KoolFi Ice Cream is a local favorite, but does it live up to the hype?
Saturday was the Cherry Festival in San Leandro. Now that my children are gone, I don’t feel the need to join the crowds in watching a parade and listening to music, so I happily stayed home. My husband, however, is a huge fan of festivals and local activities, so not only did he go, but he brought me some ice cream from KoolFi Creamery, the Indian ice cream shop that all my friends rave about. KoolFi was having a special cherry flavor for the festival, and though Mike doesn’t like cherries, he had to try it.
This was not our first time trying KoolFi ice cream. My wonderful friend Elektra had gotten me a sampler for my birthday (I think) last year, which I’d much appreciated, even if I hadn’t been a huge fan of any of the flavors – I guess Indian flavors are not my thing.
The ice cream was, as you can expect, somewhat melted by the time Mike got it home, but I don’t think that affected it much. He had the cherry with chocolate flakes and was quite happy with it. I tried it, and frankly the chocolate flavor predominated. It was good. I had the mango lassi flavor, and I enjoyed it as well. I particularly liked the smoothness, even silkiness of the ice cream. I didn’t think, however, that it was so much better than other ice creams as to justify the steep price – I think it was $7 for a rather small scoop. The ice cream is organic, however.
KoolFi Creamery 599 MacArthur Blvd San Leandro, CA 415-390-6210 W - Su 3 PM - 9 PM
I love Korean food, but I hadn’t been to a Korean BBQ joint for a couple of decades. Not only are they usually expensive, but when my kids were little, I was reluctant to take them anywhere close a hot grill – one of them still bears a scare from a very unfortunate George Foreman incident. Later, one of them became vegetarian and Korean BBQ restaurants are very sad places for those who love animals too much to eat them. So when my sister, who we were visiting in LA, suggested that we go to Gen Korean BBQ, I was quick to agree – and not only because she just had a baby and I’m being nice to her.
According to my sister, Korean BBQ joints have become very popular in LA, but most are quite expensive. Gen seems to be the exception to the rule, at “just” $30 per person for all your can eat BBQ. They do have some premium items for an additional $20 pp – and everyone at the table has to order this -, but for a first or second visit, at least, there is enough in the regular menu to satisfy everyone. Drinks are not included, and children 10 and under are half price.
The restaurant itself is pretty casual, and includes booths, tables and half-halves, we had one of the latter. In the middle of the table there is a gas grill, which they turn on when you arrive. You can order up to four raw items to cook in the grill – and really, more won’t fit -, as well as appetizers. It’s all you can eat, and they’ll keep bringing food for as long as you want. With three adults and one child, we got to try quite a few dishes. None were amazing, but several were quite good, making it a good place to come when you are just hungry. You are supposed to finish everything you order – so don’t over order – and you can’t take anything home.
I started by ordering a couple of appetizers. The deep friend mandu (pork & vegetable dumplings paired with a savory soy sauce) was actually quite good. The skins were hot and crispy and the filling nicely spiced – the soy sauce wasn’t even necessary. My nephew liked them a well.
The fried rice cake sticks with sweet & spicy sauce, however, were a bust. The ticks themselves had a weird glutinous texture (I know, I know) and no flavor whatsoever. The sauce was too spicy for my taste, so I ate one and that was that. Nobody else wanted to try them.
Later in the meal I got the Pork Riblets. These were listed in the meat menu, but I mention them here because they come already cooked. They have both “Korean style” and “spicy” riblets. I order the former but I think I got the latter, as they were too spicy for my paladar. I ate one, and it was good – though a bit too charred -, but the spiciness made it impossible to eat more. There is quite a bit of fat on these – but then again, that’s a given for ribs, so beware.
While I ate the appetizers, we cooked our first four meals. The waitress had recommended that we order the chadol, thin slices of brisket which I don’t think are marinated. This is a good call, particularly for those who don’t already know they like Korean flavors. I think this might have been my daughter’s favorite. I liked it, though only after it had charred a bit and acquired some flavor. The meats are served with a variety of pickled vegetables as well as soy sauce and flavored salt (and rice).
