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
Category: Restaurants (Page 46 of 53)
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 🙂
Our friends Eddie and Arthur suggested we get together for dinner at the Texas Roadhouse for dinner last night – but when we got there around 8 PM, the place was a madhouse. They told me there was a 4 hour wait, and while that seemed unlikely, it clearly did not make sense for us to stay there for dinner. So we suggested we go to Banyan Garden, we had liked it last time and we didn’t think the place would be so full.
Being mother’s day and all, we still had to wait, though only for fifteen minutes or so. We were then given a large table for 8 at the back of the restaurant. We ordered quite a lot of food and it was all good.
The Roti Canai ($2.50) was a very light, thin, flaky and somewhat chewy flat bread (thinner and lighter than a crepe). We all liked it, and I once again was won over by the spicy curry dipping sauce. The chicken satay ($5.50) was also a winner, with nicely marinated chicken chunks and a spicy, chunky peanut sauce. I’d definitely order both again.
We liked the mango chicken ($8). It was served on two hollowed mango shelfs and consisted of chicken pieces and slices of mango and red and green bell peppers in a sweet and sour tomato sauce. The sauce tasted fruity rather than tomatoish and was nicely spiced and quite good. The mango slices were too crunchy for my taste, however, they didn’t seem ripe enough. The sizzling beef ($12) was sizzling and spicy and quite good with their black pepper sauce. The thin slices were tender though in that pounded sort of way. The padang lamb ($10) tasted just the same as last time and the Malaysian short ribs ($9) also had that pounded consistency but were enjoyable. I didn’t get to taste the pineapple rice ($7) but others liked it, and the one noodle dish I did have (can’t recall what it was) was fine but not remarkable.
In all we had an enjoyable dinner and I’ll certainly go again.
A new Hawaiian BBQ place has opened on East 14th at the sport where Cafe Zula used to be. In between, it was a taqueria which we never tried but which according to our friend Boris was pretty bad. We did try this new Hawaiian place and it wasn’t very good either. maybe the location is doomed.
Right after I finally write a review for Strizzi’s, the restaurant decides to close. It makes me sad to see all these old-time San Leandro restaurants closing. I’d feel well if they were better, though. A new Thai place is opening in its space and, of course, I’m hopeful.
There is a new Chinese bakery opening also on East 14th near New Hong Kong. Could it be that I’ll finally be able to feast myself on pork buns without having to go into a restaurant? May be. Stay tuned.
And a couple of more I neglected to include yesterday:
Dragon Express, the fast-food Chinese restaurant on East 14th next to 7-11 has closed and is now Chopsticks Express. Haven’t tried it yet. Dragon Express was pretty bad.
Francisco’s, the Mexican restaurant on Bancroft that was closed for a while due to hygene problems, bankrupcy, etc., has now been sold and has re-opened as another Mexican restaurant, Pancho Villa, I think. Haven’t tried it either.
Mike has returned to me a bunch of edited restaurant reviews and they’re now up on my website. These include:
Speisekammer, a child-friendly German restaurant in Alameda
Thai Garden, the main attraction of this Hayward restaurant is that it’s the closest Thai restaurant to San Leandro
Boulevard, good but unimaginative Californian food at this San Francisco institution
Nick’s, had some awful food at this San Leandro coffeeshop
Joaquin Deli, few changes since it was Vatran’s Flying Sausages means good sandwiches and deli products.
I’d been looking forward to my birthday dinner at Fleur de Lis since, well, since I made the reservations a few weeks ago. But alas, I had to cancel it at the last minute. Both Mike and I have colds and I wanted to be able to enjoy the full dining experience, not be distracted by a headache or an itchy throat. But more importantly, our little girl was sick with the stomach flu, and we didn’t want to leave her. Canceling turned out to be the right decision, as Mika was unwell throughout the evening.
So my birthday dinner ended up being Indian delivery (not bad, though) and I didn’t even get a cake – oh well.
Monday I went to Disneyland with my hubby, sister and 3 yo. I heard that the Blue Bayou, a restaurant located at the entrance of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, was the best place to eat at Disneyland, and I was intrigued by its location. I made a 1:30 PM reservation but we had to wait an additional 45 minutes for a table on the water, with a view of the ride and the boats going by. It seems like a waste of time, but I was so tired by then that I welcomed the “down” time.
The restaurant was nice, it was cool being inside the ride, and the nocturnal ambiance made for a potentially relaxing atmosphere. Unfortunately the brisk – even if friendly – service, made relaxing difficult. The waiters clearly wanted you to get out ASAP. Food was brought to the table a couple of minutes after ordering, drinks were replenished every few minutes, dishes were removed even before everyone was done with lunch. I can understand the need to turn tables, the wait outside is very long, but it complete defeats the purpose of going to the restaurant: relaxing after a morning (or day) of unstopped activities. For that reason, I would not go again.
The food was better than I expected, though my expectations were low. I had the famed Monte Christo sandwich (a turkey, ham and cheese sandwich deep fried, sprinkled with a bit of powder sugar and served with some fruit preserve and pasta salad) and it was good, though too rich and it had the flavor of having been cooked in too-old oil. I could only finish half of it and I’d suggest splitting it with someone else.
Kathy was happy with her prime rib, but I thought it tasted like a typical buffet prime rib – at $18, it wasn’t a typical buffet price but this is Disneyland after all. Mike liked the jambalaya but it was very spicy. He didn’t mind that, but it made it impossible to taste the individual ingredients.
I’ll write a real review and post it at http://www.marga.org/food/rest/bayou.html, though I won’t have much more to say than what I’ve written here.
I just read a posting in Craigslist about a recent dining experience at Manresa. Apparently the Chef’s Menu (which I would have ordered) contained three raw seafood dishes (Salmon Roe on custard, an oyster in gelee, and minced raw scallops) and several other things that I’m not sure I’d like, and while I’m willing to try a couple, I don’t think I want a menu full of things that I may not like. Their a la carte menu does sound good, but I decided to look further a field and see if there was something I’d like better.
That’s how I came about the menu at Fleur de Lys and everything there sounds absolutely devine. Plus, it’s open on my birthday (Manresa is closed on tuesdays). So I cancelled the Manresa reservation and made one at Fleur de Lys instead. I still want to try Manresa some time, but perhaps not on such a dear occasion as my birthday.
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