Tag: hayward

Chain Restaurant Reviews: The Olive Garden

I tried the Never Ending Pasta Bowl!

A couple of weeks ago I saw a commercial for The Olive Garden‘s Never Ending Pasta Bowl and since then I’ve been obsessing about it. I’m not sure why. Maybe because I’ve been watching my carbs and avoiding pasta. Or maybe there is just something about the fantasies of limitless eating that appeals to human at an instinctive level. Olive Garden has been having this promotion for decades, so it’s obviously working for them.

I’m by no means a regular Olive Garden customer. I can count in one hand how often I’ve gone to the restaurant over the decades, with fingers to spare. Mostly I found it unmemorable, and with better Italian options around, often the same or more affordable prices, there has never been a compelling reason to go

I actually did a fair amount of reading on the Olive Garden and the Never Ending Pasta Bowl before my visit – such was my obsession. I learned that it wasn’t a particularly good deal for the customer, as most normal people can’t finish a single plate of pasta, much less have seconds. I also learned that you can take leftovers to go, and that you can order a serving of just the sauce. Finally, I learned that waiters hate it because they have to make multiple trips to the kitchen without the corresponding increase in tips.

We visited the Hayward location for lunch a Friday in October. I remembered the restaurant looking cuter back when I last went, this time it was just utilitarian. We were seated near the bar – and the kitchen – in a room without any decorations at all. Given that the food is not that cheap, I expected better.

We went there a little before noon and the place got fairly busy as the lunch hour came, though it was never really full. The restaurant is rather large, with good distance between the tables.

As the entrées all come with soup or salad and breadsticks, we didn’t bother ordering appetizers. My husband and daughter had the salad which they found to be unremarkable. It wasn’t good, it wasn’t bad, it was just a salad.

The breadsticks, on the other hand, were delicious. They are served warm, have garlic flavor, and have a soft interior. They are a tad dry, so they’re great for dipping. They were our favorite part of the meal – though I only had half of one, as I didn’t want to get full on bread (plus I’m watching those carbs).

Olive Garden has four soups, and I’d read that the Chicken & Gnocchi soup ($10, if ordered on its own) was particularly popular, so I ordered that. It was OK. I did like how soft and pillowy the gnocchi were, but there were relatively few of them in the soup. The chicken cream base wasn’t my favorite, but I’m not a fan of cream soups (or soups) in general. I did like it as a dip for the breadstick, however.

I got a second portion to go, as part of the Never Ending Pasta Bowl promotion (which gives you never ending soup or salad and never ending breadsticks as well), and I was surprised at how small it was. I think it had all of two gnocchi.

My daughter had the chicken parmigiana ($21.3). It was a large portion but not a particularly successful one. My daughter compared it to the frozen chicken parmesan we buy at the supermarket.

Mike had the seafood alfredo ($23.5) and he was equally unimpressed. He found the alfredo sauce to be thin and not particularly tasty, and the seafood just OK. He wouldn’t order it again.

In both these cases, you can get a much better plate of food for a similar price at a mom & pop’s Italian restaurant.

I, of course, ordered the Never Ending Pasta Bowl ($16) with a side of protein ($5). The protein this time around are meatballs, Italian sausages or “crispy chicken fritta”, which I think are breaded and fried chicken slices. You are given a choice of four pastas (fettuccine, spaghetti, rigatoni and angel hair) and six sauces (garlic herb, alfredo, marinara, five cheese marinara, creamy mushroom and meat sauce).

For my first plate I had the fettuccine with half mushroom sauce , half meat sauce
and meatballs. The plate was rather generous and definitely enough for a lunch entree, particularly after eating the few gnocchi from the soup. The fettuccine itself was rather bland (but it’s pasta) and a little past al dente – with some parts that were on the rawer side. I don’t think I’d order it again. I did like the mushroom sauce, particularly when I got a mushroom. It was creamy, mushroomy and very tasty. The meat sauce, on the other hand, was a disappointment. It had very small and scant pieces of meat and tasted like jarred sauce. I definitely wouldn’t order it again. The meatballs weren’t bad. They were light, and tasted like the meatballs you get in pizza joint and sandwich places – which I, personally, like. The first order came with three meatballs.


