Category: Restaurants (Page 27 of 52)

2010 Update: Double B has closed. Sylantro Vietnamese Cuisine has opened in its location.
—
I thought I had written a review of Double B Ranch & Grill a couple of months ago, when Mike and I had dinner there. However, I can’t find it anywhere, so it must only have been written in my imagination. Of course, a couple of months are a long time and I now don’t remember the meal in great detail, so I’ll do the best I can 🙂
My general impression of Double B Ranch & Grill was that it was an OK restaurant, but grossly overpriced for the atmosphere and food. The restaurant is located in a strip mall, and the inside looks like it, though it’s been spiffed up with a cowboy theme. The menu is brief, specializing on grilled items, with prices in the mid-to-high teens for most entrees – even for lunch!
I had a cheeseburger ($10), despite the fact that they will not cook it medium rare (one good reason to not go back). It was OK, a bit dry as it was overcooked. The cook also forgot to take the piece of paper that separates cheese slices, so I found myself eating paper! Not a big deal, however, just somewhat amusing.
Mike had the ribs (and he had them again at a subsequent lunch visit) and he liked how off-the-bone tender they were, but he found them too dry. The BBQ sauce was OK, nothing spectacular. The portion was generous (it should be, for $17!) and came with beans (which he liked) and run of the mill steak fries.
In all, it wasn’t a bad meal but not one I’d have again at those prices.
Double B Ranch & Grill
967 Manor Blvd
San Leandro, CA
(510) 352-1874
San Leandro Restaurant Reviews
Bay Area Restaurant Reviews
Marga’s Food Page

Sonoma restaurant, on McArthur in San Leandro, has closed for good. I’m not surprised – while the concept was good, it failed on execution: the food just wasn’t that good. I gave it several tries, but it just underwhelmed me.
I’d be sorry to see it go, but the rumor is that Mike Wiesner of Paradiso is taking over the space and opening a (gourmet?) burger joint. He will also serve breakfast. The food at Paradiso is pretty good (if also overpriced), and I think that San Leandro could really use a good burger place. There are several, but since the closure of Joplins, the only one that does a good burger is Vila Cereja (though I haven’t been there for quite a while).
Anyway, I’m looking forward to trying the new place.

Sweet Fingers is San Leandro’s only Caribbean restaurant. Located on East 14th, near the Oakland border, it’s relatively inconspicuous. From the outside it looks like a bar, from the inside, like a third-world restaurant. The tables are cheap, the light is dim and the bar quite prominent. It’s the kind of place you go to hang out, listen to some reggae or just have some great Jamaican/Caribbean food. That’s what we did last night, when we had our monthly informal SLCAN meeting at the place.
Everything we ordered was a winner: B. loved the jerked tofu, T. became a fun of the shrimp curry and D. enjoyed his oxtail stew. R. and I had had dinner earlier and weren’t planning to eat, but we had to order the fabulous friend plantains ($4). After we enjoyed them, the waitress was nice enough to bring us a plate of jerk chicken to share. It was dark and moist and nicely spiced – I’m always afraid that jerk chicken will be too strong for my taste but that is not a worry here. In all, I regretted not having gone back to Sweet Fingers since my first review a couple of years ago. Service, as you can imagine, was really good.
The prices, however, are a little high – most entrees are in the mid-teens. However, you can usually buy a $25 gift certificate to Sweet Fingers for $10 at restaurant.com (just do a search for restaurants within a mile of 94577). There is a $35 minimum food purchase. Once in a while restaurant.com has specials which allow you to buy said gift certificate for $2 or $3 – keep an eye on dealdetectives.com.
Sweet Fingers is very friendly to vegetarians – their new menu features 11 vegetarian entrees. With over 15 meat and fish entrees, it’s also pretty friendly to carnivores.

The new menu keeps many favorites such as the jerk chicken, but adds new dishes such as brown stew goat ($16), braised blue mountain lamb ($18) and ginger orange chicken ($16).  Some of the dishes are daily specials.
Sweet fingers is also increasing its musical offerings. They will have music every day but Monday from 10 PM to 2 AM. There will be live music every Sunday.
They will have a happy hour from 3-6 PM with half-price appetizers.
I’m unlikely to go for the music or the happy hour, but I’ll definitely return for the food.
Sweet Fingers
464 E. 14th St.
San Leandro ,CA
510.553.9869
http://www.sweetfingersrestaurant.com/
Marga’s Original Review
San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

