Last night I got take out from Wonderful Cafe, the Hong Kong restaurant that has opened in the Le Soleil space. I loved Le Soleil for many years, before it became tired and I stopped going, so I wasn’t necessarily sad to see it go – but I wish a better restaurant had taken its place.
I didn’t go to pick up the food, so I can’t tell you about the atmosphere and service, but photos I’ve seen online make it seem closer to a cafeteria in style than to the “Asian bistro” look of the 00s and 10s which I so enjoyed. The walls are half painted in a hospital-teal color which I’m guessing is aiming to exude “cleanliness,” I can’t imagine what else.
I ordered the Beef Brisket Clay Pot Vermicelli ($18), which looked nothing like its picture online, and actually consisted of a few cubes of fatty meat, rice and bok choy. There was no vermicelli. The beef cubes were mostly fat, there was very little meat to speak of. The rice was tasty enough in the areas that had been caramelized, but it was mostly insipid. If I hadn’t had a dog to whom I could feed the fat, it would have been a complete miss of a meal. Obviously I wouldn’t order it again.
Mike had the sweet and sour grilled pork ($19.5). It was “just OK.” He found it to be bordering on bland, without the intensity of flavor and just “tastiness” that he was looking for. He wouldn’t order it again.
The people at the restaurants were very nice, they even gave Mike some candied walnuts while he waited for the food. Those were quite good. For this reason, I may give them a try in the future, once they have found their stride and hopefully corrected criticism.
Wonderful Cafe 1515 E 14th St San Leandro, CA 510-756-6103
Disappointing fare at this once SF Valley favorite
A Thai restaurant has been operating in the strip mall on Topanga Canyon and Lassen, in Chatsworth, for over a quarter of a century. I’ve never noticed the change of names and ownership of said restaurants, but I’ve frequented them all as they are very close to my parents’ home. Alas, it’s the end of an era. Not only because life and death means we won’t be visiting the area for much longer, but because our last visit to the restaurant in the space, now named Amazing Siam Thai Restaurant, was less than amazing to say the least. Given the quality of Thai restaurants in the San Fernando Valley, I can’t imagine Amazing Siam has long for this world.
The restaurant itself looks as it’s always looked: it’s a rectangular space with booths on one side, some next to the window, and a wall bench on the other with tables and chairs facing it. It’s decore is muted, which has been the trend for Thai restaurants for at least a decade or two now. It’s a nice, casual place to stop by. The menu is pretty standard and prices are on the affordable side, with most dishes in the high teens – low for 2025.
We started with the beef satay ($14), five little skewers of pounded and marinated beef served with toast, peanut sauce and salad. I love beef satay, but it’s practically impossible to find it in the Bay Area – it’s a staple of LA Thai restaurants, however. This one was just competent. The meat wasn’t particularly tender and while it was nicely flavored, it needed a bit more salt. Indeed, that was my complaint about all the dishes at Amazing Siam. I liked the peanut sauce, though it was very sweet. Diabetics might want to stay away. The toasted bread was just that: toasted sliced white bread, but it worked for soaking up the leftover peanut sauce.
As my entree, I had the Golden Curry with beef ($19), and here is where things went completely awry. The curry consisted of slices of beef and large chunks of potatoes and carrots. It tasted as if each ingredient was cooked independently, unseasoned, and then just added to the curry. That meant that none of the food was able to actually soak up the flavor of the curry, and instead every bite was insipid. The curry itself wasn’t great either. It neither looked or tasted like a yellow curry, rather it resembled a watered down panang curry. There was no depth of flavor and while it was somewhat spicy, it was very underseasoned. There was no salt at the table to help it out either.
Mike ordered the Pra Ram chicken ($16). Here again, the chicken and spinach had been cooked on their own, unseasoned, and served with the peanut sauce. Once again, the peanut sauce was tasty, if very sweet, while the chicken was insipid – though as the sauce was thicker, it was a better conduit for it than the beef in the yellow curry had been.
