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Category: Restaurants (Page 5 of 52)

A Foodie in San Francisco: Taste of Thrones’ Feast of the Dragon Review

August 19, 2024 / / 0 Comments

A mythical dinner at 25 Lusk

I hate Facebook for many things, but I have to admit their ad algorithm is amazing. It actually exposes me to more ads for things I’m interested in than anything else I’ve seen. So it was through a Facebook ad that I learned about the Taste of Thrones’ Feast of the Dragon. I’ve been looking to get out more and I’m always in the hunt for new culinary experiences, and this one seemed perfect – particularly as Mike and I had just finished watching the latest season of House of the Dragon. I was late getting into Game of Thrones – or “Dragon Tales,” as I prefer to call it. I only started watching the main series after the finale, but I got into it with gusto. A Game of Thrones theme dinner seemed like a lot of fun.

Taste of Thrones’ Feast of the Dragon takes place at 25 Lusk, a restaurant/bar/event place in China Basin. 25 Lusk operates a restaurant on its top level, Rooftop 25, has a private event place in the mid-level and is currently running the Taste of Thrones dinner in its sub-basement. They developed the concept of a themed pop-up restaurant/dinner series in collaboration with Theme Dream production, who created the decorations and props. It originally ran in 2019, during the last season of Game of Thrones, and it was revived this year for a month long stint, which has now been pushed to a second month. It is presently scheduled to run until the end of August, though it could be extended if there is sufficient demand. They are now also trying the idea of an all-you-can-eat family brunch on weekends.

I didn’t find any reviews for this dinner before I bought the tickets for the event, which was a good thing as otherwise I probably would have skipped it. The two post-pandemic reviews I later found on Yelp were very negative – and completely opposite to my experience. We had a great time and were super impressed by the food and the atmosphere.

Finding parking near 25 Lusk that Saturday night in August was surprisingly easy – though the place is near public transportation if you prefer to go that route. Once inside the building, I was a bit confused as to where to go: turn to your right after you go in and descend through the short stairs (or take the elevator down).

The space has a large bar as well as a number of communal tables. For the Feast of the Dragon, the whole area is decorated in Game of Thrones theme. The big attraction is the opportunity to take photos sitting on the Iron Throne, riding a dragon or posing with a White Walker. They also have a painted table, but I didn’t look for it and didn’t see it. You can access all of these photo opportunities by getting a drink at the bar – no reservations necessary. But the meal is well worth it.

We were then promptly seated at one of the communal tables for twelve, and allowed to choose our place. There was another couple sitting at one corner and we chose the opposite one. As it turned out, the party of eight that was supposed to share our table never showed up, so we had plenty of space and extra food: the platters of food brought to the table are supposed to serve four people. I’m not sure if we’d been as satisfied with the experience if we’d had to share them – some of the complaints in Yelp were about there not being enough food.

Dinner is set to start at 6:30 PM, but they don’t actually start serving food until 6:45, so you have enough time to get a lay of the place, order drinks and take your photos with the props.

The dinner is described as being served family style with 3 courses – but as each variation of each course is served separately in these platters for four people, this is really best described as a 9-course meal.

Dinner started with “Northerner rustic breads & pretzels, Rat Catcher’s cheddar fondue, goat butter from the Reach.”This consisted of little bread buns and pretzel bites served with whipped goat butter and a tiny pot of cheddar fondue. Everything was served cold, which was a minus. The goat butter was unremarkable but the fondue was pretty good. I’m very glad we didn’t have to share the tiny amount among four people, though.

The second course was “Winterfell heirloom tomato & cucumber salad.” This was surprisingly good. I’m not a fan of cucumbers, but the tomatoes were very fresh and flavorful, and they had the right amount of dressing. Even though it was for four people, I managed to eat most of it myself – it was that tasty.

Our third course – officially the first appetizer of three appetizers – was Aegon’s Dream
(“coconut and spice chilled noodle salad
oakwood roasted summer squash, ginger, yuzu”). It was made to look like brains coming out of a skull. The effect was very, very cool. Flavor wise, I wasn’t sold. I’m not a fan of cold noodles and these had a very subtle flavor. Mike liked them better, though he didn’t eat very many. This was a dish we’d have happily shared with others.

The fourth course was The Crab Feeder (dungeness crab salad, octopus sausage, grilled summer peppers served on organic red quinoa Bloodstone sand), and I was predisposed to dislike it from the start. I don’t eat crab nor octopus, after all. I did give the grilled peppers a try, and was quite impressed by their flavor. I’m not a huge fan of peppers – I like them mixed with other things or cooked in sauces – but these ones were surprisingly tasty. The quinoa was not, but it did give the dish a weird, sandy, gritty texture which was fun. I’m morally opposed to eating octopus – given that they are intelligent creatures (and yes, I should be morally opposed to eating all animals, but I’m a hypocrite in this regard), but I did try the sausages and they weren’t bad. It reminded me of a citrusy, flaky tuna. Mike, in particular, liked them, but he ate one piece – he said he didn’t want to fill up, but I think it was for the same reason. Octopus definitely worked with the Games of Throne theme, however. The crab was mixed with rice and poppy seeds and served cold, which I didn’t like, but Mike enjoyed it.

Our third appetizer, and fifth course, was Sea Snake’s Catch of the Day (local catch, burning aromatics, tempura sunchokes, dal lentils, sherry shiso sauce), and while the picture does not do it justice, this was an appropriately terrifying dish – it looked very much like a monstrous sea snake – with balls. The flowers decorating it added, rather than substracted, from the horror. I was duly impressed.

