Tag: reviews (Page 31 of 33)

Rubiano’s – San Leandro – Restaurant Review

May 19, 2014 / admin / 0 Comments

There are many positive things to say about Rubiano’s. It’s located in a neighborhood that has long been desperate for good restaurants – but which seems unable to keep them for long. It’s very child friendly, one our visit there there were a couple of tables with toddlers and a guy with a friendly dog waiting outside. The food and atmosphere are decent. The prices are not outrageous. And it has developed, very quickly, a large base of fans.

However, from the beginning I had heard rumblings about slow service and mediocre food, so I gave it several months to settle down before trying it. When I finally did, last Friday night, my experience was pretty mediocre. There is no compelling reason for going back.

We arrived at the restaurant after 7:30 PM. I had anticipated that we might have to wait to get seated, but fortunately there were spaces at the bar as well as a table for two where we could add an extra chair. The restaurant soon got even more crowded, plus there were people waiting on the sidewalk. The waitresses seemed to be rushing to attend to everyone.

The menu is pretty compact, which makes sense for such a small restaurant. It offers a few deep-fried starters ($6-10), a couple of salads ($5-8), simple pastas ($8-10) with your choice of marinara, alfredo or pesto sauce, stromboli sandwiches ($9) and, the piece of resistance, pizzas and calzones. These start at $11 and $14 respectively for a small cheese, with extra toppings $1.80 to $2.40 each. The prices are not low, but they’re in line with other local restaurants.

My daughter decided on the cheese tortellini with marinara sauce from the kid’s menu ($7), which included a drink and a scoop of ice cream. Mike went for the meat’s lover small pizza ($19) and I ordered the meatball stromboli ($9). What we got, however, was different.

It took me a while to conclude that there were no meatballs in my stromboli. I had been surprised to not find them in the first few bites, but I figured they might have ended up at the ends. No such luck. The stromboli I got had cheese and tomatoes/tomato sauce, and some long, thin strips of something which I assume were artichokes. There were no meatballs and no olives (as advertised for the artichoke heart stromboli) though there was some basil. It tasted fine, though it was a bit too doughy for the amount of filling and the different ingredients weren’t completely harmonized. The basil was a tad too bitter, and yet it’s what gave the dish its fresh flavor. I decided not to send it back because I figured that it would take another fifteen minutes to get the right stromboli, and I was pretty hungry. Even without the meatballs this was a pretty messy dish, you need a fork and knife to eat it discretely.

The stromboli came with a side salad of mixed greens, tomatoes, green peppers and croutons with your choice of dressing. I was pretty good.

My daughter’s troubles with her food actually started earlier. She had ordered a raspberry iced tea, but what she got was a plain, unsweetened ice tea. It turns out that they don’t actually carry the raspberry tea advertised on the menu. The waitress happily substituted it for a diet-pepsi. She did get her order of tortellini right, though instead of bringing her a kid’s size portion as she had ordered and billing accordingly, she brought a regular portion. Thus a $7 meal, which included a drink and dessert, became an $12 one. She didn’t charge us for the ice-cream, however. Not a big deal, but yet another mistake that shouldn’t have happened.

Mika liked the tortellini, she thought the marinara sauce was fine though she left most of it on the plate. The adult-size serving was fine for an adult-size appetite, but not particularly generous. She didn’t have leftovers to bring home.

Mika and I were almost done eating our meals by the time Mike got his pizza. The meats had a very nice smokey flavor, though the saltiness in them pretty much overwhelmed the rest of the pizza. This, of course, is a problem for meat-heavy pizzas, which is why I personally don’t order them. He liked it well enough. I thought the dough was pretty nice, a bit tough and a bit chewy but with a good flavor. I prefer thick-crust pizzas, however. I couldn’t taste much of the cheese and sauce because of the flavor of the meats. The pizza didn’t keep that well, however. By the next day the smokiness on the meats had become much weaker and, eaten cold, it wasn’t particularly compelling.

Service was rushed but friendly. There were obviously two pretty major mistakes. The fault on the stromboli lies with the kitchen, it appeared correctly on the bill. The other mistake was the waitress’, but I can’t really blame her because the place was very loud and she seemed so rushed. We paid the bill – after all, she had consumed the food and we were ready to go-, but I would be careful of examining it and the order carefully if we returned.