The one highlight of the meal was the Pad Thai ($15), which my daughter ordered with tofu. The noodles were well cooked and the sauce was as delicious as one could expect, hinting also toward sweetness (which is not a bad thing unless you are avoiding sugars). If I went back to the restaurant, this is what I’d order.
Service was unremarkable, though the kitchen sent dishes when they were ready, which means the appetizer came after the curries (I’m guessing because the beef satay had to be cooked rather than just plated).
I received a disturbing report from a teacher friend. The head chef of Zaytoona restaurant in Hanford, Alex Kent Ryan, has been stalking her. Alex Kent Ryan appears to be your typical white supremacist, genocide supporting, misogynist, child-sexual-abuse accepting, hateful Trumpster and he seems to object to my friend speaking up for equality and human rights for all. He has been threatening her, stalking her and he even called her job trying to get her fired – a move we’ve seen many Charlie Kirk supporters do in the last month.
Women, people of color, and people of conscience in general may not feel comfortable eating at restaurant where the person preparing your food is a vindictive, hateful, right-winger.
Dearth of good deals means no FOMO if you skip it.
San Leandro Restaurant Week is upon us and, if possible, it’s even lamer than last year. There are very few deals that will make me want to try a new restaurant or revisit an old one.
Here are the best ones, which I might try:
– Paradiso has a $45 prix-fix menu available daily from 4 to 5 PM. During restaurant week, you can order it all day.
– Nella’s Place, a Southern food place, offers half off a second dinner, so $9 to $11 off the price of two dinners. I haven’t tried it, and this seems like a good opportunity.
– Scend offers several promos with small discounts, for example you can save $1 on a 2-wing/fries/soda lunch deal, buy one dessert get another for 1/2 off. It might be a good opportunity to try their oxtails, though, as they do offer a small order of 2 oxtails over rice for $17, and usually you need to get a full order for over $40.
The offers from the other nicer restaurants in town leave much to be desired.
– Horatio’s has a 2-course menu with only 4 choices of entrees for $33 – which saves you an average of $5 over regular menu prices, depending on what you order and whether you go for dinner or lunch.
– Moussaka gives you a free babaganoush or hummus ($8) with purchase of an entree
– Top Hatters gives you a free order of lemon ricotta doughnuts ($10) but only for lunch for a party of at least two people.
Some restaurants are adding cheap freebies
– Elio’s will give you a free cup of tapioca pudding or scoop of ice-cream if you order their daily-special dinner.
– Leisure Cafe offers a free ice tea or milk (~$5) if you buy its baked pork chop or black pepper spaghetti.
– Tequila Grill has a 3-course menu for $25, featuring half-entrees, which basically means that by ordering the very limited choices for appetizer and entre, you get a free flan.
– Tsuru Sushi offers 3 orders of chicken teriyaki for the price of 2 or a free California roll if you buy ramen. The latter is not bad, but who wants three orders of chicken teriyaki?
Discounts at other restaurants are pretty paltry:
You can save $3 at 21st Amendment brewery, but only if you want to eat fish tacos with an El Sully beer.
Fieldwork Brewing is offering an appetizer + pizza for $30, usually $27 to $41 (assuming all items are included in the promo).
Sushi Delight offers its 9-piece sashimi dinner for $22 or $6 off its regular price and its “tempura & teriyaki” dinner for $19, or $2 off its regular price.
You can save 15% on the dish-of-the-day at Habibi’s Birria. And then some restaurants don’t offer any savings whatsoever.
Pistahan is offering its same weekend buffet at its regular price.
Josephine Southern Cuisine is opening a pop-up on July 18th & 19th from 11 am to 4 pm only, at E14th Eatery and Kitchen and serving their fried chicken with mac & cheese and collard greens for $25, which seems like their regular price.
There are also a few bars/drink places with offerings, but as I’m not someone who goes out to drink I didn’t analyze them.
