Marga's Foodblog

Last night I went to dinner to Matterhorn in San Francisco with Mike, Mika, my parents and two sisters. Matterhorn is a Swiss German restaurant which specializes in fondue.

We had a great time. The fondue was very yummy (though not alcoholic enough for my parents' taste), the service great and the whole experience very positive.

A full review will be available shortly in my restaurant review page http://www.lacabe.com/marga/food/rest/

With my sister in town babysitting Mika, Mike and I had been doing a fair amount of eating out (and expect to do some more). Our last three meals have been at restaurants and in all they've been satisfying.

Tuesday night we had dinner at A Cote, a "small plates" restaurant in Rockridge We weren't as impressed by the food as we were in our first visit, but we had a good enjoyable meal.

For lunch Wednesday we went to Boci in Pleasanton. We enjoyed the sidewalk dining and the linguini carbonara, though the ravioli bolognese was a dissapointment.

Finally, for dinner tonight we went to Jojo on Piedmont Ave. We had a very nice meal in this unassuming French restaurant.

As usual, full reviews of the restaurants will be available at http://www.marga.org/food/rest/

My sister Katherine spent her spring break with us and very graceously babysat Mika most nights she was here. This and the fact that I didn't felt like cooking all week, meant that I ended up going out for most meals. I talked about the early part of the week, but there is more.

Thursday, Kahty, Mika and I went to lunch at Fontina in Pleasanton. We all enjoyed the sidewalk dining, the wheater once again was beautiful. Michaela behaved wonderfully. Alas, we found the food overpriced and not very good. I'm still hoping to find one good restaurant in downtown Pleasanton with outdoor dining where I can return again and again.

Thursday night is Survivor night so we didn't go out (poor Lex got bamboozled!) and instead got Panda Express take out. I'm not very fond of chains as a matter of principle, but Panda Express actually produces some fairly descent Chinese(American) food. The mandarin chicken is particularly tasty.

Friday we all had lunch at Emil Villa's, a local coffeeshop which seems to be operating under new owners. The food was quite decent (it usually is) and I found their grilled cheese sandwich particularly tasty (though also a bit overpriced).

For dinner we went to Benihana the chain "Japanese steakhouse" and a favorite of Kathy's. The food was fine and the "show" kept Mika's attention for a bit. Most importantly, Kathy had a good time.

Saturday we skipped lunch and Mike and I went to dinner at CreAsian, a local upscale fusion restaurant. The little restaurant is interesting but needs some more variety in its menu (it doesn't seem to have change since our last visit there over a year ago). Still, we had a good, if too-quick meal.

Today we took Kathy to brunch before her flight back home. We went to JD Restaurant in Castro Valley. Big portions, OK food, Kahty was happy again.

Finally, for the grand finale, our friends Regina and Boris took us to dinner at Pomegranate, a Mediterranean restaurant in Berkeley. It was one of the most affordable places we dined at this week and probably my favorite. The food was simple, hearty and very tasty; the atmosphere managed to be elegant/casual and comfortable at the same time and people didn't even seem to mind Mika going beserk (she was in too good a mood, sometimes a crying child is easier to control than a too-happy-child).

This week I'm planning to eat in, eat in and eat in. And cleaning up the pantry is not out of the question.

It doesn't take much to get a last-minute table at a good restaurant in New York, just a $20-100 a bribe. At least this is what James Beard found out in his bribing experiment in New York. I don't know if it would work just as well in the Bay Area, but it might be worth finding out.

EPICURIOUS: GOURMET: JAMES BEARD: POCKET FULL OF DOUGH

*Update*. We've ordered pizza from here a few more times. My impressions continue to be the same, good, standard pizza. For future reference, my friend Tita, who likes thin pizza, didn't really like this one. Also I hadn't realized this but they charge for delivery.

--

Pizza Guys is a northern Californian chain with a location in San Leandro. As far as I know, it’s only a delivery chain, with no actual eat-in restaurant. I recently got a flyer from then, so I thought of them last night when I was in the mood for pizza.

I ordered a large Hawaiian pizza (bacon, pineapple and extra cheese) and it got here in the promised 45 minutes. The pizza was pretty good though not outstanding. It tasted like your average delivery pizza. The crust was medium width (not think, not thick). The cheese tasted real and the pizza wasn’t too greasy. I'd order from here again.

Pizza Guys has a website where you can see its menu and print coupons.

Pizza Guys
15253 Hesperian Blvd.
San Leandro, CA
510-481-5555
http://www.pizzaguys.com/

Friday night was "girls' night out" for my friend Lola and I. We decided to go to Asena, a Mediterrenean restaurant in Alameda. The food was wonderful and I liked the casual atmosphere. It's not a place for tots, though, so I doubt I'll go there again aytime soon.

