Last weekend we headed to Sonoma and the Lake county for a little vacation. Our last evening, a Monday night in July 2008, we stayed in Clearlake Oaks, a very small town on the eastern side of the lake. Monday night is a bad night to eat at Clearlake Oaks. There are very few restaurants to begin with, and none of them were open that evening. Our only recourse if we wanted to eat was to drive to the city of Clearlake proper – not a very long drive, but it was getting lake.
There are a few Chinese and Mexican restaurants at the entrance of Clearlake, as well as what I imagine is an American restaurant at one of the hotels. Mike wanted something else, however, so we drove all our town, unsuccessfully as it turned out. We ended up at the Cactus Grill almost by default. It wasn’t a bad thing, as our meal, though not spectacular, was satisfying enough.
The little restaurant has a small dining room and patio – the dining room wasn’t air conditioned and it was an extremely warm night, so we decided to eat outside. It was quite pleasant.
Service was quite good, the waiter brought us chips immediately – though I had to ask before being told that they had a salsa bar inside. They had about 8 salsas to chose from, both mild and hot, the one closer to pico de gallo that I chose was pretty good.
Mike had one of their burritos, and he was quite pleased with it. It was large and tasty. I had the carne asada plate – which came with rice, beans, guacamole and salsa, as well as huge, very hot, flour tortillas (corn tortillas are also available). It wasn’t really different from a fajitas plate. The carne asada was a bit (only a bit) tough, but it had a very pleasant, somewhat vinegary, marinade. There wasn’t a lot of it (specially as I don’t eat either rice or beans), but I was satisfied. The guacamole tasted commercial, the type of bagged guacamole you can get at Safeway or Costco. It wasn’t bad, but I would have preferred homemade, fresh guac.
In all, it was a nice dinner. I wouldn’t be hurrying back, but if I was in the area I might visit it again.
Cactus Grill Restaurant
3900 Bayliss Ave
Clearlake, CA
(707) 994-0905
Marga’s Restaurant Reviews
Bay Area Restaurant Reviews
Author: marga (Page 59 of 112)
It’d been a couple of years since I’d last gone to Buon Appetito in Hayward. I’d meant to go back and try the pastas, but for one reason or another, it never came back. Finally yesterday, Lola and I were looking for a place to go to dinner, and Buon Appetito popped into my head.
The place looks just like before, though prices have gone up a few dollars. The menu, featuring pastas and Italian main dishes, is available online.
Dinner starts with fresh French Bread served with a sauce made from garlic, Parmessan cheese, olive oil, and either red pepper or tomatoes (I couldn’t tell what was giving it that red color). It was delicious, and I ate much more than I should.
Lola ordered the Ravioli con Pomodoro, ravioli filled with spinach, swiss chard, pinenuts & ricotta cheese, that comes with a tomato & artichoke hearts sauce. She felt it tasted very Italian, like the pastas she’d enjoyed in Florence, but felt it was underseasoned. I don’t think she’d order it again.
I went with the Gnocchi al Sugo di Carne – pottato gnocchi in a beef and carrot sauce. I liked the consistency of the gnocchi, they were dense without being heavy. The meat sauce was hearty, with chunks of stewed meat and carrots. There was nothing wrong with it, but I didn’t really like it. I’m beginning to think that I may prefer Italian-American food, to that which more closely approximates the style of the mother country. In any case, I enjoyed my dish and the leftovers, but I wouldn’t necessarily order it again.
Service was very good, and the kitchen boxed my leftovers for me – the type of service you rarely get anyway.
In all, I will return to Buon Appetito, but I may stick with the main dishes, which were so good last time.
Buon Appetito
917 A Street
Hayward, CA
510.247.0120
http://www.buonappetitorestaurant.net/
Original Review
Bay Area Restaurant Reviews
UPDATE: THIS RESTAURANT HAS CLOSED
Update: We’ve been to Thai Satay many times since it opened, though less frequently since Mai Thai came to town. While the restaurant was inconsistent at the beginning, it greatly improved in later years. Mike still orders their chicken penang to go quite often.
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Thai Satay is San Leandro’s only Thai restaurant, and as such we visit it from time to time. Mike often gets pad thai from there to take to his School Board meetings, and we go there for lunch once in a while. Yesterday, my friend Lola was visiting, and we decided that Thai sounded good.
I had the roasted duck, which comes in a bed of spinach and rice, accompanied by a strong, somewhat sweet sauce. The duck was nicely salted and tasted great, but it was very, very fatty. There seemed to be more fat than duck. I sort of enjoyed it, but I wouldn’t order it again. The sauce was pretty good with the rice, however.
Lola had a combination of masaman curry and basil chicken. The curry was good, though a bit heavy on the potatoes, but the chicken was unbelievably dry. The flavor, mild and inviting, was very good, but Lola couldn’t stand eating it. She did like the soup and salad which came with lunch.
At $9 each, the dishes were a bit pricy for lunch, but from time to time you can get “buy one, get one free” coupons at the SL Times.