For my second plate, which I took home, I had the angel hair pasta with the five cheese marinara sauce. I liked the angel hair better, but the sauce – a mixture of marinara sauce with alfredo sauce – tasted like supermarket vodka sauce, basically, a creamy tomato sauce. It was too acidic. I would not order it again. This second portion of pasta was also pretty small, and it came with two meatballs.

I also had a bowl of alfredo sauce, as I wanted to try it. As Mike noted, it was on the thin side, and it also didn’t differ much from the jarred stuff. It wasn’t bad as a dip for the breadsticks, but I also wouldn’t order it .

I had water with dinner, Mike had a soda ($4), and my daughter had the raspberry lemonade ($4.50). She really liked it. They come with unlimited refills as well.

Service was fine, a little bit rushed but that’s to be expected.

In all, it was a mediocre and yet pretty expensive lunch – though we all took some leftovers home. I can’t imagine rushing back to the Olive Garden.

Olive Garden
star-outline24688 Hesperian Blvd
Hayward, CA
(510) 782-6385
Su - Th 11:00 AM to 10:00 PM
F - Sa 11:00 AM to 11:00 PM

Chain Restaurant Reviews

Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

Munching Around the Bay: Susie Q’s Pizza Review

This Hayward pizzeria serves great wings, but just average pizza

I discovered Susie Q’s Pizza a couple of weeks ago while going to dinner at Khao Hom in Hayward. I don’t usually pay attention to pizzerias, but they had posters expressing support for Palestinians and calling for an end to their genocide by Israel – which made me want to support them in turn. So when Mike was out to dinner one night, I suggested to my daughter that we get some take out from Susie Q’s. Mike never wants to get pizza, unless it’s Zachary’s.

Susie Q. had pretty good reviews online, and I decided we should try a little bit of everything. They have a family pack for $40 that includes a large one-topping pizza, cheesy bread, an order of wings and a 2-liter soda, and I got that in addition to a sub for my daughter.

The cheesy bread ($10) was really disappointing. It had gotten really good reviews online, but it was way too salty and just not that tasty. It came with a green sauce and a red pasta sauce, neither of which was particularly great either. I still have some of it left in the fridge waiting garbage pickup tomorrow. Needless to say, I wouldn’t order it again.

For my large 1-topping pizza ($25.2), I got half mushroom, half cheese. The mushroom were very, very scant – you’d think they could have used the half they saved on the cheese only part in the other half. Where I tasted them, the mushrooms were fine, but a single mushroom in some slices was just sad. Other than that, the pizza was OK, but not memorable. It has a medium crust, and a good balance of bread to sauce to cheese. It just wasn’t better than any of the other pizzas at local pizzerias. If Susie Q was my closest pizzeria, I’d order it from them – but otherwise there isn’t a particular reason to.

Susie Q has lots of options for make-your-own-pizza, including different sauces and thicknesses, as well as a number of specialty pizzas.

The tossed wings ($13 for 6), however, were delicious. They have them on several flavors and we went with the honey garlic. The wings were very crispy and the sauce clung to them very well. The honey garlic was a little spicy for me, but I could only eat one anyway, as the kids just loved them. I will definitely order these again in the future and try the other flavors.

Finally, my daughter ordered a classic Philly cheese stake ($15), which comes normally with mayo, grilled onions and sweet peppers only. Other toppings are extra, but they didn’t charge her the 80cents for the lettuce (perhaps because she held the onions and peppers). Still, the fact that they charge you extra for lettuce and ketchup since a little bit stingy.

My daughter liked the sandwich, though the filling was a little stingy too. She wasn’t awed by it – she’d have it again if were eating there, but wouldn’t go out of her way to get it.

I really, really wished I had liked Susie Q’s better, as I’d love to support a Palestinian supporting business. And I will give it another try – they also have pastas, and their wings were that great.