After Asena we briefly considered going to Tucker's for ice cream but we were too full. Instead we headed to our usual hangout, Horatio's, a local steakhouse that also has a very nice lounge where you can eat dessert. Their desserts are very good and it's a nice place to hang out.

We went to La Bella Italia for lunch on Thursday. This is the restaurant that took over Pring's, our favorite coffeehouse, when the new owner couldn't make a go at it. I'd gone to Bella Italia twice before at this location, and my impressions of the food had been mixed. The non-pasta dishes had been pretty good while the pasta had been blah.

The lunch menu offers salads, pasta, pizzas and sandwhiches. When Bella Italia was at its old location, lunch there was a steal with pastas at $4 and pizzas $4-5. Prices have gone up a couple of dollars now, so that while the prices are reasonable, Bella Italia is no longer the bargain it was.

Mike had a sausage sandwich and I think he liked it, though it wouldn't win any awards. I had the tortellini bolognese, the same dish than Mike had had in our first foray into this restaurant, and my impression was similar. It was better than the other pasta dishes we had sampled there since, it was homey and perfectly eatable, though it was more a tomato sauce with meat added than a regular bolognese sauce.

Bella Italia is owned by a Sikh family. Supposedly the owner hates Indian food, which is too bad as I love it, and if there was an Indian restaurant in San Leandro I'd go there all the time.

Here is my previous review of Bella Italia.

Zachary’s Pizza has, without doubt, the best pizza in the Bay Area. Indeed, probably the world. I’ve never really had pizza in Chicago (whose pizza Zachary’s tries to imitate), but I just can’t imagine how it could be any better.

I haven't posted anything to this blog, or my other one, because I've been gone for the last week. Mike and I went down to Southern California, left Mika with my parents and took a 4-day cruise. It was relaxing and the food decent, though not actually good :) I hope to write more about the cruise and the food I've had lately, we'll see if I can manage the time.

Anyway, I just posted two reviews of San Leandro restaurants that I wrote before I left.

The Blue Dish is a small deli-like restaurant serving light American, Middle Eastern and Mexican menus. We tried the Middle Eastern stuff (prepared by a Latino cook) and our experience was mixed: Mike like his salad while I felt my shawerma was overwhelmed by the tahini sauce.

The Sandwitchery is, as it name suggests, a sandwich joint. They offer a large variety of sandwiches which are better, and more expensive, than those at the chains (there is a Subway and a Quiznos nearby) but otherwise not remarkable.

On a final note, I've heard that Cafe Zula closed. I'm not surprised given its out-of-the-way location and a menu that did not justify its prices. Unfortunately it isn't going to be replaced by another (better) restaurant, Trader Sports has expanded into that space.

I just posted two reviews from my trip to Los Angeles.

We stopped at Mike's Roadhouse Cafe in Kattleman City in our way to LA. It was just OK, better than Denny's. They have a beautiful collection of (overpriced) pedal cars, however.

In LA, we had dinner at Patagonian Gourmet, a whole-in-the-wall Argentine restaurant in Tarzana that was actually quite good. They have a killer chicken escabeche that you have to try.

Mike took me to the Pleasanton Hotel last night for a mystery dinner. It was great. The food was only so-so, but the whole evening was a lot of fun, nonetheless because Mike figured out who the murderer was :)

I wrote a longer review and will post it to my website later.

We went to Elios the week before our cruise, too long ago for me to remember the details well enough to write a proper review. However, it's unlikely we'll return so rather than leave it un-reviewed altogether, I will write a few remarks on the restaurant here.

Elios is one of the last of a dying breed, the all-American restaurant. It looks like a spiffed-up coffee-shop, it has bright red vinyl booths, large mirrors that make the place look bigger and waitresses who have been working there for years it not decades. Its long menu offers a wide selection of burgers and sandwiches (don’t expect anything innovative here), as well as steaks, veal, chicken, seafood and pasta dishes, all moderately priced. There is a long list of daily specials, some of which also appear in the regular menu at the same prices.

That evening, I decided on the broiled coulotte steak ($11.55). I remember it being fine, though not remarkable. I don’t remember what Mike had, I think also a steak which was marginally better than mine.

For dessert we shared a piece of chocolate cream pie which wasn’t very good, it didn’t have much flavor.

Perhaps one day I’ll go back to Elios to write a proper review. It’ll have to be without Mike, however, as he refuses to go back with me.

