We now have our third Vietnamese restaurant in San Leandro: Le Soleil. It’s located on E. 14th STreet, downtown, next to Luke’s Grill.
We went last night, its second day of operation. There were some glitches with the food & service (waitress got one of our dishes wrong, kitchen hasn’t learned the dishes well so descriptions don’t match what you are served), but we had a very good experience overall. The food was quite yummy, the waitresses very nice and attentive, and the little space is very cute. It’s hard to believe that a year ago it was an stationary store.
Full review availble at http://www.marga.org/food/rest/soleil.html
Category: Restaurants (Page 52 of 53)
We went to Elios the week before our cruise, too long ago for me to remember the details well
enough to write a proper review. However, it’s unlikely we’ll return so rather than leave it un-reviewed altogether, I will
write a few remarks on the restaurant here.
Elios is one of the last of a dying breed, the all-American restaurant. It looks like a spiffed-up coffee-shop, it has
bright red vinyl booths, large mirrors that make the place look bigger and waitresses who have been working there for years it
not decades. Its long menu offers a wide selection of burgers and sandwiches (don’t expect anything innovative here), as well
as steaks, veal, chicken, seafood and pasta dishes, all moderately priced. There is a long list of daily specials, some of
which also appear in the regular menu at the same prices.
That evening, I decided on the broiled coulotte steak ($11.55). I remember it being fine, though not remarkable. I don’t
remember what Mike had, I think also a steak which was marginally better than mine.
For dessert we shared a piece of chocolate cream pie which wasn’t very good, it didn’t have much flavor.
Perhaps one day I’ll go back to Elios to write a proper review. It’ll have to be without Mike, however, as he refuses to
go back with me.
Elios
260 Floresta Boulevard
San Leandro, CA
510-351-0463
http://eliosdining.com/
Mike took me to the Pleasanton Hotel last night for a mystery dinner. It was great. The food was only so-so, but the whole evening was a lot of fun, nonetheless because Mike figured out who the murderer was 🙂
I wrote a longer review and will post it to my website later.
I just posted two reviews from my trip to Los Angeles.
We stopped at Mike’s Roadhouse Cafe in Kattleman City in our way to LA. It was just OK, better than Denny’s. They have a beautiful collection of (overpriced) pedal cars, however.
In LA, we had dinner at Patagonian Gourmet, a whole-in-the-wall Argentine restaurant in Tarzana that was actually quite good. They have a killer chicken escabeche that you have to try.
I haven’t posted anything to this blog, or my other one, because I’ve been gone for the last week. Mike and I went down to Southern California, left Mika with my parents and took a 4-day cruise. It was relaxing and the food decent, though not actually good 🙂 I hope to write more about the cruise and the food I’ve had lately, we’ll see if I can manage the time.
Anyway, I just posted two reviews of San Leandro restaurants that I wrote before I left.
The Blue Dish is a small deli-like restaurant serving light American, Middle Eastern and Mexican menus. We tried the Middle Eastern stuff (prepared by a Latino cook) and our experience was mixed: Mike like his salad while I felt my shawerma was overwhelmed by the tahini sauce.
The Sandwitchery is, as it name suggests, a sandwich joint. They offer a large variety of sandwiches which are better, and more expensive, than those at the chains (there is a Subway and a Quiznos nearby) but otherwise not remarkable.
On a final note, I’ve heard that Cafe Zula closed. I’m not surprised given its out-of-the-way location and a menu that did not justify its prices. Unfortunately it isn’t going to be replaced by another (better) restaurant, Trader Sports has expanded into that space.
Zachary’s Pizza has, without doubt, the best pizza in the Bay Area. Indeed, probably the world. I’ve never really had pizza in Chicago (whose pizza Zachary’s tries to imitate), but I just can’t imagine how it could be any better.
Zachary’s offers two types of pizza: thin and stuffed. I have never had the thin pizza and I never will (that would seem to me to be a waste of a visit to Zachary’s), so I can’t comment about it. The stuffed pizza, however, is heavenly. What you get is more a cheese pie than a pizza. A bottom layer of dough is covered with tons of cheese (but I always order extra-cheese anyway) and toppings and then topped by another layer of dough. This whole thing is covered by stewed tomatoes. The description, however, doesn’t do justice to the result. You really need to try it to know why it rocks.