Susie Q's Pizza
22580 Foothill Blvd
Hayward, CA
‍(510) 537-2888
Sun - Th: 11 AM - 11 PM
Fri - Sat: 11 AM

Munching Around the Bay: Khao Hom in Hayward

Updated Thai food and a killer roti

Khao Hom is a newish Thai restaurant in Hayward which has been getting great reviews. I found it when looking for “date” restaurants nearby and was excited to give it a try on a Saturday evening in August. It was good, but ultimately disappointing and I don’t think we’ll hurry back – though I wouldn’t say “no” if someone else suggested it.

The dining room we were NOT seated at

My first disappointment was with the seating. Khao Hom has two dining rooms, a pretty nice one that would make a good setting for a date, and a more casual one that screamed “weekday lunch”. Even though this was a Saturday evening, that’s where we, and the rest of the patrons, were seated. We did go relatively early – the place got full by the time we left, but the other dining room was no opened.

I was particularly bummed because from my seat all I got was a view of the kitchen door – not what I’d say “romantic”.

Khao Hom’s menu includes classic as well as modernized versions of typical Thai dishes. We weren’t super hungry so we forewent appetizers and went directly into our entrees.

We started with Roti Gai Tod ($22). This consisted of fried chicken, a roti, a mound of rice, yellow curry sauce and a sweet and sour sauce. The fried chicken was good, though nothing extraordinary. The meat was fairly moist but the breading was too thick. I preferred it with the sweet and sour sauce than with the yellow curry.

The yellow curry, however, was very good – though in the sense that yellow curry is really good, this wasn’t a specially good yellow curry. The roti, on the other hand, was delicious. It was very flaky, tasty in itself and very oily. It went great with the curry. We ended up getting two more, including one to go ($3.50)

Our second dish – we shared them – was Short Rib Massaman ($27). The massive piece of meat looked more like a shank than a short rib -for one, it wasn’t short at all, but it was just as good. The beef was tender, if fatty, and very flavorful. The massaman curry was also tasty, perhaps a little different from others but not enough that I can pinpoint the reason. It must the first massaman curry in which the potatoes were not partly raw. In all I enjoyed it, though I’m not sure if I enjoyed it enough to merit the price. I did have some of he meat leftover for the next day, however.

For dessert, we had the stuffed roti ($12). This was a roti stuffed with a banana and served with grapes and berries under a chocolate sauce. It was OK. The rotti is a bit salty and I’m not sure whether I liked this or not. The fruit was fresh and the sauce was ok. I don’t think I’d order it again.

We only had a soda with dinner ($3.50).

Service was very good. When I told the waiter I wanted another roti to go, he took my leftover yellow curry and added more to it to take home. Indeed, the fact that they have rotis on the side is a big plus for me. I might go back and just order the yellow curry (albeit the one from the street food menu) and a bunch of rotis.

Khao Hom also serves breakfast, and the reviews for that are fairly good, so we might try it sometime.

Khao Hom
Foothill Boulevard
Hayward, CA
(510) 926-428922545
Daily 9 AM - 3 PM, 5-9 PM

Chain Restaurant Reviews: Panera has gotten worse

This chain sandwich store seems to have downgraded the quality of its sandwiches.

I discovered Panera during the pandemic, when I was looking for restaurants that offered family meals. I had heard, of course, of Panera before, but never felt compelled to try it. We had it several times during the pandemic, and I became a fan of their tomato soup and their steak and horseradish sandwiches. Still, after a while I forgot about it altogether until last week, when I got an e-mail with a free birthday pastry offer from them, and then saw them in the news for their literally killer drinks. So I got a craving and, after three years, I decided to order another family deal.

Panera has changed a bit since I last ordered. It still serves sandwiches, pastries, salads and soups, but the sandwiches themselves have changed. The prices have sort of increased as well, but it’s the quality going down that is the real problem.

