I had a merely OK one. Paz was too polite to complain about her chicken sandwich, but she didn't seem to enjoy it too much.

Once again, we started the meal with the Crotin de Fromage de Chevre Cuits aux Noix, "oven baked, nut crusted goat cheese served with french country toasts, roasted garlic & provençales tomatoes." As in my other visit, the combination was excellent and I think we all enjoyed it.

Mike had a large pastry pocket filled with a variety of seafood including scallops, shrimp, salmon fillet and crabs. He thought it was excellent. I had chicken with prunes (I think), and while the outside of the chicken was tasty, the inside was pretty insipid and the breast was terribly dry - so much that I could not eat it.

For dessert I had a flourless chocolate cake with berry coulis and vanilla ice cream. It was very rich and very good - though I don't particularly like the coulis (I have to remember to ask them to skip it next time). I'd order it again.

I hear that La Note has a very good brunch, but I haven't tried it yet.

Last night we went to downtown Palo Alto to relax at Watercourse Way. We left our home a bit late, and it took us a while to get there, so we found ourselves with half an hour for dinner. Taxi's Hamburgers looked like the sort of place we could get a quick bite.

Mike got a bacon cheeseburger, and he liked it well enough. He found it juicy, though not as juicy as burgers from Nation's. He'd have it again.

I had their pulled pork platter, which included a pulled pork sandwich (in a hamburger ban), some veggies and your choice of fries or onion rings. The onion rings were a bit dry, but tasty enough. They'd been better with some ranch dressing, of course. I wasn't thrilled with the pulled pork. It came with a side of a very generic bbq sauce. The pork itself was dry and tasteless.

The food came reasonably quickly.

The place itself tries to look like an old fashioned diner, with a lot of white tiles. You order at the counter, and a waiter brings your food and takes away your plates. They have self-serving soda machines and a potato bar. The food is a bit on the expensive side, it was a bit over $20 for what we had (including two sodas).

I'd probably go again if I was in a hurry, but I'd order a burger.

403 University Ave
Palo Alto, CA
(650) 322-8294

More restaurant reviews at http://www.marga.org/food/rest/

Mae's Soul Food is the newest venture to open on Victoria Court in San Leandro - at the space occupied until a couple of months ago by Joplin's. Indeed, it was to Joplin's where we were headed today, for a burger, when we noticed that the sign with that name was no longer in front of the business. A new owner and a new menu greeted us inside, and always the adventurers we decided to give it a try. But for the fact that we got stuffed, it was not a bad call.

Mae's Soul Food specializes in fried food, their menu, indeed, is pretty short and basically includes fried fish, fried shrimp, fried chicken and fried pork, available in various combinations with or without gravy. There are also a plethora of side dishes, from candied yams to red beans and rice. There are also po boy sandwiches, made with, you guessed it, fried meats. Don't come here if you are watching your weight. Prices go from $7 for a 3 pieces of fried chicken to $17.50 for a seafood combo platter with shrimp.

I had the 3-pieces of chicken platter with french fries. The three chicken drumsticks were large and meaty, they were very nicely breaded and seasoned, and they tasted fresh and crisp. They also managed to not be oily. If I wanted fried chicken, I'd definitely come here. The fries were less successful, they were very thick and long, soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. Not my favorite type.

Mike had the chicken po boy sandwich, which was also enormous, and he liked it though he'd preferred less bones on his chicken. He also liked the crispy romaine lettuce in the accompanying salad. Mae, the proprietor, is proud on not skimping in either quantity or quality, and the results show.

Service, at the hands of her son, was good - but, as we were warned, it takes quite a lot of time to get the food to the table. It's made to order and it takes time for chicken to fry. Don't come here if you are in a hurry.

Atmosphere wise, the place is not very different from what it was Joplin's - there are still some Joplin posters around. They have, however, decorated with a nice array of beautiful wooden African masks.

My final warning is that they still don't have heat in the restaurant, so if you are coming here bring your jacket.

I should mention this is not the Mae's first venture as a restauranteur. Her restaurant was previously open in a high-crime section of Oakland, Mae decided to move to make it safer for her customers to eat at her restaurant.

Mae's Soul Food
585 Victoria Court
San Leandro, CA
510-382-9200

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

A few weeks ago I went back to Matterhorn with my friends Eddie, Parker and Katrina. It was our last girls' night out, as Katrina was moving to Mexico for a stint and Eddie is moving away for good. I can't tell you how sad I am. But that night was happy, and we had great food and conversation.

We ordered two fondues, a cheese one (the Highlander - with cheddar and gruyere) and a meat one (I think it was the fondue bacchus), and extra sides such as shrimp, sausages and apples. The fondues were great, but I wouldn't recommend the sausages for the cheese one, their flavor was just too strong. The meats are high quality and come with a wide variety of sauces, I particularly liked a curry flavored one. There was a lot of food, and we ate an incredible amount.

They only have one choice of chocolate fondue for dessert, but it was very good as well, though perhaps a little too runny for my taste. I like the ones I make at home better.

The only sour note of the evening was the service. The waiter/waitress was MIA all evening.

Still, if I was in the mood for fondue, I'd go back.

Original Review

Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

Yes, Sizzler. Mike wasn't happy about it, but I'd seen it there, on the corner of Davis and East 14th, for years now, and I thought that sometime I should review it. And why not? Yeah, it's a lowly chain, but once upon a time that lowly chain represented the epithomy of culinary achievement to me. Growing up, or at least during that period that constituted my growing up in America, we were poor. Our idea of a fine meal out - on those rare occasions when we had one - was Bob's Big Boy (and really, their double cheeseburgers rocked). Sizzler was a couple of steps up from that, a place where we'd go in the most special of special occasions, and in particular if my aunt Gladys was paying. And indeed, I think I had my graduation dinner at Sizzler's.

But times have changed, at least for me. And like it or not we look down at Sizzler's. I haven't had their food in many years, so it may be unfair, but we didn't recall it as being particularly good. Our visit a few days ago, didn't really improve our opinion.

Mike had their cheeseburger, which he couldn't have made to order. It was well done instead - I guess they don't trust their meat. In any case, it wasn't dry. Still, he prefers the much cheaper burgers from Nation's instead.

I ordered the ribs. Yes, I know, Sizzler is a "steakhouse" and I should have ordered the steak, but they just didn't look good in the pictures. The ribs weren't bad. The BBQ sauce was generic, the type of stuff you get from a bottle, but the ribs were tender and meaty enough. Of course, they couldn't compete with those from Chili's.

The kids had the equivalent to the chicken nuggets, and I thought they were pretty good for chicken nuggets. They didn't taste frozen.

The fries that came with our meals were sort of wimpy. The cheesy toast was very good, however.

The really low point of the evening was the service. I wanted a refill on my drink, and not only the waiter never came to ask me if I wanted one, but he was nowhere to be found.

In all, it was an OK but not special experience, and I don't see why I'd go back.

Sizzler
201 Davis St
San Leandro, CA
(510) 483-0110
http://www.sizzler.com/

El Novillo is only a few yards from my house but it'd been years since I had eaten there. I remembered the food not being particularly good and expensive in comparison to our staple, Los Pericos. Plus, I don't like the fact that the place sells and advertises beer right in front of our elementary school. Still, today I was starving and I had practically no food at home, so I decided to give it a try again. Bad choice.

I had a burrito with sour cream and cheese, but without rice and beans (about $6). It just wasn't very good. The meat didn't have much flavor and was overwhelmed by the cheese. It also came with no salsa or anything beyond meat, sour cream and cheese, so it was on the dry side and pretty boring to eat. It was average size and I think still overpriced. I can get something much better at Los Pericos for less.

I ordered a cheese quesadilla for the kids ($3.50, I think), and it was just a plain tortilla filled with cheese. Nothing exciting there. The kids sort of ate it, but they are finicky.

On the plus side, their chips are quite good. Still, you won't see me going back any time soon.

There was a sign on the window of Emil Villa's saying that they are changing ownership. They are being bought by some corporation whose name I can't recall. Stay tune for possible changes in the quality of their product.

Last weekend we went to brunch with Regina and Boris to the Palomares Cafe in Castro Valley. We'd been there once before, in our pre-kid stage, but I had no memory whatsoever of the place. These lapses of memories have become very frequent in my post-kid stage.

Palomares Cafe is a pretty nice place. It's located in a strip mall, but it clearly has higher ambitions. It's nicely decorated and open to an outside patio with seating, which I'm sure would be pleasant in a warmer day. As it was, the open door made it be a little chilly, but as the patio provided a place for the kids to play after they were done with their meal, we weren't complaining.

The brunch menu is pretty extensive both its egg and non-egg offerings. They serve coffeehouse quality coffee drinks and real maple syrup. Offerings are generous without being outrageous. And what's more important, the food is actually good and not overly expensive.

I had the sweet cheese crepe with raspberry sauce ($7), and very much enjoyed it. The dish was not overwhelmingly sweet, often a problem. I accompanied it with a mocha, which I also liked.

Mike had the chorizo omelet ($9) and was pleased both with the taste and size of it. Regina and Boris also liked their scramblers, though I don't recall what they got (I want to say that Regina got the Neapolitan one). The kids shared a short stack of pancakes ($5) which consisted of two plate-size pancakes served with honey pecan butter and maple syrup. They were delicious - a bit on the dense side, with a very nice homemade taste - none of the bitter aftertaste that comes from using a mix. Indeed, almost everything at Palomares is home made.

Service was very friendly and efficient, which would make sense as we were one of three parties in the whole restaurant (and the place is pretty big). I don't know why more people don't go there, as so far I'd say it's the best place for brunch in the area. I'll definitely go again. And who knows? Maybe someday I'll try it for dinner.

Palomares Cafe
580 Market Place
3779 E. Castro Valley Boulevard
Castro Valley, CA
510-733-5852
www.palomarescafe.com

(More info on restaurants at my restaurant review page)

Let me start by saying two things. First, I really, really, really want whichever restaurants settles in the old Casa María space to succeed. We need more restaurants in San Leandro. That site is on walking distance from my home. It'd be great to have a restaurant there we like. Second, I don't like Salvadorean food. I don't dislike it altogether, but I find it boring and unexciting. So I was apprehensive last evening when we went to La Cocina de Raquel, but I was also hopeful. I thought, perhaps La Cocina could convert me. Alas, it did not.

La Cocina de Raquel hasn't changed its decor since its andy & joe's incarnation. That's not a problem, as Andy and Joe had done a good job decorating the restaurant. The murals of a Mediterranean villa do not necessarily go with Salvadorean and Mexican food, but they make the place look cozier. That's needed because the restaurant consists of one big square room with flat office-like ceilings.

La Cocina de Raquel features both Salvadorean and Mexican specialties - something not uncommon for Salvadorean restaurants. There are plenty of places in San Leandro where to get Mexican food, so we wanted to try the Salvadorean dishes. Our general impression was that the food was merely OK and somewhat overpriced.

We sat ourselves and the waitress promptly took our drink order and brought tortilla chips and salsa. The chips were pretty good, thin and not too oily. They had a subtle corn flavor and they could have used more salt. The salsa was very watery and tasted mostly of roasted chilis. Drinks available include American ($1.50) and Mexican ($2.50) sodas. They don't have juices or milk, though the kids shared an apple soda they liked.

I started my meal with a cheese pupusa ($2). I had meant to order a cheese and chicken pupusa (also $2), but I got confused and ordered it with cheese alone. As it was, it was quite boring. It was full of stringy cheese, but the cheese didn't have any flavor. I would not order it again, though I might try a chicken pupusa.

I also ordered the Bistec Salvadoreño ($11.50). The top sirloin steak came in a humongous plate with large portions of refried beans, rice and an iceberg lettuce salad. The steak was pretty much what I expected: thin, somewhat tough and overcooked. It was completely covered in a tomato/onion/green bell pepper sauce, which tasted homey and very Salvadorean. I'd say that this was a good bistec as far as Salvadorean food goes, but I didn't really like it. The rice was pretty tasteless but was helped by the sauce. I found the beans to be pretty good as far as refried beans go, but Mike thought they were just OK.

Mike had the Tamal de Pollo ($6.25) and he was disappointed to find that it had both chicken skin and bones. He didn't find it particularly tasty.

We ordered a cheese quesadilla for the kids, and while it wasn't great, it was more flavorful than the pupusa. It was unbelievably expensive at $6.50 for two small slices. I would definitely not order it again.

There is only one choice for dessert and that's the Empanadas, plantain envelopes filled with custard or beans ($5.50 for 2). We had the ones with custard and I thought they were OK, but Mika thought they were really yummy, she ate all of hers and wouldn't share with her sister. Still, I thought they were very expensive for what they were.

Dinner came to about $41 after tax - a lot of money for what was a mediocre meal. We will not be rushing back BUT, I'd like to remind you once again that we are not fans of Salvadorean food. If you like Salvadorean food, you should certainly go and give them a try.

La Cocina de Raquel
1562 E. 14th St.
San Leandro, CA
510-357-3305
lacocinaderaquel@att.net

I've been meaning to write the restaurant review for San Gaspar for a couple of weeks now, but I haven't gotten to it so my recollections have gotten dimmer. I can tell you that we went with my friend Arthur and his kids, this is a place they frequent and like quite a bit. I thought it was pretty good too. The food was quite well priced, in the very low teens for pretty large platters. I had the carnitas and they were very good - large chunks of flavorful meat, not too dry. They came with a huge portion of good fries. Arthur had the chimichanga and he also enjoyed it. On the other hand, their quesadilla - which we ordered for the kids - was pedestrian. Mike's enchiladas were also just OK. Their chips and salsa were pretty tasty, but not old-Chevy's quality.

The restaurant itself is pretty modest, but it reminded me of the sort of restaurants in Mexico. It was comfortable, and had their been other people there, I'm sure it would have been convivial. As it was, pretty empty, the kids (an we had 5 with us) were able to enjoy some freedom and play around.

In all I had a good experience and would go back. Mike, on the other hand, wouldn't be rushing back.

San Gaspar Restaurant
201 E 14th St
San Leandro, CA 94577
(510) 562-6197

The following is a review from one of my readers. My review of Ozeki Teriyaki is available here.

Ozeki Teriyaki / Sushi is located at 14701 E 14th St. We went there on an
impulse at about 7 pm tonight (11/13/07). The decor is plebeian, but never mind that.
The cheery waitress waved us to a table, and at length we got the house
salad: mostly iceberg lettuce, with a sweet-and-sour creamy dressing which
had a faint savor of peanuts. That was accompanied by a very satisfactory
(and plain) miso soup, which made me resolve to make it at home every day.
It's all probiotic and stuff.

The menu is humongous, because they use the same one for lunch specials,
appetizers, dinners and a la carte sushi. My husband had chicken katsu - and
their tonkatsu sauce tasted better than Tsuru Sushi's, for some reason. The
chicken was sliced after frying, and was piled attractively on a big chard
leaf. The meat was fresh and cooked in oil that had not been over-used, so
he was happy.

I had trouble deciding, but eventually settled on "Chirashi A," which
differs from "Chirashi B" only because it's a smaller dish. I asked the
waitress to describe it. "Sushi rice," she explained, "and sushi," gesturing
that the rice lay under the sushi. That seemed a little carb-heavy for me,
but I said OK.

What she brought me was a great big bowl of rice covered with what must have
been half a pound of *sashimi* - raw fish! Mind you, it was excellent fish,
cut into slabs about 1/2-inch thick - but there was much more than I wanted
to eat. Some of it was gorgeous, like the "super white tuna" (as the
waitress called it), which I would happily eat every day. It is almost as
white as typing paper, and shows little or no muscle structure at all, and
it is sheer savory tenderness. There was also an end of octopus tentacle,
sliced lengthwise - good flavor, but very tough. I didn't eat it, but it was
something to write home about, definitely. There was also a generous helping
of raw salmon, some raw tuna (the usual cherry-red, muscle-striated kind), a
few pieces of halibut (I think), and some white, tough, fishy-tasting bits
garnished with flying-fish eggs. I love flying-fish eggs; they are such a
pretty shade of orange, sparkle like diamonds, and crunch pleasingly in the
mouth. The plate was garnished with big mounds of pink pickled ginger and
wasabi paste - probably colored with spinach and spiked with horseradish, as
the paste kind tends to be, but there was a little sweetness in it that
helped everything harmonize. Nevertheless, I brought home a lot of sashimi.

We are definitely going back - after all, this adventure only cost us $25
for two people - but next time I'll order something that isn't raw. Well,
maybe a little side order of "super white tuna."

Michaele Maurer

Hi Marga,

I'm still religiously reading your reviews. Thanks for keeping us up to
date on the best of the best in San Leandro. :)

One of my readers e-mailed me to recommend "Sushi Avenue" in San Leandro. She says they have very fresh fish, large size sushi rolls with generous portions and excellent service staff. "The teriyaki dinners are so large and comes with so many sides that it's
impossible to finish Prices are pretty reasonable (especially for the portion sizes) and it
has ambience (a plus for San Leandro)" It also has easy parking.

I'll give a try and let you guys what I think.

Sushi Avenue
1042 Marina Blvd
San Leandro, CA 94577
(510) 352-5536

Enjoy!
peggy

I went by the old Casa Maria-Kolbeh-Taqueria-andy & joe's building a couple of days ago and saw that it's becoming a Salvadorean restaurant. I don't know when it'll open and what it'll be called (though the name was on the window, I can't recall it) - but I do wish them luck (and good food!). I'm not crazy for Salvadorean food myself, but I'm willing to be converted!

Mike has just returned a few edited reviews - so I finally get to put them up. Here they are:

-Cafe de la Paz served us its delicious take on Latin American dishes - but did we just get lucky?

-We visited Spettro's again, for Mike's 40th, and it was probably one of the most disappointing meals we ever had.

-We celebrated Mike's 40th again at The Dining Room at the Ritz Carlton and had an amazing albeit terribly expensive meal.

-After two visits to Chevys in San Leandro I learned that they just can't do babyback ribs

Mike stills owes me reviews of Doña Tomás and the Rotunda at Neiman Marcus

Today I took my daughter to lunch at her favorite chain restaurant, Panda
Express (783 A Street, one of *three* locations in Hayward). It was much
better than I expected. For $5.50 you get your choice of fried rice or a
simple chow mein, and any two of about a dozen entrees.

All the meat is tender and seems to be of decent quality.

I didn't try the fried rice, but the chow mein has "wok hei" - the smoky
aftertaste of a properly made stir-fry. The orange chicken (my daughter's
favorite) was tangy and not over-sweet; the crust was not mushy at all. The
sweet and sour pork is - well, inoffensive.

I had broccoli beef and black pepper chicken. The broccoli was cut a little
too large to be convenient to eat. It would have been more manageable either
cut smaller or cooked a little longer. Mind you, it was delicious. The
pepper chicken was aromatic with black pepper, but not hot, and strewn with
slivers of onion and green pepper.

Very little of the food is prefab; we were able to see a huge glass-fronted
refrigerator filled with trays of raw vegetables.

I don't know that it's a particularly child-friendly place: most of the
chairs and tables are tall, like bar stools, which would be risky for small
children. (My daughter's an adult, so that wasn't an issue for us.)

There are banners hung from the ceiling proclaiming "Gourmet Chinese Food."
I wouldn't go that far, but Panda Express presses most of the
Chinese-American-cooking joy buttons.

Michaele Maurer

The following is a letter I got vis a vis my review of The Station House at Point Reyes Station. Apparently I'm not the only one who finds the food bland. I encourage my readers to comment on my blog or e-mail me about the restaurants I've reviewed (whether agreeing or disagreeing with me)

----

Hi Margarita

I should have checked your review before visiting the Station House cafe but
alas I did not and it was our loss. We decided to have dinner there as it
was recommended by a local but it was very disappointing to say the least.

To start with, our hostess seemed to have a bit of an attitude when we were
seated and it went downhill from their. Our waitress came to take our order
and had to ask the chef about what we wanted three different times; Could
they just steam the veggies? could we just have garlic with no butter on the
Mussels? and could we have the salad dressing on the side.

My wife had the 1/2 pound of steamed mussels, a salad with no dressing and
and steamed veggies, I had the special of the day, chippino and a cup of
clam chowder. We waited about 1/2 an hour for our food (no popovers or bread
was served and no one returned to fill our water glasses).

When the food finally arrived my wife's steamed mussels were on the short
side (more like 1/8 of a pound) and the dressing was on the salad. It took
about 5 min. to get the busboy to take the salad back and get another, that
was the last we saw of the salad! We asked for some bread and the busboy
finally got it for us.

My chippino was ok but not worth the 20 dollars we paid for it. The clam
chowder was watery and it was difficult to tell if it had any clams in it.

The service was very bad and as you said the food was insipid. The waitress
checked back with us once towards the end of the meal however it was a
prefunctionary walk by. The best part of service was the busboy who was a
lot more attentive and even apologetic.

Needless to say we will not be returning to the station house cafe.

Best regards

Stan Gelber

Panda Express is one of my sister Katherine's favorite chains. We go there when she is in town and practically never otherwise. However someone mentioned that they often went for take out there, and it occurred to me that we could give it a try. My conclusion is that it's OK, but nothing special.

I had a three entree plate ($6.75) with chow mein (one side dish is free), orange chicken, mandarin chicken and chicken with mushrooms. I liked the bitter tangy sauce that came with the mandarin chicken and the mushroomy one that came with the chicken with mushrooms. The orange chicken tasted good enough, it was just a tiny bit spicy, but the breading was pretty thick. It was even thicker in the sweet and sour pork that I ordered for Mika ($4 for a kid's meal which includes a side, a small drink and a cookie), but it also wasn't unpleasant. The chow mein was the most disappointing part of the meal. The ultra thin noodles were crispy but had no flavor at all. I'd definitely wouldn't order them again.

The restaurant itself is pleasant enough, though the high tables and chairs are not the most comfortable in the world.

Panda Express
1271 Marina Blvd.
San Leandro, CA
510.667.9585

It's been quite a while since I've gone to CreAsian, the Asian fusion restaurant on Macarthur in San Leandro. I never think of going there, mostly because it's not particularly cheap, not particularly child-friendly, and when I go out with Mike on a date, I prefer to go to a new place. Still, I've gone to CreAsian a few times for drinks/dessert - and I like it for that purpose.

