La Piñata



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If you like dives, La Piñata may very well be the place for you. Neon lights (and piñatas) abound, there are low rider trucks in the parking lot and the place stays open until 3am, so you can eat nachos and drink beer half the night. If what you are looking for is good Mexican food, you would do better almost anywhere else in San Leandro.

La Piñata features Tex-Mex food plus a few more traditional Mexican dishes and quite a few sea-food dishes. Prices are typical for San Leandro Mexican restaurants, with non-seafood dishes in the low teens.

Mike and I split a very boring quesadilla, and then he had a couple of boring flautas. They were OK, he said, but he wasn't impressed. I figured I'd give the chicken mole a try, but that wasn't a good idea. The chicken itself was OK, if a bit dry, but the best that can be said about the mole sauce was that it was edible. I wouldn't be surprised if it came out of a jar; it had that taste and consistency.

I had a Mexican hot chocolate for dinner; it tasted like Abuelita chocolate, but it was quite good.

All in all, I would only go back to La Piñata if I needed a restaurant to go after 11 PM - the only other choice for late-night dining in San Leandro is Nations now that Pring's has closed - and I'd try other dishes. Maybe something else is actually good.

It seems to be part of a chain, with other restaurants in Hayward and Alameda.

La Piñata Restaurant
2699 Merced St
San Leandro, CA
(510) 352-8901