As a final note, before writing this review I included a brief summary of the experience on my San Leandro Talk Facebook page. One of the cooks from Rubiano’s chimed in to say that I should have either spoken up then – though he did recognize it would have taken at least 10-15 minutes for me to get the right stromboli if I had done so – and should “shut up” now. He also made some comment about how I am not a San Leandro native. That type of anti-customer attitude makes me doubly-reluctant to return to the restaurant.

Rubiano’s
600 Dutton Ave, Unit C
San Leandro, CA
(510) 553-1000
http://www.rubianos.com/
M-Su 11 AM – 10 PM

CreAsian – Taste of the Himalayas Restaurant Review – San Leandro

November 18, 2013 / marga / 0 Comments

UPDATE: THIS RESTAURANT HAS CLOSED

I haven’t been to dinner to the new Taste of the Himalayas restaurant, which replaces CreAsian, but I did go to its Grand Opening which included a limited free buffet. From it, I can say that I’m glad to welcome them to San Leandro.

Taste of the Himalayas is a popular Nepali restaurant in Berkeley. They’ve taken over the old CreAsian space, a much welcome change as far as I’m concerned. While I liked CreAsian, it was too expensive and the menu never changed. Alas, they seem to be wary of their new venture in San Leandro, so they are keeping some old CreAsian dishes in the menu and they are mostly concentrating in serving Indian rather than Nepali food. I imagine that will change as they get more comfortable in San Leandro.

At the Grand Opening they had three meat curries to taste, their chicken curry (normally $14), lamb curry ($14) and the chicken nauni (not yet in the online menu). The regular curries were OK, the flavors were good and solid, but not compelling. However the meats themselves were spectacular, the chicken was velvety and the lamb was beyond moist and tender, without being fatty. These taste like high quality meats. The chicken nauni, on the other hand, was very, very good (though actually, the sauces mixed together tasted even better). It was similar to a tikka masala, only the chicken wasn’t smokey (and was moist) and the sauce was less sweet. Still, it was very balanced. Taste of the Himalayas does offer a chicken tikka masala ($15), and I look forward to tasting it.

Both the plain ($3) and garlic ($4) nan were nice, though the fact that they were hot and not burned helped.

I didn’t try the vegetarian offerings, so I can’t opine, but I heard the vegetable pakora (also not in the menu) was also very good.

According to their website, they deliver with a $25 minimum order.

CreAsian – Taste of the Himalayas
1269 MacArthur Blvd.
San Leandro, CA
(510) 895-8028
http://www.creasianhimalayas.com/
M-Su 11:30am to 3:00pm, 5:00pm to 10:00pm

Le Village Buffet Review – Paris Hotel – Las Vegas –

August 2, 2012 / marga / 0 Comments

UPDATE: Please check out my updated review of Le Village Buffet

My husband and I love French food and had been happy enough with our last experience at the Paris Buffet (back at the turn of the millennium), that we decided to give it a try again for dinner when we visited Las Vegas last month (July 2012). This despite the fact that the buffet now gets mixed reviews. In all, I have to say we were pretty happy and it was easily the best of the four other buffets we ate in Vegas using our Buffet of Buffets pass (Planet Hollywood, the Rio, Harrah’s and Main Street Station).

Three things make the Paris buffet special. One is the Disneyiske setting, in an open-air plaza, under a fake sky, surrounded by cute French-looking houses. My kids loved it, but so did I. A second is the fact that the food actually tries to be regional French, it doesn’t always succeed, but it’s a valiant effort. Finally, it’s the fact that the menu is limited enough to at least give you a chance to try everything you want to try (not everything there is, of course). I tried a lot of stuff.

The food stands are divided by French region, though there is a station dedicated to soup, salads and seafood and another to desserts. I tried the French Onion soup here and was underwhelmed. The onions had not been caramelized enough and the broth was too weak.

The first region I visited was Provence. Here I tasted some beef braised in a dark sauce. My husban liked it quiet a bit, but I felt the dish needed some sweetness, some wine in the sauce or caramelization on the beef. The saffron rice tasted like plain buttered rice, it was good but there were no hints of saffron. A dish of pasta in a cream sauce was quite satisfying, though I think it would have been helped by some grated cheese on top. A stewed chicken gave a hint of having been cooked in wine, but otherwise lacked seasoning.

My next region was Alsace, a region in the border with Germany that has gone back and forth between the two countries. I’ve both eaten and cooked Alsatian food before and I’m quite fond of it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t too fond of the chocroute garni, the meat was a tad too sweet and too spicy for me, while the pickled cabbage was too vinegary for my taste. The rest of the offerings were better, but not Alsatian. The cassoulet was nicely done and the meat was flavorful,the caramelized pearl onions were delicious, though a little underdone, and the scalloped potatoes were wonderful.