Zachary’s has two locations, one on Solano in North Berkeley and the other in Rockridge. They both have an eat-in section which are fairly nice. The walls tend to be decorated with children’s drawings of Zachary’s pizza. Getting a table is usually very hard, specially during peak eating hours. You have to be prepared to wait (or go, put your name down and stroll through the neighborhood). They don’t take reservations, but you can pre-order your pizza when you put your name down, so that it’s ready once you your table is ready.
What we usually do is get take-out (Zachary’s doesn’t deliver, it also doesn’t take credit cards, it’s a cash-only place). We live a 20-minute drive away from the closest Zachary’s (the one in Rockridge) but the pizza is still warm by the time we get it here. My favorite pizza is the plain cheese (with extra cheese), though last time we had one with Canadian bacon and pineapple that was also very yummy. Mike prefers the ones with toppings. His favorite is the Mexican chorizo, a spicy pizza with green chiles and Monterrey Jack cheese. We had both of these last Thursday night and we were all very pleased. A large pizza has 8 slices. We usually each eat two slices for dinner or one for lunch.
It usually takes 40 minutes for the pizza to be ready so order accordingly. I’ve found that the leftovers microwave well, but make sure not to overheat it. I use 2 minutes on high but I have an old microwave.
2011 Update It’s been 20 years since we started going to Zachary’s pizza (and 7 years since my review) and Zachary’s continues to make wonderful, delicious stuffed pizza. From time to time they add more varieties to their menu and prices, of course, go up. Last night we had their Carne stuffed crust pizza ($28 for a large), which comes with Italian sausage, pepperoni, salami, chopped bacon and mozzarella. It wasn’t my favorite. There were too many toppings, they were too salty altogether, and they didn’t let the flavor of the cheese shine through. It was still a great pizza, but not as good as their plain cheese pizza (still my fave). Zachary’s has added a new location in San Ramon now, which we haven’t been to. They take reservations there.
Zacchary’s Pizza
5801 College Ave.
Oakland, CA
510-655-6385
Sun-Thur: 11am-10pm
Fri-Sat : 11am-10:30
http://www.zacharys.com/
We went to La Bella Italia for lunch on Thursday. This is the restaurant that took over Pring’s, our favorite coffeehouse, when the new owner couldn’t make a go at it. I’d gone to Bella Italia twice before at this location, and my impressions of the food had been mixed. The non-pasta dishes had been pretty good while the pasta had been blah.
The lunch menu offers salads, pasta, pizzas and sandwhiches. When Bella Italia was at its old location, lunch there was a steal with pastas at $4 and pizzas $4-5. Prices have gone up a couple of dollars now, so that while the prices are reasonable, Bella Italia is no longer the bargain it was.
Mike had a sausage sandwich and I think he liked it, though it wouldn’t win any awards. I had the tortellini bolognese, the same dish than Mike had had in our first foray into this restaurant, and my impression was similar. It was better than the other pasta dishes we had sampled there since, it was homey and perfectly eatable, though it was more a tomato sauce with meat added than a regular bolognese sauce.
Bella Italia is owned by a Sikh family. Supposedly the owner hates Indian food, which is too bad as I love it, and if there was an Indian restaurant in San Leandro I’d go there all the time.
Here is my previous review of Bella Italia.
Friday night was “girls’ night out” for my friend Lola and I. We decided to go to Asena, a Mediterrenean restaurant in Alameda. The food was wonderful and I liked the casual atmosphere. It’s not a place for tots, though, so I doubt I’ll go there again aytime soon.
After Asena we briefly considered going to Tucker’s for ice cream but we were too full. Instead we headed to our usual hangout, Horatio’s, a local steakhouse that also has a very nice lounge where you can eat dessert. Their desserts are very good and it’s a nice place to hang out.
*Update*. We’ve ordered pizza from here a few more times. My impressions continue to be the same, good, standard pizza. For future reference, my friend Tita, who likes thin pizza, didn’t really like this one. Also I hadn’t realized this but they charge for delivery.
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Pizza Guys is a northern Californian chain with a location in San Leandro. As far as I know, it
It doesn’t take much to get a last-minute table at a good restaurant in New York, just a $20-100 a bribe. At least this is what James Beard found out in his bribing experiment in New York. I don’t know if it would work just as well in the Bay Area, but it might be worth finding out.
EPICURIOUS: GOURMET: JAMES BEARD: POCKET FULL OF DOUGH
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