Category: Cafes, Bakeries, Ice Cream… (Page 4 of 6)

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

I am sad to inform that Marita’s Sweet Potato Pie Co. has closed its San Leandro location @ Bancroft and Dutton. According to their website, they still have a location in Richmond’s Hilltop Mall. This happened just months after they expanded into the old Cornerstone Cafe location in the corner. While I wasn’t a regular customer @ Marita’s, I really did enjoy their cakes and I had the red velvet cake for my birthday often. I hope The Golden Tea Garden in Hayward will still serve their red velvet cake, I’ll report next time I visit.
A new bakery, Angelina’s Pastries will be opening in the original Marita’s space on Bancroft. I’m told that it’s a venture by the people who own the building, but I know nothing else about it. Stay tuned.
I am also told that Mae’s Southern Comfort will move from its Victoria circle location to the Cornerstone location in the corner. I haven’t seen anything to indicate that, and I have my doubts as to whether Mae’s is actually a functioning restaurant as it never seems to be open (I think they open at 1 PM and close at 7 PM, I guess they cater to afternoon eaters exclusively), but they have a bunch of reviews in Yelp, so apparently some people do manage to get food here. If they do open, I will give them a try.

My friends Charlotte and Vienna and I try to go out to tea once a month or so. We’ve been doing this for years, so by now we’ve visited most of the tea houses in San Francisco and the western part of the East Bay. However, Vienna had not been able to come with us when we visited Samovar a few years ago, so it was time for a re-visit. We chose the Yerba Buena location as it’s the most convenient to BART and headed there last Sunday.
The Yerba Buena Samovar location is quite nice. It features a small tea room, stylish and modern and a terrace overlooking the main grounds. It was a bit chilly on Sunday so we had tea inside.
Samovar offers a relatively small, but varied, assortment of teas, and a variety of food items. It’s expensive – plan to spend $20 (plus tax & tip) for a pot of tea and some goodies. Probably the best deals are the set teas (English, Moroccan, Russian & Indian, I think) which include a pot of tea and sweet & savory offerings for about $19. Both Vienna and I had the English Breakfast tea while Lotty went for the Moroccan.
The tea comes in a smallish (2-mug size) wide glass pitcher – it looks relatively nice but it lets the tea cool very quickly, not really what you want for your tea. The cups are little mugs with no handles, cute enough but a bit too small for me. Milk and brown sugar are available. I found the English Breakfast tea to be perfectly fine, no complaints (other than the temperature).
The service came with a huge quiche (mushroom or salmon), a smallish cherry oat scone with Devonshire cream & jam, a few greens with a vinaigrette and a few slices of fruit. I always thought I wouldn’t like quiche given that I don’t really like eggs (though I love flan), but this time I thought I’d give it a try. I’m glad I did because it was delicious – smooth and flavorful and not eggy at all 🙂 The scone was pretty good as well. I cannot complain about the quantity of the food 🙂
Service was very friendly – we stayed late as the place was filling up and at no point we were made to feel we should leave.
In all it was a very nice, if expensive, experience:
Samovar Tea Lounge
730 Howard Street
(above the waterfall in Yerba Buena Gardens)
San Francisco, CA
(415) 227-9400
http://samovarlife.com/
Su – W 10am – 8 pm
Th – Sa 10am – 9 pm
Marga’s Tea Room Reviews

Yesterday we drove back to San Leandro from Vancouver, WA – a trip that took us 11 1/2 hours, including a couple of stops. One of such stops was at the Starbucks in Red Bluff (it must be the one on Main Street, by I-5). I was very sleepy, having woken up at 3 AM the previous night (for no good reason) and was in need of some caffeine. It was 3 hours after lunch and the kids wanted a treat. I figured that we would stop for dinner in an hour or so. Mika was pretty insistent that I buy her something to eat, but I really didn’t want to spend the money (those pastries at Starbucks are not cheap) and I told her so several times. Well, it seems that the barista overheard me and she told me, after I placed my order, that they were sampling their marble cake and offered me slices for the whole family! I didn’t quite understand her when she made the offer, I thought she was offering a sample of a new drink, so I accepted happily. I could not believe when she gave me the cake slices!
I’m taken aback by her kindness. I imagine she assumed that we didn’t have the money for the treats (not a bad assumption in this hard economic times) and she felt compassion. What a wonderful thing! I hope she didn’t have to pay for the pastries (it was already 5, I assume that they discard the pastries they don’t sell each day) and that she’s allowed to do that by Starbucks. In any case, I’m going to write to Starbucks and thank them.