My venture into Savoie (a region I don’t know at all) was even more successful. Here I tried the grilled pita bread, lamb, tri-tip and chicken – apparently they like to grill in Savoie. They were all great, in particular the lamb and the tri-tip. Don’t bother with the chateubriand sauce, however, it wasn’t that good and would have ruined the meats.

This station also includes a sample of cheeses. The smoked gouda (or a cheese that tastes as such) was particularly delicious.

Normandy offered a stuffed sole which I loved. It had a beautiful crust and a delicious flavor, once you added a squeeze of lemon juice. Mike wasn’t as fond of it, and I can’t really understand why. The ham and cheese quiche was less successful, it tasted very much of Parmessan. There is also a small sushi section, but I didn’t try that at all.

Finally, I was surprised that there was neither beef bourguignon nor coq au vin in the Burgundy section but I then realized that this was actually the American station. Here you can find rotisserie chicken (I didn’t try it), prime rib (very good), roasted pork with apples (so salty as to make it inedible), roasted and mashed potatoes (good enough) and mac & cheese (lacked flavor).

For dessert, I first headed to the Breton section where you could try apple crisp and bread pudding (homey, but nothing to write home about) as well as made-to-order crepes. The crepes were the standard French variety, rather than Breton buckwheat galettes, but they were delicious. I had mine with strawberries and bananas covered with fudge and hazelnuts. The one problem is that the strawberries were already macerated and too sweet, so make sure you add some element to compensate for that. Still, it was sooo good.

We also visited the dessert station and here I tried several things. There was a chocolate mousse pastry on a hazelnut crust which was delicious and a lemon cookie sandwich that was out of this world. The other desserts impressed less. The cheesecake was less inspired that at other buffets and the creme brulet lacked umf. I liked the peanut butter cookie, but the sugar cookie was nothing special. The kids loved the soft custard (aka ice cream).

I had the unlimited mimosas/champagne/wine deal for dinner ($14, I think), and it’s a good deal if you’re planning to drink alcohol and are not too picky about quality. I enjoyed the mimosas and the champagne. The wine tasted like $2 chuck and I would definitely not have it again.

Probably the worst part of the evening was our waitress. She was efficient but seemed to be having a crappy night and there was never a hint of smile on her face. I’m sorry, but dining is an experience and unhappy waitresses bring it down a notch.

All in all this is a good buffet and I’d defintiely do it again.

Marga’s Restaurant Reviews outside the Bay Area

Bakery Street – San Leandro – Review

March 12, 2011 / admin / 2 Comments

I’ve lived in San Leandro for over ten years, but I first heard about Bakery Street today, when Mike mentioned he’d seen it mentioned online and had ridden by a sign saying “bakery sale”. He wanted to give it a try and I wasn’t going to say “no”. I might have as well, I’m not in the least impressed by any of the baked goods we sampled.

Bakery Street seems to be mainly a wholesaler of baked goods (cookies, bars, cakes, scones) and a maker of speciality/wedding cakes. The pictures of some of their whimsical cakes in their websites look very cute. They have a tiny store attached to their factory, apparently open only Fridays and Saturdays, where they sell packaged baked goods to the public. Some prices seem good, some not so good. For example, their Red Velvet cakes get very good reviews in Yelp.com and were available at Costco, but at either $8 or $12 for a very small cake, I wasn’t that eager to get one. Instead, we got a 9oz package of madelines and a 14oz package of chocolate chip cookies, for $2 each. We also got a couple of plain croissants and 2 custard croissants, each individually packaged in plastic, for $1 each.

The croissants were OK. The custard ones reminded me of cheese danishes, but with a very generous amount of custard. The croissant part wasn’t particularly flaky or tasty, but it wasn’t too bad. Not bad for $1, but not great either.
I’m used to getting Donsuemor madelines at Zocalo for 75-cents each, so I relished the prospect of getting almost a dozen for just $2 – but I guess you get what you pay for, as Bakery Street madelines just aren’t that great. They seem a bit lighter than the Donsuemor ones, perhaps less sweet, but whatever it is, there is no boom of flavor in your mouth as you get from a really great madeline. I wouldn’t bother buying them again (well, for $2, perhaps I would, but still….)

