Category: Restaurants (Page 16 of 52)

Acqua e Farina – Restaurant Review – Hayward

June 19, 2014 / admin / 0 Comments

I walked past Acqua e Farina several times, on my way to and from my favorite tea house, The Golden Tea Garden, before I noticed its existence. From the outside, the restaurant looked simple and inviting, like an old world, hole-in-the-wall sort of place. I put it on the back of my mind as a place to try some day, and from there I retrieved it last April, when I was looking for a place to celebrate my anniversary, with both my husband and children. We had a great experience then, which I repeated last night with a group of friends.

As we discovered once we actually went into Acqua e Farina, this little restaurant occupies the space which was once the home of Rue de Main. The dining room is a little strange, with several smallish eating areas. The largest one is decorated with wall paintings of Italian village storefronts, so you can easily pretend that you are eating al fresco in a piazza. It’s quite nice.

The menu is filled with classic Italian and Italian-American dishes. The pasta ones are nicely priced in the low-to-mid teens with meat and fish dishes in the high teens. A porterhouse steak tops the price list at $30.

We started by sharing the prosciutto ($8) and the polenta ($7). The prosciutto, which came wrapping thick slices of melon, was good, though this is not a favorite dish of mine. The polenta, however, was outstanding. The baked slices are served with mushrooms in a Madeira sauce that is just out of this world. I’d had it in my previous visit, and it was just as good this time. Don’t miss it.

For my main dish, I had the gnocchi della casa ($14), which came with a creamy tomato sauce. The gnocchi just melted in my mouth, and the sauce was quite pleasant. Like most of the entrees at Acqua e Farina, this wouldn’t win any culinary awards, but it was solid. My previous visit I’d had the spinach ravioli in meat sauce ($14), and I had enjoyed them, but not as much as the gnocchi. This time, my friend Katrina had the ravioli but in a pesto sauce, which she enjoyed very much. At a previous visit, one of my daughters had the lasagne di carne ($14.5), which she also liked. Again, no culinary awards, but good, simple Italian food.

Acqua e Farina may do even better with its non-pasta dishes. Eddie found her salmone alla griglia, salmon grilled and served with a garlic, basil and fresh tomato white wine sauce ($19.5) to be the best salmon she’d had in a while. Parker, meanwhile, was very pleased with her melanzane del giorno ($12.5), eggplant in a tomato sauce, topped with mozzarella. She found it a big heavy on the cheese for her taste, but thought it was very good.

The desserts may be Acqua e Farina’s weak point. My ricotta cheesecake ($6) was light but unexciting, and while I didn’t try Eddie’s lemon sorbet ($4), I did notice she only ate half of her dish. I can’t remember what I thought of the tartufo di cioccolato ($5.5), chocolate ice cream with hazelnuts, which I had in my first visit, which means it wasn’t particularly memorable.

Service was outstanding both times. The waiters were attentive and friendly, though this time they failed a bit in the replenishing drinks part. The meal after tax and tip came to about $133.

In all, Acqua e Farina is a solid restaurant for when you want a nice night out at a moderate price.

Acqua e Farina
22622 Main Street
Hayward, CA
510.888.1568
http://acqua-e-farina.com/
Lunch: M-Sa 11 AM – 2:30 PM
Dinner: Su-Th 4-9 PM, F-Sa 4-10 PM

Hayward Restaurant Reviews

Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

Jasmine Thai Cuisine – Restaurant Review – Winnetka, CA

June 17, 2014 / admin / 0 Comments

What is it with LA Thai restaurants? Why is it that seemingly every strip-mall hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurant serves spectacular cuisine, while many Thai restaurants in the Bay Area struggle to rise above mediocrity? Whatever it is in the southern California area that inspires Thai cooks, it’s alive and kicking at Jasmine Thai Cuisine. We went there for dinner last Saturday night (June 2014), and had a simply delicious meal.