Like in the past, I ordered a family deal. It’s now $36, up 24% from what it cost in 2021. It comes with 4 half-sandwiches, a salad, a quart of soup and a baguette. Pannera no longer has my favorite steak with horseradish sandwich, and instead they now sell a ciabatta cheesesteak ($15) that comes in a ciabatta roll and is served with Provolone cheese, caramelized onions, peppadew peppers and garlic aioli. Ciabatta is a very substantial roll which calls for a lot of filling for balance. This sandwich lacked it, which meant that the overall result was just too bready. Both the onions and the peppadews are served chopped and there were so many of the latter that they overwhelmed the sandwich, I could barely taste anything else. In all, I don’t think I’d order this sandwich again.


I liked the bacon avocado melt ($11) more, and it was probably my favorite of the four sandwiches I tried. It was also the one with the thinnest bread. The sandwich was very simple, but very tasty. It had bacon bits, melted cheddar and sliced avocado. It comes in sliced sourdough bread with chipotle aioli. It needed more avocado, but it was actually quite tasty.


The smokehouse BBQ chicken ($12) was just OK. The chicken itself had no flavor, so the sandwich tasted only of red onions and BBQ sauce. I liked the sauce well enough, but not enough to order it again. this sandwich also came in a ciabatta roll, and there wasn’t enough filling to balance all that bread.

Finally, we had the chicken bacon rancher ($14), which comes with pulled chicken, bacon bits, white cheddar and ranch sauce in a black pepper focaccia roll. The focaccia was good, but it really overwhelmed the filling. The chicken, again, was under-seasoned and while the bacon was able to carry the sandwich through, it wasn’t that exciting. I also wouldn’t order it again.

The tomato soup ($9.50 bowl/$26 quart) was just as good as I remember – but really not significantly better than the packaged Panera soup that you can get at the supermarket. Given that it’s just $10-12 for the 32-oz package at Safeway, it doesn’t seem worth it to get it at the restaurant (unless it’s part of a family deal as in this case). The baguette ($2.20) with a crunchy, hard exterior and a very chewy middle, is quite good.

Finally, both my husband and daughter really liked the Caesar Salad ($10.40). The vegetables are fresh and crisp and there is enough dressing to cover them all. In the past, the family meal included the more expensive chicken Caesar salad, but as my daughter prefers it without chicken, we are actually happy that they’ve removed it.

I might try the family deal again, but I’d probably try other sandwiches to see if any are substantially better.


I also got a cinnamon roll ($4.60) as dessert, given that I had a free pastry coupon. It was the end of the day, so it was hard, but after microwaving it, it loosened. It was quite tasty.

*Update*

A couple of days after this meal, Panera got me again by sending me a couple of big “rewards”. One gave me 50% off a single entree and the other gave me a free drink, treat or cup of soup with a $10 purchase. Of course, the two could not be combined – only one reward per purchase. But Panera still had its “get 15% off gift cards” promo, so I got that as an additional discount. In all, I spent $21 to get 2 sandwiches and a cup of food, which isn’t bad but not super great either.

For my sandwich, I started with the bacon avocado melt ($11) but I got it in focaccia bread, and added tomatoes and caramelized onions. The results were great. I liked it better than the original.


For my freebie, I got a cup of the French onion soup ($7.60), which comes with a piece of bread, a bag of chips or an apple – though they gave me both the bread and the chips. The soup was actually pretty good, it had a nice caramelized onion flavor which was deep but not too bitter. It did need more cheese. I would have added more, but I then would have had to warm the soup – which was barely warm by the time it got home. Still, it was quite satisfactory. In all, half a sandwich plus the soup was a satisfactory meal and left me stuffed, and considering that I have the other half of the sandwich for later, it was a great deal – but only because of the promo. I did read that promos become much more stingy the more you go to Panera, so this will probably be my last time.

I also use the 50% off promo (in a separate purchase) to get a ciabatta cheesesteak for my daughter and her boyfriend. I doubled the meat (and should have doubled the extra lettuce) and half a sandwich was sufficient for each one of them for a mid-afternoon snack. The discount didn’t apply to the extra meat, only to the original price of the sandwich.