Elios
260 Floresta Boulevard
San Leandro, CA
510-351-0463

We now have our third Vietnamese restaurant in San Leandro: Le Soleil. It's located on E. 14th STreet, downtown, next to Luke's Grill.

We went last night, its second day of operation. There were some glitches with the food & service (waitress got one of our dishes wrong, kitchen hasn't learned the dishes well so descriptions don't match what you are served), but we had a very good experience overall. The food was quite yummy, the waitresses very nice and attentive, and the little space is very cute. It's hard to believe that a year ago it was an stationary store.

Full review availble at http://www.marga.org/food/rest/soleil.html

I just posted a review for Lotus Thai Cuisine, a small and very cute restaurant on Piedmont Ave. in Oakland, where Kathy and I had lunch earlier this month. We loved the restaurant, in particular its recessed tables, but hated the dried-out food.

Another recently posted review is for The Rice Table, an Indonesian restaurant in Marin we visited last month with our friends Charlotte and Daniel. The food was great but the portions left some to be desired.

Closer to home, we went to Porky's Pizza Palace in Washington Manor, a place where you can eat and let your kids run around. The pizza and pasta are OK too.

We've visited a number of other restaurants, the reviews for which are still on the editing process (I'll add the links to them as I get them back). These include:

-The Egg Shop in Montclair, a great spot for a Father's Day brunch

-Casa Madrid in Pleasanton, we didn't like the tapas at this Spanish eater but got the best service we've ever had.

-Pasta Pelican in Alameda, the bay view is a winner at this moderately-priced eatery. The food is not bad either.

-Stacey's, a nice bistro in downtown Pleasanton had the best herbed butter but very slow serive.

-Village Bistro in Castro Valley offers traditional continental cuisine, comfort food for grown up palates.

-Sansar also in downtown Pleasanton has delicious Indian food, at Pleasanton prices.

Yesterday I had a slice of pizza at the pizza place next to the Shattuck cinema in Berkeley. $2 for a Berkeley-size slice. I liked it a lot, it had that slightly alcoholic taste (don't tell me it's something bad) that pizza sometimes gets. The thin dough was pretty flimsy, though, if you picked it up from the outside crust, the end of the slice would fall down. The cheese also didn't stick to the crust, making eating it somewhat messy (in other words, don't get a slice of pizza to eat as you walk), but the taste was great.

The pizza place (I don't know its actual name) has a couple of counters with stools, it'snot really kid friendly (hard to eat the pizza & control the kid) but I've been there alone with Mika a few times without too many problems.

Last night we went to see the Boca-America game at SBC Park (Boca destroyed America 3-1) and we had "dinner" there. We sat at the club level and got food from McGraw's Derby Grill. The food was OK.

Mike has a chili-dog which he thought was quite good. He thought the same of the chicken-apple-sausage sandwich he got for Mika ($5). Michaela actually ate the whole sausage (leaving the bread), which means it must have either been very good or she must have been really hungry.

I was much more unlucky with my cheeseburger ($6.25). The plain burger had been sitting under a heat lamp and was very dry. It was school-cafeteria quality (i.e. McDonalds would have been an improvement) and it came plain. You could add onions and other condiments in theory, but the cheese had fused the burger with the bread to the point that they were unseparatable. In other words, don't order burgers here.

We has an order of fries (~$3) which was fine, and a churro ($3.50) which was disappointing. It was worm but kind of soggy.

Fountain sodas (~$3 for a small) were a little weird-tasting but strill drinkable.

In the same level there was a full bar, a stand selling quesadillas and other bad-looking Mexican food, and a stand selling pizza.

We ordered Lake Chabot Pizza after getting a couple of door-flyers for it. Apparently it's under new management but we'd never try it before.

We decided on ther 2-medium, 2-topping pizzas for $17 (includes a free soda) deal.
I was happy to see that Lake Chabot pizza hasn't downsized their pizzas like so many other pizza joints in the area have. A small pizza is 12", a medium 14" and a large 16" (they also have 8" personal pizzas, and 18" extra-large pizzas).

The pizza arrived within half an hour.

We didn't really like the pizza. The problem was mostly on the pizza dough, it was too thick and not very flavorful. I actually like thick-crust pizza, but only when the crust tastes good. The sauce was also too mild to impart any flavor on the pizza. The toppings (extra-cheese & pineapple for mine, sausage & pepperoni for Mike's) were fine, but they couldn't compensate for the crust (that was specially the case with mine).

We probably won't be ordering from here again.