Jasmine Thai is a 2-restaurant chain in the west San Fernando Valley. We visited the Winnetka branch because it got better slightly better Yelp reviews. The restaurant is cute and well decorated, but it can’t quite escape its strip-mall architecture. Fortunately, the prices match the casual surroundings with most entrees priced at a downright cheap (at least by Bay Area standards) $8.

jasminesatay

We started by sharing an order of beef satay ($8). The order came with six sticks, which was great as there were three of us. The beef was very nicely marinated, and had a very strong flavor. The peanut sauce was standard, which is nothing to complain about. The dish was beautifully presented in a plate that came with a small iron heater of some kind with a pretty significant flame. I’m not sure if it was there just for decoration, but we did enjoy putting our meat in the flame. I hadn’t seen this before, and enjoyed it. I know my girls would have loved it.

Cashew Nut Chicken

We followed this with the cashew nut chicken ($8), panang curry with beef ($8) and curry duck ($11). The cashew nut chicken was fine, though perhaps not as interesting as one might have liked. Kathy did like the sauce quite a bit, though. The two curries, however, were outstanding. the panang was perfect, flavorful, deep, complex, and yet very much a panang curry. The sliced beef had probably been sauteed separately and then added to it, so it wasn’t the star of the dish, but it was good enough. It was the sauce, however, what really shined.

Panang Beef

The duck curry was similar, albeit a bit fruitier and sweeter, probably from the pineapple chunks it came with. It was also delicious. The duck, a hard meat to get right, was well cooked, not too fatty (but it’s duck), and went very well with the sauce. Both curries are noted in the menu as being spicy. We asked for them as mild as possible, and our tongues still burned a little bit.

Duck Curry

The portions were all quite generous. We had leftover of both curries to bring home (which my husband got to enjoy fully). Where they did skimp was in the rice ($1.50 per person). We probably could have used more at the table and had none to take home. Next time, I’ll order an extra portion.

Both my dad and I had strawberry smoothies ($3.25) with our dinner, and they were OK. They basically tasted like strawberry daiquiris without the rum. I don’t think I’d order them again.

Despite how good the food was, there are a few minuses to Jasmine. First, the menu doesn’t include some Thai favorites like pra ram chicken and massaman beef. Second, they don’t serve alcohol – not even beers to wash down the spice. Finally, the service could have been more attentive. We were done for a while before anyone noticed we needed the bill. The dinner for three came to close to $60 after tax and tip.

Jasmine Thai Cuisine
20156 Roscoe Blvd.
Winnetka, CA
(818) 718-7000
http://www.jasminethaicuisinegroup.com/
M-Su 11am – 10:30pm

Los Angeles Restaurant Reviews

Academy Cafe @ the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco – Review

May 28, 2014 / admin / 0 Comments

Last Spring break I took the girls to the California Academy of Sciences, using a couple of the free tickets the San Leandro library so helpfully provides for its members. I hadn’t been to the Academy in years, since it was at its temporary space in downtown San Francisco. At that time it had a small but actually pretty good cafe. Alas, it’s now become much larger and the quality of food seems to have downgraded.

The Academy Cafe is basically a cafeteria with about four different stations. Make sure you identify on which are the items you want to avoid unnecessary time in line. The prices are high, specially for drinks/deserts, but that’s to be expected.

My youngest daughter had the butter pasta. It was fine. The portion wasn’t too big for $7, but enough for a 9 yo. My oldest daughter had the chicken & chips ($12). She had to wait for the chicken, and then it was very, very dry. I would not recommend this dish. It was a generous portion, however.

I didn’t have lunch myself, but shared a very underwhelming bread pudding ($4, I think) with the girls.

They don’t have regular sodas, the Izze sodas they do have were good, but very expensive.

The Academy also has a full-fledged restaurant, the Moss Cafe. Prices are higher, in the high-teens/low twenties for entrees.

Academy Cafe
California Academy of Sciences
Golden Gate Park
San Francisco, CA
http://themossroom.com/

Marga’s Venue Dining Reviews

Amtrak Coast-Starlight Dining Car – Review

May 28, 2014 / admin / 1 Comment

My daughters and I have taken the Coast-Starlight train twice in the last couple of months, from Oakland down to LA. Both times we had at least one meal in the dining cart. All in all the experience was pretty positive.