Some weeks ago, my husband and I decided to go on a lunch date and thought we’d give Farmhouse Kitchen a try. We had been there before, during the pandemic, and had had a lovely lunch on the patio – except for the noise from the construction next door. The restaurant had closed and reopened since, and we were hoping to have better luck – though as the weather was turning, we figured we’d have to eat inside this time. As it happens, Farmhouse Kitchen in San Leandro – part of a small chain – has turned into Farmhouse Kitchen Express and they no longer have indoor dining – the whole of the restaurant has turned into a kitchen. Indeed, they don’t even have waiters or even checkers to take your order: you have to order and pay online (better have a credit card). They do have a terminal in the restaurant you can use to order, however, though it’s a little bit clunky.
We did hang out in the patio while we waited for our order, and it’s nice-enough, though it seems in need of care. Of course, this has been a very rainy spring, so they might be waiting for the weather to turn nice before they work on their patio (I know that’s what I’ve been waiting for myself). Weather you eat there or not, the food comes in to-go containers.
I got the yellow curry with rice ($16) with beef ($4). It was good, but a bit on the spicy side. The curry that depth and it was well developed, but it wasn’t anything extraordinary. I think for the price, it should have been better. I also got a couple of crispy roti ($3) to go with it, and these were pretty good but they were swimming in oil. They were crispier and denser than others I’ve had, but they were still very nice with the curry. The oil, however, made limited how much of them you could eat.
Mike had the roti mataba ($15), a “crispy roti stuffed with curried potato and ground chicken,” which came with yellow curry, ajad (Thati cucumber salad) and a samosa. He enjoyed all of them very much. They were too spicy for my taste, but I’m a lightweight.
He also had the pad thai ($15), which comes with shrimp. He thought it was quite good for a pad thai, though nothing mind blowing.
In all, we felt the quality of the food was pretty high, but also that the prices were on the high-side and not really justifiable for take-out food. We probably wouldn’t go back, given other alternatives in town. But if we did go, we’d order from home first.
This Hayward Unicorn serves delicious and very affordable Indian food.
Shahi Darbar is one of the many restaurants which opened in suburbia towards the end of the pandemic, though I only learned about it a few weeks ago when I started researching restaurants to go with my friend group this month. I tend to look for restaurants close to San Leandro that are reasonably priced, vegetarian friendly and get good reviews. Shahi Darbar fit all of those requirements. And, indeed, it was a great choice. The food was delicious, the service excellent, and it was cheaper than most of its competitors.
My friends and I visited Shahi Darbar on a Wednesday evening. They don’t take reservations, but we didn’t need one. The restaurant is large and was relatively empty – they do seem to do quite a bit of to-go business, however. The menu is quite ample, including not only the Indian staples you get at all Indian restaurants in the West Coast, but a wider array of appetizers, breads, kebabs and vegetarian dishes (don’t miss the ones listed as “meals”), in addition to Indo-Chinese specialties. They also have monthly specials which includes dishes that I’d never heard of before. What they don’t have, very unfortunately, is my favorite: pasanda.
We started dinner by sharing two orders of fish pakora ($15). The little pieces of fish were very good. The breading was very crispy, perhaps a tad too salty but very flavorful. The fish had that melt-in-your-mouth quality that makes this dish so wonderful. We all enjoyed it.
I had the lamb korma ($15). It was probably the least successful dish of the evening, mostly because it was unlike what Indian restaurants in the West Coast usually serve as such. Kormas here are usually nut forward, creamy and with mild, somewhat fruity flavors. This dish tasted far more like a tikka masala sauce. It was average-to-good as that, but it’s not what I was expecting or wanted. The lamb itself was a bit tough, so probably from a leg rather than shoulder, but it was well cooked. I did order a chicken tikka masala ($14) to go, and this one was, surprisingly, nuttier (both in flavor and texture) and crispier, though it also lacked sweetness. I liked it better than the korma, however. Both dishes were ordered mild but they had a kick to them. It was fine for us, but it wouldn’t be for someone who can’t handle any spice.
