I just posted three new restaurant reviews.
The Fifth Wheel serves American breakfast and lunch in a truck stop atmosphere. More about it below.
New China Buffet is the newest Chinese buffet in San Leandro serving over 100 different dishes.
Zatar is a Mediterranean restaurant in Berkeley serving organic food

Saturday morning we went to The Fifth Wheel for brunch. The little restaurant has all the atmosphere of a truck stop, and the type of food seved at such spots all across America. We weren’t impressed. The food was OK but nothing extraordinary by San Leandro standards and the wait was unbelievable. I wrote a review and when edited it’ll be posted at my website

Yesterday was Mike’s birthday party and we had a pizza party. I got pizza from 3 different places.
We got a meat lover’s and a vegetarian pizza from Marina Pizza Parlor, one of our regular places. Marina’s pizzas have a relatively thin crust and lots of toppings. They are better than Domino’s but otherwise unremarkable. On the plus side their pizzas are larger than average, while the medium is 14″ the large is 18″, compare that with Pizza Guys, another place from where we get frequent deliveries, where a large is merely 14″.
Marina Pizza Parlor
2004 Lewelling Blvd.
San Leandro, CA
510-352-9544
We also got a shish kabob pizza from Shish Kebab Etc.. The pizza was OK but I really liked the kebab topping – Mike didn’t, he doesn’t think kebabs belong on pizza.
And then we got 3 1-topping pizzas from Domino’s. I personally like Domino’s, though other people seem to be pickier.
Finally, we got an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. Their cakes are expensive (about $32 for a 9″ one), but what a great way to have your cake and ice cream too!

Regina had driven by Bacheeso’s (located on San Pablo and Dwight in Berkeley) many times and had always seen lots of people there, so when the question of where we’d go for brunch yesterday came out, she suggested we give it a try. It was a good choice.
We had to wait outside for about ten minutes before we got a table – though someone needs to stay inside to assert themselves when their turn is, they don’t seem to keep a wait list – but that wasn’t too big a deal. The restaurant is pretty small and crowded but convivial and quite child friendly. There were lots of parents with babies and toddlers around, though don’t count on a high-chair. I saw a very old one in the back, but I don’t think it’d have been practical to bring it to the table.
Bacheeso’s has a breakfast menu offering many staples (omelettes, french toast) and a lunch one with pastas and sandwiches. What draws many people to the place, however, is its brunch buffet which includes both breakfast and lunch items for about $9 ($5 for children). We all decided on the buffet which is why I’m not writing a formal review of the restaurant – we didn’t actually get to experience any of their “regular” food.
The buffet was actually quite good, not all items were great, but most of the food was at least a couple of notches above typical buffet faire. Apparently once upon a time they served a Middle Eastern buffet, but it has now become quite Americanized. One of the best dishes was chicken with BBQ sauce and their homemade mashed potatoes were a little bit lumpy but they rocked flavor-wise. Mike also liked the eggs and the pasta salad.
Their kebabs looked like long slices of meatloaf, but their was no mistaken their origen once you bit into them. They were moist and flavorful with a clear Middle Eastern spicing. The basmati rice didn’t hold up well under the juice from the roasted tomatoes, however.
A slice of what was either pizza or focaccia (the toppings had been fused together and were unrecognizable) tasted quite good, though it was a little tough. Indeed, all the baked goods suffered from a distinct lack of baking powder – they were flat and dense when they should have been fluffy. We encountered this problem on a chocolate cake (which otherwise tasted out of a box – not bad) and on the pancakes.
Other items were also lackluster, a roasted turkey was dry and Regina was underwhelmed by some of the other veggetarian options (there were several).
Desserts could have been better, but fresh strawberries with a chocolate swizzle were great.
The one thing that didn’t work well was the service, but the waitresses were clearly swamped. They were constantly going from one place to the other, so it was probably not their fault that we had to remind them about our drinks well after we were eating.
In all we had a good experience and felt that the food was a very good value. It’s probably not worth it for us to make the trek to go there for brunch again, but if we were in the neighborhood we might very well stop by again.
Bacheeso’s Garden Bistro
2501 San Pablo Ave.
Berkeley, Ca.
(510) 644-2035
Daily 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

I got a bunch of restaurant reviews back from Mike (who edits them, he’s so horrified at my grammar that doesn’t let me post them otherwise). Here they are:
–Pleasanton Hotel Mystery Dinner, we loved the mystery, didn’t enjoy the food.
–Casa Madrid in Pleasanton, poor tapas, good main dishes, great desserts and exemplary service.
–Pyzano’s Pizzeria in Castro Valley, good pizza, nice atmosphere.
–Village Bistro in Castro Valley, good, homey continental cuisine, just like mom used to make if she was French.
–Cafe Colucci in Oakland, good Ethiopian food
–Ethiopia Restaurant in Berkeley, different Ethiopian food in not as cool surroundings
–Jardiniere, bad service and uninspired food at this San Francisco landmark
–Shish Kebab, etc., middle eastern delivery in San Leandro
–Taqueria Guadalajara, not the best taqueria in town (San Leandro)
–The Much Box, a burger stand in Chatsworth with a long history
–Cha Cha Cha, a colorful Encino restaurant.