I went there Monday night with five friends on a "Mom's night out" sort of thing, just for drinks and dessert, and it was pretty good. They have an extensive list of mixed drinks, in addition to coffees with a variety of alcohol and hard liquors. Their dessert selection is somewhat limited, and I suspect they don't make their desserts in house. Their creme brule cheesecake was OK, what I had, was OK but nothing spectacular. People did like their fried calamari and tuna tartare, and the pineapple fried rice I had was pretty enjoyable. Their food presentation is quite good.

The atmosphere, however, is a tad weird. Service is competent yet on the cold side, and I never manage to feel completely comfortable there. Another minus is that it closes at 10 PM on weekdays.

Still, it's not a bad place for an occasional night out.

CreAsian
1269 Macathur Boulevard
San Leandro, CA
510.895.8028

Updated Review - August 2009

Sweet Fingers is a Jamaican restaurant that has been opened in San Leandro since May. And yet, it wasn't until a couple of days ago that I finally visited it.

It's not that I didn't try to go before, but even though it does have a sign with the Jamaican flag outside, it is still pretty hidden. The best way to locate it is to remember that it's just across the street from Angelina's.

Sweet Fingers is located in what probably used to be a bar. There are no windows, and the bar area is quite large. There isn't much in the way of decor, just wire tables and chairs. It's definitely a no-frills sort of place. That said, they have reggae music on weekends, and it's perhaps better considered a music spot where they also serve food. Indeed, we were the only people who were there for lunch that Tuesday at noon.

It's a pity because the food at Sweet Fingers is pretty good. Nothing outstanding, you won't go home thinking San Leandro finally has the restaurant it deserves, but I liked it nonetheless.

Their lunch menu is very short. If you want meat, your choices are between jerk chicken and curry chicken - there is also a fish sandwich and quite a few vegetarian options. The dinner menu is broader and includes beef, lamb and oxtail as well as several seafood choices. The vegetarians are, once again, well covered. Lunch prices are $6-11, while most dinners are $15-16.

Aamani decided to go for the jerk chicken dish ($8), while I had the curry chicken ($9) just to be different. Indeed, the main difference between the two dishes seemed to be the curry sauce. We both found the chicken to be very good, moist and tender. The slightly spicy jerked flavor was very nice, but the skin could have been crispier. Perhaps it was better that it wasn't, as there was little temptation to eat it. The curry sauce was very mild, nice but not compelling. The dishes came with rice and beans (I thought they were OK, but I'm not crazy about rice and beans to begin with) and with two slices of fried banana, these were great. A side dish of cornbread ($2) brought a huge, crumbly slice. I couldn't decide how much I liked it. I think it was nice, but not extraordinary. Finally, my coke was flat.

Service was good but slow. That's probably because the food had to be made from scratch when we got there - and we did appreciate the freshness of it.

I'll definitely go again. Next time I'd like to try it for dinner, though. It'd also be an ideal place to go late at night, on weekdays it doesn't close until midnight.

Sweet Fingers
464 E. 14th St.
San Leandro ,CA
510.553.9869
M-Th 11 AM - 12 AM
F-Sa 11 AM on
http://www.sweetfingersrestaurant.com/

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

Last night it was girl's night out with my friends Penelope, Desiree, Victoria and Paz. We went to Paradiso for appetizers, drinks and dessert.

As usual, I got the filet mignonettes ($12), slices of beef pan seared and served on crostini with a marsala mushroom sauce. As usual, it was very good. Desiree and Paz shared the Calamari Fritti ($10) and the smoked salmon pizza with goat cheese ($15). I forgot to ask them how they liked it, but I will report about it as soon as I hear from them.

We all shared a bottle of the Salentein Malbec, from Mendoza ($32). I don't remember what year it was. It was absolutely delicious - it had a good body, not too light, not too heavy, soft tannins and a hint of oak and fruit. I see they sell it at BevMo, and I'll have to trek over there some time to buy a few bottles.

For dessert (all $6) I had their famous sundae. I wasn't as impressed with it as everyone else seems to me. The ice cream was just OK, the chocolate sauce very good but scant. It wasn't a particularly big sundae either. The rest of the team shared a couple of apple crisps and they all seemed to be very happy with it. They thought it was just right.

The only negative part of the evening is that they close fairly early, they threw us out by 10 PM (this was a Wednesday night). Still, we had a very good time and I'd recommend it for a mom's night out.

Paradiso
685 Bancroft Ave
San Leandro, CA
(510) 430-9212
Previous Review

These are places we went to recently, while the kids were away.

Zza's is a very nice Italian restaurant that is also very child friendly. We liked the food.

Breads of India was a great disappointment. Mild Indian food without complexity.

Chili's in San Leandro is a chain restaurant but they offer great ribs and a wonderful chocolate cake.

Tonight I was left alone at home with nothing to eat, and Mike suggested I get some Indian. As the kids, who don't like Indian, are not home, that seemed like a good idea.

Favorite India is my favorite Indian restaurant, so it's very fortunate that they are both in the area and deliver here. I've been ordering from there since it opened several years ago, and I'm seldom disappointed. This time I wasn't.

I ordered my usuals, lamb korma, chicken tikka masala and a mixed grill (yes, I was alone, but they have a $25 minimum for delivery). All three were good, the sauce in the lamb korma, in particular, was excellent, very creamy, very deep and balanced. The tikka masala was also very good and balanced, with a hint of acidity. The mixed grill was a little on the dry/overdone side, however. My sweet lassi was good, a bit watery but I expect that's from the ice melting while I waited to drink it. The kabuli naan was particularly good today, filled with nuts and cherries.

In all it was a very good meal and I'm stuffed and have lunch and dinner for tomorrow! :)

Mike finally returned to me a few restaurant reviews I wrote early this year. He edits them for me, as he thinks my prose is definitely in need of help. These are:

Adagia is nice restaurant in Berkeley with a dining room that looks like an Ivy League cafeteria. Good food too.

Le Cheval is a popular Oakland Vietnamese eatery, its food wasn't as good as I remembered, though.

Spettro is another popular Oakland restaurant, this time eclectic Italian. I liked it.

Fringale is an upscale French Basque restaurant in the city. Our dinner was good if uneven.

and finally

Angelinas has become our favorite place for a pizza with the kids, not in the least because they are very child friendly.

As you know, I recently took a trip to the wine country and the mendocino area. Here are the restaurant reviews from that trip.

Mendo Bistro is a bistro in Fort Bragg, Ca, which lets you chose what you want to eat and how you want it cooked.

Timber Cove Inn Restaurant is the restaurant of the hotel of the same name located about 15 miles north of Jenner, California. There is nothing else in the area so the restaurant gets away with charging ridiculously overpriced but still good food.

Solbar in Calistoga offers high-end interpretations of American Cuisine and mostly gets it right.

La Hacienda is your typical Mexican Restaurant in Cloverdale

We had a great lunch at the Mendocino Hotel Garden Room in a beautiful bee-filled garden.

And a disappointing lunch at the the Station House Cafe in Point Reyes Station, with extremely underseasoned food (but in another beautiful garden).

As you can discern from my postings below, Mike and I spent three days traveling through the Napa Valley, tasting wine and relaxing. We had a few really nice dinners, and more conventional lunches. But as I swore to review everything about the trip (to make it even more fun for me), here are my notes on our Wine Country Lunches.

Sunday we were in Napa and had lunch at Giugni's Deli in St. Helena. This is our favorite sandwich shop in the whole world. *Every* time we come to Napa, we go eat there. Napa may be filled with culinary delights from north to south, but we will never know them because I will never have lunch at a place other than Giugni's. It *is* that good.

Last night we got take out from New Hong Kong. I always order the same things, orange chicken, szechuan beef, sesame chicken, orange chicken, and then I'm a bit disgusted by the gooiness of it all. This time I decided to try something different and got the crispy chicken ($6 for half a chicken) and the ginger beef ($6.50). I also got the pork buns, chicken chow mein for the kids, and an order of free fried wontons.

The pork buns were good, as usual. They are steamed and they have a pretty high ratio of bread to stuffing, but they are good none the less. The friend wontons are crisp and very good with the sweet-n-sour sauce they came with. Pure fat and a guilty pleasure. Can't comment on the chow mein 'cause I didn't try it. But both the crispy chicken and the ginger beef were very good. The chicken was moist and had been nicely spiced (but it wasn't spicy), and it's skin was almost crispy enough. As it was, you could skip it and all that fat. The ginger beef had a light ginger flavor, and was nicely complimented by the green onions. The one problem is that there were just too many scallions and too little beef. Still, I'd order both dishes again.

According to Mike, there is a sign at Andy & Joe's Restaurant saying that the restaurant is for sale or rent. I'm not surprised, as every time I walked by (and as it's on my way downtown I walked by it a lot) it was empty or semi-empty. Alas, if they didn't improve on their food, I'm not surprised. The restaurant business is hard and you need to offer a superior product to make it. If you do, like Le Soleil, staying alive shouldn't be a problem.

I think there were a couple of other things that andy & joe's did wrong (apart from offering mediocre food). One was to offer the same type of food that you can get at other established restaurants downtown. And it wasn't a destination sort of food, like Vietnamese, Thai or Indian may be. The other was to not advertise widely at first. That's when they need to get the word of mouth going. Putting flyers in area businesses and homes would have helped them. And finally, they priced their offerings too high.

The location may be a problem, too. This is the third restaurant in a row that fails there. The first one (since we've lived in San Leandro), Casa María #2 was closed down by the health department, briefly reopened afterwards, and then moved to a different (and one hopes cleaner) location. I haven't been there again.

The second one started as Kolbeh, offered mediocre Mediterranean fair. Though I wished the owners well, their food just did not convince me. Apparently it didn't convince others' either, as they closed it and revamped it as a Mexican restaurant, Taqueria. They had a strange scheme, they served burritos and you paid $1 for each ingredient you wanted. That made a meat and guacamole burrito a bargain, but an "everything" burrito quite expensive. Alas, the pre-cooked meat wasn't that great either. I was sorry to see them go, I liked the owners, but it was also inevitable.

And now Andy & Joe's.

But alas, I don't think the problem is the location. I think the problem is the mediocre food that all these restaurants are serving. And the lack of imagination. Do we need a burger place downtown? Ummm, no. Do we need another taqueria? Los Pericos practically has the whole San Leandro market. What we do need, if anyone is listening, is an INDIAN restaurant. There is one in Hayward, Favorite India, which delivers to San Leandro - but it's not the same as having one here. Plus an Indian buffet would do well with the downtown business crowd.

And here is a radical idea, how about an Ethiopian/Eritrean restaurant? As judged by who attends the library story time, San Leandro has a large Ethiopian and Eritrean population. That provides a built-in market for a restaurant. Add to that all the Berkeley-transplants who live here, and you have a winner. An Ethiopian restaurant could offer a killer lunch buffet as well.

A Persian restaurant could be a great addition, as well, though I'm less sure there is enough of a market for it.

But anyway, restaurant entrepeneurs take notice, here is a space you could turn into a good and much needed restaurant with some vision.

On a different note, I've learned there is a new Jamaican place in town, but when I went looking for it I didn't find it (not surprising, given how I am). Friends ate there, though, and they liked it. I'm hoping to visit it soon and give you a report.

I just heard that a new Afghan restaurant has opened near Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. I don't know anything about it, so if you'd been there and have an opinion, please comment here. Still, for me any new Afghan place is good news. here are the details:

Kabul City Restaurant
380 Beach St
San Francisco, Ca 94113
415-359-1400

Yesterday was my birthday (yeaaaay!), and while I'm having the main celebration Saturday (and I'll write more about the food for that in my next posting), Mike was nice enough to take me out for lunch and dinner yesterday. We did, however, go to San Leandro favorites (sort of) rather than all the way out of the city.

For lunch we went to Paradiso and for dinner to Horatio's

Lunch was very disappointing, all the more so because Paradiso is supposed to be the best restaurant in town and because I've had a couple of good lunches there lately (if you go, order the filetes mignonettes, those are very good). I ordered a dish of penne with mushrooms and filet mignon slices in a Marsala creme sauce (doesn't that sound good?). Alas, it wasn't that great. The flavor of the sauce was just too mild, and the beef needed some salt to bring its own flavor forward. It wasn't bad, but not $15-good. Mike had the scallops, and he thought they were fine, but the portion was too small to fill him up. The OK fries didn't help much. He ended up eating some of my lunch. I don't think either of us were inordinately hungry. Service was blah, even though there seemed to be a dozen people working that day. Our waiter never came to check on us after our food was served, and the bill was just brought after we were done with our entrees, without asking if we wanted something else. Lunch came up to somewhere over $40 before tip, definitely not worth it. Still, Paradiso does a brisk lunch business, though choices for nice lunch places in town are very limited.

Dinner was something different. Once again, we had Horaio's delicious foccacia bread with garlic butter (I think that's what they serve, at least), followed by the warm brie with macademia nut crust ($11). We've had this before and it's delicious, in particular with the apple and the balsamic vinegar. I only wish they served more than 3 small slices of apple and a drizzle of vinegar. Still, it's something I'll keep ordering.

As our entrees, I had the Hawaiian baby back ribs ($19), which were quite nice though nothing special as far as baby back ribs go. The meat did fall completely off the bone, though, which Mike particularly liked. It came with sweet potato fries, I think I'd have liked regular fries better, these ones had a very mild taste.

Mike thought his crab stuffed sole was delicious, albeit a tiny bit in the salty side. He couldn't taste the crab, however, though that didn't seem to deter from the dish. He'd order it again.

For dessert I had the chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream, which is pretty much what I always order, and I liked it a lot.

Service was very good, I got a window table just as I requested on my reservation - though we had to wait a little bit for it. Our waitress was jovial and cordial, and kept an eye on our needs. All in all we had a great time - made better by the fact that I got a $20 off coupon, as it was my birthday. It really pays to join their club.

I received the following complaint about the Apple Peddler in Sutherlin. I'm posting it at the request of the sender

---

My kids were here on vacation-they wanted pie. We went to the Apple Peddlere in Sutherlin. We bought two cream pies, cheese cake and a piece of peach pie.

The cream pies were very good. The cheese cake was enjoyed by my daughter-the peach pie was mine.

I opened the to go container and found two slices of peach that looked like they had been sitting in a dehydrater for 7 days. The filling had jelled-I had moved past the dried peach slices and put my fork into the slice-how on earth did the server send this old, stale slice of pie out of the store? I immediately called and spoke with the server that knowingly pass this on to me. I would return the next day for a refund. She politely acknowledged my request.

My kids were here on vacation-we went with my mother early to the Wild Life Safari. When we retuned I sent my son to Apple Peddler to get the money-$3.75. He came home with the same dried out pie-really upset me. So I called again. I started with " I want to leave a message with the manager." I was told to quit yelling-I was using an angry voice but far from yelling, although I did volunteer to yell, then I was told "The manager does not have time to take out of his busy day and return my call." Yes, I was then very pissed off. I explained that I had spent $26 on pie and that I wanted to have my complaint satisfied. I finally hung up the phone. I am making the third trip to the restaurant today to take care of the dried up pie situation.

I will never eat here again. The customer service leaves much to be desired.

Chris Dockstader
Sutherlin, OR

Mike and I just took a trip to Bellevue, Washington (he had work there), so we went out to dinner in the area. I wrote several reviews, which you can now read online:

Chutneys is an upscale Indian restaurant, with an amazing lamb dish.

Andiamo is an Italian restaurant with a really annoying singer.

McCormick & Schmicks Seafood Restaurant is a chain with pretty good fish

On our last day, we visited Seattle and had a very good meal at Pike Place Bar & Grill

Note: This restaurant has closed. A burger joint may
open in its place.

A few weeks ago my friend Lola came to visit me and we were looking for a place to have lunch. I decided it was time to give Cafe Encore another chance, I'd been there years before but it had since changed ownership. We were surprised to find out that it had also changed names and concept, it now serves wine country cuisine and it's called Sonoma's Restaurant.

The place hasn't changed much in looks, it has a pleasant bistro-like atmosphere, perfect for a nice lunch. Its lunch menu - I haven't been there for dinner yet - concentrates on fancy sandwiches, mostly $9-10. I went for the Napa Valley Burger which added prosciutto, blue cheese, mushrooms and greens to some fancy ground beef. It was quite good but pretty unmanageable. The burger kept falling off the bread, and the whole thing was too thick to fit in my admittedly small mouth. It wasn't too easy to eat with knife and fork either. I liked the taste of the blue cheese, though it did overwhelm the prosciutto which I couldn't taste at all. Still, I liked the whole thing and I'd order it again.

Lola was very pleased with the sandwich that was the special of the day. It had salame, provolone cheese, bacon and avocado. She found it very tasty, though also hard to eat. In addition, he bread had been toasted in olive oil and made her fingers oily. She also liked the mixed green salads dressed with balsamic vinegar. We both really liked the piquant salsa served on the side.

Service, by David, the new owner, was very good. He was attentive but kept his distance from out very intimate conversation.

In all, we had a very nice lunch experience, and I'd definitely go again. Now it's time to try them for dinner.

Sonoma's
1027 MacArthur Blvd
San Leandro
510.636.1143

Last night we went to the Oriental Tea House with a bunch of our friends (for memory's sake, they were Donovan & Parker with Luther and baby Will, Regina and Boris, and Eddie and Arthur with Laurel, Bailey and Dee). We ordered a bunch of dishes: fried calamari, friend wontons, chicken chow mein, vegetable chow mein, lemon chicken, kun pao chicken, half a roasted chicken, beef with some sort of green beans and a couple of shrimp dishes. I was amazed at how good everything was. It was great to be able to savor so much variety - and to be with so many friends - but the actual food was all very good. And the bill was terribly cheap at $86 - which fed an army of 8 adults and 6 children.

We were all able to fit at one, very crowded, table - larger parties or those with more adults, would have to split in two.

We are now planning on getting together for dim sum some Sunday morning. If any of my friends are reading this, and want to come along, just e-mail me.

Last night my friends Eddie, Katrina, Parker and I had a well-deserved Mom's Night Out. We decided to go to Spettro's for dinner - and a review of that restaurant will follow soon - but we didn't want to get there too early. lest the place be full of children. If we're out without our children, we definitely want to avoid other people's as well.

So we decided to go to a bar instead. Katrina had one in mind, blocks and blocks away from Spettro's, but right before we got there we went by di bartolo and it seemed like a really nice place to stop. We were concerned that it was too much of a restaurant, but they have a bar area in the back which was just perfect for us. It's small, dark, and while it was crowded, it was quite comfortable. The front dining room is also small and dark, and I think it could be a pleasant place for a romantic evening.

di bartolo offers ten interesting mix drink concoctions ($10), products of a very creative bartender. Eddie and I went for El Rojo Obispo: Absolut ruby red, patron citronge, fresh mint, pomegrante juice and lime. It was very good, though a little bit too sweet for me - as the ice melted and the drink diluted that was less of a problem. Both Eddie and I would definitely order it again. Katrina had the grand: vanilla vodka, mission fig puree and fresh lemon, served up. It was delicious, it had a warm fussiness to it, and a caramelish taste. I'd definitely order it. The loser of the evening was Parker's Madagascar sazerac: Maker's mark, vanilla sugar, thyme sprig, served on the rocks. The problem was that it tasted very alcoholic, if you are the type of person who drinks your alcohol straight you might like it, but if you are a mixed-drinks type of person, you may want to stay away from it. In any case, Parker couldn't finish it. Finally, Eddie and Parker shared a mojito. I didn't try it but they both said they liked it.

In the middle of our drinks we figured it'd be good if we had something to eat (though we'd munched on crackers with goat cheese, nicely provided by Eddie, in the car) so we ordered their garlic fries ($5) and their mushroom pizza with caramelized onions and chevre ($14). The fries were good, though not nearly as good as the fries from A Cote, or even our neighborhood's Joplin's (though they were definitely more refined, thinner, than the latter). For $5 I would have expected them to be somewhat better. The same thing can be said about the pizza, it was very good with a very thin crust and a good balance of toppings (though the mushrooms were particularly good), but it was definitely too small for the prize - or too pricey for the size and lack of "awe" element. But you know me, I'm pretty jaded by food and it was a good pizza.

Last weekend we went to Tilden with our kids, but neglected to pack a lunch to bring along (that neglect can be put squarely at Mike's shoulders, as I would never pack a lunch to begin with). So once there, we had to go into Berkeley in search both for gas (as Desiree had been running on empty for a couple of days by then) and food. We managed to get a place to park near Cactus Taqueria and so there we went.

The long lines did not foreshadow particularly good food. We all found the burritos (~$6) - and we got carne asada, carnitas and chicken burritos - to be just OK. In my particularly case, the cold ingredients (salsa, cheese, lettuce, cream & guacamole) completely overwhelmed the meat. There were bites - about 50% of them - that came with no meat at all. The lack of meat was also noticed by my companions. Even the rice and beans were not particularly noteworthy, though the kids ate some of them.

All of this said, the food wasn't terrible, though I'll look for some other place next time we're in the area.

Cactus Taqueria
1881 Solano Ave.
Berkeley, CA
510-528-1881

Frequent visitors to my website will probably have noticed that I haven't updated my restaurant reviews in a while. Part of the issue is that I don't eat out as much as I used to - it's a pain in the butt to go to restaurants with Camila, and the kids are going to sleep pretty early lately -, but a bigger part of it is that Mike has been singularly busy for the last few months and he has not edited my restaurant reviews. Moreover, he doesn't think my writing should appear anywhere without editing (that's very flattering), so he kept telling me that he'd have them ready and to wait just a couple of days more. Finally, when I threatened and threatened to post them unedited, he relented and did them all. So here they are:

In San Leandro

Horatio's. An update on our local steak & fish house. Read about how we managed to have a three-course meal for $25.

Makiyaki. This Japanese restaurant in Pelton Center has good sushi but terrible teriyaki.

Chang's. This new restaurant at the new MacArthur development offers scaled-up Chinese food with fresh ingredients.