Amtrak requires you to make a reservation for the dining car a few hours before. For this particular trip, it’s soon after you leave from Oakland. An attendant will go by your seat, and you can get both lunch and dinner reservations. If you get into the train later or decide you want to eat in the dining car at the last minute, you can go to the dining car and see if any reservations are available. Chances are they’ll have them. You can also eat in the lounge car, though in our last trip, this one was busier.

Service is very good and friendly. The tables seat four, and while they don’t split parties, they do seat people together. In our first trip, my two daughters and I shared our meals with two different single ladies, who were fortunately both gregarious and interested on the children, so we all had a great time. We got eat alone in our last trip.

The food would not win any culinary awards, but it can be decent if you keep your expectations low. Prices are high, but you’re eating there mostly for the experience.

Both times I had their cheeseburger for lunch ($10, + $2 for bacon). The first time it was pretty decent, not something you’d write home about it, but I’ve gotten worse burgers in my life. The second time it was overcooked and very dry so it was hard to finish. It’s a large burger, however, and neither time I was particularly hungry for dinner later.

My daughters have tried the pizza from the kid’s menu ($7) and enjoyed it. It’s your generic frozen mini pan-pizza, but it’s pretty tasty as far as these go. I had it for my dinner myself on my first trip – when I could not envision eating, or paying for, a whole dinner entree – and it was OK. But then again, I really wasn’t hungry. I don’t think they usually let adults order from the kid’s menu, but by then I’d built a good rapport with the dining room attendant.

One of them also had the mac & cheese ($7) but preferred the pizza.

During our second trip, my daughter had the “marketplace special” ($12.50), which that day was panko-coasted chicken breast and mashed potatoes with some type of sauce. Mika thought it was just OK, but I had her left overs and they were quite tasty. I would order this dish if available in my next trip.

Coast-Starlight Southbound Menu

Marga’s Venue Restaurant Reviews

Rubiano’s – San Leandro – Restaurant Review

May 19, 2014 / admin / 0 Comments

There are many positive things to say about Rubiano’s. It’s located in a neighborhood that has long been desperate for good restaurants – but which seems unable to keep them for long. It’s very child friendly, one our visit there there were a couple of tables with toddlers and a guy with a friendly dog waiting outside. The food and atmosphere are decent. The prices are not outrageous. And it has developed, very quickly, a large base of fans.

However, from the beginning I had heard rumblings about slow service and mediocre food, so I gave it several months to settle down before trying it. When I finally did, last Friday night, my experience was pretty mediocre. There is no compelling reason for going back.

We arrived at the restaurant after 7:30 PM. I had anticipated that we might have to wait to get seated, but fortunately there were spaces at the bar as well as a table for two where we could add an extra chair. The restaurant soon got even more crowded, plus there were people waiting on the sidewalk. The waitresses seemed to be rushing to attend to everyone.

The menu is pretty compact, which makes sense for such a small restaurant. It offers a few deep-fried starters ($6-10), a couple of salads ($5-8), simple pastas ($8-10) with your choice of marinara, alfredo or pesto sauce, stromboli sandwiches ($9) and, the piece of resistance, pizzas and calzones. These start at $11 and $14 respectively for a small cheese, with extra toppings $1.80 to $2.40 each. The prices are not low, but they’re in line with other local restaurants.

My daughter decided on the cheese tortellini with marinara sauce from the kid’s menu ($7), which included a drink and a scoop of ice cream. Mike went for the meat’s lover small pizza ($19) and I ordered the meatball stromboli ($9). What we got, however, was different.

It took me a while to conclude that there were no meatballs in my stromboli. I had been surprised to not find them in the first few bites, but I figured they might have ended up at the ends. No such luck. The stromboli I got had cheese and tomatoes/tomato sauce, and some long, thin strips of something which I assume were artichokes. There were no meatballs and no olives (as advertised for the artichoke heart stromboli) though there was some basil. It tasted fine, though it was a bit too doughy for the amount of filling and the different ingredients weren’t completely harmonized. The basil was a tad too bitter, and yet it’s what gave the dish its fresh flavor. I decided not to send it back because I figured that it would take another fifteen minutes to get the right stromboli, and I was pretty hungry. Even without the meatballs this was a pretty messy dish, you need a fork and knife to eat it discretely.