We also got the Gen Signature Yangyum Galbi, or marinated short ribs. This is a favorite of my sister and was quite good, she ordered it a couple of more times. Again, this benefits from some charring.
Her other favorite is the Hawaiian Steak, which is beef marinated in teriyaki that comes with pineapples. Both beef and pineapple were very tasty. As the meats are cut so thinly, they are pretty tender as well. We had seconds of this.
Finally, we had the beef bulgogi, which wasn’t as good as mine, but pretty good as well.
Among the other things we tried, was the Smoked Samgyubsal – marinated, smoked pork belly. Here, I wish the slice had been thinner, as one slice was too much of a good thing, even with two of us eating it. There was a reasonable amount of meat to fat, and it had a nice smoky flavor, but it was hard to see what was fat and what was meat after cooking it, and I did not like the texture of the thick pieces of fat in my mouth. They have several preparations for samgyubsal, but given that my issue was the texture, I don’t think I’d order it again.
Another item we tried and we’d not order again is the garlic chicken. Once cooked, this really tasted of over-roasted garlic and nothing else. It was bitter and just too one-note, no one liked it.
They had many other meats to try, but frankly, we were too full to try them, and this despite the fact that we didn’t even try the salads.
We did order the Hotteok, a Korean pancake. This was probably not worth the calories. The inside felt like uncooked batter and it wasn’t very flavorful at all.
Now, none of the meats were high quality – but as they are cut thin and heavily marinated, I’m not sure that mattered much. The grill got dark a couple of times with all the burn marinades, but they were promptly changed.
Service was great at the beginning, the waitress explained how things worked carefully, but she sort of disappeared at the end, when things got busy.
Gen Korean BBQ is a chain, with 24 restaurants throughout California, plus a couple in Arizona and Florida. The closest to me is in Fremont, and I might give it a try sometime.
Gen Korean BBQ 10151 Reseda Blvd Northridge, CA (818) 709-3932 Monday - Thursday 11:00 AM - 10:30 PM Friday 11:00 AM - 11:30 PM Saturday 10:00 AM - 11:30 PM Sunday 10:00 AM - 10:30 PM
Bob’s Big Boy is the restaurant chain of my adolescence. It was the first restaurant we ate at when we first came to the US. I had fried chicken, which seemed just so American, and thus quite exotic to me. And it was the restaurant where we would go to celebrate special occasions – birthdays, graduations, visits from relatives abroad. In our dire financial situation, it was the best my parents could do – though when my generous aunt would visit, we’d sometimes go to Sizzler’s.
I loved Big Boy burgers – the two decker ones with the flat bread in the middle and I absolutely loved their chocolate fudge cake. Then I moved away, Big Boy closed most of its locations, and I mostly forgot about it. Then last week, while visiting my family in LA, we drove past the Big Boy restaurant in Northridge, it reopened about a decade ago. I knew I had to go. I’m glad I did, but I probably won’t come back any time soon.
To a large degree, Big Boy hasn’t changed. Sure, this restaurant is different from the ones we’d eat at in Encino or Reseda, and the Big Boy character itself has changed looks over the years, but the menu is almost practically the same. It still has that fried chicken, those double decker burgers, those sweet strawberry pies and chocolate fudge desserts. I was happy to see that; I wanted a trip to the past.
And a trip to the past it was, as I convinced my mother and siblings to come along. Of course, neither my dad nor my sister are with us any more, but we had a new generation to bring along. It was probably good that the restaurant was mostly empty – there was one other big party but very few others -, as the younger members of our table were pretty rowdy (no blame to the newborn baby, who was quiet the whole time).
I ordered, of course, the original Big Boy combo ($15) described as “the original double-deck hamburger with two “never frozen” burgers, lettuce, cheese, mayo, and our special red relish” with a side fruit instead of French fries (I’m pretty much done with potatoes) and it was a HUGE disappointment. HUGE.