Vila Cereja update. This strange restaurant has no windows, but some cool design motifs - as well as very good food. Now, if only the service could match it.

Further afield

Pappo, in Alameda, offers solid food that needs a little bit more pizzazz. Still a good choice for a Californian meal.

La Note in Berkeley has a lovely room and did a good job with a ratatouille but completely failed with a simple burger.

Also in Berkeley, Viceroy Indian Cuisine proved that serving good food is no requirement for staying in business in Berkeley.

In Oakland, Tanjia serves tasty Moroccan food, in a tent-like atmosphere, as well as bellydancing. But the service is stiff and the tea could be tastier.

And talking about tea, the Leland Tea Company in San Francisco serves an impossibly cheap tea service which includes a very weak cup of tea. Some of the food was good, however.

A better choice is Secret Garden, which is frilly and delicate but has good tea and good food.

Finally, there is a November update from a visit to the Buenos Aires Grill in the San Fernando Valley.

I'm off to two new restaurants this week, and I still have to write a review of Angelina's, so keep your eyes open for more reviews coming soon.

The other night, before a City Council meeting (in which our friend Jim Prola was appointed to City Council to my endless happiness), we decided to drop by Hoagy Steak for a bite. The place is very close to City Hall and I imagine it gets quite a bit of business from there. Both Mike and I got the plain Philly Cheese steak - though we probably should have gotten one with more stuff on it. I thought the cheese steaks were pretty good, if a bit salty. Mike didn't like them, probably because they were made with the foulest of all cheeses, American cheese. In any case they were fresh. The fries, also made right then, were steaming hot and pretty good. I can see going back there if I have a hankering for a Philly steak or a hoagy, or I'm just around City Hall.

Hoagy Steak
691 East 14th St.
San Leandro, Ca
510.635.3631

Andy & Joe's is the latest restaurant to open in the space once occupied by Taqueria and Casa María #2 on East 14th in San Leandro. It serves coffeeshop-type food, breakfast, burgers, sandwiches and breakfast all day. For dinner it has some standard American dishes such as pastas ($10-13), chicken parmigiana ($12) and pork chops ($13). My friend Aamani and I went for lunch there today, and we weren't impressed. Though the space looks nice, the walls have been painted with murals of villas (don't ask me why), the food was mediocre at best.

To be fair to the restaurant, today was its opening day so some mistakes are understandable: a waiter who did not ask how I liked my burger, or who bothered to bring butter and jam to go with my companion's toast. But others depend on the kitchen, and a good cook is a good cook.

I ordered a cheeseburger and fries ($7.15). I forgot to specify that I wanted the burger medium rare, so it came medium to well done. The burger was on the dry side, not very juicy, and wasn't particularly flavorful, even though it tasted like it had been seasoned and perhaps even had fillers. The cheese wasn't melted, and the tomatoes that came with it were pretty pale. In all, it was a mediocre burger at best. The fries also left much to be desired. I don't understand how this can be, being opening day and all, but they tasted like they'd been fried in old oil - they had that slightly rancid flavor. They were thick wedges and served very hot.

Aamani's Southwest scramble (bell peppers, chicken apple sausage, potatoes, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes & cheddar cheese - $6.75) wasn't very good either. Aamani didn't like that the potatoes were scrambled with everything else - they'd have been nicer as a side. The scramble wasn't very flavorful and needed more spice. It came with one (!) slice of toast, with no butter or jam.

Service was friendly, and I feel bad slamming the restaurant on its opening day, but the food really disappointed us - in particular, when I compare it to Joplin's, another new recently-opened restaurant with a similar menu. The burgers there (and I've had them three times now) are much better and cheaper too.

All this said, I will probably give andy & joe's another try in a couple of months. Perhaps by then they'll get a more competent cook.

andy & joe's
1652 E. 14th St.
San Leandro, Ca
510.667.9807
M-F 7 AM - 3 PM, 5 PM - 8:30 PM
Sa 8 AM - 3 PM, 5 PM - 8:30 PM
Su 8 AM - 3 PM

It's been too long since our visit to be able to write a proper review of Barceluna - but we went during the holiday season when my life was pretty crazy. Still, I figure I should write a couple about it.

First of all, it's not really a restaurant. It's a lounge where they serve food. We went early a weekday night, before the music started (at 8PM, I think) and there was nobody there. They didn't even have waitstuff, instead we were served by the cocktail waitress from the adjoining bar. She was nice and the service was good, but didn't know anything about the menu. It was pretty weird dining in the restaurant alone - if you want to go, I'd recommend you do it when they're playing the music.

The menu consists mostly of tapas, though they have larger dishes as well. We like tapas and we went for them. Unfortunately, I can't recall all of what we ordered. I know we enjoyed the garlic french fries, we ordered a small size but I think they must have served us the larger one - the plate was huge. We didn't, however, liked the pork back-ribs, which had a strong and bitter glace, which made it very difficult to taste the actual ribs. The tri-tip strips with blue cheese suffered from a similar affliction, the blue cheese was too strong and made it impossible to taste the meat. Alas, I don't remember what else we had, but our whole impression was that the dishes were off. We really wanted to like the place, as we were out in a rare date, but ultimately we couldn't and I don't think we'd go again.

Barceluna at Kelly's
1313 Park Street
Alameda, CA 94501
510-522-7425
510-769-1011
http://barceluna.org/

Yesterday we spent the afternoon in San Francisco, or in Yerba Buena Gardens to be more exact. The kids played at the Metreon, hunted for worms in a little structure outside, run behind the fountain, enjoyed the merry-go-round and had the greatest time at the playground - those are some fast slides they have. We did have a moment of terror when Mika decided to play hide-n-seek with us without telling us, but in all, we had a very good time.

By the middle of it, however, we were starving, and Mo's, located right next to the playground, seemed like the ideal place to eat. It was pretty good.

As its name implies, Mo's concentrates on burgers and while none of the choices are particularly original, they are made from 100% Angus meat. The burgers are pretty expensive, at $7-8 without fries. They also serve breakfast items and have a short kid-menu, with a burger, a hot dog, chicken nuggets and a grilled cheese sandwich - all pretty expensive at $6.
But portions are pretty large. Mike and I shared a burger and some onion rights, plus had some of the pancakes Mika didn't eat and we were pretty full.

Our blue cheese burger was quite good, it had both a meaty and blue cheesy taste, and we enjoyed it. However, it had been overcooked. We'd asked for our burger medium rare, and you could barely discern any pink inside. Oh well, next time we'll be more adamant about how it's cooked. The onion rings were also very good, the batter held well together, and it wasn't overly greasy. I'd liked if they'd been accompanied by ranch dressing, but they were quite good by themselves. We also liked the pancakes that Mika got. They were nice and light, and had none of that chemical taste that comes from making them from a mix. Mika and Camila were quite pleased.

In all we had a pretty good meal, and next time I'm at Yerba Buena I'd eat there again.

Mo's Gourmet Burgers
772 Folsom Street
Yerba Buena Gardens
San Francisco, CA
(415) 957-3779

A few years ago we had lunch at City Tavern in Philadelphia, a "theme restaurant" that features revolutionary period cuisine served by people dressed on period clothing. We had a pretty good experience. However, the person who sent us the following note, did not.

----
Dear Sirs:

Last Sunday, Nov. 26, 2006, three friend and I ate at your restaurant after seeing a show at the Society HIll Playhouse. We had made reservations, but didn't really need them as it didn't seem too busy.

ON one friends suggestion, we all ordered the special of the day. It was steak and shrimp.
We all had soup also. 3 Gumbo and 1 Pepper Pot.

The soups were very good, although expensive.. When our dinners came we were disappointed, but didn't make a fuss as we didn't want to embarrass our friend who suggested the restaurant and also made the reservation. Her last name is Yokim.

The steak was tough and the shrimp very over cooked. Needles to say most of our steak went back. I had the feeling that the meals were already cooked and then warmed up just before serving us.

Needless to say we were very disappointed. I am always recommending places to out of town guests, but your restaurant won't be on my list.

Just thought you might like to know, so maybe some improvements can be made.

Sincerely

Phyllis Reighter

Hello,
I enjoy eating out here in San Leandro. I have a
comment and some suggestions--
Nick's Family Restaurant is the only restaurant in
town that serves home fries similar to what I have
eaten at Full House Cafe or Mama's Royal Cafe. They
also have really good fresh fruit. I would suggest a
revisit to try those two items. The others places in
town serve hash brown potatoes (no thanks).

Suggestions: my favorite place to eat is Ernies
Seafood on E. 14th St. where it crosses San Leandro
Blvd. near the hospital. It is the pink building.
Lots of great fish and seafood items. I especially
like the half crab sandwich special with coles slaw
and shrimp salad. Lots of variations. They also
serve steak. You can eat in the front area in booths,
the backroom where there is a televison which you can
ignore or sit out on their deck which faces a side
street.
I also like the Imperial Garden on MacArthur
Blvd. I can request no salt, no soy sauce, no MSG, no
sugar, no cornstarch and cooked in a dry wok and I get
it that way.
There is also a Vietnamese restaurant at the end
of Merced St. in a shopping center that serves very
nice fresh spring rolls and a fish soup. I request
certain things be left out of the soup and they serve
it that way. I have to go back again to get the name
of the place. Enjoy

You heard it here first, Joplins has the best burgers in San Leandro, and I've eaten at enough places in San Leandro to know. If you like your burgers big and juicy - so big you won't be able to finish them, so juicy you better have a napkin ready - this is definitely the place to go. And you should hurry, both times I went there, there were only a few customers for lunch, which concerns me as I definitely don't want the place to close.

On both my visits I ordered their cheeseburger ($5), which comes with the usual ingredients (tomato, lettuce, onions) and is made to order. I already described it as being very good, so good that now every time I want a burger, I want a Joplin's burger (a Val's may be better, but they're too far away). I want one right now as I type this, btw :)

Fries come with some of their dishes, but not with the burgers. An order of regular fries will cost you $1.50, but I'd advise you to go for the garlic fries ($3.50) instead. They are made with real garlic, not garlic powder, and they are out of this world. I should say, however, that I liked them better on my first visit, when they were skinny fries, rather than in my second, when they were the thicker wedge-type. I should have said something to the waiter; next time.

I went with my sister Kathy on my first visit, and she ordered the fried chicken wings ($5). These were quite good as well, nicely seasoned but not too spicy, and came served with sauce on the side (so this might be a good dish for little kids too). Our only complaint was that chicken wings are a pain to eat, we would much have preferred fried chicken legs. One more thing to tell them. On my second visit I went with my friend Aamani who also had - and enjoyed - the burger.

Both times service was very good, attentive and friendly.

My one qualm with Joplin's is their menu. They have an amazing breakfast menu with things such as blueberry sour cream pancakes and bananasplit belgian waffles as well as several types of omelettes and combos - but their lunch menu is quite limited. They have some salads, a few sandwiches, a couple of burgers, friend chicken wings and shrimp, and, out of nowhere, some Mediterranean messe offerings (felafel, hummus, dolmas and salad). As much as I like their burger, I'd like to see more choices. On the plus side, all lunch offerings are extremely well priced, with nothing over $7.50.

Joplins opened a couple of months ago in the space vacated by The Blue Dish, on Victoria Circle in the Broadmoor. It's name after a relative of the owner who used to be a famous Jazz musician. They have jazz for brunch on Sundays and I definitely want to try that - and then I'll report back (on the food, not the music, as I'm tone deaf).

Joplin's
585 Victoria Court
San Leandro, CA
510.568.5100

San Leandro has more Hawaiian restaurants that I can count, and I'm not sure that Ohana was actually needed (and judging by the lack of patrons last Thursday evening, I may not be alone in that assessment), but it's not entirely unwelcomed. If you are at that shopping mall (you know, the one that has Home Depot, Walmart and the Pet food store - which was why we were there) and you are hungry, your choices are limited to Togos and whatever fast food place there is in Walmart. So Ohana at least presents another choice for food. And while it's a chain, it's well located in chain heaven.

Ohana presents a menu very similar to those in other Hawaiian restaurants. It includes BBQ meats, alone or in combination, chicken katzu, curry and a couple of chicken dishes with "special" sauces. They also have burgers and spam.

We weren't too adventurous that evening and decided to go with the Seafood BBQ Combo ($8), Chicken Katzu ($6) and BBQ Chicken Saimin ($4). The seafood combo was good, but it only contained one piece of fish!!!! There wasn't even enough to share. The chicken katzu was heavily breaded - as it usually is - but tasted fine, though I think I prefer Ono's version. I'd ordered the saimin for the kids and they weren't thrilled by it. It basically tasted like chicken noodle soup, so clearly the problem wasn't in the dish.

In all, Mike thought the meal was fine, and probably better than at Ono's (where we go from time to time as it's close to our house), while I think I rather go back to Ono, though the portions there have gotten smaller and smaller.

Ohana Hawaiian BBQ
Westgate Mall Shopping Center
1933 Davis St. #135A
SL, CA
510-383.9898
http://www.hawaiianislandbbq.com/

Today we went to Favorite India for lunch and had their buffet. At $7 each it was quite a bargain. The buffet had various vegetarian entrees, as well as tandori chicken, chicken masala and a chinese-style dish with noodles and very spicy chicken. The latter was good, but the chicken masala was so delicious - velvety with just the right amount of citric - that that's all I wanted to eat. The chicken tandoori was good as well, moist and not too fatty.

Though the non-vegetarian choices were fewer than at other places, we had one of the best buffet experiences. I'll certainly go back for lunch when I have the opportunity.

Reader Michaele Maurer wrote me about her own experience at Tsuru Sushi, a small Japanese restaurant in downtown restaurant that I wasn't particularly thrilled with. I'm always happy to publish other people's experiences, specially well written ones.

A couple of days ago I got a flyer from a new pizza joint called "Fiestas". It's located in Oakland but it serves San Leandro (and other parts of the East Bay)Its menu is pretty standard, basically pizza, salads and chicken wings, and I thought I'd give it a try. I went for their 3 2-topping medium pizzas for $15 deal, which seemed a pretty good deal.

The pizza was fine, one notch above Dominoes. There was a good amount of cheese and toppings. It wasn't anything special, but I'd order it again. I wouldn't say the 2-topping pizzas we ordered were "gourmet," though we didn't try their specialties.

Fiestas Pizza
6432 International Boulevard
Oakland, CA
510.777.0012
http://www.fiestaspizza.com/

I don't know if it was the name or the big apple in the flyer but I've been ordering food from Big Apple Pizza thinking that it was Red Apple Pizza. Big Apple Pizza is a small chain located on MacArthur Blvd. (not that you would know that from their flyer) that has only recently started sending me flyers.

The first time I ordered I got their fish and chips ($17 for a 10 piece meal). The fish was not coated on a traditional beer batter, but instead had some sort of gritty coating that was neither flavorful or good to eat. The very thin stripes tasted stale and it was clear that the fish had been bought frozen and then dumped into the deep fryer (or it might have been the microwave). It had a dark brown appearance and did not look at all like the picture in the flyer.

The meal came with fries, soda and bread. The fries were also soggy and soft, the type of fries you get at a school cafeteria. Frozen, no doubt, and maybe even microwaved. We probably could have made a better meal out of Safeway's freezer. The bread was standard sliced bread from a bag.

The mini cheese pizza we got for Mika, however, was pretty good.

Our second time we ordered their pepperoni & cheese pizza, which has a 4 cheese blend ($15 for their "x-large", probable a 16" pizza). We liked it. The pizza was on the thin side with a good amount of cheese and pepperoni. We'd order again.

You get your choice of wings, salad or a 2 liter soda with each combo pizza. We had the wings, they were fatty and came in a hot sauce that did not taste good to me. Next time I'll go for the soda.

Big Apple Pizza
360 MacArthur Blvd
San Leandro, CA
Daily 11 AM - 12 AM
(510) 638-1996

I received the following message about a disappointing experience at the Black Bear Diner in Reno. While I clearly cannot verify what happened, I'm happy to provide a forum for people to tell about their dining experiences - good or bad.

Sunday morning we went to brunch at the Pelton Cafe. This used to be a favorite of Mike's (God knows why), but I've always felt the food to be a cut below sub-par. We hadn't been there in a while, though, and I think in the mean time the place changed owners, though the quality of the food stayed the same. Mike had his usual sunrise combo, or something of the sort, pancakes, eggs, sausage, you know, the usual. It was fine. Mika had themost pathetic happy face pancake ($4!). It was one large panckage with a happy face drawn with whipped topping. It didn't come out very well, however, and the face looked more frowny than anything.

I made the mistake (yes, memory can be short) of ordering a burger (comes with potato chips, not fries). It was horrible, McDonalds produces higher quality burgers. The burger was dried, fatty and I wouldn't be surprised if it included an additive of some sort. It wasn't very large, either, and while it was cheap given its low quality I felt ripped off. In short, don't order a burger here.

The Pelton Cafe served dinners for a little while, but I think they are back to serving lunch and breakfast only. Good thing.

(San Leandro Restaurant Reviews)

A few weeks ago I got a flyer from Mountain Mike's Pizza advertising their "all you can eat" buffet Wednesday nights ($6.50, 5-8 PM), and a couple of weeks later it came to mind when I was trying to figure out what to do for dinner. Eda, our friend Arthur's mom, was in town so we quickly arranged to meet her and the kids there. It was a good plan.

Mountain Mike is a chain, but doesn't really look like one. It could really be your neighborhood pizzeria, and I think that's what it strives to be for the Marina district. It has recently undergone a renovation, so the place looks clean and now there is a separate dining area towards the back. There are still a couple of video game machines to keep the kids occupied.

But the pizza is what matters and the pizza was good. All of their specialty pizzas were available - albeit not at the same time -, cut into slivers so that you can taste many of them, and all the ones we tried were very good. The all-meat was too salty for me, but I equally enjoyed the vegetarian, the pineapple chicke luau and the other types. The crust was on the thin side, the cheese was cheesy and the topings were generous without being overwhelming. Everything tasted like good qualities (relatively speaking, of course) ingredients.

Their "dessert pizza", a cinnamon-toast tasting pizza, was out of this world, specially as it was served very hot.

The buffet also included a salad bar. There were no fancy lettuces here (too bad, 'cause that'st he only type of salad I eat) but they had pasta salad and potato salad, as well as the fixings for your run of the mill salads. Other people seemed to enjoy them.

At $6.50 for all of this it's a great deal - and the pizza is good enough that we will order from Mike's next time we want pizza. Note that they don't have free delivery, however.

Mountain Mike's
2150 Marina Blvd.
San Leandro, Ca.
510.352.5954

A new Chilli's opened in San Leandro a few months ago, and today they were at the farmer's market handing out tortilla chips & salsa (and coupons for 1 free kids meal). I haven't been to Chilli's yet - but I mean to go, in this town even chain restaurants deserve a review - so I figured I should give the chips a try. They weren't bad. The chips themselves were very thin and pretty greasy, very similar to those at Chevy's, though not quite as good. The salsa tasted like the jarred stuff, it was pretty watery, not at all chunky, with a bitter afterstate and an all-around Pace-like flavor. Chevys' is much better.

There was a fire at Pee Wee's Pizza this morning. The fire - which we, as normal sleeping people, didn't see nor hear - had flames shooting through the roof and heavy heat on the inside. They still don't know what caused it. I daresay that Pee Wee's will be closed for a while :)

Update: Apparently the fire was set intentionally. There were prying marks next to the door and the door was wide open when the fire crews came. The restaurant is now just an empty shell, everything inside burned. So alas, no more Pee Wee's :( We hadn't gone for a while, but it's a real shame given how long the place has been in building. They have no insurance but they're planning on rebuilding. Apparently they've gotten a lot of support from their customers over the years and may get a lot of volunteer labor. If nothing else, the place will look better. So all I have to say is "Go Pee Wee's"

Not long ago, one of my blog visitors commented that her favorite Los Pericos (apparently there are 5 of them) is the one at the Los Pericos Market on East 14th & Stoaks. Of course that meant we had to try it.

The restaurant is located right inside the small supermarket by the cake section. The people are very friendly and the clientele is almost exclusively Latino. It's nice to go to a place where English is the second language. Both Mike and I had chicken special quesadillas (~$5), which resemble large burritos sans the beans and rice. Instead they have cheese, meat, salsa, guacamole, sour cream and lettuce (I always order mine without the latter). We found these to be good, but not particularly better than those at the other Los Pericos. The chicken super quesadilla (a small quesadilla with cheese, sour cream, salsa & chicken) we ordered with Mika, however, was very good. The chicken was in large chunks and it was very nicely grilled. We don't understand how come that wasn't the case in our quesadillas (the chicken pieces were smaller and less tasty).

In all, we thought it wasn't better than our regular Los Pericos and we wouldn't make a point of going there again.

It will come as no surprise to anyone - certainly not me - that Taqueria, the recently opened, well, taqueria, in downtown San Leandro, just couldn't make it. Though their pricing scheme (charging per item) was innovative, nothing else about it was, and it was competing against a very succesful, authentic, long-time operation (Los Pericos), which, frankly, has better food. So no, I'm not surprised they're closed.

According to a sign they're now doing catering only. I wish them well, but I can't help feeling sad about the possibilities the place had. There is certainly a need in San Leandro for a standard Mediterranean restaurant serving things like quality kebabs, kofta, pilafs, Mediterranean salads/platters and tons of little things in pastries. True, there is Luke's grill, but their quality is less than stellar, and they're expensive. And even then they're often packed. But I think Kolbeh-Taqueria owners just didn't have the resources to dedicate to a restaurant serving quality foods and they tried to concentrate on gimmicks rather than quality.

I'm still hoping someone will open a new restaurant in downtown San Leandro - we surely need it.

Last week, I threw a reception for Brian Copeland at Zocalo. The reception itself doesn't deserve bear much writing about in a food blog, other than to say that we served delicious Zocalo coffee, cookies and a very nice lemon cake donated by Marita's Sweet Potato Pie Co.