While you can make up to five customizations on sandwiches you order by themselves, you can’t customize them in the family meal. So I think I will order Panera again if I get good coupons, but not otherwise.

Panera
24133 Southland Dr
Hayward, CA
(510) 732-0279
M-SU 7 AM - 8 PM

Buon Appetito in Hayward is a solid choice for Italian

Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

After spending most of the summer with non-COVID related health problems, I’ve been suffering from cabin fever, so I decided that we should treat ourselves to a dinner out. I was hankering for Italian, and Buon Appetito showed up as having outdoor dining. Coincidentally, as my daughter reminded us, this was the last restaurant where we ate indoors, before the pandemic. She remembered my telling her that it would probably be out last visit to a restaurant for a while. I was right.

Since then, Buon Appetito has built a small deck on their parking lot. It’s a pretty simple affair, and it could be much enhanced with some plants, particular if positioned to block the view and noises from the adjacent street. But it was pleasant enough for a casual dinner.

Buon Appetito serves classic-modern Italian-American cuisine, by which I mean the sort of dishes you expect to find at Italian restaurants in America in the 21st century. Nothing too exotic, nothing too authentic, nothing too marvelous but stuff that is competently cooked and generally satisfies. It’s the sort of restaurant you expect to find in middle class suburbs.

We started by splitting an appetizer of Mozzarella alla Caprese ($10), which was underwhelming. This was a thick slice of tomato topped with a thick slice of fresh mozarella and large basil leaves – so traditional caprese. It was fine, but I prefer it with slightly riper tomatoes and soft mozarella balls.

As my main dish, I had the gnocchi which was on special that night, which came with a rich, creamy tomato (and I think sausage) sauce. The gnocchi had the right consistency and the dish tasted exactly like I expected it to taste. It was very good without being extraordinary. I enjoyed the leftovers the next day.

My husband had the Costolette di Maiale all’ Arancia ($21), a grilled pork chop in an orange/marsala sauce, which came with mashed potatoes and veggies. He was quite happy with it.

My daughter had the Ravioli con Pomodoro e Limonee ($18). the large ravioli are filled with “spinach, swiss chard, pine nuts & ricotta cheese” and you get your choice of a tomato and artichoke or a lemon cream sauce. She went for the lemon cream, and while both the ravioli and the sauce were very good, the combination of the two really didn’t work. Next time, she’ll try the tomato sauce.

Service was competent, and in all we had a very pleasant dinner.

Buon Appetito
917 A Street
HAYWARD, CA 
510-247-0120
M-Su 11:30am - 9:00pm

Vegan Options at Favorite Indian – Hayward

Eating out – or getting take out – with a vegan is no easy matter, at least here in San Leandro (L.A., though, is another matter altogether). So I’m starting to ask restaurants what vegan dishes they offer previous to taking my daughter to the restaurant.

These four dishes are always vegan at Favorite Indian, Hayward. I’m sure that’s true too at the other branches, but you may want to confirm.

Vegetable Pakora, veggies coated with seasoned chickpea flour and fried.

Dal Curry, a yellow lentil curry. I tried this at the buffet, and it was pretty good.

Aloo Gobi, potatoes and cauliflower cooked with spices.

Bhindi Masala, okra cooked with spices and onions.

Chana Masala, chick peas cooked with spices. Alas, my daughter is not too fond of this.

In addition, Favorite India can make the following dishes vegan. Simply ask them to make them with no cream when you order them:

Baingan Bharta

Eggplant roasted in tadoor and cooked in a cream and tomato sauce

Navratam Korma

Vegetables, nuts & cheese cooked in a mild sauce (asked them to hold both the cream and the cheese/paneer)

Mushroom Matar

Mushroom & green peas cooked with onion & tomatoes

Dal Makhani

Whole black lentil & red kidney beans cooked in a creamy sauce.

They may have other vegan dishes at their buffet, so it doesn’t help to ask. The restaurant manager/owner – the young woman who is often at the reception desk – is very knowledgeable as to the ingredients.