The chocolate chip cookies were worse still. They were dense and flavorless, the chocolate chips were clearly low quality (you could barely taste any chocolate) and the various hydrogenated vegetable oils in the cookies did not help the crumbly texture. But the problem was the flavor, it was just not there. I would not buy them again.

In all, I’m not impressed.

Bakery Street Inc
1465 Factor Avenue
San Leandro, CA
(510) 357-8880
http://www.bakerystreet.com/
San Leandro Restaurant Reviews
Bay Area Restaurant Reviews

Big Buy Bacon @ Grocery Outlet – Review

August 3, 2010 / admin / 48 Comments

Got it today at Grocery Outlet. It’s probably the worst food item I have ever bought. It’s COMPLETELY inedible, you cannot bite through it, you cannot chew it, you cannot digest it. I don’t even want to guess what it’s made from and what stuff it has in it.

Whoever makes it should be ashamed of the product, and Grocery Outlet should be ashamed to sell it.

Habanas Cuban Cuisine – Review – Alameda

February 15, 2010 / admin / 0 Comments

My friend Mauro recommended Habanas Cuban Cuisine as a good place to go for drinks with my girlfriends. He’d been there for a work function and had really enjoyed the mojitos – they have a wide variety. I figured it was worth a try.
We went there last Saturday night, as an early girls-only St. Valentine’s day celebration, and were very impressed both by the food and the drinks. It’s moderately priced and I would definitely go back.
The restaurant itself is not very impressive. The narrow rectangle dining room has white walls decorated by immense photographs of Cuba life scenes. The photographs are very pretty, but it was hard to see more than one from our table. In all, I thought the place lacked ambiance.
The menu is somewhat limited and features small plates and entrees. We were there mostly for drinks, so we only explored the tapas menu. We loved almost everything we got.
We started with an arugula salad, nicely dressed with in a walnut vinaigrette and topped with shaved Manchego cheese and some type of roasted seed. We got a large portion, which was good for 3 people. We all really enjoyed it – the contrast between the bitter leafs and the salty cheese was very nice.
I ordered the Mixed Grill, which consisted in two smallish skewers each with a chunk of marinated skirt steak, chorizo and pork tenderloin. It came with a chili mango sauce and sofrito rice. The steak and chorizo were both very nice, with strong flavors. The pork tenderloin was less so, but that’s pork for you. The rice was stupendous, specially eaten together with the sauce. I’d definitely order it again.
Aamani ordered the scallops, served with a ginger citrus sauce. We all enjoyed them, though I wouldn’t say they were particularly special.
Paz had the grilled shrimp which came with a cilantro-lime sauce. The portion was quite generous and the sauce was wonderful, even I enjoyed it. I think the shrimp came with rice.
Finally, we all shared a large plate of garlic fries, served with a sweet guava chipotle sauce and a chimichurri aioli. The fries were thin, crisp and had just the right amount of garlic. The sauces were also delicious, neither was spicy but they complimented the fries very well. Indeed, the fries were so good that I couldn’t help eating them with bread.
The bread, by the way, was also very good. It was fresh and reminded me of the bread back home.
As to the mojitos, we all enjoyed them. I had the pineapple one and was happy that it wasn’t too sweet or too sour – it didn’t taste much of pineapple, but it was good.
The service was efficient and friendly, the waitress warned me about an unpopular strawberry mojito, glasses were refilled frequently and plates removed quickly.
In all, I had a wonderful experience which I hope to repeat some time.
Habanas Cuban Cuisine
1518 Park Street
Alameda CA
510.521.0130
http://www.habanasalameda.com/
Marga’s Restaurant Reviews