Yesterday we drove I-5 to LA and in our neverending quest to find something descent to eat on the road, we stopped at Cazuelas, a Mexican restaurant in Coalinga. We'd never been there before, so we had hope. It was slowly dispelled.

The restaurant actually looks better from the outside than the inside. The architecture of it is fine enough, but the twiching fluorescent lights and ugly vinyl chairs and formica tables gave it a definite dive look, though most of its customers were Mexican families.

There were only a few tables occupied when we got there, but service, still, was very slow. It took over five minutes for us to get seated, and we waited for a long time to get our food, the bill, etc.

Still, our culinary experience started well. The tortilla chips and salsa were actually good. The chips were crispy and only slightly salty, and not in the least oily. The salsa had the right note of spice and lime.

The menu featured standard Tex-Mex items (no cazuelas) at average prices (~$10). Mike decided on that night's special, a tostada combo ($6) while I went for a carne asada torta (sandwich) with french fries ($8). My sandwich was OK. It would have been much better if the meat had not been oversalted. A slice of avocado and chopped tomato helped with this, however. It wasn't very substantial, however, and I expected more for $8. The accompanying french fries were quite good, though a little on the soft-side for Mike's taste.

Mike's tostada was a whole different deal. To begin with it was a small shell with a tiny bit of chicken, some cheese and a whole lot of shredded lettuce. It came served with tasteless rice and watery, thin refried beans. He could not have been more disapointed on his dish. Unfortunately, it was very memorable. He woke up the next day with a bad case of food poisoning. As I'm pregnant, I'm extremely thanksful that I didn't eat any of his food.

Our drinks were OK. I had a fountain coke and it was mostly flat but it tasted OK.

In all, we'll be avoiding Cazuelas in the future as the plague, which it may just be :)

Cazuelas Restaurant
179 W Polk St
Coalinga, CA
(559) 934-0751

I just posted some more restaurant reviews. In addition to reviews for Pasta Pelican, Stacey's and the Montclair Egg Shop that I'd mentioned earlier, I put reviews for The Ice Creamery in Castro Valley and Ploughman's in San Leandro.

I was set on going for Italian last night, but then Mika and her gnocchi obsession hit me. After clearing her plates all day, I couldn't stomach the thought of another tomato sauce or pasta. Mike suggested Thai (of course) so I went on to search for a Thai restaurant somewhat nearby.

Here the East Bay Express dining pages came to my aid. It's really a great resource for finding restaurants in this part of the Bay, specially given how little notice the Chronicle and even Citysearch give to us here. It's particularly useful for finding small, out of the way restaurants and that's exactly what Old Weang Ping Village was.

I will write a full review later (of course), but in a few words this is an old, quirky restaurant in a part of Oakland we had never visited before (near Mills College). Regina felt we were in another city altogether (as Mike told her, we were). The food is very cheap ($5-6 por appetizers, $6-7 for main dishes) and very, very good. They call it Thai country cooking and the flavors are somewhat different from everyday Thai restaurants. The curries are less blended and much more abundant in vegetables. But all we had was delicious.

You can check out the review at the Express

Vatran's, our favorite Eastern European deli, is changing ownerships. It's not closing per se, but the store has been bought by two Asians so I cannot imagine it will remain the same. The former owner will stay there for a couple of months to handle the transition and train the new owners, but you can't gain decades of experience in a couple of months. I hope to be wrong, but I can't imagine the quality remaining the same.

Oh well.

We had lunch there today, the trip-tip sandwich was delicious as was the pull pork (though Mike didn't like the accompanying potato salad).

We've been eagerly awaiting the opening of the New Hong Kong Restaurant for several weeks. Though San Leandro does not need any more Chinese restaurants, this one is located only 3 or 4 blocks from our house. The more restaurants we have close by, the better for us.

My friend Jenny called me up last night suggesting dinner. She was left alone with her two kids while her husband worked, and Mike was still in a business trip so I was left alone with Mika. I figured that as a Chinese restaurant the place would be quite child friendly and we should give it a try.

All in all it worked quite well. The kids were loud and annoying, but the other parties eating there didn't seem to mind too much (I apologized to them, of course). The place wasn't very busy, but with only 3 people working there, service was quite slow and rushed. It took forever for us to get our bill - at a time when the kids were jumping around by the front door. And we never got the rice we ordered, but these are all things you have to expect from a restaurant that has only been opened 5 days.

The food was traditional Chinese-restaurant stuff and quite good and cheap (entrees averaged $7). We ordered a pork bun appetizer (~$1.50 for two buns), and the steamed, crustless buns were very good. They had a nice ammount of delicious pork and I'd certainly order it again.