The fish itself was also very tasty. The sherry shiso sauce was subtle, tasty and acidic. It also came with large pieces crispy seaweed, which Mike, who usually likes seaweed, wasn’t a big fan of. They tasted burnt. I don’t like sunchokes, but Mike really loved them, in particular the tempura aspect of it. I just wish we had taken a better photo.

The first entrée, and sixth course was An Eye for An Eye (mini cauliflower crème brulée, salted lychee, forest mushroom escabeche, tomato water, basil). I guess the dish is meant to look like an eye, thought I didn’t really get the effect. It was, however, a very interesting dish.

The creamed cauliflower only had the subtlest hint of cauliflower taste which was great, given that I don’t like cauliflower. The lychee was mildly sweet and sour and contrasted to the very savory mushroom escabeche. Blending all flavors together produced something new, that I hadn’t tasted before, and which worked. I wouldn’t call it delicious, but I found it strange and interesting: it managed to encapsulate Game of Thrones into a dish. I did wish it was warmer, but maybe that’s the point.

Our second entrée and seventh course was Rhaenyra’s Kill (all parts of the pig pressed under brick, chicharrónes, star anise game reduction, grilled organic pluots). I was also surprised at how much I liked this dish. It consisted of pieces of pork meat and bacon, covered with chicarrones and served along with grilled pluots on a star anise sauce.

The bacon, of course, was the best part, because bacon always is. Always. this was particularly good and flavorful bacon, maybe even home made pork belly, but a complete winner. The pork, which I imagined was stewed in some form, was flaky and flavorful and worked really well with the delicious star anise sauce which tasted exactly of that: like a star anise reduction.

I hadn’t tried chicharrones before, but I enjoyed them. I wouldn’t go out of my way to have them again, but they worked here. The only thing that failed were the pluots. They hadn’t been grilled enough so they were tough and not sweet enough to compliment the dish.

Our final entrée and eight course was Fire & Blood: Dragon Meat (black angus beef roast served on a Valyrian steel sword, toasted black peppercorn sauce, grilled bread). Once again, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. The beef was tender and flavorful, with occasional bursts of charbroiled flavor. The peppercorn sauce was good, but the beef did not eat it. The grilled bread was just that, but it served as a good conduit for the tasty sauce. The presentation, of course, was marvelous and fitting. The only down was that it was a bit cold.

Dessert, our ninth and final course, was Dreamfyre’s Legacy (smoking dragon egg with dessert kebabs). The egg came with dry ice pebbles inside which produced that cool fog dried ice is known for. You could open it and add water to it for an even more dramatic effect.

The kebabs were small, but we were stuffed by then. They included two petit fours, a small brownie, a strawberry, a blackberry and a raspberry and two pieces of dried fruit. The presentation was great and the desserts were a nice dessert. I loved the brownie, which was very chocolaty and very chewy, while my daughter (who got the leftovers) loved the white cake petit four. It was also a beautiful dish.

Taste of Thrones offers a wine pairing, consisting of a glass of Chardonnay, one of Cab and one of Muscat, for $45. But we decided to try their cocktails instead.

Mike got Aegon’s Spirit (“bourbon, banana, benedictine, sweet vermouth, absinth mist” – $22) which came in a plastic aegon’s skull. He enjoyed it quite a bit and it was fun to drink from a skull. I should get some for Halloween. The drink was too strong for my taste – but I’m a very light drinker.

I ordered a Caraxes (rum, mango puree, lemon, afiero aperitif, perol,orange liqueur, angostura bitters – $13). This was a small, fun drink, sweet and not very alcoholic, and I enjoyed it. I also enjoyed the novelty of it coming in a plastic dragon egg. I do wish you got to keep them 🙂

Later on, Mike had a Meleys (tequila, lemon, pineapple juice – $13), another dragon egg drink. He enjoyed it, but I realize that tequila drinks are definitely too strong and bitter for my taste.

I also had a coke, which at $6 was painfully overpriced.

Service throughout the night was very attentive, cheerful and friendly. The servers are dressed in some medieval uniform, which definitely adds to the atmosphere.

The chef was also amazing – he is the one who poured the water into our dry ice – and doubled as a master of ceremonies of sort. He was also all dressed up and really into the theme of the meal. I would love if he would do other theme meals like this one.

It was a very expensive dinner, however. Dinner itself was $100 per person (including a $50 pp deposit, $45 of which is applied to your bill), to which you have to add drinks, a 6% “SF mandate” fee – a common, if hated, practice in SF – tax and the automatic 18% tip (it was called “event surcharge” in the bill, but our waitress explained it was a tip). The bill for two came out to $350, on top of which we tipped another $10 as service had been so solicitous. Still, the meal was phenomenal (at least, as we enjoyed it) and, as a very special occasion treat, it was well worth it.

In all, we had an amazing time and I would love if 25 Lusk would do another themed dinner there. I hope the owners organize one – I did hear they would like to do a Star Wars one. 

Taste of Thrones' Feast of the Dragon
25 Lusk
25 Lusk St.
San Francisco, CA 
415.495.5875
Dinner: Tu- Sa 6:30 - 8:30 PM
Bar:    Tu - Sa 5 PM - close

San Leandro Bites: Taqueria Los Pericos

August 3, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Our favorite taqueria in San Leandro

We’ve been eating at the original Taqueria Los Pericos in the Pelton Center in downtown San Leandro for as long as we’ve lived in San Leandro, now more than twenty four years. It’s been our default taqueria all these years, and the offerings haven’t changed much. Indeed, my review from the early 00’s is just as timely today as it was over twenty years ago. The only thing that has changed are the prices. We probably don’t eat there twice a month now, but periodically get take out.