Before the reception, however, Mike Weisner, the owner of Paradiso, threw a pre-reception for Brian and some of his friends. They served fried calamari and a variety of their oven fired pizzas which were delicious. I'd certainly recommend it as a place to have a casual-elegant reception :)

My friend Desiree, who loves food more than anyone I know (with the possible exception of my friend Charlotte, Lotty's tastes are broader), loves Ratto's, so when we found ourselves in downtown Oakland a couple of weeks ago, we of course headed there.

Ratto's has been around for a century in an old, high-ceiling building that gives the deli tons of atmosphere. Still, this is a very informal sort of place - the main function of the deli is as a take-out place, though tables and utensils are provided for those who want to eat there.

Their main fare are sandwiches, and you can either get one of their predetermined choices or make your own. I decided to make my own and it wasn't that good a decision. I started with their Jam�n Serrano sandwich and added ciabatta bread, cilantro pesto and avocado. Yeah, a weird combination and one that did not work well. The main problem was how salty the jam�n serrano was, but also how umbalanced the sandwich was. My fault, though.
Each particular ingredient was quite good on its own.

Whatever sandwich Desiree had was very good. The kids had fruit salad, it was heavy on melons and papaya, and had very few berries.

There aren't many sides available to go with the sandwiches, or other food for children who don't eat gourmet sandwiches.

Still, I do like Ratto's and I'll probably go back next time we visit Mocha.

Ratto's International Market
821 Washington St
Oakland, CA
(510) 832-6503

This fast food pizzeria is probably the kind of place I shouldn't even bother bloging about, much less putting it on my restaurant review page. It's basically a place serving slices of re-heated pizza or pasta with a generic tomato sauce, for nearby office workers in a hurry. It's definitely not the sort of place you'd make a point of heading towards, but if you, like us, are in the way to Children's Fairyland on Lake Merrit, and wait to the last moment to commit to a place to go eat, you may very well end up there.

Mika and I both got cheese slices ($3 each). They were thick and large, a little bland but nothing that couldn't be helped with some parmessan cheese. They reminded me of Blondie's or Fatslice's pizza. And at $1.60 ($2.25 for pepperoni, $2.50 for combos) it was a steal. The spaghetti at $4.25 was less of one, and I thought it was too generic (but what else can you expect?) but the kids ate it (not up, though).

The restaurant has a bathroom in a nearby building, which can be a hassle if you are alone with two kids.

In all, it's a good place to stop for a quick/cheap bite.

Theo's
1956 Webster St.
Oakland, CA
510.834.4902

Once again I'm putting a bunch of restaurant reviews up:

C'era una Volta has pleasant, friendly service, but an unexciting brunch in Alameda.

In San Leandro:

El Torito offers mediocre chain restaurant food and a less than spectacular views at its Marina location.

Tito's offers competent Tex-Mex food in an interesting atmosphere.

Taqueria is the fourth taqueria to open within walking distance of my house (and the sixth Mexican restaurant!). We didn't need it and it doesn't do a particularly good job at it - but as it's always empty, it's a good place to go with the kids.

And after many visits during this world cup, I updated my review of The Englander

and in San Francisco:

The Garden Court at the Palace Hotel has the most beautiful and impressive room in town and a delicious tea service - too bad that the service is rushed and dedicated to getting you out of there fast.

BTW, I've now made a special page for all the tea rooms I review: http://www.marga.org/food/rest/tea.html

When we first moved to San Leandro, Pedro's was our taqueria of choice. We liked their burritos, the small surroundings and leather backed chairs by the window. Alas, they got our orders wrong too many times, so we stopped going there and started going to Taqueria Los Pericos instead. Los Pericos offers a special quesadilla, which is just like a burrito but with cheese instead of rice and beans, just how I like them.

Apparently other people preferred Los Pericos too, as Pedro's has now become Taqueria Los Pericos #5. Their menu is the same than at Los Pericos, including burritos ($2.50 for a bean & cheese to $7.25 for a "shrimp super"), tacos, nachos and quesadillas in addition to Tex-Mex dinner plates ($7-11). The food is all taqueria style, however, don't come here for regional specialties. Meat selections, however, are wide and they include beef tongue, chitlins and intestines, in addition to more common meats.

As we discovered in our visit to Los Pericos #5, the quality of the food and the service are also like those of its parent restaurant. We ordered a small grilled chicken super quesadilla for Mika ($3.50). This consisted of a tortilla covered with melted cheese, grilled chicken and sour cream (guacamole also available, but Mika doesn't like it) and topped by another tortilla. The whole thing was very good, but the grilled chicken is particularly tasty and a favorite of mine.

Mike and I both ordered the giant special quesadillas ($5), which are rolled like a large burrito and include melted cheese, guacamole, sour cream, lettuce, salsa and the meat of your choice (Mike went for the carne asada and I for the pastor -a saucy BBQ pork). Once again they were both quite good, the carne asada, cut into very small slices, is flavorful and juicy, though it can be fatty at times. The pastor was somewhat spicy, but tamed by the sour cream and guacamole. I'd order it again if I didn't like the grilled chicken so much. The special quesadillas are large enough that you can easily take half home for later.

Los Pericos is known for its fast and friendly service, this tradition continues at Los Pericos #5. Indeed, we recognized some of the workers from the parent restaurant. As in the other restaurant, you order your food, you are given a number that you then put at your table. The waiter then delivers the food to you. You can find complimentary chips under a heat lamp at the counter, and a tray table offers different kinds of salsas, pico de gallo, beets (don't ask me why), pickles and lime wedges. The chips are crispy, thick and not too oily, good though a bit tasteless by themselves.

The restaurant itself has not changed much since its Pedro's days. The Mexican murals are still there, as are the dark wood chairs and tables (the leather back chairs had disappeared years before). There are TVs at two corners and a jukebox, but the music and sound weren't as loud as in the parent restaurant. In all, it's a more "elegant" atmosphere than that at the super-casual parent restaurant. It's also considerably smaller. I think that if I was going to eat there with another adult, I'd chose the #5 location, while I'd go for the main location if I had the kids alone. The space and the video games gives them stuff to do while we eat.

Note that its hours are briefer than the main location.

Taqueria Los Pericos #5
1389 E 14th St.
San Leandro, CA
510-895-0660
Daily 8AM - 10 PM

There is a new trend at Bay Area Museums (at least) to have restaurants or cafeterias that offer "gourmet" sandwiches, made with organic and/or high quality ingredients, in new and interesting convinations. Among these the cafeteria at the Bay Area Discovery Museum, the restaurant the the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Grow Cafe at the California Academy of Sciences come to mind. The Oakland Museum could not be less, and its restaurant could actually be the best of the bunch.

Its menu includes soups, salads and sandwiches, as well as a "daily special" for each day of the week. Thursday is meatloaf, Sunday is the "curry of the day," and other offerings include a vegetarian tart and an herbed chicken. They also have a soup, sandwich and quesadilla special each day. For kids, you have your choice of a hotdog or a mini-pizza ($4). They also have cookies, bars and slices of cake, as well as fruit salad and bottled and fountain drinks. The prices are on the high side, a small fountain coke is $1.70 (I think) and most entrees are in the $7-9 range. They are quite generous, however.

Today I had the Southwestern Tri-tip sandwich, a cold sandwich with roasted tri-tip (which is really not that different than roast beef), lettuce, tomato, beans and corn and some tasty mayo. It came with a small mixed-green salad with a simple, not too tasty vinaigrette. I exchanged the greens for the lettuce in the salad, and that worked well. The sandwich itself was quite good. Desiree had a turkey sandwich, which she liked. They also had a couscous salad and a fruit salad, which again they enjoyed. My kids ate up the cheese pizza - it's good enough for an adult - and we all enjoyed the soft chocolate chip cookie, the melt-in-your-mouth dark chocolate chips were excellent. A lemon bar was too runny, but still very good.

You can enjoy lunch in their large dining room, while listening to live jazz - or eat in the outside veranda, a particularly nice option in summer (though, with little kids prone to running away, not one we can enjoy).

In all, we love this place and always make a point of eating there when we visit the Oakland Museum.

P., my faithful reader of restaurant reviews, sends me two recommendations for restaurants to try.

I've actually been to Makiyaki, a Japanese restaurant in the Pelton Center. The small restaurant has inside dining as well as a couple of tables in the sidewalk. I remember liking it, though I've never gotten around to reviewing it.

P. says she likes Makiyaki better than Ozeki, because it's cheaper and cleaner, while offering the same menu options. The Lion King roll is particularly good.

Makiyaki
134 Pelton Center Way (in Pelton Plaza)
San Leandro
Tel: 510-895-0488

P. also recommends Mayflower in Union City for dim sum. She says it's brighter, cleaner and more popular than her previous recommendation, Hong Kong in Hayward. The dim sum and other Chinese food are excellent. It has two additional locations in San Francisco and Milpitas.

Mayflower
34348 Alvarado Niles Road (in Marina shopping center)
Union City
Tel: 510-489-8386

Thanks P. for your recommendations!

The Blue Dish is closed, at least for now. Rumor has it that the owners have stretched themselves thin between the restaurant and their catering business, and they've decided to concentrate in the latter, as it's more profitable. That's too bad as I find myself in that area for lunch often and the choices are very limited: Paradiso, which is good but expensive, Cornerstone Cafe, which was disappointing last time I ate there, Viva Pancho Villa!, which is a bit too casual and unexciting for "lunching" and Zocalo, which serves sandwiches catered by The Blue Dish (which I don't really like).

Plus all my friends like The Blue Dish, and it was the sort of place where you would always run into someone you knew, so I am quite disappointed that it's closed. I hope they'll reopen and I'll keep you posted.

Today Desiree, the kids (sans Camila, thanks God) and I, stopped at Joaquin Deli for lunch. The new owners were there, they've taken over and nothing has changed. Indeed, the sandwiches we had were excellent, and the stock seemed to be the same as usual. They greeted the kids with some fruit gummies, which of course they loved.

I talked to them for a little bit and they seem very excited about the place, they also seem to not have anticipated how busy it gets. Still, they are planning to extend the opening hours to 6 PM, and they may change the minimun for delivery from the $25 it's now. That would be good as we rarely order that much - though given how delicious their pork shoulder is, I probably should just order a couple of pounds and have them bring it over with some sandwiches :)

I spent a few days in Belgium a couple of days ago, mostly visiting friends and eating at their home - but we did get out one day, had lunch in Brugge and then dinner in Brussels. We went to restaurants catering to the tourist trade, both offering Belgian specialties with prix-fix menus giving limited choices.

At Brugge we went to the 'T Oud Kanthuys restaurant, somewhere near a canal - I can't be more specific. Adriana had some cheese croquettes which were quite nice and I had a pate paysanne (sp?) which tasted like a million others of those. Then she had the carbonnade a la Flamande, which was quite good - just like the one I made for my Belgian dinner. I had rabbit in a wine sauce (I think), which was also surprisingly tasty. For dessert I had an apple tart, and I don't remember what Adriana had. Lunch with a coke and a beer came up to about $40 euros (service charge not included) - about $50. Not bad for a multi-course lunch of such quality.

Dinner in Brussells was at the "Aux Arcades" at Rue des Bouchers. I had the "cheese fondue", which actually was very much like the cheese croquettes Adriana had had for lunch: thick chunks of cheese, breaded and deep fried. Good but not what I was expecting - though this seems to be what they mean by "fondue" in Belgium. I can't remember what Adriana had as an appetizer. As her entree Adriana had their moules, not fried but in some sort of sauce. She was less than impressed by them. I had the carbonnade, which once again was good but I felt the beef was tougher than it had been that morning for lunch. Dessert was some sort of tart, not very impressive. In all, we felt the meal had not been as good and for E58 ($73), including two beers, it wasn't nearly as good a deal.

That was it, no other Belgian food for me. I may have to go again.

Perry's Food for the Soul, the Bar-B-Q place in the Pelton Center, is closed. Perry's had replaced another BBQ place, Bar-B-Que & Seafood Unlimited, and has in turn been replaced by yet another BBQ place, Pelton Smoke BBQ. The menu has remained virtually unchaged, though it now also features Korean style BBQ chicken, beef and ribs ($7-8), Oysters ($10, small, $13 large) as well as chili ($3-4.50) and burgers ($5-7).

A year ago I had heard that Perry's wasn't doing well and might have to close, but then I heard nothing else. We went there a few weeks ago and they seemed to be doing well, they just had had a large catering order so the only things left were links, an order of ribs and an order of chicken. We tried it with the mild and medium sauces and liked them better than the first time we tried them. Though still, we felt they weren't as good as E&J's.

But I guess the business wasn't doing well enough, or Stephanie Perry, the owner, just got tired of struggling, for it's been sold. It's difficult to believe that the same kind of business can do better under new ownership. They are charging similar prices, and I can't imagine they'd have the community support than Perry's might have. But who knows? Perhaps their sauce is a killer. I'll have to try it sometimes and see.

My friend Aamani, like me, works from home so once every couple of weeks or so we get together for lunch. Last week we went to the Cornerstone Cafe. I've been there from time to time since I wrote my review some years ago, and I usually enjoy our brunches there. This time I wasn't that impressed by lunch. I ordered a cheeseburger and I specified that it be medium rare (they asked). It wasn't - there was no hint of pink to the meat and it tasted dry and boring. The accompanying fries were standard. Service was friendly and prices are reasonable, and I think Aamani enjoyed her sandwich, but I'll stay away from the burgers here.

Cornerstone Cafe
600 Dutton Avenue
San Leandro
510-562-2535

I reported some time ago that Joaquin Deli, our favorite sandwich place in San Leandro was being sold. The place is in escrow until June. The new owners are planning to keep the deli open, and the current owners will train them and pass their recipes along. So hopefully nothing much will change. We do love their sandwiches.

Meanwhile, Kolbeh, the Mediterranean restaurant which opened briefly in the space that used to be occupied by Casa Maria #2, has been revamped as a taqueria aptly named Taqueria. As I reported, that had been the original intention of the owner. I haven't been there yet - it just opened yesterday - but I have missguivings about the whole thing. There are already two good taquerias in the immediate neighborhood (Los Pericos and Pedro's) and I don't see a need for another one. Still, there is some hope for Taqueria. The place looks nice, and if the owners decided to go for a California approach to tacos and burritos (i.e. high quality and fresh ingredients and healthy choices) it could work. I will at least give it a try, so that I can report back. But if you try it before I do, please feel free to comment here.

Just earlier today I visited the Chevys' website to find out when the San Leandro restaurant would be opening. I'm not a fan of chain restaurants in general, but I can't resist Chevys tortilla chips and beef fajitas. Now I will have to.

I just learned that 8 workers were fired by Chevys for skipping work to attend immigration protests. That is an affront against every immigrant who proudly stands for their rights in this country. As an immigrant, I don't want to do business with any company that shows so little respect not just for its workers, but for immigrants in general.

I hope that other immigrants, and other Hispanics will join me on boycotting Chevys.

Mike has finally returned a whole batch of restaurant reviews (19!) which I've written over the last few months. They are:

• Aslam's Rasoi an Indian restaurant in the Mission focuses on fresh ingredients but needs more confidence with its curries.

• Buon Appetito in Hayward offers pretty good Italian food at reasonable prices (imagine that!). Definitely a "must try" place.

• Chef's Experience China Bistro in Hayward serves standard Chinese food is served with a flair in stylish surroundings.

• Chez Panisse, the venerated Berkeley institution met our expectations for a good yet uninspired meal with fresh produce bursting with flavor.

• Dick's Restaurant and Lounge is a classic independent coffeeshop serving coffeeshop fare in San Leandro.

• Dolci Amore delivers mediocre food at sky-high prices in Castro Valley. One wonders how it can stay open.

• The English Rose Tea Room in Pleasanton is feminine and frilly but just can't brew a good cup of tea.

• Filippos, a mediocre Italian restaurant with a mediocre brunch in Berkeley.

• The Fish Hopper in Monterey offers an incredible view of the sea (otters!) and some damn good fish & chips.

• Manresa. According to Restaurant magazine it was one of the 50 best restaurants in the world in 2004 (but not 2005). We were disappointed by less than imaginative food and terrible service.

• New Hong Kong Restaurant An updated review of our choice for Chinese delivery

• Priya Indian Cuisine on University in Berkeley has beautiful menus, but not much more to distinguish it.

• Red Kwali a Malay restaurant in Newark, tries hard but fails both in food and ambiance.

• Super Burgers is a burger & sandwich joint in Washington Manor serving truly yucky burgers. Best to avoid.

• Sushi Musashi in San Leandro offers mediocre Japanese food in less than stellar surroundings.

• Taste of India is the one Indian - or for that matter, ethnic - restaurant on I-5 between the Bay Area and LA. It's OK but expensive.

• Thai Satay is the only Thai restaurant in San Leandro and, unfortunately, pretty inconsistent.

• An update to my review of Vo's Restaurant, a wonderful Vietnamese Bistro in San Leandro

• Zocalo - I've written a review of my favorite coffeehouse.

We spent a couple of days driving down Highway 1 last week. I'd meant to try a couple of nice restaurants along the way, but it didn't turn out like that. We left late, and had some leftover stew before we left so we weren't really hungry for lunch until mid-afternoon. By then we didn't want to ruin our appetites for dinner, so we stopped at Nepenthe, a restaurant complex in Big Sur.

Nepenthe had been recommended as a place to go for a great view. And indeed, the view from the restaurant - in particular the dehind the restaurant - was wonderful. Of course, you have to pay for that view and Nepenthe's Californian menu is quite expensive. Sandwiches are in the low teens, entrees in the twenties and even a basket of fries is $7. We got a goat cheese & toast appetizer ($12, I think) which was just that, thin slices of toast served with a roasted garlic and a little bowl of warm goat cheese. It was surprisingly good. I had a coke (flat!) and Mike had a regular margarita, which was "nice and strong." In all, we spent a wonderful hour or so hanging out there.

Nepenthe also has an open-air cafe and a gift shop, both pretty expensive. Hot chocolate was about $4 while pastries $3.50, if I well remember. Alas, it's a level lower than the restaurant and the view is not nearly as impressive.

Nepenthe
Highway One
Big Sur, CA
(831) 667-2345
http://www.nepenthebigsur.com/

Later we stopped at a convenience store for some snacks - prices were about twice as much as in regular convenient stores so if driving through this area you may want to bring snacks with you.

We were staying in Cambria for the night, and I had gotten a couple of recommendations of places to eat - but decided to take on the evening tour of the Hearst Castle instead. That gave us only time to grab some fast food and the first place we found serving some was Medusas Taqueria on Main street in Cambria. Both Mike and I got super burritos, his with chicken and mine with carne asada. They were just OK. Mike complained that the chicken was shredded (but that was probably his fault for not ordering pollo asado), and also that the meat and beans were too hot while the other ingredients too cold. My complaint was that the meat wasn't particularly tasty.

Medusas Taqueria
1053 Main St.
Cambia, CA
927-0135
Mon.-Sat. 11-8

The next morning we had a breakfast of surprisingly good English muffins with butter and jam at the hostel where we stayed, followed by an OK ham and cheese croissant at the French Corner Bakery. Then we were off to explore the southern part of Highway 1.

For lunch we stopped at the Rock n Roll diner in Oceano, a restaurant situated in two railroad cars. The cars are surprisingly roomy, one has double and single booths while the other one includes a larger family table and has a TV on. The cars are decorated in a 50's motif with framed vintage ads and pictures. The menu features standard diner items plus Greek specialties (don't ask me why) and prices are on the high side. The food, unfortunately, was also diner quality. They won't cook burgers below medium-well-done, which is a sin in my book. Mike, who is no fan of rare meat anyway, had the BBQ burger and he thought it was fine. The accompanying onion rings were also average. I had a gyro and wasn't as pleased. The three meat slices had the consistency of reconstituted meat and no lamb flavor whatsoever. The gyro had an overwhelming amount of lettuce, a couple of pieces of chopped tomato and a not very tasty tzatziki sauce. The accompanying fries were fine, though.

Rock 'n Roll Diner
1300 Railroad St.
Oceano, CA
(805) 473-2040

We made it to my parents in time for dinner, so that was the end of our eating adventures on Highway 1.

I was alerted by one of my readers (ok, ok, most likely someone just doing an internet search who chanced upon my site) that Phuping Thai, in Richmond, has closed. To be honest I hadn't been to Phuping Thai in six years, since we moved to San Leandro. We had reallyliked it when we lived nearby however.

Alas, the restaurant is closed. But it does have a sister restaurant in San Francisco, Thep Phanom, that you can check out (and feel free to comment here if you like it/dislike it). We rarely go to SF anymore so it's unlikely I'll give it a try.

For months we've seen the "Kolbeh Restaurant" sign at the old Casa Mar�a location. Slowly, we've seen some furniture appear inside, some paiting, then some decorations and finally the outside being painted. However, the progress was so slow that we wondered if it'd ever open.

It finally did, apparently a few weeks ago, but with little fanfare. I was puzzled that sometimes when I walked by it seemed opened, and others most definitely closed. Part of the problem, apparently, is that they also do catering, so if they have a catering event they have to close down to attend to it. This should change when they have more staff.

In any case, the restaurant is open and it usually offers lunch and dinner. After a failed attempt at doing a lunch buffet, they are now serving an extremely brief menu consisting of three types of kababs (ground beef, $5, chicken, $6 and fish $7), a sandwhich made with kabab meat ($6), three simple salads (garden, romaine and tomato-cucumber-onion, $2-3) and a soup of the day ($3). They also daily specials, also in the $5-6 range. Today, for example, it was a salmon dish and a cornish hen.

The prices seem low but they come without sides, it'll cost you $1 extra for rice, another $1 for veggies, while hummus, babaghanoush and yogurt sauce are $2 each. You may want to get one of the sauces, while the beef and chicken kababs were nicely, if lightly, spiced, they were both too dry. The buttered mixed white-and-saffron rice, however, was quite nice.

The restaurant itself, both in concept and execution, needs work. Or at least, it needs work to become the type of restaurant I'm likely to patronize. For one, it needs more items in the menu. Unless you have a terrible hankering for kebabs and have taking a particular liking to the ones here, there isn't much of a reason to bring you to Kolbeh. You can get kebabs and kebab-like thingies at Luke's Grill a block away, and your companions can have the option of ordering something else. There also need to be some vegetarian options in the menu, some of the daily special are vegetarian but you'd have to call ahead and find out what's on the plate that day if you are averse to meat. Finally, the restaurant has to find what it really wants to be.