Mike had the butter chicken ($14). He was very happy with it, and would give it an 8-9 in a 10-point scale. That’s quite generous, for him. I wouldn’t go as far as that, but I thought it was pretty good. I definitely liked it better than the korma. This one did taste like a butter chicken sauce. He ordered it “medium” but it was probably on the mild side of that, barely more spicy than our other two mild curries.
My friends Elektra and Donovan both had the Shahi Darbargoat curry ($15), one of their specialties. They both seemed to like it well enough, but I didn’t taste it.
Parker ordered the bhindi masala ($12), which included okra, onions and other vegetables, and she was very, very happy with it. She thought it was delicious.
But it was Katrina, who ordered the chole bhature ($13), a dish of puffed up bread served with a chickpea curry, who was the happiest. Indeed, she was close to deigning this dish the best thing she’d ever eaten. It was the combination of the flavorful curry with the bread that made it work so well. I wouldn’t be surprised if she became a regular for this dish alone.
We also got jeera rice ($5, for a portion large enough for two) and a bunch of butter nan ($3 each), which were pretty average but did their job.
I had a very tasty sweet lassi ($5), which seems to be sweetened by some red syrup. Whatever it was, it was good, if a tad sweet.
In all, we had a very good meal and we closed the place down – we only felt a tad guilty, but we did leave when they turned the lights on. The restaurant itself is quite plain – the darkness does help give it an ambiance -, but comfortable. Service was very attentive. We learned that they will do individual bills, if you tell them before you order.
In all, though we have several closer Indian restaurants to us, I’m sure we’ll return.
Shahi Darbar 26953 Mission BLVD , Suite F Hayward, CA (510)363-9286
The restaurant of the Berkeley City Club was designed by and named after Julia Morgan, but does the food match the architecture?
Another trip around the sun, another anniversary, another quest for a restaurant to visit. Mike wanted French. I wanted to stay in the East Bay. I came upon Julia’s. Again. I’ve considered dining there so many times, that I couldn’t actually recall whether we had been there before. I resorted to looking through emails and old photos to see if we had. We hadn’t. So I made a reservation.
During my freshman year in college, many decades ago by now, I lived in a dorm a mere half a block away from the Berkeley City Club. I was curious about it then, and remained though the decades, but never had an opportunity or a reason to go inside. The building, designed in a medieval style, not unlike that of Heart castle, Julia Morgan‘s most famous building, is beautiful. Being ignorant of architectural terms, I can’t quite describe it but anyone interested can surely find many pictures online. It has an indoor pool that while lacking the magnificence of the ones in San Simeon, still evokes them. I’m considering spending a night at the hotel just to be able to swim in it.
Julia’s is located in the second floor (stairs and elevators available), in a rather small room with a beautiful fireplace and medieval tapestries hanging around it. There are windows on both sides of the room, though we didn’t quite manage to seat by one of them. The clientele seems to be mostly older people – though that includes us now. I remember how, in my earliest reviews back in the 90’s, I used to feel conspicuous for being young.
Dinner started with bread and butter (quite good), and we then shared the Country Style Pork Cognac Pâté ($19), which came with a small undressed salad, fig jam and mustard. The paté was really good. It didn’t really worked very well with the fig jam, the flavors didn’t quite vibe together, but the fig jam was good on its own. We both remarked at how much we enjoyed this appetizer – and I think it was probably the highlight of the evening. I can’t imagine they make the paté in house, and I wish I knew where they got it.
I had the Duck à l’Orange ($37), and this was a big disappointment. It was beautifully presented, mind you, but it failed in all levels. The duck itself consisted of two thick slices of duck breast, served on the rare side. It was on the tough side and had very little flavor of its own. The orange sauce could have been anything, it didn’t particularly taste of oranges, and while it gave the duck very needed moisture and seasoning, it wasn’t what I’d call “yummy”. The fondant potatoes it came with were tasteless, dry, dense and crumbly. There wasn’t enough sauce to eat them with, and by themselves they were a waist of time. I did enjoy the single piece of leek I found, but I’m not a fan of endives, and this one did not change my mind. In all, this dish was a failure.