The problem were the burger patties. They were paper thin. I ordered them medium-rare, but they were too thin to be pink in the middle: there was no middle. That meant, of course, that he burger tasted of bread with just a hint of burger. And even after discarding the bread and just eating the patties, the experience was just sad. The patties were too dry and very unappetizing. I can assure you, this is not how the Big Boy burger was in the day.
Fortunately, everybody else’s food was far better.
My mom got the All American Burger ($16) “American cheese, lettuce, tomato, red relish, mayo, and red onion” and at least it had a single, thick patty. I do think her patty was larger than both of mine combined. She thought the burger was fine – but she’s not super fond of meat anymore, so perhaps that explained her lack of enthusiasm.
My brother and nephew both got the BBQ Bacon Cheeserburger ($18) “crisp bacon, BBQ sauce, sharp cheddar, onion rings, balsamic onions” and they were both much happier. The burger looked much better than mine, and they both thought it was pretty good.
My sister had the Patty Melt ($16) “on grilled Rye with Swiss and American cheese grilled onions on request” and she also was quite happy. As she said “you can’t really mess up a patty melt” but really, they could have done so by having paper thin patties like in my burger. Fortunately they did not, and she enjoyed her meal. I’d probably order this if we were to return.
Camila had the Chicken Parmigiana ($15.50) “breaded chicken tenders served on spaghetti topped with mozzarella cheese and marinara sauce.” She was happy enough with it – this is a favorite dish of hers, and Big Boy did it at least as well as Stouffer’s.
The kids had chicken nuggets and were more occupied with fighting than eating. But they’re kids.
I had to get Bob’s Famous Hot Fudge Cake for dessert and this, at least, was just as good as I remembered it. This dessert is all about the fudge and Bob’s fudge is delicious. The cake is moist and spongy, the ice cream tempers the sugar and I would have loved to eat the whole dessert, even if it killed me, but my sister stole it from me and gave it to my nephews. Well, I still cherish the few bites from it I got to take. And crave it.
So who am I kidding? I will return to Big Boy’s, but just for the dessert.
Service was very friendly – it’s hard to serve a party of 8 but the waitress did a fantastic job. And even though I missed my dad and my sister, I’m glad I got to relive a little bit of that far gone adolescence and mentally toast to the family we once were.
Bob's Big Boy 8876 Corbin Ave Northridge, CA (818) 772-2627 Su - Th: 8 AM - 8 PM F - Sa: 8 AM - 9 PM
Unexpectedly delicious Mexican food in downtown Cambria
We were staying in San Simeon for the night, and my daughter Camila had a hankering for Mexican food. As it happened, there was a Mexican restaurant right next to our hotel, but it got terrible reviews, so we decided to drive the few miles to Cambria. I’m so glad we did, Las Cambritas had the best Mexican food I’d had in a long time.
The restaurant itself is pretty cute. It has several dining rooms, lots of bright colors and great service. The only minus is that sound carries very easily throughout the space. It wasn’t particularly crowded, but a conversation between a cook and a waitress by the kitchen door was perfectly audible at our table quite a distance away.
Dinner started well, with crispy, tasty tortilla chips and a very fresh though very spicy salsa. Despite the spice, I ate too much of them.
I ordered the quesobirria tacos ($18) from the specials’ menu. They were excellent. The birria was very flavorful and nicely tempered by the cheese. The fried tortillas were crispy and while they were very full, making the tacos a bit unwieldy, particularly while hot, they were just delicious – both alone and dipped in the accompanying broth. The portion was generous and I was able to have the leftovers for breakfast the next day.
Camila ordered the carne asada plate ($23) and she was also quite happy. The meat itself was delicious, it had a subtle marinade and strong charbroiled flavors, without any offending liquid smoke aftertaste. We both enjoyed it. The guacamole was scant, but fresh and tasty, and the rice and refried beans were good. Camila, of course, couldn’t finish the plate either. Her grand plans for flan for dessert were quickly thwarted.