The chow main was made with regular noodles (not the very thin type some restaurants serve) but I really liked the flavor. It was heavier on the noodles than on the bean sprouts and other veggies, which I prefer of couse.

The cashew chicken was good, but the dish was overwhelmed by the small, cubed water chestnuts. You actually had to hunt for the chicken amidst all of them. Unfortunatelly, Mika didn't like them - but she loved the cubed zucchini and scarse carrots that came with it.

The good health chicken and veggie platter seemed too oily to be good health, but it was good. The kids all loved the veggies, though some more broccoli would have been better. As it was they all had to share one last crown.

I'll write a full review of the restaurant next time I go there, but I figured this one would work for now.

New Hong Kong Restaurant
1750 E. 14th St.
San Leandro, CA
510.357.6288

I got a bunch of restaurant reviews back from Mike (who edits them, he's so horrified at my grammar that doesn't let me post them otherwise). Here they are:

-Pleasanton Hotel Mystery Dinner, we loved the mystery, didn't enjoy the food.

-Casa Madrid in Pleasanton, poor tapas, good main dishes, great desserts and exemplary service.

-Pyzano's Pizzeria in Castro Valley, good pizza, nice atmosphere.

-Village Bistro in Castro Valley, good, homey continental cuisine, just like mom used to make if she was French.

-Cafe Colucci in Oakland, good Ethiopian food

-Ethiopia Restaurant in Berkeley, different Ethiopian food in not as cool surroundings

-Jardiniere, bad service and uninspired food at this San Francisco landmark

-Shish Kebab, etc., middle eastern delivery in San Leandro

-Taqueria Guadalajara, not the best taqueria in town (San Leandro)

-The Much Box, a burger stand in Chatsworth with a long history

-Cha Cha Cha, a colorful Encino restaurant.

It's been so long since we went to Sansar, an Indian Restaurant in Pleasanton, that I don't feel I can write a proper review. Still, as so far this is the best Indian restaurant I’ve discovered in the Bay Area I can’t let it pass unacknowledged. So, and until we go again and I can write a formal review, I figured I’d write my recollections of our dining experience at Sansar here.

We went there in June 2004, when Kathy was visiting us. Our actual intention had been to go to the Pleasanton Hotel for music and outdoor food, but we had gotten there late and there was no place to sit anywhere. That may have been for the best, as the crowd mostly consisted of middle-aged, high-heal bearing, suburban looking folks - not exactly our types of people.

We noticed Sansar right across the street and we figured we’d have dinner there - we all love Indian food and are always in the look for a new place. Kathy - who until then was convinced she disliked Indian food - wasn’t thrilled with the idea but went along with it.

The restaurant was quite empty that Thursday night, which may have accounted for the very friendly host. It’s an OK-looking place, perhaps a tad nicer than most Indian restaurant, though still retaining much of the look of whatever restaurant was there before it. The menu is quite expensive, with vegetarian dishes averaging $9 and non-vegetarian dishes ranging from $12 to $21. The food, however, was worth it.

I don’t remember if we ordered an appetizer, but I do know that both the chicken tika masala and the lamb korma we ordered were excellent, probably the best we’ve ever had. They were quite spicy, however - even though these are dishes that are not usually spicy. They were so good that they made Kathy into an Indian-food convert. Her lamb byriani was also excellent, the rice was very flavorful and the lamb was tender. Like the curries, it was quite spicy.

I don’t remember what Regina and Boris ordered, I think Boris was quite happy with his dish though Regina felt hers was too spicy and didn’t eat as much. Still, everyone agreed that this was very high quality Indian food.

We’ll certainly go again, next time I’ll ask for my dish “mild” and I’ll write a proper review.

Sansar
824 Main St.
Pleasanton, Ca.
925-600-0202
M-Sa 11 am-3 pm, 5-10 pm
Su, 5-10 pm

Regina had driven by Bacheeso's (located on San Pablo and Dwight in Berkeley) many times and had always seen lots of people there, so when the question of where we'd go for brunch yesterday came out, she suggested we give it a try. It was a good choice.

We had to wait outside for about ten minutes before we got a table - though someone needs to stay inside to assert themselves when their turn is, they don't seem to keep a wait list - but that wasn't too big a deal. The restaurant is pretty small and crowded but convivial and quite child friendly. There were lots of parents with babies and toddlers around, though don't count on a high-chair. I saw a very old one in the back, but I don't think it'd have been practical to bring it to the table.

Bacheeso's has a breakfast menu offering many staples (omelettes, french toast) and a lunch one with pastas and sandwiches. What draws many people to the place, however, is its brunch buffet which includes both breakfast and lunch items for about $9 ($5 for children). We all decided on the buffet which is why I'm not writing a formal review of the restaurant - we didn't actually get to experience any of their "regular" food.