Mike fared better with his Grilled Veal Chop ($39). It was well cooked and tasty, flavorful and tender. He appreciated it wasn’t incumbered by any sauces – the red wine sauce on the side was very light and didn’t overwhelm the meat. He also liked the veggies it was served with, a mixture of De Ciccio broccoli, trumpet mushrooms, baby carrots and zucchini. He appreciated the variety of textures they brought to the meal, and that their light taste didn’t compete with that of the veal. Finally, he really liked the little potato grain muffin he got, he found it very tasty – as did I.
For dessert, I had the Orange Cake ($13), which came with a tiny amount of poached oranges, crème fraîche and a bit of caramel. I actually enjoyed it. This was another very adult (read, old person’s) dessert. There wasn’t much sweetness to it, which I wouldn’t have been able to deal with, but it did have the orange flavor I missed in the sauce for the duck. The cake itself was very crumbly, it fell apart in each bite, and on the dry side but it worked. The crème fraîche added moisture while further taming the sweetness. I was happy.
Service was quite attentive, and despite my duck, we had a very good time. Our reservation was at 6:30 PM midweek, and I’d recommend this time for both commuting north into Berkeley and for finding a parking spot close to the restaurant.
This Hayward Himalayan restaurant has very good food
Last night, my friends group got together for our periodic “girls night out” – which now includes “boys” from time to time – and we decided to try The Gurkha Kitchen in Hayward. It had reviews, the prices were reasonable, and it’s relatively close. I’m glad we did, we were all very happy with the food, the service and the experience. I didn’t take photos, however, as I didn’t want to impose my hobby on my friends.
The Gurkha Kitchen serves Himalayan and Indian cuisine and has four locations in the Bay Area. The restaurant in Hayward is relatively small and pretty informal but pleasant enough for a casual dinner. They seem to have an outdoor space but it was a chilly night.
We started by sharing the fish pakora ($12) and buffalo momos ($16) appetizers. They were both served from the kitchen pipping hot. The fish pakora came in two-bite chunks. It had the right amount of breading and the fish was nicely seasoned. It was, however, pretty spicy – it left my mouth numb, though I have quite a low tolerance for heat. I’d order it again. I was quite impressed by the buffalo momos. These were larger and a different shape than the momos I’ve usually had and had a good amount of very tasty filling. The dough was chewy and thin, perhaps made with rice flower?, and it came with a bright and creamy “momo chutney” that we all enjoyed.
I hesitated between ordering the gurkha chicken ($18) and the Kashmiri lamb ($20). I was intrigued by the former as I don’t think I’ve had it before. However, I’m not a fan of bones in my curries and this included bone-in chicken. The Kashmiri lamb, however, was boneless so I ordered that – as did my friend Donovan. The Kashmiri lamb had a tomato based curry and omitted dairy. It was quite tasty, with the right amount of spiciness for me. It wasn’t quite as good as my yougurt-based rogan josh, however. The curries are served with plain rice.
Parker ordered the Thakali Thali Goat ($21) which came with small servings of goat curry, raayo ko saag (mustard greens), kalo dal (split black lentils), vegetable, rice, and achar (a condiment made with pickled veggies). She was very pleased with all the food and couldn’t finish it.
Aamani had the Aloo Bodi Tama ($15), I believe. She also quite enjoyed it.
We didn’t get drinks, but they have complimentary unsweetened chai which two in our party enjoyed.
We also got some butter and garlic nan. The butter nan didn’t seem to have any butter on it – not that I minded – and it was thinner than most nans I’ve had.
Service was very friendly and we enjoyed our time there. They also have a lunch buffet for $15, which includes momos on weekends. I’m sure we’ll try it.
A second visit to this popular San Leandro brewery
Last week, we met our friend William at Fieldwork Brewing in downtown San Leandro for a long awaited catch up. It’s amazing how time flies.