Service was very quick and friendly, and in all we had a great experience. I’ll definitely hit Las Cambritas again next time I’m in Cambria.
Las Cambritas 2336 Main St Cambria, CA (805) 927-0175 Daily 11:30 AM - 9 PM
Linn’s Easy As Pie Café is one of what are now half a dozen Linn family ventures which originated from their “pick your own berry outfit” back in the ’70’s. They have a farm store at the actual farm and a full fledged pricy restaurant, a gourmet food store, a boutiques & books store and this café in Cambria. We decided to stop at the Café for a quick bite and, of course, a slice of their famous olallieberry pie.
Linn’s Café is very small and very cute. Inside it has a counter where you order, a small gift shop – very cute stuff – and a quaint dining room. There is a small patio outside, with trees, plants and decorations. A nice, informal place for lunch.
Their menu is rather limited, however. They had a few soups, salads and sandwiches, as well as a daily special. In addition, they have their pies – which you can get whole or by the slice – as well other baked goods.
My daughter got the Caesar Salad. She thought it was average good, though she disliked that it came with tomatoes – she’s not a fan.
I got a slice of the olallieberry pie with ice cream. Olallieberries are a hybrid of blackberries, raspberries and dew berries, and he pie mostly reminded me of the boysenberrypie at Knott’s Berry Farm. As boysenberries are also a similar hybrid, this should not be surprising. The pie, warmed up, was quite good – not as overwhelmingly sweet as some berry pies can be. The vanilla ice cream was also very tasty and helped cut down the sweetness even further. We took a whole pie home with us, and my husband liked it quite a bit.
This simple lunch plus 2 sodas came out to about $27 before the tip – so not what you’d call cheap, but the Central Coast is expensive. Still, it was so cute, I’d stop by again.
SL Kitchen opened in San Leandro during the pandemic but we never got around to trying it until last week. We are quite fond of Mai Thai and it’s where we automatically go when we are in the mood for Thai food. Still, I’d been hearing good things about SL Kitchen so I proposed we eat there when our friend Maximilian came to visit us.
The restaurant occupies the McArthur Blvd space previously held by Chang’s and Kai Bistro. It consists of two boxy dining rooms, without much in the way of decore, though they do have some lovely bronze elephant statutes outside, which I think little kids would love to play with. It’s a nice enough place, for a relaxed, casual meal.
We started with the Fresh Spring Rolls ($12), which include shrimp, bean sprouts, herbs and lettuce in a thin wrap and were served with a peanut sauce. Both Mike and Maximilian loved them, Mike thought the peanut sauce was phenomenal.
But the real revelation were the Lao Style Sausages ($13). They were fresh and vibrant and delicious. They are made with pork, lemon grass and kaffir lime leaf, and the aromas of the herbs really broke through. They were unexpected and wonderful. Maximilian thought it was worth driving to San Leandro just to have them again.
I was far less impressed with my Yellow Curry with Beef ($15). The curry was OK, but it lacked the vibrancy and deliciousness of the yellow curry at Mai Thai. The portion was also somewhat smaller. Rice ($2) is on the side, which works well for people like Mike who prefer to avoid it. In all, I wouldn’t order it again.
Mike had the Panang Curry with Chicken ($15), one of his standards at Thai restaurants. He felt the same as I felt about my yellow curry: it was fine, but not nearly as good as the panang curry at Mai Thai.
Maximilian had the Spicy Green Beans with Chicken ($16.50). He said he liked it, but he was far more effusive about the sausage appetizer.
After the amazing version of sticky rice with mango that I’d had at Jo’s Modern Thai, I was ready for another taste of the original version of this dessert. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with the Mango Sticky Rice ($8.50) at SL Kitchen. It was, like the dishes before, fine – but uninspired. The rice could have been softer and had a silkier sauce. The mango could have been riper. Again, I prefer the version of this dessert served at Mai Thai.
Maximillian ordered the Fried Banana with Ice Cream ($8). He also seemed to like it but didn’t ooooh and aaaah about it.