The stromboli came with a side salad of mixed greens, tomatoes, green peppers and croutons with your choice of dressing. I was pretty good.

My daughter’s troubles with her food actually started earlier. She had ordered a raspberry iced tea, but what she got was a plain, unsweetened ice tea. It turns out that they don’t actually carry the raspberry tea advertised on the menu. The waitress happily substituted it for a diet-pepsi. She did get her order of tortellini right, though instead of bringing her a kid’s size portion as she had ordered and billing accordingly, she brought a regular portion. Thus a $7 meal, which included a drink and dessert, became an $12 one. She didn’t charge us for the ice-cream, however. Not a big deal, but yet another mistake that shouldn’t have happened.

Mika liked the tortellini, she thought the marinara sauce was fine though she left most of it on the plate. The adult-size serving was fine for an adult-size appetite, but not particularly generous. She didn’t have leftovers to bring home.

Mika and I were almost done eating our meals by the time Mike got his pizza. The meats had a very nice smokey flavor, though the saltiness in them pretty much overwhelmed the rest of the pizza. This, of course, is a problem for meat-heavy pizzas, which is why I personally don’t order them. He liked it well enough. I thought the dough was pretty nice, a bit tough and a bit chewy but with a good flavor. I prefer thick-crust pizzas, however. I couldn’t taste much of the cheese and sauce because of the flavor of the meats. The pizza didn’t keep that well, however. By the next day the smokiness on the meats had become much weaker and, eaten cold, it wasn’t particularly compelling.

Service was rushed but friendly. There were obviously two pretty major mistakes. The fault on the stromboli lies with the kitchen, it appeared correctly on the bill. The other mistake was the waitress’, but I can’t really blame her because the place was very loud and she seemed so rushed. We paid the bill – after all, she had consumed the food and we were ready to go-, but I would be careful of examining it and the order carefully if we returned.

As a final note, before writing this review I included a brief summary of the experience on my San Leandro Talk Facebook page. One of the cooks from Rubiano’s chimed in to say that I should have either spoken up then – though he did recognize it would have taken at least 10-15 minutes for me to get the right stromboli if I had done so – and should “shut up” now. He also made some comment about how I am not a San Leandro native. That type of anti-customer attitude makes me doubly-reluctant to return to the restaurant.

Rubiano’s
600 Dutton Ave, Unit C
San Leandro, CA
(510) 553-1000
http://www.rubianos.com/
M-Su 11 AM – 10 PM

Mo-Chica – Los Angeles – Restaurant Review

April 29, 2014 / admin / 0 Comments

Mike and I were in Los Angeles for the Democratic Convention last March, and decided to give Mo-Chica a try for lunch. We both like Peruvian food and were excited to see what this restaurant could do. With the right expectations, I think Mo-Chica would have been a great experience. Alas, our expectations were to quench our hunger without having to mortgage our home, and that is not quite possible here. Still, the food was very nicely presented and interesting and I appreciated the experience.

Mike and I started with the tiradito de seabass. The thin slices of cold seabass (maybe 8 or so) came beautifully presented in a long plate decorated with the aji amarillo sauce. You would never have guessed from the delicate look of the dish just how bursting in flavor it’d be. It did get boring after a while, so this is definitely a dish to share. And it’s all about the flavor, there is almost no substance to the dish.

As our main dishes, we ordered the carapulcra (“Peruvian sun dried potato stew, crispy pork belly, peanuts, chimichurri”, $14) and the Estofado de alpaca (“Braised alpaca, tagliatelle, aji amarillo sauce, fried organic egg”, $15). I’d had llama in Argentina, but I figured alpaca wasn’t exactly the same, so I might as well add it to my list of meats I’ve tried. I can do that now, but as the alpaca meat was cut into extremely small pieces, and its flavor was covered by the rest of the stew, I can’t quite say I know what it tastes like. I can imagine, that’s probably the point. There must be a reason why llamas and alpacas are pretty much only served in restaurants catering to tourists in their home regions.