I always order a large special quesadilla, which comes with a large tortilla and includes your choice of meat, cheese, sour cream guacamole, lettuce and pico de gallo. They cost around $15.50, which is outrageous, but they are large enough that I split them over two meals.

I prefer these to burritos as I don’t like either rice or beans in my burritos.

In the photo at the top, the special quesadilla is on the right – you can see its size in comparison to a bean and cheese burrito (middle) and a small super quesadilla (left).

Last time I got a carnitas special quesadilla. The carnitas tend to be flavorful, not too fatty and stand up well to the other ingredients.

My other favorite is the carne asada special quesadilla, though the beef can be a bit fatty at times. It’s also very flavorful.

These are not out of this world quesadillas, but they are good and familiar.

Mike usually gets a small super quesadilla, which consists of a medium flour tortilla filled with the meat of your choice, cheese, sour cream and guacamole and folded in two. In the photo at top, the small super quesadilla is the one at the left. He likes it with pollo asado, grilled chicken. It’s around $8 now which seems absurd as it’s really quite small.

My daughter always order the bean and cheese burrito (the one in the middle on the photo at the top of the page). She likes it well enough, often asks to go to Los Pericos, but doesn’t think it’s extraordinary. It’s around $7.50, but she usually can’t finish it.

We often get the flan ($5), though we really should know better. If we’re lucky, it’s a competent and tasty flan. Too often, however, it’s absorbed the flavors of the fridge. In those occasions, it usually tastes musty. Last time, however, it had a disquieting cleaner flavor. I really should just remember not to get it from there.

All meals come with chips – they’ll add little bags with them to your take out orders or you can get them from the counter. They have a sauce bar where you can pick up different sauces, including pico de gallo. They also have pickled veggies and limes. Their chips are on the thick side, but pretty good as they ‘re fresh.

Los Pericos no longer has a website and they are not active on Social Media. You used to be able to order online through ChowNow, but they’re no longer using that service. That means you need to order through Doordash and GrubHub an pay higher prices and added fees, or go to the restaurant and order in person. As I didn’t keep my receipt from my order, I’m estimating prices here based on those posted at the GrubHub site. 

Taqueria Los Pericos
101 Pelton Center Way 
San Leandro, CA
(510) 352-7667
M-Su 8:30 AM - 9:30 PM

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

San Leandro Restaurant Week is a Bust

July 23, 2024 / / 3 Comments

Low participation and limited deals made for a disappointing week.

For years now, large cities around the country – including our neighbors San Francisco and Oakland – have run “restaurant weeks,” where local restaurants serve specially discounted offerings to attract new (and returning) patrons. Usually, restaurants offer a prix-fix menu at a deeply discounted price, with offerings for lunch and dinner – though restaurants for which that model doesn’t work have other promotions.

San Leandro is probably too small a city to have a “restaurant week” – we only have three upscale restaurant, and I daresay the plethora of mom & dad restaurants around probably operate with thin margins. I have to give it to the San Leandro Chamber of Commerce for at least giving it a try, but the San Leandro Restaurant Week ended up being a bust. Few restaurants participated and among those that did, most had extremely lame deals.

Only three restaurants offered the usual 2 or 3 course prix fix deal. Horatio’s, our waterfront steakhouse, had a great 2-course lunch for $25 and 3-course dinner for $40 which we happily partook of. Paradiso, where we’d dined recently, offered its $45 3-4-5 prix-fix menu, usually only available from 4 to 5 PM, all day during restaurant week, though they did add on a 20% service charge. And Tequila Grill had a 2-couse meal for $35 which included a choice of one of three appetizers and entrees; by choosing the two most expensive dishes, you could save $8 over regular price.

Bust most of the restaurants that participated instead offered a modest discount on a few specific dishes, often just one per day. And some weren’t discounts at all. On Tuesday, we went to Habibi’s Birria for their restaurant week $2.50 tacos, only to find out they have that deal every Tuesday. Emile Villa’s restaurant week special menu offerings were the same price as those in their online menu. If you chose the most expensive items in Fieldwork Brewing‘s offering of an appetizer and pizza for $32, you could have ended up saving $9, but if you chose the cheaper options, you would have ended up paying more than by ordering without the deal.

Some of the restaurants were in my list of places to try, but their deals were so disappointing that I didn’t bother going that week. San Gaspar, where I went once over fifteen years ago and had been planning to return, had a single dinner promo, chile verde for $15 (regularly $19) – something that I didn’t find appealing. Zenti Bistro, which was greatly recommended on a local San Leandro group, offered just their chicken chipotle sandwich for $16 – as their menu is not online, I don’t know how good a deal that was, but the sandwich didn’t appeal to me.

But the absolutely worst deal of all had be that offered by Le Soleil, once my favorite restaurant in San Leandro but one I haven’t visited in many years. Rather than discounting a meal, Le Soleil offered that for any amount over $50 that you spent, they would give you a gift card worth 120% that amount – so if you spent $50, they’d give you a $60 gift card. The catch was that you could only use that gift card for 10% of the value of your future meals at Le Soleil. This basically means that if you went to Le Soleil twice and spent $50 each time, you’d save a whole $5 in both meals combined. No thank you.