Service was efficient and friendly, they didn’t complain when we stayed later, and it’s nice place to hang out with friends. But the food, albeit beautifully presented, is less than stellar for Thai food – which has a super high bar to begin with. In all, I continue to prefer Mai Thai, though it’s not as close to my house.
SL Kitchen 1057 Macarthur Blvd San Leandro, CA (510) 567-3529 Tu - Su 11:00 am - 02:45 pm, 5:00 pm - 08:45 pm
The final frozen pizza on sale at Safeway last week was Chicago’s Home Run Inn pizza. I got both a cheese and a pepperoni one and my daughter made the cheese. We both loved it. It’s hard to describe a pizza, but this one reminded me of the pizza served at La Vals in Berkeley when I want to college. It’s quite a bit thinner, but flavor wise it’s very close to what I can remember. It is probably my favorite frozen pizza ever.
Safeway had a bunch of frozen pizzas on sale this week, so it seemed like a good opportunity of giving them a try. I’m not generally fond of thin crusted pizza (which is what I gather Safeway means by “Neapolitan style”), but it’s overall healthier.
This flavor particularly intrigued me, as pear and gorgonzola pair beautifully and bacon could only make it better. This time, I was right. The flavors actually all worked very well and the pizza was very good. I’d have it again (despite its crispy, thin crust).
Gorgonzola by itself would be overwhelming, so the pizza also has mascarpone and Mozarella cheeses – but I had to read it in the box, as it’s not apparent. The predominant flavor is gorgonzola, but in a reasonable amount. I did like both the bacon and the arugula, but felt it could have used more of both. The pear came in the way of a very sweet chutney. Of course, fresh pears would be better – or even a less sweet chutney, but it did provide a nice note to the pizza.
It’s made me want to try the other pizzas from this series – though only as long as they’re on sale for $6.
I absolutely love Chicago style deep dish pizza, so when I saw that Gino’s East of Chicago Deep Dish Pizzas were on sale at Safeway for $6, I had to give it a try. The reviews were so good that I got both a Mozzarella cheese one and a Supreme. Boy, was I disappointed!
The pizza tastes of one thing and one thing only: pasta sauce. And while it’s not a bad pasta sauce, it’s not a great one either. On top of some spaghetti, with some Parmesan cheese on top, I might even enjoy it. But it just does not belong on pizza. I am aware that the sauce for Chicago style pizza, unlike that for other pizzas, is cooked – so it lacks the fresh, fragrant flavor of raw sauce. But they still tend to taste different than pasta sauce. Zacchary’s, my favorite Chicago-style stuffed pizza chain in the Bay Area, uses a sauce very similar to just stewed tomatoes, which retains much of the freshness of the raw fruit. Gino’s sauce while still chunky, is really a melded sauce. It’s hard to describe other than it really makes you think of spaghetti sauce.
And while the sauce is on top, as is the custom for Chicago-style pizza, I couldn’t remove enough of it to be able to taste the other ingredients. It was just a mess. No one else in the family liked it either. I hate to waste food, but I ended up giving it to the dog.
It takes 45 minutes on a pre-heated oven to heat up this pizza. I was pre-warned by reading reviews, but you should be aware. At $6 for a 2 Lb pizza, it’s not a bad value while on sale. It should feed two people (or more if you are eating a salad or something else).
I’ve never been one to go to steak houses. Cooking a steak is among the easiest and quickest things in the world* and it’s far, far cheaper to do so at home. Still, after years of getting Black Angus flyers in the mail, I finally decided to give it a try and was surprised that I liked it. The steaks were fine, nothing special, but the advertised Campfire Feast came with plenty of other food that I was far less likely to cook, and was overall a good deal. Over the years before the pandemic, we visited the Black Angus in San Lorenzo many times, then the pandemic came and I pretty much forgot about Black Angus – as our local one doesn’t have outdoor dining.