The buffet was actually quite good, not all items were great, but most of the food was at least a couple of notches above typical buffet faire. Apparently once upon a time they served a Middle Eastern buffet, but it has now become quite Americanized. One of the best dishes was chicken with BBQ sauce and their homemade mashed potatoes were a little bit lumpy but they rocked flavor-wise. Mike also liked the eggs and the pasta salad.

Their kebabs looked like long slices of meatloaf, but their was no mistaken their origen once you bit into them. They were moist and flavorful with a clear Middle Eastern spicing. The basmati rice didn't hold up well under the juice from the roasted tomatoes, however.

A slice of what was either pizza or focaccia (the toppings had been fused together and were unrecognizable) tasted quite good, though it was a little tough. Indeed, all the baked goods suffered from a distinct lack of baking powder - they were flat and dense when they should have been fluffy. We encountered this problem on a chocolate cake (which otherwise tasted out of a box - not bad) and on the pancakes.

Other items were also lackluster, a roasted turkey was dry and Regina was underwhelmed by some of the other veggetarian options (there were several).

Desserts could have been better, but fresh strawberries with a chocolate swizzle were great.

The one thing that didn't work well was the service, but the waitresses were clearly swamped. They were constantly going from one place to the other, so it was probably not their fault that we had to remind them about our drinks well after we were eating.

In all we had a good experience and felt that the food was a very good value. It's probably not worth it for us to make the trek to go there for brunch again, but if we were in the neighborhood we might very well stop by again.

Bacheeso's Garden Bistro
2501 San Pablo Ave.
Berkeley, Ca.
(510) 644-2035
Daily 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

Yesterday was Mike's birthday party and we had a pizza party. I got pizza from 3 different places.

We got a meat lover's and a vegetarian pizza from Marina Pizza Parlor, one of our regular places. Marina's pizzas have a relatively thin crust and lots of toppings. They are better than Domino's but otherwise unremarkable. On the plus side their pizzas are larger than average, while the medium is 14" the large is 18", compare that with Pizza Guys, another place from where we get frequent deliveries, where a large is merely 14".

Marina Pizza Parlor
2004 Lewelling Blvd.
San Leandro, CA
510-352-9544

We also got a shish kabob pizza from Shish Kebab Etc.. The pizza was OK but I really liked the kebab topping - Mike didn't, he doesn't think kebabs belong on pizza.

And then we got 3 1-topping pizzas from Domino's. I personally like Domino's, though other people seem to be pickier.

Finally, we got an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. Their cakes are expensive (about $32 for a 9" one), but what a great way to have your cake and ice cream too!

Yesterday, as I was looking through my website for the phone number for Nation's, I was surprise to realize that I didn't have it, that indeed I had never written a "review" of this, our favorite chain.

Nation's is a local bay area chain offering burgers, fries, breakfast and pies. None of their offerings are particularly complicated (though you can get a chili in your burger!), but they have some of the best burgers around and for less than $4 for a 1/3 lb. burger (or is it 1/2 lb?), they're a bargain. The regular burgers come with very generous portions of mayo, lettuce, tomato and onions. They are huge and quite tasty. Their fries, fried in canola oil, are pretty good though not outstanding.

Their pies are quite good, with flaky crusts and thick centers. We particularly enjoy the chocolate cream and banana cream, though we dislike the artificial topping with which they are covered. Their lemon merengue pie is also very good and doesn't suffer this problem (pies start at $1.80 for a small slice).

Mike has had breakfast once or twice. The breakfast are huge but, as you can expect, not particularly high quality.

Another advantage of Nation's is that it stays open late.

Nation's Giant Hamburgers
San Leandro Plaza
1335 Washington Ave.
San Leandro, Ca.
(510) 352-8820
Hours: 6am-3am Daily
Breakfast served till 11am
http://www.nationsrestaurants.com/

(More San Leandro Restaurant Reviews)

Saturday morning we went to The Fifth Wheel for brunch. The little restaurant has all the atmosphere of a truck stop, and the type of food seved at such spots all across America. We weren't impressed. The food was OK but nothing extraordinary by San Leandro standards and the wait was unbelievable. I wrote a review and when edited it'll be posted at my website

I just posted three new restaurant reviews.

The Fifth Wheel serves American breakfast and lunch in a truck stop atmosphere. More about it below.

New China Buffet is the newest Chinese buffet in San Leandro serving over 100 different dishes.