The problem with the San Leandro Restaurant Week wasn’t just the lame deals, but how clunky and difficult to use the website was. There was no indication on the webpage what deals were offered by each restaurant, if you clicked on the name of a restaurant you were taken to their website, but with a couple of exceptions, their websites didn’t mention Restaurant Week at all. Only by clicking around at all graphics, did I manage to find their list of deals. More attention was paid to a silly game that required you downloading an app and then uploading a photo of your receipt for a chance to get the cost of your restaurant week meals reimbursed. The good news is that probably very few people did it, so you probably do have a good chance to win.

Now, all this complaining aside, restaurant week did work for me in that it made me finally go to Habibi’s Birria, where I fell for their tacos and learned about their ongoing Taco Tuesday promotion and that it sent me back to Horatio’s and reminded me how much I’d enjoyed the place back in my early days in San Leandro.

San Leandro Bites: Horatio’s

July 22, 2024 / / 1 Comment

This local steakhouse is still chill decades after our first visit.

Horatio’s seems frozen in time – very similar today to when I first reviewed it 24 years ago. The bar has been remodeled and an extra dining room added, and new, less whimsical chairs added, but the nautical theme remains as does the basic architecture of the place. What has changed is the San Leandro marina, at which Horatio’s is located. The impossible cost of continuing to dredge this part of the bay has long made it unworkable and there are no more sailboats to see through the window. The mooring columns on the piers, bare and alone, reminded me of the Berlin Holocaust memorial. Alas, all grim thoughts were pushed aside, as I watched a raft of ducks pass by and then return and got into a good natured argument with my husband about whether a particular creature was a duck or a goose.

Horatio’s has always been a surf & turf sort of restaurant. I think once upon a time it might have been independent, then joined a local chain that included other marina-based local restaurants such as Skate’s, and is now part of Landry Inc., which owns massive chains such as Bubba Gump Shrimp, McCormick and Schmick’s and Morton’s. Still, Horatio’s seems to be operated as a stand alone restaurant and, as mentioned above, its feel hasn’t changed.

We went to dinner there on a Wednesday evening as part of the San Leandro Restaurant Week. Horatio’s had a 3-course menu for $40, which included 3 choices of salad, 4 choices of entrée and 3 of dessert. It was a very good deal, particularly as one of the entrée choices was prime rib, usually $46.5 by itself.

The meal started with bread. Horatio’s bread has gone through several iterations throughout the years, and the current is a light, country style bread smeared with garlic butter. It’s delicious. We couldn’t resist eating it all, though we managed to reject the offer for a second serving.

I started my prix fix meal with the Romaine Caesar salad (regularly $11.50). The crisp torn pieces of romaine come with croutons, parmesan and house made dressing. Mike found it generic and was happy he didn’t order it, but I enjoyed it. I felt that the long pieces of shredded parmesan really made the difference. The portion was rather large, so I wouldn’t complain about the regular price.

Mike also felt that his New England clam chowder (regularly $10 for a cup) was pretty generic. He enjoyed it, but didn’t feel there was anything special about this version. He’s have it again, however.

We both had the prime rib (regularly $42) and enjoyed it. It was served with a scoop of mashed potatoes and little cups of horseradish sauce and au jus. The prime rib was perfectly cooked medium-rare as we ordered it, it was tender but with some pull and pretty flavorful. I’m not the biggest fan of prime rib per se – I much prefer a pan-seared rib eye steak – but this was a nice steak, even if not comparable to the one from the House of Prime Rib which we visited recently. I did like their mashed potatoes, which were flavorful and not dry.

Mike ordered the crème brulée (regularly $12) which was as delicious as ever. Horatio’s has always had a very good crème brulée, I’m not sure what their secret is but it’s always been a favorite. It’s a large portion, good enough to share, and it’s now reasonably priced. When we first visited, over two decades ago, I was appalled at paying $9 for their desserts, almost half the price of a dinner entrée. Now they’re less than a third. In any case, I’d order it again.

I was way too full to eat my own dessert, a molten chocolate cake ($12 regularly), so I had it to go (extra 25-cents charge) and gave it to my daughter. I did have one bite, however, and it was absolutely delicious. This flourless cake has an intense, but not overly sweet, chocolate flavor and rather a light and melted consistency to not have any flour. The somewhat sour cream it was served with, as well as the fresh berries, helped cut through the richness. Once again, I was very impressed.

Service at Horatio’s was very good. Our waiter, Charles, was efficient, convivial, friendly and helpful. It reminded me us of what good service should be like. He refilled water and Mike’s soda ($5) repeatedly, offered us extra bread, and settled an argument over which were the prettiest ducks (mallards, I won) .

Reservations were easy to make and we were promptly seated.

We used to go to Horatio’s quite a bit back in the day, given the dearth of “date” restaurants in San Leandro, but we hadn’t returned in years. San Leandro Restaurant Week did their job of reminding us about Horatio’s, and I think we’ll be returning back – probably just walking in and eating at the bar as we used to. They have a happy hour from Mondays through Thursday from 3:30 to 5 PM that might be worth checking out. 

Horatio's
60 Monarch Bay Dr 
San Leandro
(510) 351-5556
SUN - THU: 11:30 AM - 9:00 PM
FRI - SAT: 11:30 AM - 10:00 PM

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

San Leandro Bites: Habibi’s Birria

July 19, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Don’t miss Taco Tuesdays for great if oily tacos

This week is San Leandro Restaurant Week and I saw Tuesday as my opportunity to try Habibi’s Birria. I’d been wanting to try this Middle Eastern influenced taqueria for a long time, but Mike had had a couple of meals there and he hadn’t been impressed. He couldn’t (or at least didn’t try to) say no to their $2.50 taco deal, so we headed there last Tuesday night and had the tacos.