Knudsen’s Ice Creamery – Castro Valley – Update

September 5, 2009 / admin / 0 Comments

I originally tried (and reviewed) Knudsen’s Ice Creamery in 2004, soon after they opened. We went several times after that, but for some reason we hadn’t been back in a couple of years. We finally went yesterday (9/5/09) and, as usual, we had a great time.
Knudsen’s had not changed much since our last visit, it looks pretty much the same, but the food and service had improved, while the ice cream had gone downhill. Mike and I shared the sliders ($10), four little sandwiches, each with a different filling: grilled chicken (bland), angus burger (quite nice), bbq pork (very nice) and pot-roast (ok, also somewhat bland). It came with a small portion of fries (standard) and fried onion shavings (ok). The girls had the chicken nuggets ($3 – 5 per portion) and they enjoyed it. In Mika, my 7yo’s words, “they are better than McDonald’s chicken nuggets” (note, we don’t take her to McDonald’ s, but family members do from time to time).
I was disappointed by the ice cream, however. It’s now made in-house rather than by Fentons. I thought that the flavors were very mild. The maple nut we had was pretty good, but the peanut butter cup ice cream tasted as a malted chocolate ice cream, there was barely any peanut butter in it. Mika’s mocha almond fudge, in particular, had an off taste that I disliked. She was happy with it; her only complaint was that it wasn’t as creamy as the ones I make (but I usually follow Ben and Jerry’s recipes).
The hot fudge and caramel sauces, on the other hand, were quite good.
In all, we had a very pleasant meal at Knudsen’s, but I’m not super eager to return.
Knudsen’s Ice Creamery
3323 Castro Valley Blvd
Castro Valley, CA
(510) 582-2775
http://www.icecreamery.net/

2004 review

2006 update

Ben & Jerry’s Organic Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream – Review

May 24, 2009 / admin / 1 Comment

Ben and Jerry’s line of organic ice cream flavors (introduced in 2003), has not been doing very well. I haven’t really seen them in supermarkets, and this week they made an appearance at my neighborhood’s Grocery Outlet – for $1.50 each! I tried their organic vanilla and organic strawberry and they were both fine, not spectacular. These are not flavors I usually get, so I can’t say how they compare to the originals.

It’s another matter with Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream, which is one of my favorite B&J’s flavors. Alas, I’ll have to continue eating the regular version (usually $3 on sale at Safeway), as the organic version just doesn’t do it. The problem starts with the flavor of the ice cream, the chocolate is just not deep enough, it lacks that almost bitter richness of the original. In a blind test, I would not guess it was Ben & Jerry’s. The lack of flavor continues in the brownie – which is also dry (how do they manage to make a brownie that is sitting in ice cream dry?) and non-chewy. Not a brownie you’d pay to eat. In other words – there is a reason why this ice cream is being sold at Grocery Outlet.

Oriental Tea House – San Leandro – Updated Reviews

December 26, 2008 / admin / 0 Comments

Update 12/11

As you can see by the updates below, it’s been our custom for many years to go to to the Oriental Tea House for dinner on Christmas day. This year it was just Mike and I, my sister and the kids having left earlier in the afternoon. The food was good, as usual; the service just as frantic. I had the crispy chicken, which I usually like here and it was good. First they gave me the crispy duck, and as the two look alike I took a couple of bites. It was so fatty that it was almost inedible. Fortunately they realized their mistake and brought the chicken. Mike had the kun pao chicken which he didn’t feel tasted like that, but I thought it was good. We got there around 5:30 PM and we were able to get a table for 2, but I don’t know if there were any larger tables available. By 6 PM the placed was packed.

One thing to note, the Oriental Tea House’s menu is pretty prosaic, filled with the typical dishes at Chinese-American restaurants. However, on Christmas, at least, the restaurant is packed with Chinese and Chinese Americans. The people managing the restaurant as well as the waitresses are also Chinese (some have a very rudimentary understanding of English). This suggests to me that the OTH may also have one of those Chinese-only “secret” menus that many Chinese restaurants have (the idea is that they include dishes that Americans would not be interested in eating).

Update 12/10

Another year, another Chrismas, another dinner at the Oriental Tea House. This Christmas day we got there around 5 PM, and the place was completely empty. It started filling up around 6 PM, but there were still a couple of large tables empty by the time we left (6:20 PM or so) – so next year we won’t go as early. As we did go when the place was empty, service was more relaxed. The food has increased a bit in price, but it’s still very affordable. We got 6 dishes plus fried wontons for 5 adults and 4 children and we ate everything! I was happy with all the dishes (beef chow mein, Mongolian beef, chicken with two mushrooms, kun pao chicken, sweet & sour pork, veggie platter) my favorite was probably the kun pao chicken, the Mongolian beef was a close second. In all, another good meal.

Update 12/09.

As usual we went to the Oriental Tea House, in San Leandro, for Xmas dinner; this time with my sister Kathy and my brother and his family. Once again, service was hurried – the Oriental Tea House is very popular on Xmas day – but efficient. Food came on time (except for the sweet & sour pork which was delayed) and it was generally good (and cheap). Mike was happy with his beef with snow peas, as was my sister-in-law with her broccoli beef. My brother David ordered the beef curry, not on the menu, and his dish was pretty good, though very mild. I’m not sure if that was because the waitress misunderstood that he wanted his dish spicy (the English language skills of the workforce at Oriental Tea House are very limited), or because they just have a different understanding of spicy than we do. In any case, it was mild.