Zatar is a Mediterranean restaurant in Berkeley serving organic food

We've been getting fliers for Red Apple Pizza since we moved into our house almost 5 years ago, but for one reason or another we hadn't given it a try until tonight. I was pleasantly surprised. I got a large combo pizza (pepperoni, sausage, beef, mushrooms, green peppers and black olives - $16 with a coupon that also gave us a "free" 2 liter coke) and it was pretty good. The crust was medium thickness, it was lightly sauced and all the ingredients were fine. In all it was little bit salty for me, though not for Mike. The toppings separated easily from the floppy crust (you will need a plate to eat this pizza), and I think it would have benefitted from more cheese (but I usually order extra cheese for my pizzas). In all it was good and I'd order it again.

We also had an order of garlic bread with cheese ($3) which was a bit crusty but very garlicky. I'd also order it again.

Red Apple Pizza
14799 #E Washington Ave.
San Leandro, Ca.
510-357-4500
M-T 11 AM - 10 PM
F-Sa 11 AM - 12 AM
Su 12-10 PM

Mike and I just got back from the Big Island of Hawaii, where we spent a week and a half on vacation. Surprisingly we didn't go out to eat much, we were generally too busy to go out for lunch or too tired to go out for dinner, but we did manage several meals at restaurants. We weren't expecting much from food in Hawaii and we didn't get it. The food was generally expensive, pedestrian and not inspired - just what you would expect of a cuisine that must appeal to thousands of middle American tourists. We did have one good meal, at a Thai restaurant in Volcano Village, but even that wasn't spectacular. Still, I'll write short reviews of the restaurants we visited in this blog.

We stayed at the Keauhou Beach Resort south of Kona and our second evening in the island we dined at the Royal Thai Cafe. I had read some positive reviews of the restaurant, which made us all the more dissapointed. The restaurant is located at the Keauhou Shopping Center, it's a nice place but we got take out as Mika had fallen asleep in the car and we didn't want to wake her. Prices were a little bit high for a Thai restaurant, most entrees were in the low teens.

We got a chicken satay appetizer, panang beef and pad thai. The chicken satay was fine, nothing out of the ordinary but good enough. The panang sauce was a little bit thick and not as deep as the best panangs, but it was pleasant enough. The beef, however, was very chewy and some pieces were completely inedible. There was also a very low ratio of beef-to-veggies in the dish. I was left disappointed and a bit hungry.

Mike's pad thai didn't fair better. The noodles appeared to have been undercooked and they had clumped together in a not very appetizing manner. The dish tasted fine, however.

All in all, we wouldn't go back there.

Royal Thai Cafe
Keauhou Shopping Center
78-6831 Alii Drive
Keauhou, HI 96740
(North Kona District)
Tel. (808) 322-8424

Drysdale's Two had the advantage of being located at the Keauhou Shopping Center, very close to our hotel, so we chose it for dinner our 3rd and last night in Kona. It was an OK choice, the food wasn't eatable though not great and not terribly overpriced. Being able to eat outside was a plus (more room for Mika to move around), though you may want to stir away from the feral cats in the area.

The menu featured mostly diner/pub food, with several seafood offerings. Mike decided on the BBQ ribs and he was pleased with them, they weren't the best ribs he'd had in his life, and the BBQ sauce was generic, but he did enjoy them. I'm not positive on what I had, either a burger or a patty me, something just not very memorable in either a good or bad way :) What I do remember is that the sodas were expensive (over $2 for a large one) and there were no free refills!

Service was adequate, also not very memorable, though I did come out with the sense that I probably wouldn't go back there again.

Drysdale's Two Restaurant
Keauhou Shopping Center.
78-6831 Alii Dr #108
Kailua-Kona, HI 96740-2440
808.322.0070
Open 11am - 11:30pm.

Ken's House of Pancakes seems to be an institution in Hilo. I found the restaurant mentioned many, many times while researching where to eat in the Big Island, and while not all the reviews had been positive, I figured it was worth giving it a try.

We got there early on a Sunday morning and there was a little bit of a wait for a table. The crowded restaurant seemed quite friendly and popular with locals, specially families. The place had a definite "Old Hawaii diner" feeling to it, with its fans, Hawaiian-attired waiters and the already almost-oppressing heat sipping through. If for no other reason, its non-generic ambiance made it enjoyable.

Its menu featured standard breakfast items with a Hawaiian twist, coconut and macademias could be found in their pancakes, and some dishes came with special tropical-fruit syrups. Mike decided on the coconut pancakes, which included coconut both in the inside and sprinkled on top. They were pretty good, even with their regular syrup and Mike enjoyed them. I had the French toast made with Portuguese bread and it was fine, better with the berry syrup than the corn syrup. Our side of Portuguese sausage was very tasty and I highly recommend it. A chocolate milkshake was made with chocolate syrup and was good, though in the small side.