Like most taquerias, Habibi’s Birria is a casual place. You order at the counter and then you wait for your food to be brought to you either at the dining room or in the waiting area by the counter.

Most people we saw that night were getting food to go, but the restaurant has a clean, simple dining room with well spaced tables as well as some outdoor eating. Like most people, we got our tacos to go.

The $2.50 deal is only for birria, al pastor, asada (grilled beef) or chicken tacos. I got a couple of each. They are packed five to a box and each box comes with a lemon wedge and little cups of salsa verde and red pepper sauce. The salsa verde tasted just like Herdez‘ and the the pepper sauce was so spicy that after just a little bite of tortilla dipped in it, my mouth and throat were burning. As it turned out, the tacos were flavorful enough that they didn’t need anything added – not even lemon juice.

All the tacos comes with double fried tortillas. The tortillas are freshly fried and warm and, as one can expect, pretty oily. It’s best to eat these with napkins. While I liked the flavor of the tortillas, I found it too strong as it competed with the flavor of the meat. Ditching one of the tortillas in each taco helped a bit.

The tacos only have meat plus a little bit of chopped onion, if they were cooked with it. That was OK, as the meat was all delicious. They are served in street tacto tortillas, so they are very small. I can’t imagine paying the regular price for them. You basically need 3 for a meal.

My favorite were probably the carne asada tacos. The chopped beef was nicely spiced, only slightly spicy and was very flavorful. I really liked it.

The chicken tacos were also very good. I think they had the same spicing than the beef, they were also chopped and he chicken wasn’t dry.

I was almost as fond of the birria tacos. The shredded meat (and I really don’t know what meat it was) was tasty, juicy (undoubtedly from the broth the meat was cook in), though the cinnamon flavor was a bit too strong for my taste. These tacos had more filling than the others, making them a better deal. These are my daughter’s favorite tacos.

I was also happy with the al pastor tacos. The meat wasn’t as sweet and fruity as other al pastor meat, though it was acidic and it had been clearly caramelized. I still preferred the other tacos to these, but my husband really liked them.

In all, we were quite happy with Habibi’s Birria’s tacos. Even Mike liked them. It would seem by the sign that Taco Tuesday is a regular occurrence, not just a product of San Leandro Restaurant week, and if this is the case, I’m planning to return.

Habibi’s has a second location in Hayward. The one in San Leandro is right next to Koolfi ice cream and in front of the Oriental Tea House. Habibi’s doesn’t have a website, though you can follow them on Instagram and you can order delivery through other delivery services. 

Habibi's Birria
403 Lewis Ave 
San Leandro, CA
(510) 935-8611
Mon-Fri 11am-8pm 
Sat-Sun 12pm-8pm

Chain Restaurant Reviews: Ike’s Love and Sandwiches

July 15, 2024 / / 1 Comment

They’re tasty but repetitive and expensive.

Ike’s Love and Sandwiches is a chain of sandwich shops that started in San Francisco in the mid-aughts and which has since expanded to over a hundred locations, mostly in the western US and Florida. They popularized sandwiches made with Dutch crunch bread, their garlic aioli based “dirty sauce” and sometimes unusual ingredient combinations. They opened a location in San Leandro in late 2023, and we’ve had them several times. Their sandwiches, while expensive, are substantia, good for a couple of meals and pretty tasty – though I feel they all taste pretty much the same. They do have plenty of vegetarian and vegan options featuring fake meats. Unfortunately, they’ve gone up on price, about 12% over six or seven months, though that’s true of restaurants in general.

It’s easy to order online and you can customize your sandwiches, but they don’t have a “make your own” sandwich starting from scratch – so if you want something plain, you have to find the closest sandwich to what you want and then ask them to hold whatever ingredients you don’t want.

The last sandwich I ordered was the Big Lee-bowski ($17), which comes with “all beef meatballs, bacon, mozzarella sticks, red pesto, ranch, habanero.” It’s tasty enough, but all the flavors and textures of the ingredients blend together into one. At almost 1900 calories, it’s just not worth it – though one sandwich is definitely large enough for two meals.

I have tried several sandwiches by now, though most of them seem to taste very similar – I’m guessing it’s the dirty sauce. My favorite is the  Hollywould’s SF Cheesesteak ($14.50), which comes with beef slices, mushrooms, provolone cheese and dirty sauce. I loved it the first time I ordered it, it had plenty of mushrooms and I really like mushrooms, and I enjoyed the dirty sauce. I may try it again without the sauce, now that I’ve grown tired of it.

I’ve also had the Ike’s ($16), which comes with pastrami, gouda, purple slaw and “mack sauce”. It was good, if unremarkable. I don’t think I can remember the sauce being any different than the others.

I had the Nacho Boy Supreme ($17) once, which comes with roast beef, bacon, mushrooms, avocado and Swiss cheese – it was fine, given that the predominant flavors are mushroom and sauce, I prefer the  Hollywould’s SF Cheesesteak which is cheaper and has fewer calories.

Finally, I had the Damon Bruce ($17) and was disappointed by it. This sandwich comes with steak, onion rings, provolone and steak sauce. It tasted like all the other sandwiches, however, and the onion rings were nowhere to be found. OK, I did find them once I opened the sandwich and looked for them, but they are basically crushed with all the other ingredients, and they don’t really offer anything but moisture to the sandwich.

In all, as I said above, I feel all the sandwiches pretty much taste the same.