My friend Rachid Habibi has opened a cafe in Berkeley. Mo’Joe Cafe is located at 2517 Sacramento St., on the corner of Blake. The cafe is pretty new and serves fair trade/organic coffee (of course) and a wide variety of teas. There are smoothies and fresh pastries, and for those looking for lunch, they have sandwiches and paninis made to order on locally baked breads. They serve soups and salads as well, with house made dressing.
The cafe displays pieces from local artists and they occasionally have music and poetry events.
And if all that was not enough, they get almost 5-stars from yelp (with 22 votes so far).
If you live in Berkeley or just find yourself in Berkeley, give it a try.
Mo’Joe Cafe
2517 Sacramento St.
Berkeley, Ca
(510)704-8500
Hours:
M-Th 6:30-6pm
F 6:30am-8pm
Sa 7am-8pm
Su 8am-6pm
www.facebook.com/MoJoeCafe

Zocalo Coffeehouse, my favorite cafe in San Leandro, has revamped its website to make it more interactive. The Zocalo website lists events happening at the coffeehouse – but also some news and events in other parts of San Leandro. You can also subscribe to Zocalo’s newsletter and keep abreast of what’s going on.

Golden Tea Garden is by far my favorite tea house in the East Bay. Today I visited it for the fourth time in four months and once again I had a great experience.
This time I tried the Margaret’s Hope tea (after researching and finding out it is, indeed, black) – and I liked it more than the English Breakfast or Earl Gray. It’s a Darjeeling, but one that can stand up to milk and sugar. It’s particularly good if you let it seep for a while. Mika (my 7-year old daughter and companion) once again had the caramel tea which she loved.
Golden Tea Garden now offers a “wee tea” for children 10 and younger ($7). It consists of a small pot of tea and a little plate of goodies. Today they consisted of a bite-size brownie, a petit four, two mini-sandwiches (the chicken salad one was quite good), two slices of green apple and a bag of gummy bears. Mika was happy with the petit four and gummy bears, but declined to try the rest. Instead, she went for the cakes in my “Tea Garden sampler” ($13), which consists of a large pot of tea and 3 desserts. Every time I’ve gone so far, the 3 desserts are three huge slices of cake – definitely enough to share (or to take one slice back home). Today there was a peach one that I really liked, a pink champagne one that Mika loved, and the perpetual red velvet cake that is a favorite of both of us. Yes, we both ended up in sugar coma.
Service, once again, was wonderful – and once again Mika got to be a princess with a complimentary jewelry set. She also loved trying the hats in a big box by the entrance.
My only concern with this tea house is that it’s so empty on Sundays. I really, really like it, and I really want it to survive – so go!

Feb. 2010 update. I returned to the Golden Tea Garden with my friends Vienna and Lotty a couple of weeks ago and once again we had an amazing experience. The food was excellent, the service first class and the little touches as cute as always. Vienna had the tea with sandwiches this time, a newish option, and she raved about everyone one of them – the chicken salad was a particular favorite. Lotty had the scones, which were also first rate, and I had my usual “garden sampler” which includes 3 huge slices of cakes. This time they featured a no-sugar-added chocolate cake which I found a bit dry and not very chocolaty. Vienna and Lotty really liked it, though, they appreciated it being less sweet than the usual kind. We also tasted their new gluten-free raspberry cream cake which is absolutely delicious.
Of course, Mika was jealous that she didn’t get to go – so I’ll be taking her there soon, I’m sure.

The Kids’ Tea

The Dessert Sampler

The Golden Tea Garden
22630 Main Street
Hayward, CA
(510) 538-4832
http://www.buylocalcampaign.com/teaGarden/
Th-Su 12 – 8 PM
Original Review
Reviews of Bay Area Tea Houses