Creekside Bistro – San Leandro – Review

I just came back from lunch @ Creekside Bistro, the new breakfast/lunch venture in downtown San Leandro from the former owners of Planet Coffee. The little cafe serves coffee drinks, breakfast items and sandwiches and it’s open from 7:30 AM to 4:30 PM, basically for breakfast and lunch. It’s located in the Creekside Plaza Office Park near BART. Unfortunately, it faces an inside parking lot which means it’s not accessible or visible from the street. Fortunately, that means there is nearby parking.
The little restaurant looks like your standard office park cafeteria. It’s nicely decorated and comfortable and the outside patio will provide a good dining alternative during warm months.
The lunch menu is a bit limited and consists of the soup of the day (artichoke today), five salads, nine meat sandwich (mostly cold) and six vegetarian sandwiches. Most items are $6-$9.
I had the roasted tri-tip sandwich ($7.75), which came with caramelized onions, Provolone cheese and mayo (I had them skip the veggies) in a rustic baguette. It was sensational. The perfectly salted meat tasted roasted and the onions provided just the right amount of sweetness, the cheese helped bring them together and the bread as just resistant enough. It’s a great sandwich and it made Mike jealous. My only complaint is that it wasn’t big enough, specially for the price. I remained hungry.
Mike had the Grilled Black Forest Ham & Gruyere sandwich ($7). This wasn’t as successful. I think the main problem was that the black forest ham was very one dimensional and none of the ingredients added any dimension to the ham. Mike would definitely not order it again.
Both sandwiches came with a small scoop of potato salad, which Mike thought was very good, with a nice tangy flavor. I’m not a potato salad eater myself, and would have appreciated another choice.
I didn’t see any desserts available, but I didn’t ask about them. A couple of moderately-priced choices would be good.
In all, it was a good lunch (great for me, OK for Mike) and I’d go back for that tri-tip sandwich.
Creekside Bistro
500 Davis St.
San Leandro, Ca
510.352.3300
http://www.creeksidebistro.net/
Marga’s San Leandro Restaurant Reviews