My husband has often had the Jaymee Sirewich ($13.50), a sandwich with fried chicken, pepper jack, yellow BBQ sauce and ranch. When I asked him why he prefers it, his answer is a simple “it tastes good.” He’s trying to watch calories now, so he had something without fried chicken last time he went. He liked it, whatever it was, but can’t recall what he ordered. Not surprising given that, as I said, all the sandwiches taste the same.

My youngest daughter likes her sandwiches plain, all she wants is bread, roast beef, cheese, lettuce and the dirty sauce. So we order her the Dirty Reuben ($16) and substract the purple slaw. She does like it, more than other roast beef sandwiches, a fact she attributes to the dirty sauce (apparently, unlike me, she’s not gotten tired of it).

My oldest daughter usually goes for the Helen Keller ($17), which comes with vegan steak, American cheese, onion rings and BBQ sauce, though last time she got the Jaymeetless ($14.5) with vegan fried chicken, pepper jack, yellow BBQ sauce and ranch. Like me, she feels all of Ike’s sandwiches pretty much taste the same. Like me, she orders them because my husband likes them and he’s going there anyway, but wouldn’t order one otherwise.

My husband, though, does like the sandwiches and finds Ike’s convenient. That said, maybe next time I’ll skip ordering a sandwich for myself.

Ike's Love and Sandwiches
155 Parrott St
San Leandro, CA 
(341) 344-4201
M - Su 10 AM - 9 PM

San Leandro Bites: Paradiso

July 14, 2024 / / 0 Comments

This upscale bistro is a favorite with San Leandrans, but does it meet my standards?

Paradiso has been occupying a corner location on Bancroft Avenue for as long as I’ve lived in San Leandro, over 24-years now. It’s only one of three upscale restaurants in our little town and it is immensely popular, at least with the gray-haired crowd. It’s hard to have lunch or dinner there and not run into a friend or acquaintance. During a recent lunch visit the place was popping. I noticed that more tables had been crowded together than in the past and our weekday at 12:30 PM reservation landed us on a small table near the front door – not ideal. Business clearly is booming.

I’ve never been a huge fan of Paradiso myself, I’ve found the food solidly tasty but overpriced. San Leandro commercial rents are absurdly high and that makes most of our restaurants more expensive than similar ones in adjacent cities. Still, when a neighbor in a local forum claimed that Paradiso had the best burgers in town, I thought it was worth checking it out again. Looking back at my Paradiso reviews, it seemed that I was of the same opinion circa 2012, but that’s a long time ago.

Paradiso’s lunch menu offers a selection of starters, salads, wood-fired pizzas, pastas, and entrees. Prices are high, with most dishes starting in the $20’s and reaching into the $50’s. Bread is included, but you have to ask for it. Drinks also seem overpriced, a simple Coke is $6.50 – a price I haven’t seen even at Michelin starred restaurants. I drank water – served in a carafe and promptly replaced as needed.

Lunch started with focaccia and olive bread served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar (don’t forget to request it). This might have been my favorite part of the meal. The focaccia was fresh and tasty, spongy and soft. The country bread was also flavorful and I liked the occasional pieces of olive. I was less thrilled about the olive oil and balsamic vinegar combination. They were both good quality, but there was too much of the latter for my taste. The flavor was very intense and it actually burned in my throat. I’d had preferred the olive oil on its own. It might be worth seeing if you can just order that. Mike, however, loved the combo. Different strokes for different folks and all that.

Mike started with the New England clam chowder ($16). The presentation, with the clams in the open shells, was very nice but Mike didn’t like having to actually dislodge the clams from their shells. He did like the soup, which had a subtle flavor and a creamy composition. As much as he enjoyed it, he wouldn’t order it again simply because he doesn’t like dealing with shells.

I had, as expected, the half pound Paradiso burger ($22), which is served with parsley parmesan fries. As much as I have lost my taste for French fries in the last few years, these ones made the best part of the dish. They were thin, with the perfect consistency (neither too crispy nor soft) and the parsley parmesan combination was perfect. They were a tad in the dry side – this has become my main issue with potatoes, I think – and while they were served with ketchup, I don’t like ketchup with fries. I wish they had also included an aioli, which is what I’d expect of a restaurant of this caliber. Still, the fries were very good and I, surprisingly, ate them all.

The same cannot be said of the burger. The burger came with American cheese, lettuce , shredded lettuce and some sauce and was served in a potato bun – so it was a high end classic burger. The patty had a nice, if subtle, wood-smoke flavor that I really liked. This was the same thing I’d liked over a decade ago. Unfortunately, the burger was very dry. I had ordered it medium-rare, but it was served medium, there were barely any hints of pink inside. I can’t imagine the dryness was only the result of being overcooked, however. Though it was supposed to be a wagyu beef, I’m going to guess it was low on fat content. That might make it somewhat healthier, but much less pleasant. I would be hesitant of ordering it again, even if I ordered it rare, hoping to get a medium-rare burger instead.

Mike had the prime rib sandwich ($21) which comes with pepperonata, provolone and horseradish aioli in focaccia bread. It’s also served with parsley Parmesan fries. I have always been sort of annoyed that Paradiso uses the same side dishes in multiple entrees, and I’m sad to see this continues to this day. A restaurant this expensive should be able to pair the sides to the mains, rather than simply use the same for all.

Mike was happier with his sandwich than I was with mine. He thought the meat was flavorful, tender and not too fatty. He liked the sauce and found there was a good bread-to-meat ratio – the spongy, light focaccia complemented the meat. However, he probably wouldn’t order it again because he didn’t find the sandwich that compelling. Pleasant but not super exciting.