In all, while Thai Satay doesn’t have the best Thai food in the world, it does have the best and only Thai food in San Leandro.
Thai Satay
1376 E. 14th Street
San Leandro, Ca
(510) 351-2345
http://www.thaisatay.com/
Original Review
San Leandro Restaurant Reviews
Mike and I found ourselves in Lakeport on our way to the Lake county from the Alexander Valley. We were hungry and Jack’s Gaslight Grill was pretty much the first restaurant we came across. It wasn’t a bad choice for lunch.
The restaurant looks like it used to be an old tavern. There is a nice wooden bar with mirrors, and a relatively small cooking area. The menu is coffee-shop style, with burgers and sandwiches.
I got the steak sandwich which was just OK. The meat was tough but tasted fine. The onion rings it came with, were quite good. Mike got the burger, which he said was very good, juicy and tasty.
Service was very friendly, and the place is worth a try.
Jack’s Gaslight Grill
135 N. Main Street
Lakeport, Ca.
707-263-0188
Restaurant Reviews
Bay Area Restaurant Reviews
On the fourth day of our trip we headed from Windsor to the Lake county, but first decided to visit some wineries in the Alexander Valley – where I hadn’t been before. I knew very little about the wineries, and pretty much stopped at those which were on the way.
We started with Field Stone winery, which looks like a partly buried stone building. It’s pretty cool. The small tasting room is off the barrel room. There is a $5 tasting fee.
Last year, Mike and I took a short trip to the wine country and went wine tasting in the Russian River Valley, in addition to other areas. This year, we decided to repeat ourselves, though vary our locations a little bit. Still, our third day had us traveling from Freestone, where we’d had an enzyme bath, to Windsor, where we were staying for the night. The easiest (or at least, most fun) way to do it is by driving through the Russian River wine country, and then we (I) might as well wine taste. Of course, this time I chose wineries I hadn’t visited on my previous visits to the region, and only visited three of them.
After a long canoe trip down the Russian River Valley, Mike and I headed towards Occidental, where we were spending the night. On our way we passed Korbel, and decided to stop for some refreshing sparkling wine.
Korbel seems to be a favorite destination for many, as the large complex was pretty busy that Saturday afternoon. There were people waiting for tours, people eating at their deli, and of course, lots of people drinking wine. A tasting is complimentary, though you get to chose 4 or 5 of the sparkling wines in their menu. The pours are pretty generous. This time, Mike tasted too.
I’m not a champagne snob (nor a wine snob, for that matter), so I will admit that Korbel champagne is perfectly fine for me. Indeed, as its offerings are sweeter than some of the more expensive champagnes, I probably like them more.
The Korbel Chardonnay ($10) had a sweet start and a bitter ending, and I wasn’t crazy about it. The Brut Rose ($10), meanwhile, had a nice floral bouquet and wasn’t too sweet while the Blanc de Noirs ($10) had nice bubbles, was fruity and sweet. But the wine I really liked was the Sweet Rose ($15), a floral, sweet and feminine champagne with a beautiful rose color. I got a couple of small bottles of it, and really enjoyed it.
Korbel also produces some somewhat more expensive wines. Mike really liked the Masters’ Reserve Blanc de Noirs ($22), it was light, flavorful with subtle bubbles. The Muscato Frizzante ($22), tastes like a bubbly muscat that has had some sugar taken from it. And the Korbel Port ($30) was very flavorful, with hints of dark berries. Mike liked it.
Tasting at Korbel was just fun, which is why I imagine so many people go there, and it had none of the pretentiousness of tasting at other champagne houses, such as Domaine Carneros. In all, I found that their sparkling wines were perfectly acceptable and would buy them.
The Oakville Grocery store seems to have a much larger local reputation than it size would imply. I had heard of it (no idea how), even though I’d never been to Healdsburg before. Still, I decided to go there to get pic-nic supplies for our canoe trip down the Russian River.
The little store sells mostly high-end gourmet products. They have a very nice selection of cheeses and charcouterie, a deli with expensive prepared food, a small bakery, and somewhat random choices of other gourmet delicacies. They didn’t have packaged cookies, however!
We ordered a couple of roast beef sandwiches to take with us. They were very nice and large, well balanced and had a lot of meat. I think they were around $8-9. I’d order one again.
Oakville Grocery
124 Matheson Street
Healdsburg, CA
Tel: (707) 433-3200
8:00am – 6:00pm Daily
During our short trip to the wine country last weekend, we hit a couple of wineries in the city of Healdsburg proper. The city features a dozen (OK, I’m guessing) tasting rooms from wineries in the area. Most of them charge a tasting fee, generally around $5.
Mike and I just returned from a short trip to Sonoma and Lake counties, where we (OK, I) did a fair amount of wine tasting. As usual, I’m going to include my notes, which I think I will divide into wine-growing region (if I can, at least) – even though we may have hit the same region on different days. Our first day was a straight forward drive through Sonoma County, ending with a couple of tastings in Healdsburg.
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