The owners seem to be working on that. They used to have a Persian restaurant of the same name in Danville - but for some reason they thought that formula wouldn't work in San Leandro. At first they thought about starting a taqueria, but with three Mexican restaurants within a couple of blocks they realized that idea wasn't going to fry. So they decided on a "Mediterranean" theme, which would allow them to serve English-named Persian dishes in addition to what they perceive are more user-friendly dishes from countries such as Italy and France. Their original concept was to have a daily buffet (I think for $10) but that quickly frizzled as they found there was practically no demand for that. Now they are thinking of keeping the buffet only on weekends. I'll definitely give it a try then.

For now, Heston, the man in charge, seemed to be very amenable to feedback, and perhaps it'd be possible to convince him to turn this place into a Mediterranean bistro - aka a place such as La Med or Pomegranate in Berkeley, or even like the cheaper but popular Truly Mediterranean. So stop by and tell him what you think!

Yesterday I ate my first oyster. My friend Lola and I were exploring Tomales Bay and she wanted to stop at Hog island Oysters for some oysters. I'm a nice friend, so even though I knew this would mean I'd seat around staring at the bay while she ate oyster after oyster, I complied. Plus it's a nice bay.

Hog Island Oysters has a swank oyster bar at the Ferry but at the "farm" it's a much more downscale (though not cheaper) experience. You park your car, go into the farm and chose your oysters among the types available that day (they start at $10 a dozen). You can then either take them home, or pay $8-10 per person for use of their pic-nic facilities - don't expect anything fancy, just a few old pic-nic tables and grills. As I wasn't eating oysters, they were nice enough to not charge me but Lola's bill for two dozen oysters and pic-nic fee came up to $30. Not bad, but not that much cheaper than at their bar where oysters cost $1.50 each.

Lola was quite happy to eat her oysters plain and raw, if you want to BBQ yours or add some lemon or condiments you can buy charcoal and supplies at the general stores a few minutes south. Hog Island Oysters does provide you with a tray, a shucking knife and glove so you can shuck them yourself.

Lola was in ecstasy. She ate and she moaned and she celebrated each and every taste, to the point that I figured I should at least give them a try. Could they possibly be that good? Trying them wasn�t easy for me, the little creatures looked almost as disgusting as snails, plus I don�t relish the thought of eating something that is actually alive (yeah, yeah, I�m a hypocrite, I�m OK with others doing the killing for me), but her expressions of pleasure really spiked my curiosity. So I tried a little Kumamoto oyster - the type that Lola found sweeter and most delicious (it was also the smallest). To me it tasted like concentrated sea water, with some sea weed added for good measure. I could see the appeal for Lola, the taste of the sea in all of its immensity and possibilities, more than a taste it seemed to be an experience. But as taste went it was just not my cup of tea - it was OK, it didn�t make me gag, but once was enough. Lola didn�t mind, as it meant more for her.

In all she was more than pleased with the experienced, she thought the oysters were very good and would definitely buy from them again. I am happy to have tried them once.

Lola and I had a get away weekend to the Tomales Bay and stopped by Priscilla's in Inverness for lunch. Yes, we would have preferred to go to Manka's, but that wasn't in the cards.

Priscilla's is a small, quaint, small-town cafe serving gourmet pizza and sandwiches. They make their own bread and bake it just before assembling the food (we could see the process from the window). You order the food at the counter and a waitress will bring it to your table. Service was quite prompt and everyone was very friendly.

Lola (who apparently was not filled by the 23 oysters she had just had) ordered the clam chowder. She thought it was a bit bland. It was fresh and homemade tasting, though not particularly clammy. She'd eat it again though she'd probably chose something else if she had the choice.

I had their roasted tri-tip sandwich and was also disappointed. The bread was very nice, warm and fluffy, and the meat was probably good as well, but the flavor of the mustard was so intense that I couldn't taste anything else. I'd definitely would skip it.

That's too bad, as Priscilla's was a very cute place to stop for a bite - I might still go again, but try the pizza or pasta instead.

Priscilla's
12781 Sir Francis Drake Blvd.,
Inverness, CA
(415) 669-1244

Viva Mexico is one of the very, very many taquerias that dot the San Leandro landscape. This one is located in the "Fashion Fair Shopping Center", the little outdoor mall by Bayfair Mall where Ross, Michael's and Pier 1 are located. We went there for dinner one night last December before going to see a movie nearby.

Unfortunately all this time after our dinner I don't have a clear picture of everything we had. Under such a circumstance it might be better perhaps to not write a review at all - but we're quite unlikely to go back there so it's now or never. Plus I figure that as long as I'm honest, you, the reader, can give my recollections the weight you think they are worth.

In any case, I'm afraid to say that I cannot remember what we had for dinner that night. My educated guess is that I had a carne asada burrito and that Mike had a carnitas burrito, as this is what we usually order when we go to a taqueria. I don't remember eating it, but I do remember discussing that the food wasn't that great, certainly not as good as that of our favorite taquerias. I also recall liking the chips and the fiery roasted pepper salsa, while Mike being less parcial to it.

I did like the restaurant itself. It's a small operation and the owner, behind the counter, was very hospitable. A couple of diners at another table were saying (in Spanish) how this was the best Mexican food around. Still, Mike and I left thinking we wouldn't be coming back.

Viva Mexico
Fashion Fair Shopping Center
15100 Hesperian Blvd.
San Leandro, CA
510.317.2042

Last night we wanted to get a drink before going to a movie in Orinda (saw Pride & Prejudice, even the Austen haters among us loved the movie) and we decided to stop at Calypso Bar & Grill which is very close to the theater. Alas, unbeknown to us there is a cafe/wine bar just across from Calypso which might have been more appropriate for a quick drink. Next time.

Calypso is a Caribbean themed restaurant, the type that might have been popular in the 60's and 70's. The restaurant is small and dark and on Saturday nights, at least, features music. Last night it was a singer/guitar player singing covers from the 60's. I particularly enjoyed American Pie.

Boris and Regina just had bottled drinks, but Mike ordered the hand shaken Margarita while I had a fruity rum drink. They were both good, though not outstanding. Mike felt the Margarita had too much ice, but I was happy for that as I prefer my drinks cold. Mike liked the coconut shrimp, though as he says, he's never had coconut shrimp he doesn't like.

In all I wouldn't mind giving the place a try for dinner if we happened to be in Orinda. The restaurant is family friendly - there was a whole group of children while we were there.

Calypso Bar & Grill
2 Theatre Sq., No. 153 (off Moraga Way)
Orinda, CA 94563
925-258-9686

I just got a message from a website visitor who seems to have liked Gonzales y Gonzales, a Cal-Mex restaurant we visited in NYC, where we had terrible service. He says:

"I am not sure how long ago you went to this restaurant but you may want to give it another try. I recently moved to Pa from Ca and could not believe we could not find Mexican food that came close to the food in Ca. Then I found Gonzales y Gonzales...the food is so good. I even took friends from Ca who were visiting NYC and they too loved it. The food is fresh and the service has always been good. Maybe they read your review and decided to change.

Try it again...you may be surprised."

Alas, not everyone seems to agree as to the merits of this restaurant. Here is another message about Gonzales y Gonzales I got on June 2005:

"Two weeks ago my boyfriend and I went out to have a few dinks and appetizers
at Gonzales y Gonzales. It was a friday evening after hard days work. We
were having a good time. Tiping very well and ordering for a good two
hours.

An apology but rudely and no compensation for the horrible moment I had to
experience. The evening was ruined and the good time I was having was
completely ruined by this restaurant. The bathroom attendant disappered.
I know why because this restaurant hire illegall immigrant and these people
are trying to make money how ever they can."

If you have a comment on Gonzales y Gonzales feel free to leave it below.

OK, does anyone have any? :) If so, do e-mail (or comment here).

According to the SL Times, Chili's opened at the Bayfair mall a week ago, and Chevy's is moving its location to inside the mall.

There is finally some progress in the opening of Cafe Sorriso at the old Latte Da site on the corner of Juana and Washington. Soon after Latte Da closed - after the owner increased the rent considerably - the sign for Cafe Sorriso appeared, but nothing more happened for months. A couple of days ago the exterior was finally painted, a very nice shade of yellow-orange, I might add. Hopefully it means they're getting ready to open.

The same cannot be said about the Kolbeh restaurant which took the space of Casa Maria #2. The sign is still there but nothing else has happened, I daresay nothing will.

Finally, rumor has it that Angelina's changed ownership a few months ago, and that the new owner has no experience running a restaurant of any kind. I hear his people skills are poor, to say the least, and a waitress and two delivery drivers have quit in the last couple of weeks. The kitchen stuff remains, but I hear they are not happy.

A couple of days ago Mike had dinner with a friend at Le Charm in San Francisco, at my suggestion (I saw good things about it posted online). He didn't come home happy. The overall meal wasn't bad. As an appetizer he had the House Made Boudin Noir Sausage with Toasted Walnuts, apples and Currants ($8). The sausage was not cased and had a funny texture (but perhaps that's the case for blood sausages) but it was very tasty and he gave it a thumbs up. His friend had the Hot Goat Cheese and Smoked Salmon Terrine ($8) and she seemed to like it, ate it all without making any comments. As a main dish, she had the Confit of Wild Boar Shoulder with Spa�zles, Mushrooms, Chestnuts And Red Currants ($19) - referred to by the waiter as "the pork". She also was very happy with it.

Mike's unhappiness came with his main dish, the Filet Rossini with Foie Gras and Truffle Sauce ($25). As a lover of foie gras and truffles, he had built up his expectations about the yumminess of this dish throughout the dinner and was more than disappointed when he received a steak topped by the least appetizing foie gras ever. The great allure of foie gras, which makes us forget for a moment that ducks have to be tortured to create it, comes from its buttery, melt-in-your-mouth texture and sinful richness. This foie gras had a jelly-like consistency, somewhat reminiscent of congealed fat. Its taste also lacked richness, it failed to contribute anything to the beef. I've made foie gras several times, and it's difficult to understand how they can mess it up cooking it (you just sear it on an ungreased pain for a couple of minutes and voila!), so I wonder if they used a low-graded foie gras (the ones usually reserved for sauces and terrines). The steak itself was OK, he asked for it medium rare and it was a bit too much in the medium side for his taste. The truffle sauce was the overall saving grace.

The restaurant itself is quite small and the tables are crowded together. It's located in a bad part of town. Service was fine. Mike cannot see himself going back.

Another restaurant I've been remissed in reviewing is Tuttle's Sea Garden on Bancroft. The little restaurant had skipped our radar until our daughter started going to daycare in the Broadmoor district and we started to go by in on a daily basis. One time when we both picked her up (September 2005) we decided to stop for lunch and see what they had to offer.

The little restaurant has a counter and a small, informal dining room, but it's clearly mostly a take-out place. Still, it's much nicer than most BBQ joints, a perfeclty fine place to have lunch. At about 1 pm on a weekday, however, we were the only people eating there, though several came to pick up orders.

The menu basically consists of fried fish and chicken and BBQ meats. The day we were there they were out of the BBQ beef so instead I went with the BBQ Ribs ($11 for 4, $13 for 6 large ribs). They were good, the meat was very tender but they had the consistency of ribs that had been boiled rather than slowly barbecued. The BBQ sauce was nice, not very spicy, though still not as good as E&J's. The ribs come with potato salad, coleslaw or fries - I had the latter and honestly can't remember them :)

Mike had the catfish ($7.75 for 3 pieces), which he thought was quite good, though couldn't elaborate on how.

We still prefer E&J's for our BBQ needs, but Tuttle's is a perfectly acceptable place to go.

Tuttle's Seafood Garden
395 Bancroft Ave.
San Leandro, CA.
510.635.5911
Tu-Sa 11am-9pm

During our trip to the Olympic Peninsula we spent a night at the Kalaloch Lodge and (with no other options in sight) had both dinner and breakfast there. It wasn't a bad experience. The Kalaloch Lodge is located in a beautiful setting next to the beach and the restaurant has great views of the Pacific Ocean; reserve early to get a window seat. The restaurant has a lodgy feeling with wood-covered ceilings and walls, though it looks more functional than cozy.

The menu is American/Pacific Northwest, and has a strong emphasis on seafood. Appetizers and burgers were $7 to $11, while main entrees $10-26. There is also a children's menu with the usual offerings for $3-5.

Mike started with the clam chowder ($4 for a cup). He found it a bit salty, but overall good - better than your average clam chowder. It had big chunks of clam and celery, which he liked.

He continued with the seafood pasta ($22). It came with 2 scallops, 4 or 5 chunks of salmon, several large shrimp and red and yellow pepper, all in a very cheesey alfredo sauce. He was quite pleased with the dish.

I had the beef stew ($10), which was nice and hearty and I enjoyed (though not as much as mine, of course).

Probably the low point of the dinner was the service, the restaurant was busy though it didn't seem understaffed. However, our waitress disappeared after bringing the soup and didn't come to offer refills on the bread or the drinks, even though it took a long time before the entrees came.

The next day for breakfast service was better, but then again, the restaurant was less crowded. Their breakfast menu offers classics - pancakes & egg dishes - I had some really good granola and Mike had the pancake and egg combination which he enjoyed.

In all, we had good meals and we'd eat there again if we were staying at the lodge.

Kalaloch Lodge
157151 Hwy. 101
Forks, WA
866-525-2562
http://www.visitkalaloch.com/restaurants.shtml

During our visit to Port Townsend last month, we had dinner at the "Surf" restaurant. The restaurant is located by the waterfront and has beautiful views of the harbor. Inside it sort of resembles a pizza parlor, it has an enclosed bar area, a billard room and a couple of separate dining rooms. Tons of high chairs and booster seats make it perfect for a family with tired children.

The menu was mostly seafood based with most entrees in the low teens. Mike had one of the four daily specials, salmon in some sort of sauce, the sauce was mild but overall he liked it. I had the fish & chips which were also good. Service was friendly though the waiter seemed to be quite distracted.

If you go to Port Townsend, you could do worse than the "Surf". However, it seems that the restaurant will be either closing or changing ownership soon.

Surf Restaurant
106 Taylor St
Port Townsend, WA
(360) 385-2992

We've eaten at many places on I-5 between the Bay Area and LA, and I have to say that "The Ranch Kitchen" has been the best of the bunch. Now, considering that most of the restaurants on this stretch are quite bad, this is not necessarily high praise, but the food we had there was actually pretty good. Alas, while it's not as expensive as the actual Harris Ranch restaurant (where entrees hover in the thirties) it is pretty expensive, with sandwiches in the low teens and entrees in the high teens to high twenties)

The menu is beef driven, of course and both Mike and I decided on the Gorgonzola burger, at $11 one of the cheapest items on the menu. The burger consisted of a 1/3 lb patty topped with gorgonzola cheese, caramelized onions, grilled pancetta a roasted red pepper and mayo. Mike thought that it was quite good, but I felt it was somewhat unbalanced. The toppings seem to compete in flavor, rather than compliment each other, and the taste of the beef disappeared underneath so many other flavors. Still, it was an enjoyable eat. We both liked the fried potatoes, these seasoned thick slices of potato, slightly crunchy outside and very soft inside. Mike had onion rings instead, and he felt there were too few of them for the extra $1.50. They were good, but would have been better with a dipping sauce (none was offered).

Mika had the chicken strips ($6) which had a light breading and were actually made of chicken breast. Alas, they were a bit dried. They came with the same fries I got, Mika didn't really like them and I'd prefer there would have been a healthier alternative.

Both Kathy and Mika had vanilla milkshakes, they were a bit too thin.

Service was good and in all we had a good meal, despite the expense we will probably stop here on our way to LA in the future.

On a final note, we went for dinner at the Harris Ranch restaurant once a few years ago, and while we found it both expensive and overpriced, the food was surprisingly good.

The Ranch Kitchen
Harris Ranch Inn & Restaurant
24505 West Dorris Avenue
Coalinga, CA
1.800.942.2333
http://www.harrisranch.com/

Earlier this week I took my two girls to Rockridge by BART. We'd done that < a href="http://www.marga.org/food/blog/archives/001739.html">once before and Mika and I had enjoyed it. We hit Crepevine, Rockridge Kids, a very nice toystore where Mika loves to play and the Rockridge Marketplace, where I got some rabbit and duck legs to cook at home. But it was the allure of Crepevine which had made Mika so excited about the trip.

Crepevine is a small restaurant serving both savory and sweet crepes, in addition to soups, sandwiches, pastas and breakfast items. It offers sitting both inside, and in a covered patio with easy access to the street. I'm looking forward to trying their savory crepes sometime, but this time I'd had some lunch so I decided to go with a sweet one instead. These are served folded as an envelope and come with a scoop of French vanilla ice cream (I think) and cream. I got the one with mascarpone cheese and a sweetened nut mixture. It was good but nothing speciall and there was too little filling for the crepe, I don't think I'd order it again. Mika once again decided on the banana and caramel run one, which we both liked. Camila even got to enjoy some of the banana pieces.

I didn't really like the ice cream - though perhaps that's because its flavor was too subtle to compete with the ones from the crepe - by Michaela loved it.

I'm pretty sure that going to Crepevine is going to be part of our routine when visiting Rockridge. Next time I'll have to try the savory crepes.

Crepevine
5600 College Avenue
Oakland, CA 94618
(510) 658-2026

Even though I've been eating out quite a bit lately, I've been very remiss about writing about the restaurants I've visited. Of course, you could argue that there is absolutely no reason why I should be writing about the restaurants in the first place, but as long as I do it, I figure I should be comprehensive. I'm particularly interested on being comprehensive about San Leandro restaurants, as there aren't really good resources out there on the San Leandro restaurant scene (and given how poor it is, no wonder). The problem comes when I go to a restaurant I don't particularly like and then I forget to write the review. After a while, i feel compell to go back and write it, and yet I don't want to go back and waste money in subpar food. But if I don't, my guide will never be comprehensive. This has happened with Buffet Fortuna - a horrible Chinese buffet located near the downtown Safeway, with Bancheros, an institution serving Chef-Boyardee tasting Italian food in Hayward and with a couple of burger joints. It also happened with Wikiwiki Hawaiian BBQ on East 14th, near Bayfair mall, which I visited last June.

Wikiwiki is one of the many Hawaiian BBQ joints that have sprouted in San Leandro in the last year. As I've written before, I've found most of them to be underwhelming, and while Wikiwiki wasn't the worst, it certainly does not merit another visit. As in the other restaurants, I found the chicken to have a strange consistency, very dense, almost canned-like. I can only speculate as to what gives chicken that horrible consistency at Hawaiian BBQ places. One theory is that the high salt & sugar content of the marinade dries out the meat making it denser. Anothe perhaps more likely one, is that the places use "chicken filets", scraps of chicken that are manually pressed and glued together into the desired shape. The taste was OK, nothing special but certainly edible.

I also ordered the lau lau pork, pork wrapped in taro leaves and steamed. The pork was covered with a shredded green substance that might have been the taro leaves, but more likely was seaweed. It certainly imparted a very fishy taste to the pork, which I found quite unpleasant, but others might like.

I can't imagine going there again.

Wikiwiki Hawaiian BBQ
15696 E 14th St
San Leandro, CA
(510) 276-0777

In the last year or so a plethora of Hawaiian BBQ restaurants have opened in San Leandro. While the first one to open, Aloha BBQ, was quite good, all the other ones we've tried since have been a disappointment. Ono Hawaiian BBQ, which recently opened in Palma Plaza, is somewhat better than the rest, though still not as good as Aloha.

We got take-out from there a couple of weeks ago, and we went for the Hawaiian BBQ Mix ($7.30), which included chicken, beef and short ribs. The meat was of similar quality to the other places: low. The beef and short ribs were fatty and chewy, while the chicken had hints of that weird, canned-chicken-like consistency that I find so unappealing. It seems almost universal at Hawaiian restaurants, so I may just have to conclude that I don't like Hawaiian food. That said, I did enjoy the spicing of the meats.

I'm willing to give Ono another try, but I'll probably try something different.

Update 10/14. I went to Ono for lunch today and I got a mini-plate of the chicken katsu (about $4.50) It was a very generous portion for being a "mini". The chicken was that reconstituted kind I mentioned before, but the weird texture wasn't as apparent under the breading. The breading was light and yet pretty dry. By itself the chicken was boring, but the katsu sauce improved it. I'd get it again on a pinch.

I ate in the restaurant which is quite nicely appointed with granite-style tables and modern light-wood chairs. All the food is served in styrophone take-out containers, which makes it hard to cut and eat.

Ono Hawaiian BBQ
13808 E.14th St., Suite C
San Leandro, CA
http://www.onohawaiianbbq.com/

2/11 Update: Harley's is now known as JD's Burgers & Mexican Food (though they're keeping the old Harley's sign). We went there today for lunch and it was horrible. Read Updated Review.

2005 Review

One of the many things I enjoy about living in San Leandro is visiting its prehistorian dining establishments - places that are so clearly from another era (one before I was born) but somehow manage to survive and even thrive in the modern day. Among these is the Fifth Wheel, a former truck-stop that has lost none of its charm, a bunch of coffeeshops that seem frozen on time (among them The Cherry Pit, Pelton Cafe and Nick's), a couple of places that once upon a time served what then passed as "fine dining" and that now just seem anachronistic (Elio's and Bancheros, and a bunch of drive-up hamburger joints. Harley's Burgers fits squarely into the last category.

Harley's no longer offers car-side service, you do have to get out of your car and go into the window to place your order. And as so many of the other restaurants and business in town, it's now owned by Chinese people who've added Chinese entrees to its menu. Its main appeal seems to be to blue-collar workers and others who are in their cars around lunch time - the ample parking makes getting food quite easy. But it's only a block or two from our house so from time to time we get a bite to eat there. Not very often, as the food is not that good. Its burgers are square shape but served in rectangular French buns, they are OK but they taste mostly of mustard. Its fries are also OK, but its crinkle shape reminds me of school cafeteria fries. Its Chinese offerings aren't bad, but we prefer those from other nearby Chinese restaurants. The food is reasonably cheap, with sandwiches around $4 and Chinese entrees under $5.