William suggested Fieldwork as he frequents its Berkeley location and we were game. Mike and I tried it a year or two ago, with our friend Elektra, and while we weren’t impressed by its expensive pizzas, we did appreciate the patio-like atmosphere.
Fieldwork is a small but expanding chain of tap rooms situated in the Bay Area and surrounding counties. They offer a wide variety of beer as well as pizza and other bites. The San Leandro location is at the Washington Plaza, in front of the downtown Safeway. It features a large enclosed patio, with both picnic-style tables and benches and lounge-type chairs around gas fire pits. It’s open air, though they have a retractable roof they can close down when it rains. They also have some indoor table and bar seating.
We were there before dinner time, so we just got some beers and appetizers. William had a tasting of 3 beers, and I went for a 1/2 glass of Hills & Valleys American pilsner ($5), which I enjoyed very much. It was a bright, easy to drink but balanced and flavorful pilsner, without the bitter tones often found in this style of beer.
We shared some Honey Calabrian Wings ($16), which were very spicy and quite messy. They probably weren’t sweet enough, but they weren’t bad. the portion was quite generous (or we weren’t that hungry).
We also got the Brussel sprouts ($13) and they were a hit at the table. They were nicely caramelized.
We had the pizzas once before and we also felt they were OK but overpriced – their small pizzas are $19 to $25. They are now offering all their pizzas in “Detroit style,” with a thicker crust, so I might enjoy them more. I’m usually not a fan of “Neapolitan style” thin crust pizza, their other choice.
What annoys me most about Fieldwork is their ordering system. You have to scan a code and order and pay online. You can also go into the restaurant and order at the bar, but of course that means waiting in line (if there is one). Waiters bring your food and drinks, but if you need anything you need to go inside the restaurant to get it.
Fieldwork Brewing 100 West Juana Avenue, San Leandro, CA (510) 564-4298
For fifteen years, this has been our default Thai restaurant
For the last fifteen years, since it opened, Mai Thai has been our “default” Thai restaurant in San Leandro. The food is good standard Thai-restaurant-in-America faire, the prices are reasonable and it’s close enough to our house. Since the pandemic, we usually get take out from there but last Sunday night we decided to go there for a quick date before watching White Lotus on TV – this season the series is based in Thailand.
Mai Thai has been remodeled since our last visit, and I can’t say I like the new format. It now has a long bar, which I guess allows for alcohol sales and more casual dining, but the restaurant altogether has a more casual look.
The decore now looks pretty generic and not really Thai, though I did like having flowers at the table.
I also liked the table setting, even if came with paper napkins.
Still, I’m not sure I feel a compelling reason to go to eat there versus getting take out.
Though we have explored much of Mai Thai’s menu, we tend to go back to our usuals, and we did so this time as well. To start with, we shared the roti with yellow curry ($13). I discovered this dish at Mai Thai and the restaurant continues to have my favorite version of it. Roti is a multi-layered flat bread, rich with oil, that is absolutely delicious – dipped in a good yellow curry, it’s just heavenly. I don’t really understand why this dish is so expensive, but it’s invariably so no matter where you order it. On the plus side, it’s so rich that you can’t eat that much of it.
I had the massaman curry with beef ($19) and, unfortunately, this recipe has changed a little. It was spicier than usual and I could taste the bitter flavor of the pepper. The curry also didn’t feel as deep and delicious as usual. It did continue to suffer from having undercooked potatoes, but this is a problem with every massaman curry I’ve had everywhere.
Mai Thai uses sliced beef which I think they add at to the curry after cooking it, rather than cubed beef cooked in the curry itself. This makes sense practically, as they can then offer your choice of multiple proteins with each curry, but it means that the meats are tougher and less flavorful.
Mike had the panang chicken ($19), which we both felt was better. It tasted just as it usually does, though it was less spicy than usual. Still, he enjoyed it. Like with the massaman curry, the sliced chicken seems to be cooked separately and is therefore not as succulent and tasty as it otherwise could be.
Rice was an additional $3.50 for a single but generous portion and a soda was $3. Service was friendly and competent.
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