On a recent visit to Paradiso, Mike also had the crispy Brussels sprouts ($18) appetizer and the slow braised short ribs ($41). He liked both of them and would order them again.

For dessert, we had the banana foster bread pudding ($14). It was a good dessert, nothing to write home about, but satisfying. The bread pudding had large pieces of bananas, a boozy sauce and wasn’t too sweet. The ice cream was good quality and went well with the dessert, though a larger scoop would have been better. Still, no complaints from either Mike nor I. That said, I wouldn’t rush to order it again.

Mike had a lemonade ($8) with lunch and it was very good, though a bit too sweet – I think because the lemons were particularly sour. Still, I felt it was overpriced.

Service was fine, our waiter was pleasant but he never came back to check on our meal – so no opportunity to tell him my burger was over done – and he only brought Mike one refill of lemonade. He did not offer a second serving of bread, but the carafe of water was refilled before I needed it to.

The restaurant looks very much like it has for the last two decades, with a large open kitchen in the center. It now has a couple of other dining rooms. It’s a nice place, good for a lunch date and very safe. Just very, very expensive for what it is. Still, I’m sure I’ll go back before the decade is over.

Paradiso
685 Bancroft Ave
San Leandro, CA
(510) 430-9310
S - Th 11:30AM – 9:00PM
F - Sa 11:30AM – 10:00PM

San Leandro Bites: Sons of Liberty Alehouse

July 10, 2024 / / 1 Comment

Something is missing at this downtown restaurant

Sons of Liberty Alehouse is a puzzle. A restaurant that gives it the good old college try – though maybe not too hard – but doesn’t quite deliver. The space is nice, but not nice enough. The food is good, but lacking. Service is competent, but unenthusiastic. It’s a restaurant that seems to go through the motions, rather than reach for heights. I like it well enough, but only well enough. It’s not compelling, it’s serviceable, but you feel it should be more.

Located in the San Leandro plaza downtown, Sons of Liberty occupies that homed Sergio’s Pizzeria (another disappointing restaurant) for decades. Despite my many visits, I’ve never actually eaten inside, so I don’t know how they transformed it from the booths-and-formica-tables decore of years past to one fitting their upscale cuisine (next time I’ll have to look in). Instead, I always eat in the patio they cordoned off in front of their restaurant – facing the busy parking lot. The space is comfortable enough, but I can’t feel helping that it could be spruced up with plants, which might also help isolate you a bit. They now have a second location in Livermore, which I haven’t tried.

Sons of Liberty serves modern California cuisine with an emphasis on high quality and organic ingredients. They consider themselves a tavern and offer elevated versions of popular dishes such as tacos, salads and fish & chips. Their menu is rather brief, however. On Sundays, they also offer brunch. As fits their name, they have a pretty extensive selection of beers as well as cocktails, though I haven’t yet tried them.

Over the years, I’ve gone to Sons of Liberty several times, and tried most items in the menu – though my recollection of them is hazy other than being underwhelmed. Originally, I felt they were overpriced, though prices elsewhere have risen so much that they now seem to be more competitive. I never feel compelled to go to Sons of Liberty, but it’s near my house and has outdoor dining, and the food is dependable if not exciting. Thus when my friend Maximillian asked me to lunch and I couldn’t think of anywhere I wanted to go, Sons of Liberty came to mind. We were lucky enough to find parking – that shopping mall is pretty busy.

The restaurant wasn’t too busy that Tuesday, though we were late enough to miss the lunch crowd. We sat outside and were immediately prompted to use a QR code to look at the menus. I don’t carry a cell phone with me (thus the lack of pictures this time around), but they do have paper menus if you ask for them.

I had the smoked brisket nachos ($20), which came with “smoked Brandt farm beef brisket, housemade nacho cheese sauce, house crema, pickled jalapenos, pico de gallo, fresh guacamole, cilantro.” They sounded better than they were. There was nothing wrong with the nachos per se, I liked them well enough, but the beef had a discordant flavoring that clashed rather than complement them. The guacamole was pretty good, however. It was a large portion and I had looked forward to eat the leftovers. Unfortunately, the dog got to them before I could.

Maximillian was luckier. He got the blistered shishito peppers and loved them, he ended up eating every last one of them – I, personally, don’t like peppers. He was also quite fond of the duck carnitas tacos ($19). I’ve had these in the past and didn’t feel the duck meat stood up to the other flavors, but maybe it’s time for me to try them again.

As I mentioned, I don’t recall any of the dishes I had before enough to explain what underwhelmed me about them. One exception are the chilaquiles verde ($18.5) from their brunch menu. It’s a vegetarian dish with corn tortillas, refried beans, tomatillo salsa, onions, eggs, avocado, queso fresco, crema and cilantro. Here, I felt that the tortillas were too crisp, that there wasn’t enough salsa and that the flavors weren’t quite there. However, afterwards I kept craving them. I tried to make some myself, but all my hatches were very unsuccessful. I’ll have to have them again and figure out what exactly the deal with that is.

I have no doubt that I’ll go to Sons of Liberty again for the reasons I mentioned. I just wish they would get some energy going, spruce up their menu and introduce new dishes from time to time, and figure out how they can add those extra elements of flavor that I crave. 

Sons of Liberty Alehouse
San Leandro Plaza
150 W Juana Ave
San Leandro, CA
(510) 352-7652
M-W  12 - 9 PM
Th   12 - 10 PM
F-Sa 12 - 11 PM
Su   10 - 9 PM



Chain Restaurant Reviews: Chipotle

July 8, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Can Chipotle compete with local taquerías?