Ristorante Di Palermo – Hayward – Review

photo borrowed from restaurant's website

photo borrowed from restaurant’s website

Ristorante di Palermo is, as one Palermitan Yelp reviewer made clear, not a Palermitan restaurant.  It’s not even a Sicilian restaurant, though they have a couple of Greek/Mediterranean dishes which I assume may be found in Sicily.  Ristorante di Palermo is your basic Italian restaurant, and as long as you don’t have higher expectations than that, you shouldn’t be terribly disappointed.

We went there for Christmas Eve dinner and we had a rather good meal.  It was nothing extraordinary, but it was solidly executed and I would go again.

We started by sharing the “fungi de portabella” ($12), a grilled portobello mushroom cap in a gorgonzola sauce.  The only thing I can fault this dish is the price – $12 is too high -, but flavor-wise it was a real winner.  The grilled portobello had a meaty, somewhat smoky flavor and it went very well with the sauce.  This isn’t a complicated dish, however, and it’s one I’ll try replicating at home.

For our main dishes, I had the chicken marsala ($16), Mike had the salmon special for the night, and the girls had the gnocchi de la casa (in tomato sauce – $12.25) and in gorgonzola sauce ($12.25).  Both girls liked their gnocchi, though I didn’t taste them so you may want to take that with a grain of salt. The one in tomato sauce seemed to have plenty of cheese, and I assume the other one shared a sauce with the mushrooms.  My chicken marsala had a very nice sauce, it was a little darker than I cook it myself, which I thought was good, and there was some smokiness to it as well.  The chicken breast, however, was pretty dry in the manner of chicken breasts everywhere – I wish they would make it with chicken thighs instead.   Mike’s dish of salmon with shrimp in some dark sauce was probably the least successful of the evening.  He felt the sauce, whose specific flavor he can’t remember, overpowered the seafood.  My main complaint about the entrees is that they were in the small size.  None of us were left hungry – but I had had an appetizer, the girls don’t eat much (but they cleared their plates) and Mike wasn’t hungry when he started.  I think they could increase the portions without hurting their bottom line and make customers’ happier.

For dessert, I got the cannoli ($6?).  It was quite good, though nothing out of this world, pretty much your standard cannoli.  I’d say the same about the tiramisu ($6) that Mika got.  Camila ordered the blood orange sorbet ($5), I didn’t taste it but I suspect it was Ciao Bella.  It’s a great sorbet and Camila didn’t complain.

I had two glasses of the sparkling Barbera ($9 each), which was basically sparkling grape juice with a kick.  I liked it, but it’s extremely sweet.

Service was very good, our waiter was very attentive.  The restaurant is quite nice, but more of a casual place.  It’s very roomy, so it’d be a good place to dine when you don’t want to be overheard.

Ristorante di Palermo

22532 Foothill Blvd (b/t A St & B St)
Hayward, CA
(510) 885-9943
http://www.ristorantedipalermo.com/
Lunch daily: 11 AM – 2:30 PM
Dinner: Su-Th 5-9 PM, F-Sa 5-10 PM

Margarita’s Restaurant Reviews

Acqua e Farina – Restaurant Review – Hayward

I walked past Acqua e Farina several times, on my way to and from my favorite tea house, The Golden Tea Garden,  before I noticed its existence.  From the outside, the restaurant looked simple and inviting, like an old world, hole-in-the-wall sort of place.   I put it on the back of my mind as a place to try some day, and from there I retrieved it last April, when I was looking for a place to celebrate my anniversary, with both my husband and children.  We had a great experience then, which I repeated last night with a group of friends.

As we discovered once we actually went into Acqua e Farina, this little restaurant occupies the space which was once the home of Rue de Main.  The dining room is a little strange, with several smallish eating areas.  The largest one is decorated with wall paintings of  Italian village storefronts, so you can easily pretend that you are eating al fresco in a piazza.  It’s quite nice.

The menu is filled with classic Italian and Italian-American dishes.  The pasta ones are nicely priced in the low-to-mid teens with meat and fish dishes in the high teens.  A porterhouse steak tops the price list at $30.