For some reason, I’ve been having a hankering for food from chain restaurants lately. I can’t explain it, but just in the last week or so I’ve ordered from Panera and Panda Express and got a craving for Black Angus. Nothing specific, just the whole experience. I looked up the Campire Feast and was somewhat amazed at seeing that it now cost $69 ! That’s a 40% increase over the 2020 price ($49). Yes, I know that both food and restaurant prices have gotten ridiculous – but I thought this increase really exemplified how inflation has hit lower middle class Americans – the ones that will eat at Black Angus as a special treat. Salaries most certainly have not gone up by 40% since.
But I digress. I found a Groupon that had the meal for $54, and decided to head there a Thursday night in April, with my husband and younger daughter. I was not overly surprised at how empty the once viving restaurant was. In our pre-pandemic days, there was always a wait and it was always full. No longer.
I don’t think I like Black Angus as much when it’s so sleepy – I think perhaps some of the attraction of chains is the energy you get from other people -, but besides that, it hadn’t change much. Service was good and friendly, and the food was very close to what I remembered.
The Campfire Feast includes a single appetizer, two entrees, four sides, and a dessert. There are several options to choose from within each category, some at a premium, usually $2 to $10. My daughter is not a big eater, so she decided she’d share with us and only order a side salad.
We started with their warm molasses bread which is served with whipped butter (photo taken after we’d consumed most of it). My daughter is particularly fond of this and she enjoyed it as usual. I think the main thing this bread has going for it is that it’s served warm, but different strokes for different folks.
As an appetizer, we all shared the steak quesadilla ($15, $2 supplement to Campfire Feast). I think they might have changed the cut of steak they use in the last few years, it was tougher than I remembered and less juicy. But the quesadilla was fine. It no longer comes with guacamole, which is an additional $2.
I ordered the ribeye steak ($33, $5 supplement to Campfire Feast) with a side of mac & cheese and a side of au gratin potatoes. The au gratin potatoes were pretty good. They were cooked in a thin cheese sauce, and while I’d had preferred a stronger cheese flavor, there was enough of it to cover the potatoes.
As for the steak, it was on the thin side. I was expecting this based on reviews I’d read, and would have preferred a much thicker one (and it’s definitely not worth the $33 full price), but it was OK. It was cooked medium rare as I ordered it, it didn’t have an inordinate amount of grizzle, and it was pretty tasty. It made me think I should consider cooking my steaks on herbed butter (though to be honest, it can be a bit too rich). It was large enough that on top of the potatoes and part of the quesadilla, I couldn’t finish it and I took about half of it home.
Mike ordered a full slab of BBQ pork ribs ($33, $6 supplement to Campfire Feast) to share with my daughter, and two sides of broccoli (given that each one is only a couple of florettes). They both were happy with both choices, though the ribs had too much sauce for their liking. Solid food, nothing amazing.
My daughter also ordered a Caesar salad as a side ($7 as an extra side). She liked that the croutons were made from the molasses bread and overall liked the salad.
My daughter wanted the Chocolate Chip Cowboy Cookie ($9) and really, it’s delicious. It’s hot out of the even, with melting, gooey chocolate chips. It needs perhaps a little bit more of ice cream, as without it it’s too sweet. There was enough of it to satisfy the three of us – though only because Mike only had a bite. It’s more of a two-person dessert.
My daughter had the pomegranate lemonade ($5) and she liked it. It comes in a very large glass and tasted quite fresh to me.
Service was fine, and friendly, and the whole meal ended up costing around $100 after tax and tip – not bad for these post-pandemic times, but not a bargain either.
Black Angus 15800 Hesperian Blvd San Lorenzo, CA (510) 276-1400 M - Th 3 PM - 10 PM F - Su 12 PM - 10 PM
* How to cook a steak: Heat up a skillet to medium high. Trim the steak. Place the trimmings on the pan, allow to melt, and then coat the bottom of the pan with the melting fat. Add the steak and cook for a minute, turn and cook for another minute. Turn heat to medium and cook for 3-5 minutes, depending on thickness. Turn and cook for another 3-5 minutes. You’re done.
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