I’m sorry to say that I have not added restaurant reviews to my website for many months now. I was waiting for Mike to edit them, but I don’t think it’s going to happen any time soon, and some of them are over a year old! So here they are, unedited:
Asmara – typical Ethiopian food on Telegraph Ave.
Bijou – This new French restaurant in Hayward fails miserably in ambiance and food.
Cafe Majestic – I went there for my birthday last year, alas, it seems to have closed before I posted my review 🙁
The fig cafe & winebar – a great lunch spot in Glen Ellen
The Golden Tea Garden is a relatively new tea house in Hayward that has quickly become my favorite.
Highland Dell Lodge Restaurant – Less than successful food at this German/American restaurant.
Pizzaiolo – unusual think-crust pizzas in North Oakland
Skates on the Bay – I loved the atmosphere and burgers at this Berkeley institution.
Soizic – a very nice Californian restaurant near Jack London Sq. has a Michellin star and killer mushrooms.
There are three more reviews from the Vancouver, WA area that are in Mike’s computer so I can’t post now. When they are ready, they’ll be at http://www.marga.org/food/rest/other/
As usual, you can find my restaurant reviews at http://www.marga.org/food/rest/

A couple of days ago I went with my friend Mauro to lunch at Khana Peena. He likes it quite a bit, but I was not crazy about the buffet. It had many of the usual dishes: chicken tikka masala, a lamb curry, chicken tandoori, naan, rice and so forth. It was $10, including soda.
The place itself is very nice, in particular the outside patio which has benches and pillows and lots of fresh air. Inside it looks a bit more elegant than your run-of-the-mill Indian restaurant.
I wasn’t thrilled with the food, though. It was OK, but I thought the curries needed more “ummph”, not necessarily spiciness, but something to complete the flavor. The chicken tandoori also wasn’t very flavorful, but most importantly, it was quite undercooked. The rice and naan were nice.
I wouldn’t be rushing back to Khana Peena, but I won’t mind if Mauro suggests it again.
Khana Peena Indian Cuisine
5316 College Ave.
Oakland, CA
510-658-2300
Marga’s Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

Note: La Bella Italia has re-opened in the same location under the name Tuscany.
—
As I announced a couple of days ago, La Bella Italia has become “My Ultimate Tandoori”. Its old Italian menu is not changed, but it’s now complimented by an Indian menu. The new menu offers a plethora of entrees from all over India ($8-13 a la carte, $12-17 with plain naan, rice, salad and lentils), including quite a few vegetarian entrees. There are several appetizers and desserts in their take-out menu, but they were not included in the dine-in menu that we were given (after asking for it, they gave us the Italian menu by default). Appetizers in the take-out menu include vegetable (but not chicken) pakoras for $5 and chicken samosas for $6. They also have a variety of naans ($1.25 – 4), but not kabuli naan. Though not in their menu, they do serve lassis. I had a sweet lassi, which was OK. For some reason it was pink – it tasted a little bit of curd, but mostly of sugar; it was extremely sweet. I think next time I’d ask them to make it less sweet.
Dinner started with their usual rolls and butter – the rolls were warm, but a bit stale this time. They also brought us papadums, which were very crispy but too spicy for my taste. They were not served with the cilantro and sweet-sour sauces that usually accompany it at other restaurants.
For dinner we had our “staples”: chicken tikka masala ($9), lamb korma ($10), a plain naan ($1.25) and an onion kulcha ($3). I also ordered rice ($2, I think).
The tikka masala and korma sauces were quite similar – the korma being more spicy (we ordered them medium). They were thick, flavorful, without much in the way of sweetness. The tikka masala lacked any pretension of smokyness, and the korma was probably bolder and less creamy than other kormas I’ve had. I wasn’t crazy about them, but that’s probably a matter of individual taste. I did eat them all (helped by naan), I just didn’t love them. The chicken, unfortunately, was quite dry and the lamb a bit too tough.
I’m not an expert on identifying rice grains, but I can tell you that the rice served here was not basmati. The grains were pretty thick, and it was stickier than it should have been (perhaps it was a tad overcooked). It also tasted very plain, without the nutiness of basmati. Interestingly, I found that the curries were horrible when eaten together with the rice – fortunately we had the naan.
The naan and the kulcha were quite nice, and I would order them again.
Dinner came up to $40 after tax and tip – a little steep, I think. Service was good, though the waiter failed to let us know about the Indian menu, and he did not tell us what we could order off-menu (such as appetizers, desserts and lassis).
In all, we had a pleasant meal but not one we would be rushing to have again. The food at Favorite India, in Hayward, is considerably more to my linking and its entrees are a dollar or two cheaper. My Ultimate Tandoori delivers with a $30 minimum order; Favorite India does as well, but only to parts of San Leandro.
Still, I’m quite happy that Ultimate Tandoori has opened and I imagine I will go back with friends when we don’t want to have an Indian dinner in the city. I’m also planning on trying their lunch buffet ($7 without a drink – 11 AM to 3 PM daily) (see update below)
My Ultimate Tandoori
15015 East 14th St.
San Leandro, CA
510-278-5899
Daily 11 AM – 3 PM and 4 PM – 10 PM
San Leandro Restaurant Reviews
Marga’s Indian recipes:
Balti
Bengali

