Category: Restaurants (Page 22 of 53)

New Hong Kong is the closest Chinese restaurant to our home and also my favorite. We eat there or order out every couple of months, and we’re pretty much always satisfied. The food is consistently tasty, the portions are generous, and the owners couldn’t be more friendly and attentive. They work incredibly hard and I’m very glad they’re successful, so far.
We last ordered food from there last night. We had the fried wontons ($3.75) which were nice, crispy and not oily – but not otherwise special, the Mongolian beef ($7.25) and the orange chicken ($6.75). The chicken was nice, juicy and not too sweet, the beef was very tasty, with a deep sauce. We ordered it medium which was a bit too spicy for me and not spicy enough for Mike – so probably correctly spiced as “medium”.
New Hong Kong now has a website and you can place online orders – ready in 10 to 20 minutes for pickup. They also deliver. Check out their take-out menus for attached coupons.
New Hong Kong Restaurant
1750 E. 14th St.
San Leandro, CA
510.357.6288
New Hong Kong Restaurant
Original Review
Marga’s San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

We went to Little Namking a couple of weeks ago, after speaking out at a city council meeting (which, according to Mayor Tony Santos constitutes “brownshirt tactics”). We hadn’t been there in many years, which is really a shame, as the food is quite good and nicely priced.
We shared the chicken chow mein, lemon chicken (which Mika wasn’t thrilled with but she was in a bad mood to begin with) and some beef dish. The portions weren’t huge but sufficient for 2 adults and 2 kids. We had no leftovers.
In all, a good meal but not superior enough to the ones we get at our nearby New Hong Kong to justify the extra distance.
Original Review
Marga’s San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

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

Nov. 2011 Update
Went back to Horatio’s a few days – it’s one of the very few places that stays open past 9 PM on a Sunday night. I had their pear bread pudding and was surprised to find out that the dessert portions have shrank considerably. This time, the dessert consisted of a square about half as large as it used to be. It was still $8, though.
To make things worse they’ve gotten rid of the Chocolate Decadence cake, which was our favorite dessert.
I guess I’ll have to start looking harder for someplace else to go for dessert.
Feb. 2010 Update
Despite my previous review of the Horatio’s bar (below), I’ve been there several times in the last couple of years, and I’ve generally been pleased. There is a complete dearth of “nice” bars in San Leandro where you can go for drinks/dessert (Paradiso has a tiny bar, CreAsian‘s is not much bigger and Vila Cereja has terrible desserts), so Horatio’s is really the only game in town. Plus their desserts are usually good (despite a couple of not great experiences).
Anyway, my friends and I tried to go there for dessert last night (a Saturday), only to find out that both the restaurant and bar now close at 10 PM. 10 PM! On a Saturday! It surprised me as, despite the economy, every time I’d gone to Horatio’s in the past there were quite a lot of people. It also annoyed me, as we still were not ready to go home. Fortunately El Torito (see next posting) next door was still open and had desserts – but I’m really disappointed that Horatio’s is no longer an option for hanging out late.
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Last night my friend Desiree and I went to Horatio’s for dessert. As you may recall, Mike and I went there last week and found the lounge closed for renovations. Well, it has reopened and not for the better.
Gone is the enclosed platform where the bar was. Now, it’s just one big room, with a long bar to a side. It’s more spacious and there are tables everywhere. It looks much more like a bar than a lounge, the lights have been turned up and the place is incredibly noisy – you have to shout to hear yourself.
Needless to say, I don’t like it. I found the old lounge both romantic and relaxing, a great place to hang out with friends or Mike. The new place will work best for people looking to party or get drunk. I’m sad.
We had dessert, and at least this time the chocolate decadence cake was not stale – though the slices seem smaller and the prices have gone up (it’s $8.50 now). Desiree had their fruit crumble, and she wasn’t too happy with it. She found the fruit (I think they were peaches) bitter.
I doubt I’ll be going back to Horatio’s.
Horatio’s
60 San Leandro Marina
San Leandro
(510) 351-5556
http://www.r-u-i.com/hor/
M-Sa: last call 10 PM
Original Review
San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

Note: La Bella Italia has re-opened in the same location under the name Tuscany.
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We have to say a final goodbye to Bella Italia/My Ultimate Tandoori. The Italian-cum-Indian restaurant, located at the old Pring’s building, tried hard, with multiple remodels and a change of focus, but its offerings were ultimately mediocre and the place was often empty. I’m actually it survived at long as it did. I’m also sorry, as the people who ran it were very nice.
Now a new restaurant has opened in its space. It’s called Bardelli’s and I haven’t tried it yet – just driven past it. I’ve also not found anything online about it – not even their phone number. But they have a big sign that says “open”, so I assume they are.
I don’t know when I’ll get to review it, so I’d appreciate any comments from anyone who goes there.
San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

I am told that Chang’s restaurant on MacArthur in San Leandro Has recently closed. I’m not really surprised. I knew there was a restaurant on that street on the market, and I figured it could be Chang’s because 1) there was no buzz about the place, 2) I never heard anyone singing its praises and 3) my friend Aamani had a terrible experience there. I personally hadn’t been back since my visit years ago. I can only hope a better place will open at the location.
San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

It’s pretty pathetic to be reviewing a Denny’s restaurant – indeed, it’s pretty pathetic to be eating at a Denny’s restaurant – but we were in our way to Lassen National Park, we were starving, and choices for food on that stretch of I-5 are all very poor. Willows offers you two alternatives, The Black Bear diner and Denny’s. We went to BB a few years ago and weren’t impressed, so Mike decided to give Denny’s a chance. I hadn’t been to a Denny’s in many, many years, and the experience was just as I remembered it: thoroughly mediocre.
The Willows’ Denny’s restaurant has a very short menu – and they didn’t have anything that really sounded appetizing. I might have gone for a burger, but they will only cook them to medium-well (I guess they can’t trust their own meat handling). Mike had their bacon burger ($9, I think) and he wasn’t impressed. The dryness of the meat wasn’t as much a problem as the tangy, strange steak sauce that came on the burger. He’d had preferred a regular BBQ sauce.
I had the Philly steak sandwich, and it was also OK. The chunks of meat had been pot roasted and they were very tender, they were covered with a mild cheese. The bread had a nice garlicky flavor, but there were pretty much no mushrooms to speak of. I ordered my sandwich with hash browns, which I quite enjoyed.
My favorite part about Denny’s are the kids prices. Yeah, the portions are tiny, but my kids never eat that much. Mika had the quesadilla ($2.90). The quesadilla was small and had some weird bright orange cheese, but Mika was happy with it. She had it with the veggies with ranch sauce – and I was impressed at the size of the portion. They made a meal into themselves. The carrots didn’t look very fresh, but they were crunchy and tasted fine.
Camila had the cheese pizza with apple slices ($3.50). The pizza was your standard microwaved thingy, but Camila enjoyed it.
We had cokes, which tasted fine, but you will want to avoid the tap water.
Probably the worst part of the dinner was the wait. We got there are 7 PM on a Friday night, and though the restaurant wasn’t very crowded, the kids food did not arrive to the table until 7:40 PM – ours came 10 minutes later. Service otherwise was fine.
In all, you could do worse than Denny’s – but I’m hoping sometime to find a better alternative along that stretch of road.
Denny’s
343 North Humboldt Avenue
Willows, CA
(530) 934-3231
Marga’s Road Restaurant Reviews
Marga’s BA Restaurant Reviews