We started by sharing the prosciutto ($8) and the polenta ($7).  The prosciutto, which came wrapping thick slices of melon, was good, though this is not a favorite dish of mine.  The polenta, however, was outstanding.  The baked slices are served with mushrooms in a Madeira sauce that is just out of this world.  I’d had it in my previous visit, and it was just as good this time.  Don’t miss it.

For my main dish, I had the gnocchi della casa ($14), which came with a creamy tomato sauce.  The gnocchi just melted in my mouth, and the sauce was quite pleasant.  Like most of the entrees at Acqua e Farina, this wouldn’t win any culinary awards, but it was solid.  My previous visit I’d had the spinach ravioli in meat sauce ($14), and I had enjoyed them, but not as much as the gnocchi.  This time, my friend Katrina had the ravioli but in a pesto sauce, which she enjoyed very much.  At a previous visit, one of my daughters had the lasagne di carne ($14.5), which she also liked.  Again, no culinary awards, but good, simple Italian food.

Acqua e Farina may do even better with its non-pasta dishes.  Eddie found her salmone alla griglia, salmon grilled and served with a garlic, basil and fresh tomato white wine sauce ($19.5) to be the best salmon she’d had in a while. Parker, meanwhile, was very pleased with her melanzane del giorno ($12.5), eggplant in a tomato sauce, topped with mozzarella.  She found it a big heavy on the cheese for her taste, but thought it was very good.

The desserts may be Acqua e Farina’s weak point.  My ricotta cheesecake ($6) was light but unexciting, and while I didn’t try Eddie’s lemon sorbet ($4), I did notice she only ate half of her dish.  I can’t remember what I thought of the tartufo di cioccolato ($5.5), chocolate ice cream with hazelnuts, which I had in my first visit, which means it wasn’t particularly memorable.

Service was outstanding both times. The waiters were attentive and friendly, though this time they failed a bit in the replenishing drinks part.  The meal after tax and tip came to about $133.

In all, Acqua e Farina is a solid restaurant for when you want a nice night out at a moderate price.

Acqua e Farina
22622 Main Street
Hayward, CA
510.888.1568
http://acqua-e-farina.com/
Lunch: M-Sa 11 AM – 2:30 PM
Dinner: Su-Th 4-9 PM, F-Sa 4-10 PM

Hayward Restaurant Reviews

Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

Favorite Indian Restaurant – Hayward – Review

January 2011

In the last couple of weeks I’ve gone to Favorite Indian twice, once for lunch and once for dinner.  Their offerings are just as extensive for both though the dinner buffet, only available on F/Sa/Su is more expensive ($15 vs. $11, I think).  Still, it’s an amazing deal considering that you get over 20 choices of dishes, plus nan bread, sodas, juices and dessert!  And keep an eye on Yelp and their Facebook Page for special offers. Mentioning “Yelp”, for example, should get you a 15% discount off the buffet prices.

But the deal with Favorite Indian is just how amazingly good their food is.  I mean, this is buffet food (they do have a la carte dinners weekday nights, but why would you bother?).  And it’s some of the best tasting Indian food I’ve ever had.

In my last two visits the chicken tikka masala has been to die for.  The chicken itself is a bit dry (that’s what you get when you use white meat), but the sauce is heavenly.  I don’t bother with the chicken anymore, just put the sauce over rice or eat it with nan. At a dinner visit, I couldn’t get enough of the fish pakoras. The flaky, melt-in-your-mouth fish has a wonderfully crispy crust and was delicious.  Their tandoori chicken has also been very good in my last visits, as have been assorted curries.  They vary from time to time, but they are all worth trying (even if not all are always winners in my book).  My daughter loves their soft serve mango ice cream for dessert, but I’m a fan of their gulab jamun. which they serve both hot and cold (hot is better).  Their nan bread is quite good, but at the lunch buffet I went they had a paratha sytle bread that was even better.

Anyway, I’m in love with Favorite Indian and I can’t wait to go back.

