Category: Restaurants (Page 45 of 52)

Casa Mar

We haven’t had a Thai restaurant in San Leandro since we’ve lived in this city, so it was with much anticipation that we awaited the opening of Thai Satay, at the old Strizzi’s location. We were a tad apprehensive, as Mike has gone several times to the Thai Satay in San Mateo (same owners) and the pad thai is always clumpy and not very good (and yet he keeps going). It’s true that he always goes after the lunch rush, but that’s no excuse for clumpy pad thai.
We got there around 7 PM and the place was packed, which tells you how much in need of good restaurants San Leandro is (if you’re a restauranteur thinking about San Leandro, there is a place in the Marina that the city wants to develop into a restaurant, serve good food at approachable prices and I guarantee you your place will be packed). We were given a table for four at the entrance of the smaller room that should be replaced with a smaller table, as it was the waiters kept squeezing in by my husband when the went by. The place is not much change since it was Strizzi’s a couple of weeks ago. They don’t seem to have repainted and the carpets are still those dark green and pink flowered ones that were there before, but they’ve added some Thai looking wood panneling to the walls, a few framed Thai pictures, the obligatory portraits of the king and queen and a wooden Thai-framed bus station. The whole thing really doesn’t work well together, but it could be worse.
Thai Satay’s menu is just like that of its sibling restaurant in San Mateo. Indeed, the menus we were handed had the San Mateo address in print. Its quite extensive with 83 items, though most of its focus is on seafood. It only has four each pork and beef entrees. While it features many of the most commonplace Thai dishes, I was surprised to see that it didn’t include panang curries or pra-ram chicken (the chicken with peanut sauce served on a bed of Spinach), two of our favorite dishes. I’ve written to the owner to ask why that’s the case. Appetizers are $6-7 and main dishes $9-13, a little too steep for Thai food but then again, this is San Leandro. Rice is $1 pp and sodas $1.75, expensive considering that there are no refills.
Mike and I split an appetizer of chicken satay (see picture). The skewers were pretty small and I thought the chicken was chewy and not flaky enough, it also wasn’t very tasty. The sauce was OK, too runny for my taste and served in a tiny portion. I don’t think I’d order it again.
The massamun nuer ($9) was much better. The beef was very tender and there was a good proportion of potatoes to meat. The sauce was darker and spicier than most massamuns I’ve had, but it was rather nice and I enjoyed it very much. I’d order it again.
The bar-b-que pork ($9) was quite tasty, both by itself and with the sweet & sour sauce it was served with. The slices were a bit tough, but that’s a common problem with pork, bbq chicken or beef may be a better bet. Still, we quite enjoyed it.
The dessert list is very limited (fried bananas, ice cream, tapioca, sticky rice) and we didn’t have any as I wanted to get to the library before they closed, I’ll probably try the fried bananas next time.
We’ll certainly be going again, though I’ll wait a few weeks before I write a “proper” review of the place. For being opening night I think they did quite well.

Everett & Jones, our favorite BBQ joint. I was afraid for a while it had closed, but apparently it was just for remodeling (not that it’s too evident what they did). Anyway, it’s back and just as good as ever.
Cafe Vasiliki, a run-of-the-mill coffeeshop in Hayward that only stands out by its extensive, but not too exciting, salad bar.
Piperade, an update on this hip French Basque restaurant in San Francisco
La Bella Italia, update on this Italian restaurant in San Leandro
Aroma Kitchen, another BBQ joint in San Leandro that just doesn’t get it.

Today I took the girls to Habitot. My plan was to stop by Mel’s Drive-Inn which is right next to Habitot but Mika wanted pizza, so we went to the pizza place right next to Mel’s. They’d changed it since our last visit, they put the counter against the outside door and now you are not allowed to eat inside the restaurant, but my plan was to take the slices down to Habitot and eat in their lunch room anyway.
The pizza was OK. Even though it was around lunch time, it was clear that it’d been sitting under the heatlamp for a while, the cheese was all solid and uniform rather than gooey. It didn’t have that alcoholic-like taste that I had enjoyed in their pizza in the past, I’m not sure if that was because it wasn’t fresh.
The new restaurant (is it new?) doesn’t seem to have a name. The only sign I saw just said “pizza”. I can’t imagine it’ll last long – though the pizza is fairly affordable at $2.50 for a cheese slice – I don’t think the Shattuck traffic is eat-as-you-walk traffic as much as the Telegraph traffic. Personally, I don’t think I’ll try it again.