Service was fine, the food came to the table very quickly. In all, if we were in Hilo again, we'd go back.

Ken's House of Pancakes
1730 Kamehameha Ave.
Hilo , HI 96720
(808) 538-1877
Open 24 hours.

We had considered staying at Volcano Village, though had finally decided it was more practical to stay in Hilo four foray on the east side of the island. Still, we (in particular Michaela) were quite hungry by the time we were finished exploring Volcano park and wanted some chow right away. I had read that Thai Thai served very good Thai food, so we decided to go there for dinner.

Volcano Village is not a village per se, but a road with a few stores and many B&B's separated by hundreds of feet. Thai Thai was closed to the beginning of the road, next to the True Value store. The restaurant is quite nice, decorated (of course) with Thai scenes, including a large silk hanging identical to the one we have in our living room, and a large picture of the Thai king. That evening the electricity in the whole village wasn't working well, so we were almost turned away. The hostess (whom I suspect of being the owner) was apparently concerned that there wasn't enough light to go to the bathroom and/or that the water supply wasn't working on the bathroom, I wasn't too clear. Other parties that came after us were turned away (though offered take out) but she allowed us to have dinner once we told her that we were staying in Hilo (couldn't really do take out, then). We're glad we stayed, our dinner there was definitely the best we had in the island and the food matches (but does not surpass) some of our favorite Thai restaurants here. Indeed, if Thai Thai was in this area we would go back without hesitation.

The menu was your basic Thai menu, emphasizing, as you would expect for a restaurant in Hawaii, seafood. The prices were a little, but not too much, in the high side, most in the low to middle teans, but portions were very generous. A chicken satay appetizer was listed at $16, more than twice what we usually pay for it, so we decided to skip it this time. Instead, Mike ordered his usual Pad Thai and I had my usual masaman beef. Both were very good. The beef was tender and the sauce was deep and complex, as Mike said, anything in that sauce would taste good. I'd prefer the potatoes to have been cooked a little more, but that's a pet peeve of mine with this dish. Mike also liked his Pad Thai though found the noodles strange, rather than being flat they were thin and round, like vermicelli. Though the portion was generous, he finished it all.

Service was quite good and the restaurant was almost full when we got there soon after sunset on a Sunday night, it got full while we were there. We didn't go to the bathroom so I still don't know if that was the problem.

Thai Thai Restaurant
19-4084 Volcano Rd
Volcano, HI 96785
808.967.7969

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.

Mike had a fish burger and was quite happy with it, he said it was a better fish burger than any he's had here. He'd order it again.

We all shared a malasada for dessert (and bought more for the road) and while it was good, its main merit was that it was warm. Otherwise it didn't taste very different from a donut, though it was denser and somewhat less sweet. The chocolate creme filling didn't help it at all. Krispy Kreme may be in trouble, but not from malasadas.

Tex is a convenient stop on your way to or from the Waipio valley and for that reason alone I'd recommend it.

Tex Drive In
45-690 Pakalana St.
Honokaa, HI 96727
Tel: (808) 775-0598
http://www.texdrivein.com/

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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 Cancún 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.

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/:

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

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

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 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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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
Pícaro (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/

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/

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 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.

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?

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.

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 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 jamón 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.

-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, Latté Da, a cool coffehouse on Washington Ave. is closing. We go to Latté 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 María #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?

I went winetasting in Livermore with my sister Kathy and her friend Anna a couple of weeks ago, and we stopped at the Café Garré, at the Garré Winery, for lunch. The little café 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 Café Garré though I'd probably stick to the sandwiches.

Café Garré
7986 Tesla Road
Livermore, CA
http://www.garrewinery.com/

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.

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'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.

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.

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.

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.

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 :)

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

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

This weekend we went to two African restaurants. Friday night it was Finfiné, 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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Casa María 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.

A week or so ago I stopped by for a late lunch at Viva Pancho Villa, the new Mexican restaurant/taquería 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.

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 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/

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

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.

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

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

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/

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

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

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/

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

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

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

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

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 Spaëzles, 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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

For months we've seen the "Kolbeh Restaurant" sign at the old Casa María 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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 :)

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.

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!

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.

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

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

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

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 Jamón 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 jamón 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

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 :)

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.

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.

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"

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.

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

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)

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.

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

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/

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.

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.

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/

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

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

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.