I ordered the roast duck, having liked the roast chicken in the past, which was a mistake. The duck was nicely cooked and very flavorful – but it had the obligatory thick layer of fat and my chopstick skills are not advanced enough to allow me to get to the meat between the fat and the bone. I had a fork, but without a knife it was an impossible endeavor. Next time I’ll stick with the less fatty chicken, which is also very good.

Finally, Kathy had the sweet & sour pork, which she liked but Mike and I thought was quite unappetizing – with fat pieces of pork and a slimy sauce. To each its own.

In all, it was a good meal and we’ll definitely be going there again next Xmas.

December 2008

We celebrate Christmas Eve rather than Christmas itself, so in the past we’ve found ourselves at a loss as to what to do for dinner on the 25th. After a huge Xmas Eve dinner, and a kitchen full of dirty dishes, the least I want to do is cook again. So some years ago we started a tradition of going out to the Oriental Tea House, in San Leandro, for Xmas dinner. The Oriental Tea House has pretty good American-style Chinese food (though given the large number of Chinese that eat there, I suspect they may have a second menu as well), it’s cheap (most dishes are around $7), and most importantly, it’s actually open on Xmas.

This year was no exception. We probably got there around 6 PM or so – I recommend you go early as the place gets packed by 7 (on Xmas, at least). Service was rushed but attentive, and the food was up to standard.

I liked the roasted chicken quite a bit. The skin was impossibly crispy, and the meat was nice and moist. It’s rather bland by itself, but add some of the accompanying seasoned salt, and it’s delicious. The beef with oyster sauce was pretty good as well – nothing extraordinary but competently executed. I liked the thick-noodle chicken chow mein, it was flavorful and devoid of too many bean sprouts (I’m not a fan). I wasn’t thrilled about the doughy sweet & sour pork, however, but then again, I wasn’t in the mood for anything sweet. I thought the pieces of pork were too chewy and the sauce too sweet.

In all, it was a good Xmas Eve experience, and I look forward to going there again for our next Xmas dinner.

March 2007

Last night we went to the Oriental Tea House with a bunch of our friends (for memory’s sake, they were Donovan & Parker with Luther and baby Will, Regina and Boris, and Eddie and Arthur with Laurel, Bailey and Dee). We ordered a bunch of dishes: fried calamari, friend wontons, chicken chow mein, vegetable chow mein, lemon chicken, kun pao chicken, half a roasted chicken, beef with some sort of green beans and a couple of shrimp dishes. I was amazed at how good everything was. It was great to be able to savor so much variety – and to be with so many friends – but the actual food was all very good. And the bill was terribly cheap at $86 – which fed an army of 8 adults and 6 children.

We were all able to fit at one, very crowded, table – larger parties or those with more adults, would have to split in two.

We are now planning on getting together for dim sum some Sunday morning. If any of my friends are reading this, and want to come along, just e-mail me.

March 2005

Today we made it to the Oriental Tea House for dim sum. We liked it much better than East Village, though we didn’t get to taste the baked pork buns as they were out of it by the time we got there around 1 PM. The steamed pork buns were excellent, however, the bread was moist, the pork succulent and not too sweet. I got an additional order to go. The fried chicken was also very good, crispy and moist and wonderfully spiced. We also found a winner in the paper wrapped chicken – moist and delicious – and on the shrimp dumplings. We were less fond of the sesame balls and the deep fried meat balls, I’d never had those before and the thick pastry wrapping had a strange consistency that I did’t find appealing. Egg custards were OK, but not sweet enough for my taste. Lunch, including 3 canned sodas, came to $24 before tip. It’s pretty crowded on Sundays, but I’m sure we’ll be going again.

Oriental Tea House
604 MacArthur Blvd.
San Leandro
510.562.2828

Original Review

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

Wine tasting in Sonoma Valley

July 9, 2008 / marga / 0 Comments

Mike and I just returned from a short trip to Sonoma and Lake counties, where we (OK, I) did a fair amount of wine tasting. As usual, I’m going to include my notes, which I think I will divide into wine-growing region (if I can, at least) – even though we may have hit the same region on different days. Our first day was a straight forward drive through Sonoma County, ending with a couple of tastings in Healdsburg.