Restaurant Review - Thai Place (Alameda)

Thai Place
1405 Wesbster St
Alameda, CA 94501

Som Tum - Fresh shredded green papaya salad with dry shrimp, tomatoes, green beans, peanuts, chilies and lime juice.

Combination Platter - Chicken and beef satay, fish cakes, crispy tofu and veggie spring rolls with cucumber salad, peanut sauce and house plum sauce on the side.

Kang Keaw Wan with Chicken - Green curry sauce with coconut milk, bamboo shoots, peas, eggplant, bell peppers and sweet basil. (pictured with a side of brown rice for one person)

Bottom Line: $32 for 2. Definitely will come back when we're in the area.

Restaurant Review - Dave and Busters (Orange

Dave & Buster's
20 City Boulevard West Building G, Suite1
Orange , CA 92868

Parmesan Chicken Alfredo - exactly what it is. I know it sounds weird but this is the dish that I've been craving since moving up North. Nobody seems to go to this place to hang out up here so I haven't had a chance to go eat my dish. I love it because they do not smother the pasta with creamy alfredo sauce, instead they add just enough to coat the individual strands with enough flavor. As for the Parmesan chicken, cooked just right for me. It has always come out super hot, crisp and so tasty! Give it a try!

Bottom Line: $15.99 for the eat & play combo (comes with a $10 play card). Otherwise it's 12.95 for the dish by itself. Definitely would come back for this.

Restaurant Review - An Cuu Hue (Santa Ana)

An Cuu Hue
413 N. Euclid Street
Santa Ana, CA 92703

Banh Khoai - Rice crepe with shrimp and pork toppings. For those of you who are familiar with "Ban Xeo" this is a Hue take on this dish. Instead of a thin and light folded "crepe" served with fish sauce, you get a smaller, thicker, crunchy cake served with a peanut sauce. Very yummy. Heard from my companion that this is the only restaurant that has this.

Banh It Ram - Fried tapioca cake topped with steamed tapioca cake, each stuffed with pork and shrimp. Comes with Fish sauce. Very chewy and tasty.

Banh Bao Chen - Rice cakes with ground shrimp topping served in small plates. Comes with fish sauce. A familiar dish to most of us. Not something special to just this restaurant. Tastes good though.

Bottom Line: A Vietnamese restaurant specializing in the kitchen of central Viet Nam. $17.50 for two. Definitely would come back.

Restaurant Review - A Street Cafe (Hayward)

A Street Cafe
1213 A Street
Hayward, CA 94541
(510) 582-2558

We discovered this because it is next to an indian restaurant we frequent. From the outside, it looks like a sandwich place, but once you step inside, it's a fancy French restaurant.

-Cheese Platter (Manchego, Stilton, & Brie): Man, that's some good cheese!!! We'll keep these in mind when we go to Berkeley Bowl. Anneke is a huge fan of brie, so these won her over.

- Canard al' Orange: Roasted breast of duck with an orange demy glaze. The best duck was still at Clemantine's in SF (review to come!).

















- Crusted Sea Bass: Pistachio crusted sea bass served with ratatouille. I had this with a Pinot Noir, Traphiche, Mendoza wine. I love the subtle flavor of the seabass, and the pistachio crust did very little to enhance the flavor. This is the first time I had ratatouille. It was tasty, but I have no other comparisons.


















- Lava Cake - chocolate goo-centered goodness. Yummy.
- Creme Brulee - I never met one i didn't like. The sugar crust was especially thick on this one.




















Bottom line: $100 for 2. Pricey. The food was decent, but I could think of plenty of better French restaurants with better food & prices.

Restaurant Review - Englander (San Leandro)

Englander Sports Pub & Restaurant
101 Parrott St.
San Leandro, CA 94577

We always go here, so it's about time we write about it. It's sort of a place we can always go to eat if we can't decide on anything. The food is hearty and the atmosphere is fun.

- Snakebite or Black Velvet: I always start off the meal with this. It's Guinness and pear cider.



















- Fried Fisherman's Platter: Shrimp, scallops, stuffed prawns, and cod. Perfect with the snake bite and a Warrior's game. Everything is crispy and full of deep fried artery-clogging goodness!















- The Englander Pub Burger: 1/2lb beef patty served with a thick slice of cheese, linguica, and grilled onions. Anneke finally found a place that serves burgers she likes.














Bottoms line: $30 for two. We love this place. Certainly not fine dining (obviously it's a pub), but good fun & atmosphere.

Restaurant Review - Salang Pass (Fremont)

Salang Pass Restaurant
37462 Fremont Boulevard
Fremont, California 94536

Borani Kadoo - Pumpkin sateed seasoned with garlic and topped with a special yogurt sauce. We've never had pumpkin before so this a very interesting treat. The sauteed pumpkin had a nice sweet flavor topped with a creamy yogurt sauce. The broth that it was sitting in was delicious!

Aushak - Afhgani styled ravioli stuffed with leeks and seasonings, topped with ground beef and a delicious yogurt sauce. They seem to love their yogurt sauce! The leeks were a nice touch.

Quabili Pallow - Afghanistan's famous dish baked brown basmati rice with lamb seasoned professionally, toppped with raisins and juilenned carrots. The lamb was a little gamey, but the rice was stunning!

