Marga's Foodblog

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

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

I got Mika an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas. She'd seen it, wanted one, and I figured it would be a cool thing to have. So far, it hasn't.

The problem may be that Mika may be too young for it - it's designed for kids 8 and over, though it still says kids should be supervised while using it. It may be that once she can read the instructions, and do the baking all by herself, it'll be a blass. But at this age I still have to premeasure the water that goes into the easy bake mixes, which is really no different than premeasuring the water that goes into a grown up cake mix. And for a grown up cake she gets to break eggs, which is exciting. And then, it's all a matter of putting it into the oven, whether it's the kids one or the adult one, she needs my help to do it (though today she took the cake out of the oven all by herself - while I was on the phone - and managed to only burn herself slightly). So I don't see much of an advantage *at this age* between using the easy bake oven and using a regular mix and the regular oven. Maybe that will change.

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

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/

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

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

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.