In any case, both dishes were very good, they had distinct and pleasant flavors and I enjoyed them. Neither, however, was a show stopper. The presentation and novelty, rather than the taste, is what justified their absurd prices for lunch. They also weren’t particularly generous portions. Mike, in particular, who had been less enthusiastic about the food and had let me had the lion’s share, left hungry.

The restaurant itself looks too casual to justify its prices. It’s more of a hipster place, and I would perhaps not have minded it so much for dinner, where a larger meal at a larger expense might seem justified.

Needless to say I won’t be going back, but I’m glad I tried it.

Mo-Chica
514 W 7th St
Los Angeles, CA
(213) 622-3744
http://mo-chica.com/

Los Angeles Restaurant Reviews

Angel City Cafe – Woodland Hills – Review

April 28, 2014 / admin / 0 Comments

My sister got married last weekend, and her new parents-in-law threw the happy a couple a rehearsal dinner at Angel City Cafe, a favorite of the whole family. It was great! Not only was this a place that the family loved, but the food and service was wonderful and it certainly left me wanting to go back.

We tried the Caesar salad ($7) and the Mixed Green salad ($6.50), which comes with candied pecans, goat cheese and a citrusy vinaigrette. I’m not big into Ceasars, so I can’t really comment, but I really enjoyed the mixed green salad. The goat cheese was perfect to enliven every few bites and I ate more than my fair share. I’d order it again.

We also shared the ahi tuna taquitos ($8) and the shrimp scampi ($8). I’ll confess I thought the former were chicken. They came in a lobster butter sauce and were served with guacamole, so the flavor of the tuna was well masked. They were very tasty, however. The guacamole, in particular, was very fresh and vibrant. I don’t eat shrimp, but loved the fries on the scampi sauce. Shrimp eaters loved it too.

I had the tri-tip ($13) as my entree, which came with fries and BBQ sauce. The beef was great, nicely seasoned, and thankfully in no need of the sauce. The sauce was interesting at first, but it was bursting with cumin and as much as I like cumin, this was just too much. Fries were good.

Mike had the salmon ($16) and he thought it was good, but not extraordinary. And really, that’s what he usually thinks when he orders salmon, so he should know better. The people who ordered the potato crusted sea bass ($15) – and there were four of those at our table – were much happier. Nobody gave me a bite, but they were ooing so I’m betting it was good. I also got to finish the pasta alfredo ($12.50) two of my daughters ordered. The sauce was a bit too creamy and I felt it needed just a tad more Parmesan. But it came to the table steaming hot and, really, was bloody good. The portion seemed very generous as well.

They had ran out of most desserts by the time our table offered, but we got to try the tiramisu, creme crule and white chocolate bread pudding (all $6). The tiramisu was good, but nothing too extraordinary. The creme brulee was a very good version of this dessert. It was a good size portion and very nice. But it was the bread pudding which blew everyone’s mind. It consisted of two full slices of bread cooked with a white chocolate sauce and served with blueberries. OMFG, it was so good. I’m still dreaming about it. Whoever conceived that recipe is a genius. You must order it if you visit.

Angel City Cafe apparently does not have a liquor license, but you can bring your own and there is no corkage fee. There is a Trader Joe’s across the street.

Service was great, but I was with a large party. The restaurant itself looked charming. They have a semi-open kitchen and you can see big blasts of fire going from time to time, which definitely amused the kids.

A great find, and I look forward to going again and having more bread pudding!

Angel City Cafe
21136 Ventura Blvd
Woodland Hills, CA
(818) 713-9500
http://www.angelcitycafe.com/

LA Restaurants

Elephant Bar – Northridge, CA – Review

April 28, 2014 / admin / 0 Comments

Mike and I stopped for lunch at the Elephant Bar last Friday. He was well acquainted with the chain, but I hadn’t been to one before so I was curious. The restaurant is part of a big chain and it’s at a mall, but the interior was very pleasant, with lots of wood/bamboo, dark colors, a brass elephants and posters of old cruises to exotic lands.

The menu is basically Asian-inspired California food, on the pricy side. Mike and I shared the chicken potsticker appetizer (~$7), and we both liked them very much. The chicken filling was bursting with flavor, and the soy-based dipping sauce complimented it nicely. I’d order it again.