Firni - Delicious Afghani pudding, prepared with milk, rosewater, cardamom and sliced pistachios. Man, this was GOOD!

Jala (Faloodeh) - Traditional homemade ice cream served on a bed of rice noodles and ice, sweetened with chilled rosewater and syrup. The rice noodles was bland and didn't really fit in the dish, but the homemade icecream was soooooo good.

Bottom line: $43 for two. We would definately go back to try some of their other dishes, but the real moment here was the desserts.

Restaurant Review - Hoa Binh (Garden Grove)

Hoa Binh
14472 Brookhurst St
Garden Grove, CA 92842











Com Ga Xi Dau - Soy sauce chicken served with rice. Viet's absolute favorite dish in Orange county. A must try! An prefers eating this dish with "com chien don" which is fried rice ($2 extra), not the fried rice you order at a chinese rice but truly just plain white rice fried and pressed flat. yum.









Com Ca Salmon Chien - Fried salmon topped with house special sauce. After having eating salmon to death during college with the frozen salmon at Costco, I've only been able to eat salmon 1 way ... raw. Now I've discovered another way to enjoy it. The salmon is deep fried and topped with a spicy/sweet sauce. Yum!










My brother got this, I forgot the full vietnamese name but it's a broken rice dish (Com Tam) with beef, pork, and an egg roll (just 1 cut into 3 pieces) served with fish sauce.










Bottom line: $30 for 3 people and that's including a dessert for Viet - Che Ba Mau (Rainbow Bean Mix with coconut milk). One of the very few CLEAN Vietnamese restaurants with SERVICE and they have an awesome hand blower in the restrooms (the X-hilerator).

Restaurant Review - Mon Land Hot Pot City (San Gabriel)

Mon Land - Hot Pot City
251 W. Bencamp Street
San Gabriel, CA 91776

For those who have never been to a hot pot, it's basically a bunch of raw dishes that you order that you self cook in the broth. You get charged per raw dish that you order.










One side is mild and the other is spicy (and I mean SPICY!!!)









--We had lamb, beef, and snapper. The beef was excellent.










--Clear noodles, fish ball, mushrooms, bamboo, & tofu.









--A bunch of veggies.









--Some type of fried lamb cake--a little gamey & oily.









--Free dessert--an almond red bean cake. It was goooiiidd.











Bottom line: An above average hot pot experience. That spicy broth was insanely spicy, but overall, we left completely stuffed & happy. $70 for 4.

Restaurant Review - Koryo Wooden Charcoal (Oakland)

Koryo Wooden Charcoal
4390 Telegraph Ave
Oakland, CA 94609
(510) 652 - 6007






















One of the best spicy tofu & seafood stews!
--Dae Gu Mae Woon Tang: Codfish Stew with Tofu & Vegetables in Spicy Sauce










--Bul Go Gee: Broiled Thin Sliced Beef Marinated in House Special Sauce
--Gal Bee Sal: Very Thin Boneless Sliced Short Ribs
YUM!!!!!










--Sam Gyub Sal Boke-Um: Sauteed Korean Style Bacon & Vegtable with Special Sauce










Yes, we can eat. Of course we had help from two other monsters.













Summary: Excellent barbecue dishes. Very spicy! $90 for 4.

Restaurant Review - Tomisushi (San Jose)

02.16.08

Tomisushi
4336 Moorpark Avenue
San Jose, 95129

It was an okay bento box - tempura and sashimi. The tempura wasn't as crunhcy as I would have liked. The sashimi was ok. I tried some of the nigiri and for some reason I enjoyed the nigiri much better.

The nigiri was great. Very enjoyable. Still have not yet found another place to enjoy uni.

Just a deep fried roll with pepper in the middle and a tempura dipping sauce.

Bottom Line: $60 for 2. Would give it a another try for other items on the menu. I would pass on the bento box.

Restaurant Review - Carnelian Room (San Francisco)

02.12.08

Carnelian Room
California St, San Francisco, CA

On the 52nd floor! Nice view.

Warm SCALLOP and organic leek salad with sea urchin vinaigrette. (scallop is not plural form) Other than the size of this dish, I actually enjoyed the one scallop.

Cherry wood house-smoked salmon and frisee salad (cippolini onions, quail egg, grapes, caper amulsion. It was alright. Nothing special. Smoked salmon was salty.

Double Lobster Consomme. I guess I'm not a fan of consomme.

Carmelian Room Filet - flambeed beef tenderloin medallion with calvados demi hand-picked local seasonal wild mushrooms, prepared table side. Cooked medium rare. Very nicely done.

Braised "American Kobe" boneless beef rib topped with pan-seared foie gras. accompanied by mirepoix vegetables and cotes du rhone jus. My favorite parts was the foie gras. The beef was very tender so I enjoyed that too.

Carmelian room tarte tatin - Washington state apples with caramel sauce and tahitian vanilla. Yum. I usually prefer chocolate desserts but this came with the price fixe. Enjoyed it very much! My favorite part of the meal.

Bottom Line: $140 for 2. Enjoyed the view a lot (52nd floor). Bring money for tipping in the Women's bathroom. A lady actually turned the faucet on and off, pumped soap into my hands, handed me a clean dry single use towel, and opened the door for me. They also had bread, which isn't pictured in our blog. The bread was very good!