The restaurant is usually opened between 10:30 AM and 7 pm (closed on Sundays), and it has a couple of tables outside where you can eat, or a modest dining room next to the kitchen.

Harley's Burgers
(510) 351-6420
2170 Washington Ave
San Leandro, CA

Salang Pass, located in Fremont is probably the best Afghan restaurant in the Bay Area

Ephesus, a self-proclaimed kebab lounge, makes, indeed,pretty good kebabs. But beware of the one appetizer in particular!

Cock-a-Doodle Cafe offers good, eclectic breakfast food in comfortable surroundings, though not interesting enough to make us go back.

Fatapple's, a perennial favorite, Fatapple's continues serving great breakfast and pastries.

Lovejoy's Tea Room has wonderful food in an atmosphere reminiscent of grandma's living room

We spent a few days in Seattle earlier this week. Our first night we went to dinner at Cafe Campagne, a casual French bistro near the Pike Street Market (I'll post a review later). It was quite nice and we had a good dinner, but our experience there with two overtired and cranky children convinced us that we should get take out the rest of the time. Meanwhile, the girls and I (alone during the days) had lunch at ultra-casual places.

Monday we had lunch at The Rainforest Food Pavillon at the Seattle Zoo. Unfortunately the Zoo has not join the bandwagon of providing gourmet organic food to its patrons, so we had a very overpriced micro-baked pizza. It could have been worse.

For dinner we got take out from Bahn Thai, a moderately-priced Thai restaurant near our hotel. We had actually eaten here during our previous visit to Seattle and had liked the food then. This time we were a little less excited. The masamun curry ($9.25) was tasty albeit a bit on the spicy side (too spicy for our 3yo), but otherwise unremarkable. The gai yang (BBQ chicken - $9.25) managed to be both dry and undercooked at the same time. It was also a bit on the fatty side, but Mika, for whom we'd ordered it, liked it well enough. Finally, the "What a Feeling" combo of "chicken, pork, and beef sauteed with bamboo strips, basil, bell pepers, mushrooms, carrots, and onions in a hot spicy wine sauce" ($9.25) tasted like just another generic stir fry. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't particularly noteworthy either. All that said, as the place is only half a block away from the hotel, I'd probably get take out from there again.

Tuesday the girls and I had lunch at the food court at the Seattle Center House. Mika had a slice of cheese pizza from Pizza Haven which was pretty good and somewhat reminded me of Blondie's Pizza (perhaps the thick crust). I had an Old Fashioned Cheeseburger from Quincy's Charbroiled Burgers ($5.50). It was pretty bad, the patty was thin, dry and tasteless and the burger tasted almost exclusively of the condiments. I'd definitely not eat there again.

I had a huge craving for pasta for dinner, but I could not find any Italian-American restaurant near our hotel. The Italian restaurants in Queen Anne all seemed to be semi-upscale and what I wanted was very downscale food. Finally we decided to order from Paggliaci Pizzeria, which delivered to our hotel. I got the Nonna's Pasta, penne in a tomato/five-cheese sauce ($7). It was just OK and not a particularly large portion. I wouldn't order it again. We also ordered a small cheese pizza for Mika, this had a medium to thin crust and it was actually quite good, we all enjoyed it. Mike had a calzone which he thought was good, but too liquid. In all, not a bad place to get dinner.

Finally, Wednesday I went to Pike Street Market and the Waterfront with the girls. There were many tempting places for lunch, but few that could accomodate a stroller and potentially loud kids. Finally I settled on The Fishermans Restaurant at Pier 57. The large, somewhat informal restaurant has two large dining sections on the pier, they both have waterviews though most tables are not at the water. The dining section was quite full, but the "cocktail & snacks section" was empty and we decided to sit there. Here pretty much all you can order are appetizers and drinks, I got the fish & chips (about $8.50 for 3 pieces) and a beer ($4). The fried fish was pretty good - though I'm convinced that fried fish is only remarkable when it's bad. The fries were also unremarkable. Still, the location is hard to beat and I'd certainly come back here with my kids.

A couple of weekends ago (August 2005) I joined my friend Lola for lunch in downtown San Jose and she suggested House of Siam. This Thai restaurant has two locations, the one on South Second St. where we went had been recently remodeled and had some nice Thai art, but it wasn�t otherwise particularly remarkable. Its menu is pretty standard Thai, a little on the expensive side with most entrees priced at $11 (plus $1 for rice). Still, portions were generous though not enormously so. We finished most of the food, but had to work at it.

Lola ordered the chicken Pad Thai and I had the Mussaman Curry. They were both quite good. The Pad Thai had a fresh, not-at-all-spicy flavor and nice pieces of chicken. The Mussaman Curry was spicy and almost too intense in flavor, but it was also quite good. The meat was tender and good quality.

Service was competent and I'd go back if I was in the neighborhood.

House of Siam
151 S. Second St.
San Jose, Ca
408-295-3397

A couple of weekends ago I joined my friend Lola for a girl's day out. Lola and I met in Egypt during our college year abroad eons ago, and we spent much of our time together there hanging out at the cafe of the Semiramis hotel. It was across the street from the building where the American Research Center in Cairo was located (our other hangout) and quite close to school - almost any afternoon you could find us there sipping cappucinos. So when Lola and I decided to get together for a girl's afternoon out a couple of weeks ago, it was natural that we decide to spend most of it hanging out in yet another hotel coffee area.

The Fairmont Hotel is coveniently located in downtown San Jose. It has an old-fasioned, somewhat imperial lobby which is however populated by tourists in brightly colored t-shirts, shorts and flip-flops. The Lobby Lounge is in a recessed area in the center of the lobby. It's furnished with sofas and comfy chairs and it's quite attractive and relaxing. It offers a vast menu of alcoholic drinks, a few sandwiches, desserts and sushi. They also do a tea service between 2 and 4 pm, but by reservation only. We basically hang out while drinking very expensive cokes ($3, no refills). It was very nice and relaxing.

After a couple of hours of doing this, my husband Mike and our two daughters came to pick me up. Mike was hungry, and the foie gras burger in the menu sounded quite enticing - though at $20 it was quite pricy. Still, he gave it a try. It was quite good, the meat was juicy, the foie gras delicious and yet the whole thing didn't work for me - at least not to the tune of $20. I thought that the burger would have been better if it was seasoned - just some salt would have helped, but that might have hidden altogether the subtle taste of the foie gras. Still, it was a pretty good burger and worth trying once.

One minus point for the Lobby Lounge is that the underside of their sofas is completely filthy - as I discovered while trying to recover a toy that had been dropped.

The Lobby Lounge
The Fairmont San Jose
170 South Market St.
San Jose, CA
408-998-1900
http://www.fairmont.com/

My review of Fleur de Lys, the French restaurant in San Francisco where we went for my birthday, is finally up. It's available at:

http://www.marga.org/food/rest/fleur.html.

We are going to go to Manresa for Mike's birthday - I hope the review will take less time on coming.

A week or so ago I stopped by for a late lunch at Viva Pancho Villa, the new Mexican restaurant/taquer�a that occupies the space where the troubled Francisco's used to be and that may actually be Francisco's. The name on the sign outside say Viva Pancho Villa, but the take out menu's say "Francisco's", so maybe the restaurant is having an identity crisis.

The menu is taqueria style, with tacos, burritos, tostadas and quesadillas and dinner plates with meat, rice, beans, salad and tortillas. The meats are less varied The restaurant offers both take-out and table service, if you are planning to eat in just sit down and someone will come bith menus. If you want to order out you can head towards the counter underneath the large wall menu.

I got a carne asada super burrito ($5.75) which comes with meat choice (I chose carne asada), without rice or beans. Even so it was fairly large and tasty, though not remarkable. I'd order it again, however.

Mika got a chicken quesadilla. It was plain - tortilla, cheese, shredded chicken - but fine, Mika liked it well enough.

The chips were greasy and the salsa a bit too spicy, but they weren't bad. Service was quite good, however.

In all, Viva Pancho Villa! is a perfectly fine choice for a burrito for people in the neighborhood.

Casa Mar�a No.2 has moved, apparently 8 blocks north on East 14th. The major sign was taken away some days ago and today there were signs indicating the move. I'm sure this will be a great relief to their neighbors, as complaints of rats and filth kept coming in. Supposedly the restaurant's owners had sold the restaurant to their son to avoid creditors, how the move plays into that I've no idea. In any case, I hope whoever moves in will be much cleaner.

We haven't had a Thai restaurant in San Leandro since we've lived in this city, so it was with much anticipation that we awaited the opening of Thai Satay, at the old Strizzi's location. We were a tad apprehensive, as Mike has gone several times to the Thai Satay in San Mateo (same owners) and the pad thai is always clumpy and not very good (and yet he keeps going). It's true that he always goes after the lunch rush, but that's no excuse for clumpy pad thai.

We got there around 7 PM and the place was packed, which tells you how much in need of good restaurants San Leandro is (if you're a restauranteur thinking about San Leandro, there is a place in the Marina that the city wants to develop into a restaurant, serve good food at approachable prices and I guarantee you your place will be packed). We were given a table for four at the entrance of the smaller room that should be replaced with a smaller table, as it was the waiters kept squeezing in by my husband when the went by. The place is not much change since it was Strizzi's a couple of weeks ago. They don't seem to have repainted and the carpets are still those dark green and pink flowered ones that were there before, but they've added some Thai looking wood panneling to the walls, a few framed Thai pictures, the obligatory portraits of the king and queen and a wooden Thai-framed bus station. The whole thing really doesn't work well together, but it could be worse.

Thai Satay's menu is just like that of its sibling restaurant in San Mateo. Indeed, the menus we were handed had the San Mateo address in print. Its quite extensive with 83 items, though most of its focus is on seafood. It only has four each pork and beef entrees. While it features many of the most commonplace Thai dishes, I was surprised to see that it didn't include panang curries or pra-ram chicken (the chicken with peanut sauce served on a bed of Spinach), two of our favorite dishes. I've written to the owner to ask why that's the case. Appetizers are $6-7 and main dishes $9-13, a little too steep for Thai food but then again, this is San Leandro. Rice is $1 pp and sodas $1.75, expensive considering that there are no refills.

Mike and I split an appetizer of chicken satay (see picture). The skewers were pretty small and I thought the chicken was chewy and not flaky enough, it also wasn't very tasty. The sauce was OK, too runny for my taste and served in a tiny portion. I don't think I'd order it again.

The massamun nuer ($9) was much better. The beef was very tender and there was a good proportion of potatoes to meat. The sauce was darker and spicier than most massamuns I've had, but it was rather nice and I enjoyed it very much. I'd order it again.

The bar-b-que pork ($9) was quite tasty, both by itself and with the sweet & sour sauce it was served with. The slices were a bit tough, but that's a common problem with pork, bbq chicken or beef may be a better bet. Still, we quite enjoyed it.

The dessert list is very limited (fried bananas, ice cream, tapioca, sticky rice) and we didn't have any as I wanted to get to the library before they closed, I'll probably try the fried bananas next time.

We'll certainly be going again, though I'll wait a few weeks before I write a "proper" review of the place. For being opening night I think they did quite well.

Everett & Jones, our favorite BBQ joint. I was afraid for a while it had closed, but apparently it was just for remodeling (not that it's too evident what they did). Anyway, it's back and just as good as ever.

Cafe Vasiliki, a run-of-the-mill coffeeshop in Hayward that only stands out by its extensive, but not too exciting, salad bar.

Piperade, an update on this hip French Basque restaurant in San Francisco

La Bella Italia, update on this Italian restaurant in San Leandro

Aroma Kitchen, another BBQ joint in San Leandro that just doesn't get it.

Today I took the girls to Habitot. My plan was to stop by Mel's Drive-Inn which is right next to Habitot but Mika wanted pizza, so we went to the pizza place right next to Mel's. They'd changed it since our last visit, they put the counter against the outside door and now you are not allowed to eat inside the restaurant, but my plan was to take the slices down to Habitot and eat in their lunch room anyway.

The pizza was OK. Even though it was around lunch time, it was clear that it'd been sitting under the heatlamp for a while, the cheese was all solid and uniform rather than gooey. It didn't have that alcoholic-like taste that I had enjoyed in their pizza in the past, I'm not sure if that was because it wasn't fresh.

The new restaurant (is it new?) doesn't seem to have a name. The only sign I saw just said "pizza". I can't imagine it'll last long - though the pizza is fairly affordable at $2.50 for a cheese slice - I don't think the Shattuck traffic is eat-as-you-walk traffic as much as the Telegraph traffic. Personally, I don't think I'll try it again.

Yesterday we went to the California Academy of Science and had lunch (well, I had lunch) at the Grow Cafe there. There seems to be a trend now to have high-quality eateries at museums and I, for one, couldn't be happier. Following that trend the Grow Cafe serves gourmet sandwiches (though all with deli meats, no fresh chicken or beef here) and salads.

I had the Roast Beef oven toasted sandwich ($6.95) which came with gorgonzola, balsamic roasted onions and sun-dried tomato spread. It was very good, I really liked the pungent taste of the cheese sneaking into the sweetness of the onions. It was also a nicely-size sandwich. I'd order it again.

I had a large fountain coke which was flat and not very large and too expensive at $2.

The space for the cafe is small, but we managed to maneuver two double strollers.

Waikiki Hawaiian BBQ is located in the space that once belonged to Cafe Zula (OK but overpriced) and later to a taqueria which, at least according to my friend Boris, was pretty bad. Even though the space is close enough to city hall to ellicit a healthy lunch trade, the space seems to be doomed and I can't imagine Waikiki Hawaiian will last long, it just isn't very good. In a city that's quickly filling up with Hawaiian restaurants, Hawaiian food fans have better places where to get their fix.

Waikiki Hawaiian offers a large number of Hawaiian plate lunches (starting at $4 for "mini plates" and going up to $6.75 for a combo plate) as well as sandwiches and burgers (starting at $1.65!). They have many things marinated in teriyaki sauce but also some more unusual offerings such as lemon chicken and beef curry. Mike and I decided to try a little of everything, I got the BBQ Mix Plate (teriyaki steak, short ribs & chicken) and he got the seaffod combo (mahi mahi, deep fried shrimp and choice of meat). None of the food was good. The chicken had the weird consistency of processed chicken, the ribs were mostly bone and fat and the little bit of meat was very chewy, the steak was chewy too and the sauce wasn't very yummy. In all, we were quite disapointed and see no reason to go back.

Waikiki Hawaiian is part of a small chain with locations in El Cerrito and Concord.

Waikiki Hawaiian B-B-Q
635 E 14th St.
san Leandro, CA
510-0-882
Su-Th 10:30am - 9 pm
F-Sa 10:30am - 9:30 pm

Note:

You can read Meathenge's take on the El Cerrito branch here. It may be that we just ordered the wrong thing.

This weekend we went to two African restaurants. Friday night it was Finfin�, an Ethiopian restaurant in "The Village" (that woodsy mini-mall where Fondue Fred is located) on Telegraph. The food was a bit expensive for Ethiopian and as a consequence there were no students there that night. It was good and clearly made with higher quality ingredients that your usual Ethiopian, and there were quite a few seafood choices, again not very usual for Ethiopian. But it didn't awe me. A review, when ready will be available here.

Saturday night, 8 of us parents took our 4 3-year olds and 3 babies to Tropical Paradise on University in Berkeley for Ghanaian food. All of us but the actual Ghanaian loved it. The menu is pretty brief but its peanut soup, ginger bananas and chicken skewers are clear winners. Review will be available here

The East Bay Express has reviewed Xenia!, the new restaurant opened by the Vatran clan in Alamo. The review is mixed, the place still seems to need work, but I still want to go! Maybe in a few weeks, when I recoup from eating out so much lately.

eastbayexpress.com | Vatran's Flying Restaurant | 2005-04-27

I finally got to go to Fleur de Lys for my birthday. The food was wonderful though the dinner was badly balanced, the the first three courses were small and the cheese and dessert courses overwhelming. There was also a problem with the pacing of the dishes (too brisk) and the table were they first sat us frankly sucked - though they did move us when I expressed my disatisfaction to a better location. But again, the food was excellent, familiar yet innovative and delicious.

And yet... I left disatisfied. I think I have to admit that I've become jaded with nice restaurants. My expectations are now too high, I want perfection for my $300. I think I'm going to put off going to nice restaurants for some time - though I'll probably take Mike to Manresa for his birthday as he said that's where he wanted to go. And I may go back to Acquerello, where the warmth and quality of the service awed me.

Of course, if anyone can suggest a superlative dining experience in the Bay Area (or LA, for that matter), I'd love to hear about it.

When ready, my review of Fleur de Lys will be at http://www.marga.org/food/rest/fleur.html

For Mother's Day Mike decided to get us lunch at Gregoire and have us had a pic-nic lunch at Muir Woods. It was a rainy day, however, so we decided to eat the food in the car instead. Fortunately most of it lent itself to it. It was all delicious.

I couldn't really see the cheese or the mushrooms in the cheesteak sandwich ($7.50), but the chopped beef was bursting with flavor, it reminded me of the taste of steak in Argentina. The lamb in the roasted lamb sandwich ($7.75) was also very tasty and "lamby". Sharing half of each sandwich kept them from getting boring. Once again we loved the potato puffs ($4.25) and were less thrilled by the potato gratin ($4.25). I think next time we should try the french fries. I liked the mango red pudding ($3.75), it had a fresh, satisfying mango taste, but it became easily overwhelmed by the tartness of the berry coulis. They just didn't go well together. Mike liked the chocolate mousse ($3.75) but it reminded me of the chocolate mousse I used to make when I was a kid out of a children's cooking book.

Gregoire's menu changes monthly, so if you want to enjoy these sandwiches you'll have to do so in May :)

Our friends Eddie and Arthur suggested we get together for dinner at the Texas Roadhouse for dinner last night - but when we got there around 8 PM, the place was a madhouse. They told me there was a 4 hour wait, and while that seemed unlikely, it clearly did not make sense for us to stay there for dinner. So we suggested we go to Banyan Garden, we had liked it last time and we didn't think the place would be so full.

Being mother's day and all, we still had to wait, though only for fifteen minutes or so. We were then given a large table for 8 at the back of the restaurant. We ordered quite a lot of food and it was all good.

The Roti Canai ($2.50) was a very light, thin, flaky and somewhat chewy flat bread (thinner and lighter than a crepe). We all liked it, and I once again was won over by the spicy curry dipping sauce. The chicken satay ($5.50) was also a winner, with nicely marinated chicken chunks and a spicy, chunky peanut sauce. I'd definitely order both again.

We liked the mango chicken ($8). It was served on two hollowed mango shelfs and consisted of chicken pieces and slices of mango and red and green bell peppers in a sweet and sour tomato sauce. The sauce tasted fruity rather than tomatoish and was nicely spiced and quite good. The mango slices were too crunchy for my taste, however, they didn't seem ripe enough. The sizzling beef ($12) was sizzling and spicy and quite good with their black pepper sauce. The thin slices were tender though in that pounded sort of way. The padang lamb ($10) tasted just the same as last time and the Malaysian short ribs ($9) also had that pounded consistency but were enjoyable. I didn't get to taste the pineapple rice ($7) but others liked it, and the one noodle dish I did have (can't recall what it was) was fine but not remarkable.

In all we had an enjoyable dinner and I'll certainly go again.

A new Hawaiian BBQ place has opened on East 14th at the sport where Cafe Zula used to be. In between, it was a taqueria which we never tried but which according to our friend Boris was pretty bad. We did try this new Hawaiian place and it wasn't very good either. maybe the location is doomed.

Right after I finally write a review for Strizzi's, the restaurant decides to close. It makes me sad to see all these old-time San Leandro restaurants closing. I'd feel well if they were better, though. A new Thai place is opening in its space and, of course, I'm hopeful.

There is a new Chinese bakery opening also on East 14th near New Hong Kong. Could it be that I'll finally be able to feast myself on pork buns without having to go into a restaurant? May be. Stay tuned.

And a couple of more I neglected to include yesterday:

Dragon Express, the fast-food Chinese restaurant on East 14th next to 7-11 has closed and is now Chopsticks Express. Haven't tried it yet. Dragon Express was pretty bad.

Francisco's, the Mexican restaurant on Bancroft that was closed for a while due to hygene problems, bankrupcy, etc., has now been sold and has re-opened as another Mexican restaurant, Pancho Villa, I think. Haven't tried it either.

Mike has returned to me a bunch of edited restaurant reviews and they're now up on my website. These include:

Speisekammer, a child-friendly German restaurant in Alameda

Thai Garden, the main attraction of this Hayward restaurant is that it's the closest Thai restaurant to San Leandro

Boulevard, good but unimaginative Californian food at this San Francisco institution

Nick's, had some awful food at this San Leandro coffeeshop

Joaquin Deli, few changes since it was Vatran's Flying Sausages means good sandwiches and deli products.

I'd been looking forward to my birthday dinner at Fleur de Lis since, well, since I made the reservations a few weeks ago. But alas, I had to cancel it at the last minute. Both Mike and I have colds and I wanted to be able to enjoy the full dining experience, not be distracted by a headache or an itchy throat. But more importantly, our little girl was sick with the stomach flu, and we didn't want to leave her. Canceling turned out to be the right decision, as Mika was unwell throughout the evening.

So my birthday dinner ended up being Indian delivery (not bad, though) and I didn't even get a cake - oh well.

Monday I went to Disneyland with my hubby, sister and 3 yo. I heard that the Blue Bayou, a restaurant located at the entrance of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, was the best place to eat at Disneyland, and I was intrigued by its location. I made a 1:30 PM reservation but we had to wait an additional 45 minutes for a table on the water, with a view of the ride and the boats going by. It seems like a waste of time, but I was so tired by then that I welcomed the "down" time.