Yesterday we went to the California Academy of Science and had lunch (well, I had lunch) at the Grow Cafe there. There seems to be a trend now to have high-quality eateries at museums and I, for one, couldn’t be happier. Following that trend the Grow Cafe serves gourmet sandwiches (though all with deli meats, no fresh chicken or beef here) and salads.
I had the Roast Beef oven toasted sandwich ($6.95) which came with gorgonzola, balsamic roasted onions and sun-dried tomato spread. It was very good, I really liked the pungent taste of the cheese sneaking into the sweetness of the onions. It was also a nicely-size sandwich. I’d order it again.
I had a large fountain coke which was flat and not very large and too expensive at $2.
The space for the cafe is small, but we managed to maneuver two double strollers.

Waikiki Hawaiian BBQ is located in the space that once belonged to Cafe Zula (OK but overpriced) and later to a taqueria which, at least according to my friend Boris, was pretty bad. Even though the space is close enough to city hall to ellicit a healthy lunch trade, the space seems to be doomed and I can’t imagine Waikiki Hawaiian will last long, it just isn’t very good. In a city that’s quickly filling up with Hawaiian restaurants, Hawaiian food fans have better places where to get their fix.
Waikiki Hawaiian offers a large number of Hawaiian plate lunches (starting at $4 for “mini plates” and going up to $6.75 for a combo plate) as well as sandwiches and burgers (starting at $1.65!). They have many things marinated in teriyaki sauce but also some more unusual offerings such as lemon chicken and beef curry. Mike and I decided to try a little of everything, I got the BBQ Mix Plate (teriyaki steak, short ribs & chicken) and he got the seaffod combo (mahi mahi, deep fried shrimp and choice of meat). None of the food was good. The chicken had the weird consistency of processed chicken, the ribs were mostly bone and fat and the little bit of meat was very chewy, the steak was chewy too and the sauce wasn’t very yummy. In all, we were quite disapointed and see no reason to go back.
Waikiki Hawaiian is part of a small chain with locations in El Cerrito and Concord.
Waikiki Hawaiian B-B-Q
635 E 14th St.
san Leandro, CA
510-0-882
Su-Th 10:30am – 9 pm
F-Sa 10:30am – 9:30 pm
Note:
You can read Meathenge’s take on the El Cerrito branch here. It may be that we just ordered the wrong thing.

This weekend we went to two African restaurants. Friday night it was Finfin

The East Bay Express has reviewed Xenia!, the new restaurant opened by the Vatran clan in Alamo. The review is mixed, the place still seems to need work, but I still want to go! Maybe in a few weeks, when I recoup from eating out so much lately.
eastbayexpress.com | Vatran’s Flying Restaurant | 2005-04-27

I finally got to go to Fleur de Lys for my birthday. The food was wonderful though the dinner was badly balanced, the the first three courses were small and the cheese and dessert courses overwhelming. There was also a problem with the pacing of the dishes (too brisk) and the table were they first sat us frankly sucked – though they did move us when I expressed my disatisfaction to a better location. But again, the food was excellent, familiar yet innovative and delicious.
And yet… I left disatisfied. I think I have to admit that I’ve become jaded with nice restaurants. My expectations are now too high, I want perfection for my $300. I think I’m going to put off going to nice restaurants for some time – though I’ll probably take Mike to Manresa for his birthday as he said that’s where he wanted to go. And I may go back to Acquerello, where the warmth and quality of the service awed me.
Of course, if anyone can suggest a superlative dining experience in the Bay Area (or LA, for that matter), I’d love to hear about it.
When ready, my review of Fleur de Lys will be at http://www.marga.org/food/rest/fleur.html

For Mother’s Day Mike decided to get us lunch at Gregoire and have us had a pic-nic lunch at Muir Woods. It was a rainy day, however, so we decided to eat the food in the car instead. Fortunately most of it lent itself to it. It was all delicious.
I couldn’t really see the cheese or the mushrooms in the cheesteak sandwich ($7.50), but the chopped beef was bursting with flavor, it reminded me of the taste of steak in Argentina. The lamb in the roasted lamb sandwich ($7.75) was also very tasty and “lamby”. Sharing half of each sandwich kept them from getting boring. Once again we loved the potato puffs ($4.25) and were less thrilled by the potato gratin ($4.25). I think next time we should try the french fries. I liked the mango red pudding ($3.75), it had a fresh, satisfying mango taste, but it became easily overwhelmed by the tartness of the berry coulis. They just didn’t go well together. Mike liked the chocolate mousse ($3.75) but it reminded me of the chocolate mousse I used to make when I was a kid out of a children’s cooking book.
Gregoire’s menu changes monthly, so if you want to enjoy these sandwiches you’ll have to do so in May 🙂