Update
Today I went to lunch to My Ultimate TAndoori with a couple of friends. The buffet lunch had regular salad, raita, plums (I think), vegetable pakora, chicken tandoori, a seafood curry, a lamb curry and chicken tikka masala (I think). It also had rice, some spinach dish, daal, a vegetable curry (I think) and, for dessert, gulab jamun and a rice pudding. The buffet was $7, with drink and tax it came out to $10. A hot butter naan is served at the table.
All in all I thought it was an average Indian buffet. The naan and the gulab jamun were simply delicious. The chicken tandoori was a little uneven, the first piece I got was very good and flavorful, others less so. The meat curries tasted about the same as they did the other night. They were thick and tasty, but they were missing something. Perhaps they have not simmered for long enough. Once again I found the chicken somewhat tough, and I preferred to eat the curries with the delicious naan. I didn’t try the vegetable selections. One of my friends really liked them mixed with raita – the other one didn’t do so and found them too spicy.
In all, it was an OK buffet, though not one of the best I’ve had. I expect that I’ll go there from time to time and you should give it a try too.
—
Update 12/09
We went again to My Ultimate Tandoori around Xmas time with my parents and I think we had a pretty experience. Mike and I had Indian food and my parents Italian. It’s been a while so I don’t remember what we all had, but we all liked the food. However, we all felt it was overpriced, which is why My Ultimate Tandoori is not my choice for either Indian or Italian food, despite the fact that it’s relatively close to my home.

The economic situation is being tough on San Leandro restaurants – and many of them are resorting to coupons to get people in the door. Whereas a few months ago, there were only a couple of San Leandro restaurants in restaurant.com, now you can find quite a few of them.
Restaurant.com lets you buy $10 gift certificates for $3, and $25 gift certificates for $10. There is usually a minimum purchase ($35 or $50 for the $25 gc) which may exclude alcoholic drinks. The real deal, though, is that sometimes you can get these certificates for 70-80% off (keep an eye on dealdetectives.com), so our savings can be really substantial.
The San Leandro restaurants on restaurant.com now are:
–Biggies Brazilian BBQ
-El Amigo Mexican
-Los Cabos Seafood Mexican Restaurant
–Luke’s Grill
–Porky’s Pizza Palace
–San Gaspar Restaurante
–Sweet Fingers Restaurant
–Tito’s Mexican Restaurant
–Vo’s Restaurant
There are also a bunch of new restaurants in the surrounding areas, so remember to check out restaurant.com before going to dinner anywhere.

It has happened! San Leandro has finally gotten an Indian restaurant. We’ve hoped for it, begged for it, and it’s finally here. Alas, I haven’t been there yet, so I don’t know how good it is, but it’s here.
My Ultimate Tandoori has opened in the space previously occupied by La Bella Italia. The owners of La Bella Italia are themselves Indian (from the Punjab, I’d guess, as they are Sikh) – but their true love is Italian food. Alas, La Bella Italia was not very successful in its current location, I rarely saw anyone there, so they seem to finally give in and give San Leandro what it really needs: an Indian restaurant. They’ll continue serving Italian food, however. We had desert there last month, and it was quite good, so they’ll hopefully keep that.
As for the new menu, it includes your usual North Indian dishes (they have chicken tikka masala and lamb korma, my favorites), but a bunch of others as well. Indeed, I wonder if their menu is not too ambitious. They have a daily lunch buffet for $7 (11 AM – 3 PM).
I hope I’ll get to go this week – I’ll let you know what I think.
My Ultimate Tandoori
15015 East 14th St.
San Leandro, CA
510-278-5899
Daily 11 AM – 3 PM and 4 PM – 10 PM