The restaurant was nice, it was cool being inside the ride, and the nocturnal ambiance made for a potentially relaxing atmosphere. Unfortunately the brisk - even if friendly - service, made relaxing difficult. The waiters clearly wanted you to get out ASAP. Food was brought to the table a couple of minutes after ordering, drinks were replenished every few minutes, dishes were removed even before everyone was done with lunch. I can understand the need to turn tables, the wait outside is very long, but it complete defeats the purpose of going to the restaurant: relaxing after a morning (or day) of unstopped activities. For that reason, I would not go again.

The food was better than I expected, though my expectations were low. I had the famed Monte Christo sandwich (a turkey, ham and cheese sandwich deep fried, sprinkled with a bit of powder sugar and served with some fruit preserve and pasta salad) and it was good, though too rich and it had the flavor of having been cooked in too-old oil. I could only finish half of it and I'd suggest splitting it with someone else.

Kathy was happy with her prime rib, but I thought it tasted like a typical buffet prime rib - at $18, it wasn't a typical buffet price but this is Disneyland after all. Mike liked the jambalaya but it was very spicy. He didn't mind that, but it made it impossible to taste the individual ingredients.

I'll write a real review and post it at http://www.marga.org/food/rest/bayou.html, though I won't have much more to say than what I've written here.

I just read a posting in Craigslist about a recent dining experience at Manresa. Apparently the Chef's Menu (which I would have ordered) contained three raw seafood dishes (Salmon Roe on custard, an oyster in gelee, and minced raw scallops) and several other things that I'm not sure I'd like, and while I'm willing to try a couple, I don't think I want a menu full of things that I may not like. Their a la carte menu does sound good, but I decided to look further a field and see if there was something I'd like better.

That's how I came about the menu at Fleur de Lys and everything there sounds absolutely devine. Plus, it's open on my birthday (Manresa is closed on tuesdays). So I cancelled the Manresa reservation and made one at Fleur de Lys instead. I still want to try Manresa some time, but perhaps not on such a dear occasion as my birthday.

I went winetasting in Livermore with my sister Kathy and her friend Anna a couple of weeks ago, and we stopped at the Caf� Garr�, at the Garr� Winery, for lunch. The little caf� is cute, it has a small dining room inside and a patio area with shaded dining under trees or umbrellas. From the patio there is a view of the grapevines and the road, and unfortunately you can hear the road noises. Still, it's a relaxing place to have a meal in a warm day. The restaurant was less than half empty when we got there around 12:30 PM on a Saturday, but it became packed by 1 PM.

Their menu includes appetizers, salads, sandwiches and pastas with a couple of main dishes. The most expensive entree is $12, but most entrees are under $10.

Lunch started with slices of fresh focaccia bread with toasted onions, it was very good with the olive oil and vinegar provided. Too bad that the oil & vinegar bottles were dirty.

I decided to try their Boar's Nest sandwich: an open roll of braised smoked pork with cheddar cheese and BBQ sauce ($9). I really enjoyed it, the meat was tender and the BBQ sauce infused it with flavor without overwhelming it. My only complaint was that the bun was too thick for the meat. It came with a side of pasta salad, which was quite good. It had very fresh tasting veggies, though I would have liked a stronger tasting cheese. The sandwich was quite big and I ended up taking home half of it.

Kathy and Anna went for pasta. Kathy had the pomodoro ($8), which she liked but wasn't crazy about. The sauce was slightly sweet and would have been better with some Parmesan cheese, but it was satisfying.

Anna was also underwhelmed by her linguini & clams ($9). Part of the problem was that she had actually ordered the seafood linguini, and she wanted more than clams with her pasta, but the light, too-liquid sauce also failed to impress her. We all liked the accompanying garlic bread, though.

Service by two very cute young waiters was affable, though they were a bit distracted (perhaps by my two cute young tablemates?). Not only did they get Anna's entree wrong but they gave us way too much change back. They did refresh our bread and drinks quite often, and were as attentive to me as to the girls, so I can't complain.

Lunch for the three of us came to $32.50 after tax but before tip. In all, I'd go back to Caf� Garr� though I'd probably stick to the sandwiches.

Caf� Garr�
7986 Tesla Road
Livermore, CA
http://www.garrewinery.com/

-Today we noticed a change of ownership announcement at Daimo, the upscale Chinese restaurant on E. 14th. I'm not sure if the El Cerrito branch of the restaurant was also sold and what this means to the restaurant. Stay tuned and I'll find out :)

-We noticed several months ago that Daimo Express, which as far as I know wasn't connected to Daimo, had closed. A (cash-only) Hawaiian BBQ place has open in its stead. We haven't tried it yet, but plan to.

-It seems that Hawaiian BBQ has become very popular in San Leandro. In addition to the one mentioned above and Aloha Kitchen, there is also Hawaiian Sista's Cafe on Manor Blvd. and another Hawaiian BBQ place is said to open at Palma Plaza. We love Hawaiian BBQ so we have no complaints.

-According to an article in the San Leandro Times last week, Latt� Da, a cool coffehouse on Washington Ave. is closing. We go to Latt� Da from time to time, much less often that I actually mean to go, and it's sad to see it go. Apparently the owner cannot afford the increase in rent.

-We've also heard through the grapevine that Perry's Food for the Soul is closing. Apparently they are not doing enough business. There is a community call to go and support this black & woman owned business so if you haven't tried Perry's yet, why don't you give it a try?

-Casa Mar�a #2, a Mexican restaurant on E. 14th near downtown, has reopened after being closed down by the health department. A correspondent who lives nearby tells me that the restaurant had had problems with rats, there were rat feces everywhere including plates. Apparently they have solved some of the problems, and now they have a garbage service, but it's not clear whether they use it. He also claims that they bring unrefrigerated food. I'm staying away for now.

-Francisco's, a Mexican restaurant on Bancroft, has re-opened after being closed down for over a year (or so it seems to me). Anyone know the details about its closing and re-opening? I know that Francisco's had gone through bankrupcy.

-I've also heard through the grapevine that a Chilli's will be opening at Bayfair.

Any other news?

Today I finally went to Vatran's - now Joaquin Deli - for the first time since its change of ownership. I was happy to notice that it hadn't changed at all, it looks the same, it's selling the same items, even the people behind the counter are the same. The one change, other than the name, is its expanded menu of cold sandwiches. Their classic roasted tri-tip, pulled pork and sausages sandwiches are still there, don't worry, but now they have things like club sandwiches, grilled chicken, salmon, tuna and chicken salad, and even a classic roast beef. Most of these are served on ciabatta bread and they go for $6.50 including potato salad, coleslaw or chips.

As the title of this entree implies, I went for the roasted pork shoulder sandwich. It was incredible! The pork was supple, buttery and delicious and it reminded me of first grade jam�n serrano. It came with blue cheese aioli, spinach and caramelized onions, all of which complemented it rather that competed with it. The quantity of meat to bread was also quite generous.

I'm planning to go back to Joaquin later this week and buy some of that pork shoulder to have around.

I always wanted to have a neighborhood restaurant. I don't mean a restaurant in my neighborhood, but a place I could consider "my restaurant", where I could go for lunch or dinner without thinking twice about it and would go there a lot. A place where they'd get to know me and my food preferences.

When I was in college, Pirro's, a small, super-cheap restaurant on Shattuck was "my" restaurant. My friend Connie discovered it and soon we were all hooked. The food was simple and good, I really liked its hearty tomato sauce, and the portions were generous and cheap. A lunch-portion of ravioli, large enough for dinner, was abut $4.25 (keep in mind this was over a decade ago). I could also get a glass of wine (never carded me) for about $2. As a non-adventurous broke college student, this was perfect. They never really got to know me - even at those prices I couldn't afford to go that often - but I certainly felt it was my restaurant. Whenever I had to take someone out to dinner or suggest a place to go, that's where we'd go. Pirro's close a few years ago, and a (pretty good) Thai restaurant opened in its place, but I will always have fond memories of it.

When we moved to San Leandro, Pring's, a coffee-shop on East 14th, became "our" restaurant. We liked the food - their San Francisco burger was our favorite - and loved the service by veteran waitresses. We also liked how the restaurant was open until very late at night and that the portions were large enough to share. Our favorite waitress did get to know us and what we ordered and we could always do some small talk with her when we got there. Alas, Prings was sold (probably for too much money) and soon after that it closed. Now it's an Italian restaurant, Bella Italia, which we don't like nearly as much.

For some time, I'd entertained the hope that Pee Wee's could become our restaurant. It's only down the street from us and like Pirro's, it's Italian and quite cheap. It doesn't have the atmosphere of Pirro's, but it has the advantage that it's child friendly enough. Unfortunately, I don't like the food nearly as much as I liked Pirro's. While I oftened found myself craving the melt-in-your-mouth softness of Pirro's pasta, I can't even recall what Pee Wee's taste like, even though we've gone there several times.

For quite a while, then, I mourned the lack of a neighborhood restaurant I could call my own. Then, a few months ago, Le Soleil opened in downtown San Leandro, only a few blocks away from my home. We liked Le Soleil right away, the food was yummy, the service friendly and the atmosphere stylish yet inviting. The portions at first were on the small side, but they grew to be nicely filling and the service has become not just friendly, but solicitous and outstanding.

Despite all this, I never thought of Le Soleil becoming our restaurant for the simple fact that it serves Vietnamese food, which I don't associate with comfort. And yet that's what it has become. I should have realized it last summer, when after watching a movie on our "girls night out" Lola and I decided to stop at Le Soleil for some dinner - only to run into Mike and Michaela who were dining there, and later greet our friends Tita and Percy who were also coming there to eat. Without much throught, Le Soleil became the place for Mike to take Michaela out for dinner on my girls night out - and for Lola and I to dine when we can't think of anything else (and there isn't anything else better in San Leandro), we now try to go at different times, however. It's also the place I take friends from out of town (unfortunately their vegetarian selection is not great, so it doesn't work for Regina) and a regular stop when Kathy comes to visit. And it's the place we go when we don't know where else to go, which is quite often.

We still haven't become friends with the waiters, though knows Michaela and always gives her some candy (with our permission) but I'm sure that will come. For the time being I'm just glad to have found a restaurant in San Leandro I can call "ours".

Today we made it to the Oriental Tea House for dim sum. We liked it much better than East Village, though we didn�t get to taste the baked pork buns as they were out of it by the time we got there around 1 PM. The steamed pork buns were excellent, however, the bread was moist, the pork succulent and not too sweet. I got an additional order to go. The fried chicken was also very good, crispy and moist and wonderfully spiced. We also found a winner in the paper wrapped chicken - moist and delicious - and on the shrimp dumplings. We were less fond of the sesame balls and the deep fried meat balls, I�d never had those before and the thick pastry wrapping had a strange consistency that I didn�t find appealing. Egg custards were OK, but not sweet enough for my taste. Lunch, including 3 canned sodas, came to $24 before tip. It's pretty crowded on Sundays, but I'm sure we'll be going again.

Wednesday night Mike took me to Boulevard for our anniversary. I had wanted to go there for a long time and I think he was curious as well. I loved the restaurant itself - the energy, the elegant yet wimsical Bell Epoque furnishings and gentleman's club feel - but wasn't thrilled with the food. It was great in itself, but not in the least original. I'd had similar dishes in other restaurants before, and often better executed. I liked their foie gras, for which they are famous, but prefer Piperade's version. Their seared scallops were yummy, but not as good as those of Neumanali. My squab was perfectly prepared, but no different from the squab I've had at Aquerello and as part of a tasting menu at a score of restaurants. Mike's pork chop was good, and yet no better than the one we had at Jojo's for our last anniversary, and while we both really liked the roasted pork riblets, it reminded us of the better braised pork at A16. Desserts were also good, though unremarkable. I've written a full review which I'll post here as soon as Mike edits it.

For my birthday which is coming up I'd like to go somewhere where the food is not only excellent but original, where I can taste something I'd never tasted before and fall in love with it.

Some options I'm exploring are:

-Fifth Floor. We loved Melissa Perello's food at Charles Nob Hill and I can only imagine she's only grown since. However, I'd be disappointed if her chef tasting menu wasn't very different from the one at Charles Nob Hill.

-Quince. I just read a great review of it that gives the pasta glowing recommendations but shows less enthusiasm for the entrees.

-Manresa. My friend Lola LOVED it, it just was nominated as one of the 50 best restaurants in the country by Restaurant magazine and the people at Vinography seem to like it as well.

-Michael Mina. The Chronicle gave it a great review and I'm very curious.

Anywhere else?

Yesterday I posted two new restaurant reviews

Strizzis is an Italian restaurant in San Leandro with good, but uncreative food at high prices.

Banyan Garden in Union City serves Malaysian, Singaporean and Thai food. It wasn't as good as my old favorite Rasa Sayang in Albany (gone for many years now), but it was quite good nonetheless.

Last night we went to Boulevard in the city. I was underwhelmed and I'll write the review soon.

Vatran's Flying Sausages has been our favorite area deli for years. It served delicious sandwiches and offered a very nice assortment of charcurterie as well as assorted food items from Europe. Recently it was sold, a fact that dismayed me as I feared the quality would go down (I'll report on this later, we've decided to go there for lunch later today).

In response to my post about it, I got a message from the son of the owner. He told me they have opened a new restaurant in Alamo called Xenia! Bistro. According to the Contra Costa Times the new restaurant offers Romanian food from Mr. Vatran's grandmother's recipes. The CCT gave it 3 forks and said it was a great neighborhood bistro. It's located at 115 Alamo Plaza, Alamo. We expect to head there some time soon.

Yesterday, a Sunday, we found ourselves hungry and the Metreon and headed to Buckhorn Grill, Mike's favorite eatery at the place. The restaurant, part of a small Northern California chain, shares space with three other eateries. Its open dining room is darkish, comfortable and much nicer than those at conventional malls. Its also child friendly and you'll find plenty of families with children around.

The Buckhorn Grill prides itself on its tri-tip, and both of us ordered the tri-tip sandwich ($8, in a special including side dish and a drink), with added blue cheese. Mike really likes this sandwich but I have my reservations. The meat is tasty and mostly lean and tender, but its drowned by the onions and bun. As the onions and blue cheese (and extra BBQ sauce) are all served cold, the sandwich becomes cold very quickly - not my ideal for a meat sandwich. But in the whole, it is a tasty sandwich.

The fries are short and thin, good but not remarkable. Mike thought the mashed potatoes tasted weird - though he ate them anyway. I thought they tasted OK but they were quite lumpy.

Buckhorn Grill
101 Fourth Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
415-369-6150
http://www.buckhornsteakhouse.com/

San Leandro

Saigon Palace on 17580 Hesperian
Grand Taipei on 25036 Hesperian
Hawaiian Sista's Cafe ( 10:00 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Tue.-Sat.)
Halan (vietnamese on Lewelling)
Vietnamese place by Pak n'Save
Ozeki Sushi

Castro Valley

$$
Sazio Ristorante Italiano
Doug's Place (breakfast)
Dolci Amore
Hong Kong BBQ Restaurant (chinese)

Hayward

$$$

Le Maconnais
Caravan
East Harbor (hesperian & west a)- good chinese
New Hong Kong on Mission, dim sum

Berkeley Oakland

$
Taste of Africa +
Museum Kitchen +
Priya (indian buffet) +
Han's Big Burger +
Vik's Chaat Corner, Berkeley +
Kabana, Berkeley+
Addis +
Caribbean Cove

$$
Tsing Tao (dim sum) +
Restaurant Peon (dim sum) +
Kensington circus pub +
Phnom Penh House
Italian Colors (Montclair) +
Breads of India - (no res)
Soi4 - college, upscale Thai
Taste of the Himalayas
Bosphorus
Locanda Olmo - college, Italian

$$$
Chez Simone (piedomont ave, t-f-sa nights)
Zaika (indian)
Bucci's (Emeryville)
Soizic
Eccolo
Fonda
La Belle Creole
Garibaldi's
Zax Tavern (closed Su/Mo)
Chef Paul's (pied)
Oliveto
Trio (grand ave, closed M/Tu)
La Rose (small, french fusion, closed mondays)
La Note (provencal, dinner Th-Sa)
Le Theatre (French/North African, closed mondays)
Tanjia

$$$$

Chez Panisse

Fremont

Mariam- Persian
De Afghanan Kabob House (fast food)

Milpitas

Shahnawaz - Indian

San Francisco/Peninsula

$$
Jakarta
P�caro (Mission) +
Chow +
Park Chow+
Iluna basque
Zuni's Cafe
Basque Cultural Center +
Chapeau
Le Charm
Jeanty's at Jacks
Katia (Russian, go early with Mika)

$$$

Garcen Court at the Palace Hotel
http://www.gardencourt-restaurant.com/
for lunch or afternoon tea (sans Mika)

Fifth Floor
Manresa
Campton Place
Viognier
Michael Mina
Tartare
Trio

Wine Country

French Laundry - Napa
Girth and the Fig - Sonoma
Cafe La Haye - Sonoma

San Jose

Ori Deli - Indonesian
http://www.orideli.com/

I just added a few reviews of restaurants I visited before Camila was born. These are:

Gregoire
A French take-out place in Berkeley I finally got to try while staying at Alta Bates. The food was awesome.

Aziza
An upscale restaurant in San Francisco serving experimental and traditional Moroccan food. Great appetizers, OK entrees.

Dragon Express
A terrible but super-cheap Chinese take-out place in San Leandro

Last night was our first date night since Camila, our second baby, was born. We decided to go to the Piedmont Springs, a hot tub place on, wouldn't you know it?, Piedmont Avenue. We didn't have much time for dinner before hand (we didn't want to take advantage of our babysitters' graciousness) so we decided to go to China Garlic, which is conveniently located right next door to Piedmont Springs. It wasn't a good choice.

China Garden serves typical Chinese-American food at reasonable prices (about $7 for entrees). The portions are not very large, but that was fine with us as we weren't planning on taking any leftovers home. Unfortunately the food just wasn't very good - even when compared to similar restaurants.

Mike got the sesame chicken. It had a thick coating and a syrupy sauce that wasn't quite sweet. The sesame seemed to be there for just decoration. In all, I can't say we enjoyed this dish.

I went for the lemon chicken, as I was in the mood for something sweet. Once again, the coating on the chicken was too thick - almost as thick as the chicken itself. More problematic was the sauce, which was yellow and somewhat sour but didn't taste at all like lemon.

The restaurant itself is small and characterless, just another Chinese dive. Service was fine and we did manage to get in and out in half an hour, which was our goal.

Next time we're in the same situation, however, we'll probably try the pizza place a couple of doors down.

China Garlic Restaurant
3941 Piedmont Ave
Oakland, CA
(510) 654-5033

The Parkway theater in Oakland is the only place we know where you can catch a movie and have dinner at the same time. The theater shows second-run movies in two theaters. The big draw are the love seats (get early to get one) and the fact that on Monday evenings you can bring your baby with you. We were regulars at "Baby Brigade" when Michaela was a baby, and now that we have Camila we'll probably be regulars again.

The Parkway offers a couple of pastas, sandwiches and other fare at premium prices. We weren't big fans of the food when we used to frequent it two years ago, but it may have improved since. The menu has been shortened (gone is "The Soprano", a chicken sandwich we actually liked) and the pepperoni pizza, at least, is tastier than it used to be. At $3.75 a slice is one of the most affordable options.

The nachos ($9.50) are another of the safer options. The chips are commercial, but still OK, and the chicken is quite good. However, the cheese had solidified by the time we got them and it didn't reach the bottom chips.

They no longer seem to carry the delicious lemon bars, but the coconut bars ($3.50) were also great.

We will probably try other menu items in future visits and will report here.

Mike has sent me a bunch of edited restaurant reviews which I've put up on the website:

Daimo
An upscale Chinese restaurant in San Leandro where the food is not in par with the prices

Dona Tomas
People rave about this upscale Mexican restaurant in Oakland, but we weren't nearly as impressed.

Truly Mediterranean
Neither Lola nor I liked this favorite Middle Eastern restaurant in Berkeley

The New Zealander
We liked the pies at this Alameda brewpub but we wished they'd been bigger!

P.F. Changs
I'd never been to this Chinese chain, but I was very impressed by the food at the Emeryville location.

Neumanali
A great meal at this upscale Hayward restaurant was almost ruined by bad service over dessert

Oriental Tea House - Update
Our favorite Chinese restaurant in San Leandro offers tasty chinese-american food at rock-bottom prices

Vo's - Update
Had a very nice lunch at this great local Vietnamese restaurant

Battambang - Update
Had a delicious dinner at our favorite Cambodian restaurant in Oakland

Aloha Kitchen
Great Hawaiian BBQ for take out in San Leandro - yummm!

Chubby Seafood and Burritos
A new restaurant serving hoagies, burgers, fried fish & burritos. Good fried fish, OK other stuff.

Harry's Hofbrau
Large portions of American favorites in a cafeteria-style restaurant. The food at the San Leandro location was just OK.

We went to Aziza last night and did the pre-fix 5 course deal ($39 pp).

Most of us had the lentil soup which was good but pedestrian. The soup of the day was Jerusalem artichoke cream and it was sooooo good that it convinced /me/ to try Jerusalem artichokes the next time I can.

The appetizers (Med. spreads, mushroom ravioli, goat cheese and lima beans) were also out of this world. The roasted pepper & pomegranate spread, in particular, was ambrosia. They were soooo good that we're planning a return visit where all we order are appetizers :)

The bastilla was OK, it was a thick chicken pie but not as flavorful and tasty as other bastillas I've had or made. I wouldn't order it again - though it inspired me to make bastilla this week for dinner :)

The main dishes in all were a disappointment. They were good, don't get me wrong, but again we found them pedestrian and boring. I had the squab, which was well cooked and had a lovely sauce, but I've had similar dishes many times. It was also a pretty small portion so I was left hungry afterwards (this, however, may be the pregnancy talking).

My husband & friend both had the Aziza couscous and again they found it kind of bland and boring. Boris thought all the ingredients tasted the same, DH noticed different tastes but pronounced them all mild. The couscous was nice and fluffy - but no different from the couscous I make at home. Regina had the berber vegetable tagine and was also quite disappointed. She liked the couscous it came with a lot, but found the vegetable tagine boring, though she could appreciate the freshness of the veggies. Still, she felt she's had many tastier tagines. All the couscous people couldn't finish their entrees (which was good for me :)

Desserts also failed to awe. I had the ice cream, two /tiny/ ice cream sandwiches that were good and new but soooo tiny - other desserts were twice as big. I loved the hot chocolate pot, it was sooo flavorful and warm, though the accompanying cookie was somewaht salty and kind of weird. Boris thought the creme brulee was just OK - he's a creme brulee afficionado - good, but there are better ones out there, and Regina was initially put off by her huckleberries sorbet but grew to really, really like it.