December 2010
I’ve been back to both the lunch and dinner buffet at Favorite Indian several times now. It’s always good. Mika loves going for the mango soft-serve ice cream.


July 2010 Review

Favorite India on “A” Street in Hayward has been my favorite Indian restaurant in the area since it opened. The small, humble dining room isn’t much to look at – but the Americanized Northern-Indian food is delicious and the staff is very friendly. Plus, and this is a very important plus, they deliver to San Leandro.

Some months ago they opened a new branch in Hawyard, under the name “Favorite Indian” and we finally checked it out last January, when we discovered the A St. location is no longer open for dinner. The new location is a great improvement. It’s in what was probably an all-American family restaurant in the past, so it hasn’t much in the way of atmosphere, but they’ve added a couple of nice fountains and some decorations and the place looks nice enough. More importantly it’s comfortable, with plenty of booths and tables that accommodate large parties (there is even a party room, I think) and there is plenty of room for a large buffet – which they now offer not just for lunch but for dinner on Friday, Saturdays and Sundays (6 – 9 PM).

In the last seven months I’ve been to Favorite Indian for lunch and dinner on numerous occasions – and I’m always impressed by the buffet. It has an enormous array of choices, more than 30 items, so much that you cannot possible hope to try everything (even if, like me, you just skip the vegetarian options as a matter of course). Last night the meat offerings alone included chicken tikka massala, chili chicken, ginger chicken, chicken tandoori, lamb vindaloo and a lamb kofta curry. There were many vegetarian choices, including vegetable pakora and daals, There are soups and salads and the usual accountriments – including rice and hot naan. The buffet price ($14 for dinner) includes soft drinks and dessert (mango soft ice cream in addition to Indian goodies).
What is really impressive, however, is the quality of the food. It may not have the sophistication of the offerings at Aroma in Castro Valley, but it’s uniformly tasty, nicely seasoned (i.e. not too spicy) and very balanced. Everything, from the tandoori to the tikka massala sauce tastes great. Nothing is too oily, nothing too fatty or gritty. The chicken in the tikka massala did manage to be a bit too dry for my taste in my last visit, but that was really a minor complain. In all, I don’t think you can get a better meal in the Bay Area for the price – one reason why I keep going back 🙂 BTW, you can get a 15% off discount of your dinner bill by mentioning “YELP” when you visit (I’m trying to see if they’ll do the same for “Marga’s Blog”). Restaurant.com also has gift certificates, but it’s only valid on the a la carte menu, Sunday through Thursday.

Favorite Indian Restaurant
24052 Mission Blvd.
Hayward, CA
510-583-7550
http://www.favoriteindia.com/

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews
Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

A guest review of Panda Express

Today I took my daughter to lunch at her favorite chain restaurant, Panda Express (783 A Street, one of *three* locations in Hayward). It was much better than I expected. For $5.50 you get your choice of fried rice or a simple chow mein, and any two of about a dozen entrees.

All the meat is tender and seems to be of decent quality.

I didn’t try the fried rice, but the chow mein has “wok hei” – the smoky aftertaste of a properly made stir-fry. The orange chicken (my daughter’s favorite) was tangy and not over-sweet; the crust was not mushy at all. The sweet and sour pork is – well, inoffensive.

I had broccoli beef and black pepper chicken. The broccoli was cut a little too large to be convenient to eat. It would have been more manageable either cut smaller or cooked a little longer. Mind you, it was delicious. The pepper chicken was aromatic with black pepper, but not hot, and strewn with slivers of onion and green pepper.

Very little of the food is prefab; we were able to see a huge glass-fronted refrigerator filled with trays of raw vegetables.

I don’t know that it’s a particularly child-friendly place: most of the chairs and tables are tall, like bar stools, which would be risky for small children. (My daughter’s an adult, so that wasn’t an issue for us.)

There are banners hung from the ceiling proclaiming “Gourmet Chinese Food.” I wouldn’t go that far, but Panda Express presses most of the Chinese-American-cooking joy buttons.

Michaele Maurer

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