We then shared a full rack of the Kona BBQ pork ribs (~20). These came with a few french fries and coleslaw, and some apple sauce. Mike liked the ribs, but I wasn’t thrilled. Yes, the meat was falling off the bone, but it had the textured of steamed rather than slow cooked pork. The sauce was OK, similar to a teriyaki sauce, with sweet and gingerly notes, but not really remarkable. The ribs I had a couple of days later at Willow Ranch in Buttonwillow were much, much better.

Service was great, however, with a very attentive waitress.

All in all, the Elephant Bar seems like a good place to have a generic good meal in very nice surroundings.

Elephant Bar
9301 Tampa Ave
Northridge, CA
(818) 534-3785
http://www.elephantbar.com

Marga’s Chain Restaurant Reviews

Willow Ranch Restaurant – Buttonwillow, CA – Review

April 27, 2014 / admin / 0 Comments

We were driving back home to the Bay Area, after my sister’s wedding in LA, and we were all starving by the time we hit Buttonwillow. Choices for lunch here are pretty limited. You have a Dennys and a couple of fast food joints, a taco truck or two, an Indian restaurant and Willow Ranch. We had stopped at Willow Ranch once before, for breakfast, and had left unimpressed. However, Yelp reviews promised something better for lunch, and we’re always up to trying some BBQ. Willown Ranch did not disappoint. They probably served the best bbq I’ve had outside E&J’s for a long time.

Willow Ranch is a simply, homey, coffeeshop/family restaurant style place. They have a cool statute of a cow in the front, which the kids loved, and a western motif, but it’s not a place where you come for the decor. The menu is extensive, but it caters to meat eaters (vegetarians should probably head for Taste of India). That was perfectly fine with us.

Mike had a 1/2 rack of baby back ribs ($15). They came with coleslaw, corn-on-the-cob, baked beans and onion rings. We both felt the ribs were excellent. I liked the flavor and the fact that they didn’t taste boiled, they had texture. The BBQ sauce was also excellent, highlighting sour and sweet notes. Those who like a kick on their BBQ would be disappointed, but I don’t. I had the tri-tip sandwich with onion rings ($10). The beef itself was sort of blah, but the sauce was good enough to make it shine. All in all, I was quite happy. The onion rings were very good as well, make sure to ask for ranch sauce to go with them.

My oldest daughter was quite happy with her California Chicken Burger ($8) and the little one was quite happy with her mac & cheese. The kids’ size dish was cheap at $4, but it did leave her hungry (she’s 9). The rest of us had more than enough food together, however.

Drinks were about $2.50 and the whole lunch for the four of us came to about $51 after tax and before tip.

All in all, it was a great lunch and I look forward to stopping there in the future.

Update May 2014

We stopped again at Willow Ranch, again coming back from LA. It was earlier in the day, so two of us had breakfast.

Mike had the Western Style Omelette ($9). He was not too happy with it. It was described as ‘Shredded deep-pit Certified Angus Beef®, diced bell pepper and onions topped with Cheddar cheese and served with your choice of homemade BBQ sauce or salsa”. He had expected that the beef and veggies would have been incorporated into the omelette. Instead, an egg & cheese omelette was just served on top of the beef. I just didn’t work for him.

Camila had some pancake combo from the kids’ menu which met her 9 year-old expectations. The toast, however, was very hard and she did not like it.

Mika once again enjoyed her California chicken burger, sans bacon, and I had the kids’ BBQ ribs & fries ($6). I wasn’t very hungry, and as Mika was ordering from the adult menu I felt justified. The entree came with four spare ribs, which was just the right amount for my hunger then and should satisfy a child’s appetite. Again, they had a nice texture and a good sauce. The fries were crispy and fine, but unremarkable.

In all, a good experience, but I think lunch rather than breakfast is the winner here.