We loved the room, service was good and I would like to go back there - though only if I can just feast on the appetizers :)

As usual, I'll write a full review and post it on my website at some point.

We went to the New Zealander in Alameda Thursday night. They have a short menu with a couple of sandwiches, burgers and meat entrees, but the main attraction - and what the waitress recommended - were the pies. I got a steak and cheese one and DH got the minted lamb one. They were both pretty good, the meats were tender and flavorful and the pastry was nice. Our main complaint was the size. They were too big as appetizers and too small for a main entree. You can get them with a soup or salad for $2 more, but we're not really soup/salad people so it didn't work well for us. Maybe next time we'll just get 3 pies to share between the two of us.

We weren't that impressed with the desserts. I liked the texture of the bread & butter pudding but it didn't have much taste by itself and the sauce was too strong/bitter for my taste. I'd have liked both the pudding & sauce to be sweeter. DH had the French apple tart, which was an almost crustless bunch of cooked apples which he ruled as "interesting". The desserts were large, so by the end of the meal we were full.

DH wants to go back and try other pies. Even though it's a brew pub, it's child friendly so we'll probably go there again with the kids.

A full review will be posted on my website as soon as Mike edits it.

Last night we went to Battambang for dinner, it has been our favorite Cambodian restaurant since we discovered it about five years ago. The tiny restaurant is cute and with its dark yellow walls and framed paintings of Cambodian river scenes it could even be considered elegant if it wasn't so crowded. But crowded it is - there is barely any room for patrons to walk, and unless you're lucky you may have to share a long table with another party. Even then, expect a wait if you arrive for dinner after 7 PM.

Fortunately, we got there a few minutes later so we were sat immediately. The menu hadn't changed much since our last visit. It still includes a very long selection of appetizers, soups, curries and meat and vegetable dishes. Appetizers and soups average $6-10, while main dishes are $7-15 (most are $7-8). Portions are on the small side, plan on getting an appetizer at least to share or ordering rice ($1 per person).

We started with an order of lawt, "crispy Cambodian style srping rolls with ground pork, bean thread, onion and ground peanuts", served with a pickle and vinegar sauce ($6). The bite-size spring rolls where crispy and flavorful and quite good with the sweet & vinegary sauce. I'd order them again.

We then had one of our favorites, the sach ko chomkak, a "char-broiled beef shish kebab marinated with lemon grass, spices and ground peanuts served with pickle and lime sauce" ($8). The three kebabs were tender and delicious, they have a clear char-broiled taste and their flavor is only enhanced by the sauce. My only gripe is that there wasn't enough sauce to soak all the rice we ordered - next time I'll order extra.

We also ordered the Battambang Noodles, "pan-fried soft rice noodles with chicken, egg, bean sprouts, green onion, ground chili and peanuts in tamarind sauce" ($7). This dish is reminiscent of Pad Thai, though I didn't find it as flavorful or delicious. I did, however, appreciate how tender both the noodles and the bean sprouts are (I don't like crunchy vegetables). It's also one of those dishes that you start eating and can't get enough of. I'd order it again.

Service was good, though rushed, by the two lone waitresses who had to take care of the whole restaurant. One of them apologized for it, but it was actually better than in other occasions.

You can read my old review of Battmbang here

Yesterday for lunch we were in the mood for Dim Sum, but the parking lot at Oriental Tea House, where we wanted to go, was soooo full that we didn't dare try to get a table. Instead we decided to drive on MacArthur Ave. and try whatever we found. That turned out to be a shack called "Giant" that offers burgers, hoagies, sandwiches and shakes.

I went for the chicken hoagie (~$4.50) and Mike decided on the hot links hoagie (~$4.50 too). We both got cokes which were overpriced at $1.20 for a 16 oz fountain one.

The hoagies were OK, I didn't like the taste of the chicken in mine (it tasted like canned, though not quite) but its taste was overwhelmed by the sauce, cheese, onions and tomatoes. In all, it was tasty enough though too rich to eat it all. Mike was disappointed that his hoagie, which was supposed to have cheese, onions and mushrooms, came instead with lettuce tomato and onion (no cheese or mushrooms). He did like the links, though, which were nice and spicy.

Giant is just a shack with a take out window overlooking the parking lot. They have a small counter inside with bar stools if you want to eat there, however.

They didn't have a take out menu and I can't tell you exactly where it is - it's not even clear to me in which city it is, as it's located in the 1/2 block between the "Welcome to Oakland" and "Welcome to San Leandro" signs. I can say that it's on northeast side of MacArthur, northwest of Oriental Tea House, on the same side of the block.

Last night I had meant to serve braised pommegranate pork but, alas, I miscalculated how long it would take it to braise and started too late - so we decided to eat out instead.

We were shopping at Kmart (no longer, now that I know that they feed the Republican machine) and decided to go to Mi Tierra Restaurant & Taqueria 'cause I wanted something quick and cheap and it was right there (well, across the street, right next to Best Burger in the DeeDee's outside shopping mall).

The little restaurant is tiny and has a limited menu of burritos and tacos, with a few fajita plates thrown in for substance. It seems to be a family operation, and when we dined there were two women working both the counter and the open kitchen. There isn't much ambiance to speak of, but the place has been decorated with orange walls and Mexican paintings and other decorations. It's fine for a quick bite.

Mike ordered a regular chicken burrito ($4) and I ordered a carne asada super burrito ($6.50), without rice and beans. They were both the same size (large) but mine came with guacamole and cheese (not sour cream).

I liked my burrito well enough, though I didn't appreciate that it came with lettuce (the ingredients weren't listed). The meat was in low proportion to the other ingredients (salsa, cheese, guacamole sauce and particularly lettuce) but what was of it tasted good. Mike didn't like his. He felt the chicken and the other ingredients were not well integrated so when he bit into it he either got hot ingredients or cold ingredients. He also felt there wasn't enough chicken.

We also ordered a quesadilla for Michaela ($3.50) which comprised of just a tortilla filled with cheese, nothing else. Here again we felt there wasn't enough cheese in proportion to the tortilla. The two fountain drinks we got ($1.45, no refills) were fine.

In all, I can't imagine a reason why I'd go back to Mi Tierra, but the food wasn't bad, just not good enough.

Mi Tierra Restaurant & Taqueria
14393 Washington Ave. #D
San Leandro, CA
510-352-4883

Saturday we took Mika to Chuck E. Cheese in Hayward. We'd been there before but this is the first time we actually ate there (that's the great thing about Chuck E. Cheese, they don't make you eat to play and the tokens for the paid games are pretty cheap - about 20 cents each). I was surprised that the food wasn't bad. We got a pepperoni and sausage pizza and we both liked it, the crust was in the thin side and somewhat sweet. It didn't have much cheese, and what it had had toasted, which wasn't bad. The toppings were good.

We also had their apple dessert pizza ($3), which was supposed to have a streudel dough but it actually felt pretty bready (like pizza). The apple topping was very sweet but good. I liked it.

We hadn't brought any coupons so it was expensive, but you can often get coupons in the Sunday newspaper or at their website

Chuck E. Cheese
24039 Hesperian Blvd.
Hayward, CA
(510)265-0590

Mike has been in an editing frenzy (he only owes me 3!!!!) so there are several new restaurant reviews up at my website, http://www.marga.org/food/rest/:

the parents play.

Mika spent last week with her grandparents, and we took advantage of it to go out to "nice" restaurants, "nice" being a code word for "child unfriendly" ones. We did hit a few child-friendly restaurants as well. I've been a good girl and written reviews of all of them, which will be on my website as soon as Mike returns them.

We started last Monday by going to Bistro Liaison in Berkeley, which had been in my list for a while. It's a nice, loud and friendly spot in downtown Berkeley serving classic French food at moderate prices (entrees under $20). The food was good, not great, but we enjoyed ourselves.

Tuesday was our night for hitting San Francisco. We considered going back to Piperade, but decided instead on Bocadillos, a tapas bar by Piperade's owner Gerard Yrigoyen. It was a disappointment. The food was good, but not outstanding and not particularly innovative - nowhere nearly as good as Piperade's. We didn't like having to wait and the barstools were not the most comfortable of places. In the future I'll leave places like this to the younger crowd.

Wednesday was "Lost" night, so we decided to stay in and have dinner (Zachary's by the fire. We did have lunch together at East Village, a dim sum place. The food was OK, though not great, but I loved their pork buns.

Thursday we joined Regina and Boris for dinner at Neumanali - a posh restaurant in Hayward. The food was good, the service clearly deficient. I wrote a letter to the management about it and I still haven't heard back.

Finally Friday we had a low key evening, dinner at taqueria Canc�n in Berkeley (very good, fresh ingredients) followed by a good movie.

Our dining adventures have continued. On Saturday we picked up Michaela in Kettleman City and again had lunch at Mike's Roadhouse Cafe. Their quesadilla was actually not bad, and a hefty portion. Sunday we spent the day having fun in Tilden and then had a late lunch and Naan n' Curry on Telegraph, I was not impressed. Then today Mike got home too late to buy chicken at Galvan's so we went to Aloha BBQ, and had really good Hawaiian BBQ.

We went down to LA Friday night to visit my family and drop off our daughter for the week. On the way we stopped at a couple of roadside restaurans. We ate mostly at home (an asado, some milanesas) but we did have one lunch out at Thai West, our favorite Thai restaurant in that area. Reviews for all these places are now online.

Buckhorn Family Restaurant at Santa Nella, located at the TravelCenter center gave us bland food, fries fried in old oil but friendly service.

Pea Soup Andersen's, this roadside institution in Santa Nella also features bland food but at higher prices

Thai West a neighborhood Thai restaurant in Chatsworth has consistently good food at modest prices

We went Halloween costume shopping at K-mart today and on the way there I noticed Best Burger in the shopping mall across the street. We hadn't been there before so I mentioned to Mike that we should try it sometime. He figured there was no time like the present so we decided to go there for dinner.

Best Burger occupies a corner in an outdoor mall. It's a clean, light, but otherwise non-descript restaurant with wooden booths and tables and chairs. Orders are taken at the counter, you are given a number which they call when the food is ready. In addition to burgers (single, double, junior, bacon) they serve hot dogs and a variety of other sandwiches (fish, chicken, linguica, pastrami, etc. - $2-5.25). We found the food to be a bit pricier than at Nation's and not as good.

Mike ordered a cheeseburger ($3.75) which he proclaimed to be "fine". It wasn't as juicy as Nation's and he wasn't crazy for the shredded lettuce. The other toppings were pretty scant. It seemed to have a thousand islands type sauce and it reminded me of a Big Mac.

I had the New York Steak sandwich ($5.25) and it wasn't bad but not great. The steak was tender enough and cooked medium-rare as we ordered, but it wasn't very flavorful. It came in a supermarket-type sandwich bun, with sad looking shredded iceberg, tomato, thin rings of red onion and pickles. The sandwich was a bit small, but I was quite full by the time I finished it. I'd eat it again, but wouldn't go out of my way to get it.

We ordered fries ($1.75) which were OK though a little on the soggy side and onion rings ($2.75) which were overdone but otherwise fairly good.

We ordered a grilled cheese sandwich ($2) for Mika which was made with American cheese and tasted accordingly. She didn't have any. Her vanilla milk shake ($2 for a small) was also disappointing, it tasted very artificial.

In all, we found the food adequate for a quick stop when you're hungry and in the neighborhood but not worth your while going out of your way to get it.

Best Burger
14393 Washington Ave. #J
San Leandro, CA
510-357-0808

Nalu's Bar & Grill is the poolside restaurant of the Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort, where we stayed during our foray in the Kohala coast. It has a very convenient location, right next to the pool, but it also offers a great view of the beach at sunset. The menu offers a small variety of sandwiches (priced in the low teens) as well as a few salads and appetizers (most under $10). They have a full bar specializing in mixed drinks (about $7) and a children's menu is also available (most dishes about $5-6). We had lunch there twice and drinks a couple of times.

The quesadilla appetizer served with a side of sweet sour cream and homemade guacamole was quite good, it was served on a bed of mixed greens. I rather enjoyed it, though it was a relatively small portion (what can you expect for about $8). The BBQ pulled pork sandwich was fine, though the shredded pork tasted exactly like that sold by Lloyd's in tubs at the supermarket. I wouldn't be in the least surprised if that was their source. Given the price (about $12, I think) we expected more. The fries were OK. I liked their blue cheese hamburger better, it was well made, the blue cheese was nicely melted and it was served in an actual hamburger bun. I'd order it again.

The children's meals came very appropriately in a plastic bucket with a small shovel - great for children to play at the sand pool or the beach. Mika had the peanut butter & jelly sandwich once, which was very large (great for her, as she could avoid eating the crust) and came with very cute happy face fries (they were yummy too), and the chicken tenders another time, which came with regular fries, and were OK. Unfortunately, as it's often the case, they didn't have any real healthy alternatives in the kid's menus.

In all, we liked Nalu's, the food was surprisingly good for its captive audience.

Nalu's Bar & Grill
Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort
69-275 Waikoloa Beach Drive
Waikoloa
Hawaii's Big Island, Hawaii
11 AM to sunset

The Grand Palace Chinese Restaurant is one of five restaurants at the King's Shop - having tried two others, it was a logical choice. It wasn't a particularly good one, however.

The small restaurant is rather nondescript, it does have a small fish tank that kept Mika amused, however. Its very extensive menu includes most of the standard dishes served at Chinese restaurants in the US, and has a particularly large seafood section. Most dishes seemed to average around $10. Portions weren't very big, which is not an issue when you are staying at a hotel and don't want leftovers anyway.

We started with an appetizer of fried wontons, these were crisp and not too oily and came with your standard sweet & sour sauce. They were by far the highlight of our dinner.

I ordered the beef with ginger and green onions and wasn't too pleased with it. The main problem was the consistency of the meat, it was obviously a cheap but of meat that had been pounded and probably MSGd into a tender but too weird consistency. Indeed, it was not unlike the beef you often get with chow mein, but it just didn't work as the star of the dish. The taste was OK but unremarkable.

We also weren't thrilled with the BBQ pork chow mein we ordered. Now, chow mein is not an easy dish to get wrong, but here it was too insipid and the ingredient actually managed not to blend well. Another disappointment.

Service was competent, but the food not good enough to make it worth going.

Grand Palace Chinese Restaurant
King's Shops
250 Waikoloa Beach Drive
Waikoloa
(808) 886-6668
11:00 a.m. - 9:30 p.m.

We stopped at the Big Island Steak House for lunch the third day of our visit to the Kohala Coast. We were staying at the Marriot across the street from the King's Shops, where the Big Island Steak House is located, and after two days of having lunch there we wanted something different. It was an OK, though not great, choice.

The Big Island Steak House is a pretty informal eatery, with all inside seating, though some tables overlook the lagoon. It's a pleasant place, though the informality, which is not reflected in the prices, seems to colour both the service and the kitchen. Our appetizers, for example, came way after we'd finished our main course. Still, everyone was very nice (and tolerant with Michaela), so it was easy to forgive.

The menu includes standard diner/steakhouse fare, concentrating on seafood (of course) and burgers and sandwiches for lunch. Most sandwiches/burgers were about $8-12.

Mike and I decided on the appetizer platter, and Mike had a pulled pork sandwich while I had a burger with blue cheese and mushrooms. Mike liked his sandwich, the meat was of much better quality than what we'd had at the Nalu's pool-side restaurant at the Marriot. My burger was a disappointment, however. I had asked for it medium-rare but it came well-done, which of course meant it was dry. It was served in a Portuguese bun, just like the pork sandwich, and the sweetness of the roll didn't work at all with either the burger or the blue cheese. Indeed, I can't imagine what they were thinking in putting that burger in that bun. The burger's alleged toppings were also quite scant. The accompanying fries were of the large, thick variety, and they were OK.

We were actually pretty full by the time our appetizer plate came, which wasn't a bad thing as none of its offerings were that great. The baby-back ribs were covered by a very spicy sauce that was too pungent for my taste. The buffalo wings were too thickly floured and were otherwise tasteless, the dipping sauce was OK though too messy. The egg rolls were also a failure, they were filled with very bland veggies. The coconut shrimp, however, was (in Mike's words) awesome, very tasty. You may be better off just ordering that as an appetizer.

Big Island Steak House
King's Shops
250 Waikoloa Beach Drive
Waikoloa
(808) 886-8805

I had read repeatedly that Merriman's restaurant in Waimea was the best restaurant in the Big Island, its chef having received quite a bit of recognition for his contributions to the new Hawaiian regional cuisine. I had decided against going as Waimea was a little bit out of the way for us and we had our 2.5 year-old along. So when I read that Chef Merriman had opened a cheaper, more casual restaurant at the King's Shops shopping center in Waikoloa, just across from our hotel, we definitely wanted to go. Reviews of Merriman's Market Cafe weren't as positive as those of its parent restaurant, so our expectations were subdued, but we still managed to be disappointed. The service and casual trattoria atmosphere were fine, but the food was underwhelming in its quality.

We went to Merriman's Market Cafe on a Wednesday evening at about 8:20 PM without making reservations. The patio of the restaurant (semi-opened to the King's Shops) was packed but they had some tables inside and they were able to accomodate us there after a few minutes wait (the wait for an outside table was 40 minutes). The inside of the restaurant is busy and informal, somewhat noisy, with plenty of open windows and fans and abstract prints and boxes of pasta and other Italian products serving as decoration. It's nice and inviting and not in the least formal - perfect for vacationers.

The brief menu concentrates on pan-Mediterranean offerings, including several fish, a few pastas and some more classical dishes. If the menu had any Hawaiian influences, I knew too little to spot them. Prices for main entrees where in the high-high teens to mid-twenties.

We decided to skip the appetizers as there was nothing compelling listed and go directly to main dishes. This was probably a mistake as the entree portions were rather small, clearly meant to be had as a part of a multi-course meal. Eating them alone left us hungry.

Mike ordered a fish tagine served on a bed of cuscus; their fish that night was mahi-mahi. He wasn't very pleased with it, the fish had been condimented with so much harissa sauce that its was completely overwhelmed by it. You could taste nothing but the sauce. The kitchen really needs to pay more attention on matching a fish to its seasoning, and letting at least some of the fish flavor come through - unless, of course, this is exactly what they were trying to avoid. The cuscus was just cuscus.

My braised ribs were very tasty, but they had been served lukewarm. Indeed, some parts of the meat were cold and either the fat within it, or the butter with which they might have been infused, had started to congeal. There is no excuse for serving a braised dish cold, it's slow cooked and it can be kept warm on its liquid for hours on end. Indeed, our entrees were brought to us so quickly after we ordered (within minutes) that I suspect that they had not only been pre-cooked (you expect that with slow-cooking dishes) but pre-plated. Otherwise they would have had not time to cool down so much before being served. That certainly should be a no-no for a restaurant of this or any kind.

I had been looking forward to savoring some of the braising liquid with my ribs, but very little of it came with the dish - another disappointment. The ribs were served with buttered noodles, which had been cooked al-dente (never my favorite) and had also started to congeal and stick together. Without much braising liquid to flavor them, they were a little tasteless.

Soft buns were served before the meal witha scoop of harissa, they were fine but not remarkable. Mike ordered a diet-coke but it was so flat as to make it completely undrinkable, he sent it back and got a bottled Root Beer instead.

Service was competent but rushed, our waiter didn't enquire about our meal until we were half-way through and he then seemed uninterested in the response. We had to fetch someone else to have Mike's drink exchanged.

All this said, I can see Merriman's Market Cafe thriving if for no other reason than there is a distinct lack of competition in Waikoloa. Neither of the two other restaurants we visited at the King's Shops were very good and hotel food is so overpriced as to make more reasonably priced alternatives imperative. That said, it's sad that Chef Merriman is sullying his reputation by serving such carelessly prepared food at a restaurant with his name.

Merriman's Market Cafe
King's Shops
250 Waikoloa Beach Drive
Waikoloa
(808) 886-1700
Daily 7 AM - 2 PM, 5-9:30 PM

As hard as I try I can't remember the full name of this restaurant shack located in the Waikoloa Highlands Shopping Center, where we had breakfast our first morning in the Kohala coast. This is particularly disconcerting because it had a two-word name, one of which words was "burger". Still, there is only one shack serving breakfast & burgers (it's across the parking lot from the supermarket and next to the smoothy place) so you can't miss it.

We'd gone to Waikoloa Village to visit the supermarket and get lots of drinks (the effort was probably not worth it, you can get most of what you need, albeit at higher prices, at the King's Shops) and Mike had promised Mika pancakes for breakfast. She was obsessing about this promise and had become very insistent on the pancakes, so we were happy to finally find one place that served them (apparently the only place open for breakfast on a Monday morning at Waikoloa Village). They were kind of expensive at $6 for 3 (very large, thick) pancakes, and they came with margerine and corn syrup but hey, they were pancakes. I'd be surprised if Mika ate even 1/3 of one, but a promise is a promise. I ate the rate and wasn't thrilled with them, but I'm not a big fan of pancakes anyway.

Mike had an omelette which he thought was OK.

Tex Drive In is another Big Island institution, recommended in particular for its fresh, hot malasadas, dense Portuguese donuts served plain or with fruit or cream fillings. It also serves a variety of cheap food, including burgers, sandwiches, stews and other Hawaiian specialties.

We visited in on a Monday for lunch, before heading to the famed Waipio Valley. We weren't very daring in our choices, though probably should have been. I ordered a roast beef sandwich, which consisted of a large soft loaf of bread, with cold commercial-type roast beef slices and tomato and lettuce on the side. There were packets of mayo and mustard. The whole thing was OK, though a roast beef sandwich is mostly dependent on the quality of its roast beef and this wasn't very good. It was a large sandwich and not a bad value at under $6 with fries.