Living in San Leandro, I have easy access to a lot taquerías, so it’s probably not surprising that it took me years to finally try Chipotle – which has been occupying the old Copymat space in downtown San Leandro for over a decade now. I finally did several years ago (and you can read my review of their quesadilla), at my daughter’s urging, and I wasn’t impressed. Still, she likes it, so we get it once in a while. My last order reminded me of why it’s not more often.

Chipotle has an easy online ordering system, which allows you to customize your order, and it’s usually ready before you can get to the store. Their prices vary significantly between locations – with the Chipotle in San Leandro having some of the highest prices in the nation. Alas, they haven’t gone up as much as prices at other taquerías. Chipotle has its own frequent user club that allows you to very slowly accumulate points that you can exchange for free food. After this order, I’ll be able to get some free tortilla chips. Yippy (/s).

I ordered a steak burrito ($12.50) with cheese, sour cream and tomatillo-green chili salsa. As usual, I skipped the rice and beans. I was disappointed. Not only was the burrito fairly small, but it was cold. That’s because the cheese, sour cream and salsa are all added cold and very quickly cool down the beef. I suspect the tortilla is not steamed hot before serving it either. I was able to microwave it and melt the cheese as I was eating it at home – but I’m not sure if you’re given that option if you eat it at the restaurant.

I wasn’t thrilled by the flavor either. The tomatillo-green chili salsa was very strong and pretty much overwhelmed all other flavors. The burrito was too salty as well. The meat, cut into cubes, was OK but not particularly flavorful or tender.

In all, there isn’t much to recommend these burritos, other than the fact that I can order them online – unlike the much better ones at Taquería Los Pericos, half a block away.

I also got a large guacamole ($5.90) and a regular order of tortilla chips ($2.10). There are more than enough chips in the regular order to consume the guacamole – and this way I saved 65 cents over the “large guacamole and large chips” item. Yes, I know, it’s not much, but I hate giving any extra money to large corporations.

The guacamole was quite good. It was a little salty, but it tasted quite fresh. The chips are pretty light, a tad greasy, but good as well. Still, they do seem to be on the expensive side given that taquerias usually serve them for free.

My daughter got the chicken al pastor burrito bowl ($11.75), which she gets with extra black beans, extra cheese, extra rice, extra lettuce and extra sour cream. She really likes it, and given that she’s not a huge meat eater it works out well for her. A bowl can work out to two meals if she’s not particularly hungry.

In all, Chipotle is a mixed bag. It works out for my daughter but not for me. I prefer Los Pericos and other local taquerias, but I do like their convenient ordering method. I don’t like that they prompt you to tip for a take out order – but that’s become standard nowadays.

Chipotle
1505 E 14th St
San Leandro, CA 
(510) 667-1003
Daily: 10:30 AM–11 PM

San Leandro Bites: Lotus Leaf

June 18, 2024 / / 0 Comments

A not-so-great meal at this usually reliable Vietnamese restaurant

Last Sunday, my oldest daughter graduated from college – and them promptly left for a camping trip with her father. My other daughter had plans with her boyfriend, leaving my friend Elektra and I to celebrate the graduation on our own. I suggested lunch at Lotus Leaf for the most trivial of reasons: it has parking. Finding parking in downtown San Leandro on a Sunday which also happened to be Father’s Day can be pretty challenging.

Beyond parking, Lotus Leaf tends to be a pretty dependable place for lunch. It’s nicely appointed, it’s one of those “Asian bistros” that appeared in California in the early ’00s, offering classy, minimalist and yet still somewhat-ethnic decore and nicely presented dishes, and a comfortable place for a nice-but-not-extravagant meal. You could have a business meal here, a celebration or just a casual lunch. I’d been several times in the last year or two, precisely for this reason and because the food is generally very solid. They also have an extensive vegetarian menu. After this experience, however, I doubt I’ll be rushing back.

First, service was problematic. The waiter was a young man who seemed to have very little experience serving tables. He forgot my drink, our main dishes came only a few minutes after our appetizers had arrived, he never checked on us and we had to chase him to get us the bill. Of course, this was Father’s Day, so perhaps he was covering for someone else – and he was pleasant.

We started with the grilled lemongrass pork spring rolls ($10.5), which are served with peanut sauce. These were very good. The lemongrass pork itself was very flavorful, and it went well with the lettuce, mint, lemongrass and carrots. The peanut sauce was also very flavorful. I’m not a fan of bean sprouts myself, but I didn’t mind them in these rolls. These, I’d order again.

More problematic was my grilled beef short ribs with pineapple rice ($18). The ribs were very tasty, they had a good marinade with bold flavors. Unfortunately, they were extremely chewy and fatty. That meant that I couldn’t eat much of it. The pineapple rice had such tiny pieces of pineapple that you couldn’t taste it at all, it was just bland. And the same can be said for the vegetables. I was left hungry, which I shouldn’t have been given the hefty price of the meal.

My friend Elektra had the ginger salmon ($16.5), which also came with pineapple rice and steamed veggies. She agreed with me as to the sides, and liked the sauce on the salmon. However, it was dried and overcooked. It was also too small a portion to warrant the price.

Elektra had a fresh squeezed limeade ($5.5) which she liked, as it wasn’t very sweet.

In all, we were disappointed, with so many other restaurants in San Leandro, I don’t think we’ll rush to Lotus Leaf again, unless we have a vegetarian on tow.

Lotus Leaf
277 Parrott St
San Leandro, CA
(510) 877-2601
M-Th 9 AM - 9 PM
F-Su 9 AM - 9:30 PM
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