Original Review, Breakfast, July 2009

We were on I-5 again, returning home from LA, the kids were hungry and the next stop was Buttonwillow so we headed there. We hadn’t been to the Willow Ranch restaurant before, and we figured it might be better than the other choices. In reality, it was not – we only had breakfast, but their breakfast left some to be desired. I’m rating it a solid “D” for Dennys-like quality.
I had the French toast (2 bread slices for $6) that came with a side of bacon or sausage. I got the bacon and it was overcooked and tough. The French toast was OK but not exciting, a rather small portion for the price (but I wouldn’t have wanted more). It was served with regular syrup.
Mike had the “hearty” breakfast ($8) which included pancakes, 2 eggs, sausage, and I think bacon. The pancakes were fine, but his eggs over medium were actually runny. Without any potatoes or bread to soak the yolk, they were a waste. The kids had the pancake and egg breakfast ($3) and were both happy, but they are easy to please. With 3 hot chocolates and a glass of milk the bill came to $30 after tax, expensive for a very mediocre breakfast.
The Willow Ranch is a modest, western-style restaurant and I think they specialize in BBQ foods, so their BBQ may be good – but I wouldn’t be rushing back in in any case.
Willow Ranch Restaurant
27770 Lagoon Dr.
Buttonwillow, CA
(661) 764 – 6605
http://www.willowranchrestaurant.com/
Marga’s Road Restaurant Reviews

BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger & Cheeseburger w/ Avocado & Bacon

The Habit Burger Grill – Walnut Creek – Review

January 4, 2014 / marga / 4 Comments

BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger & Cheeseburger w/ Avocado & Bacon

Habit Burger is a newish chain of “upscale” fast food burger joints that is trying to spread throughout the Bay Area. One may be opening in San Leandro in a year or two, a fact that Mayor Stephen Cassidy considers a major accomplishment of his administration (I kid you not!). We were driving by Walnut Creek, and my husband decided we should stop by one of its restaurant and find out whether Cassidy’s characterization of the restaurant as “a hip, healthy and delicious” was accurate. It wasn’t, but then again, I can’t say I am surprised.

As far as fast-food chains go, Habit Burger is definitely a step up from McDonalds and their ilk. Its flavor profiles are closest to In-N-Out, but the restaurant is classier and it offers greater choices. The burgers ($3.50) were tasty, though the patties were small, thin and dry. They are charbroiled, which gives them a flavor similar to Burger King’s whoppers. My youngest daughter, who had hers with cheese & ketchup but nothing else, found it too small and too dry. This is a child that’s eaten her fair share of school cafeteria burgers, so criticism from her says somethings. I ordered my burger with guacamole and bacon ($1 extra each) and that made all the difference. The guacamole tasted fresh and vibrant and the bacon was crispy; the two combined completely redeemed the burger – but the patty was pathetic. My husband had the BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger ($4.60) and he also thought the burger was just OK.

My 11-yo had the chicken sandwich ($5.75) . She found it “OK”. The chicken itself was dry and the sandwich was a bit too peppery. She wouldn’t return, even if we had one here.

Neither my husband nor kids liked the fries ($1.85). They had a hard/chewy outer part and had a strange flavor. To me, they tasted as if they’d been cooked with their peels, but that wasn’t actually the case. Still, they did remind me (flavor wise, not texture wise) of In-N-Out fries. The portion was generous, but we didn’t finish them between the four of us.

We had different opinions with respect to the shakes ($3), however. Hubby ordered the vanilla and he found it too thin and tasteless. I shared the mocha with my oldest, and we both enjoyed it. It had a nice flavor, and while it was thin, I guess you don’t expect mochas to be thicker.

The food was ready fast and, as I mentioned, the restaurant was quite nice and clean. It did smell horrible, though, like old, stale oil. Maybe that’s why their fries were so unappetizing.

In all, I’d say this place is marginally better than In-N-Out, but nowhere as good as Nation’s. It’s probably a good fit for those who like Burger King but want nicer surroundings. But if you want a burger that looks like it’s made of beef, then Habit Burger is not for you.

Chicken Sandwich

Closeup of beef patty

The Habit Burger Grill
1255 S California Blvd
Walnut Creek, CA
(925) 279-2286
http://www.habitburger.com/

Marga’s Chain Restaurant Reviews