Living in San Leandro, I have easy access to a lot taquerías, so it’s probably not surprising that it took me years to finally try Chipotle – which has been occupying the old Copymat space in downtown San Leandro for over a decade now. I finally did several years ago (and you can read my review of their quesadilla), at my daughter’s urging, and I wasn’t impressed. Still, she likes it, so we get it once in a while. My last order reminded me of why it’s not more often.
Chipotle has an easy online ordering system, which allows you to customize your order, and it’s usually ready before you can get to the store. Their prices vary significantly between locations – with the Chipotle in San Leandro having some of the highest prices in the nation. Alas, they haven’t gone up as much as prices at other taquerías. Chipotle has its own frequent user club that allows you to very slowly accumulate points that you can exchange for free food. After this order, I’ll be able to get some free tortilla chips. Yippy (/s).
I ordered a steak burrito ($12.50) with cheese, sour cream and tomatillo-green chili salsa. As usual, I skipped the rice and beans. I was disappointed. Not only was the burrito fairly small, but it was cold. That’s because the cheese, sour cream and salsa are all added cold and very quickly cool down the beef. I suspect the tortilla is not steamed hot before serving it either. I was able to microwave it and melt the cheese as I was eating it at home – but I’m not sure if you’re given that option if you eat it at the restaurant.
I wasn’t thrilled by the flavor either. The tomatillo-green chili salsa was very strong and pretty much overwhelmed all other flavors. The burrito was too salty as well. The meat, cut into cubes, was OK but not particularly flavorful or tender.
In all, there isn’t much to recommend these burritos, other than the fact that I can order them online – unlike the much better ones at Taquería Los Pericos, half a block away.
I also got a large guacamole ($5.90) and a regular order of tortilla chips ($2.10). There are more than enough chips in the regular order to consume the guacamole – and this way I saved 65 cents over the “large guacamole and large chips” item. Yes, I know, it’s not much, but I hate giving any extra money to large corporations.
The guacamole was quite good. It was a little salty, but it tasted quite fresh. The chips are pretty light, a tad greasy, but good as well. Still, they do seem to be on the expensive side given that taquerias usually serve them for free.
My daughter got the chicken al pastor burrito bowl ($11.75), which she gets with extra black beans, extra cheese, extra rice, extra lettuce and extra sour cream. She really likes it, and given that she’s not a huge meat eater it works out well for her. A bowl can work out to two meals if she’s not particularly hungry.
In all, Chipotle is a mixed bag. It works out for my daughter but not for me. I prefer Los Pericos and other local taquerias, but I do like their convenient ordering method. I don’t like that they prompt you to tip for a take out order – but that’s become standard nowadays.
Chipotle 1505 E 14th St San Leandro, CA (510) 667-1003 Daily: 10:30 AM–11 PM
This ready-to-eat meal delivery service brings you yummy food from Bay Area restaurants, but has limited offerings.
Locale is a new-to-me meal delivery service operating in several areas in California. Their hook is that the meals come from well known restaurants in the area and that at $11 each, plus $5 delivery fee, they are more affordable than actually getting take out. They are priced, however, to compete with other similar services like CookUnity and Shef. They only deliver on Mondays, but you are able to order up to the Friday before, which gives you far more flexibility than the other services. I subscribed to Locale with a discount offer I found on Facebook and later got a discount for a second and third week.
Some of the meals are the same that what you can get at restaurants, but others seem to be particularly prepared for Locale and may be smaller than the restaurant offerings. That means that, depending on the meal, you may not be saving money by ordering from Locale vs picking them up yourself, particularly if you live in San Francisco where competition keeps restaurant prices more affordable – though you do save on tax, as the meals are delivered cold.
Locale’s website is sparse but it’s easy to use. You can only order one week in advance and you can decide how many meals you want to order each week. You can also pause the service quite easily.
Like the other services, meals come in an insulated bag, this one with cooling packs, and they will pick them up when they deliver your next order. They are very diligent about texting you with updates on delivery.
Each meal comes in a cardboard tray, sealed with a transparent plastic film. The meals are usually good for 5 to 6 days, which gives you some flexibility on when to eat them. Most can be microwaved, but some need more laborious heating.
You can’t really see how many restaurants Locale has available to you until you sign up, but I was disappointed both on how few there were for me in the East Bay – and how few dishes each restaurant offered. In all, they only had 29 restaurants available and several only offered 1 to 3 different dishes. Those who had more often presented different variations of the same dish (e.g. the same dish but offered with chicken or beef). They also have a very limited selection of vegetarian dishes – my vegetarian daughter could only find a couple she was interested in. All in all, Locale wouldn’t work as your weekly delivery service unless you always want to eat the same thing, or have very eclectic tastes and just like everything.
I subscribed with a discount for my first delivery, and then got texted further discounts when I paused. My meal reviews, however, assume that I’d paid full price for the meals (around $11.50 each). Note, I haven’t felt compelled to tip Locale delivery drivers as they are not offering a personalized service – drivers deliver to multiple people in a pre-set, optimized route – and because I don’t tip other similar delivery services but Locale seems to be pushing tipping, as are all employers who want to keep salaries low.
These are the restaurants I ordered from and the dishes I got. Those that I’d order again have a checkmark.
Asian Box is a small chain with seven restaurants in SF and Silicon Valley, including one at the airport, and one in LA. They specialize in “choose your ingredients” bowls (but in rectangular containers, thus called “boxes”), where you choose a base (e.g. rice or salad), a protein, toppers (e.g. peanuts or pickles) and a sauce. Boxes start at $14 and go up depending on your protein, they also have some “signature boxes” at varying prices. Locale offers 4 boxes from Asian box.
Chicken Curry Bowl with Potatoes and Jasmine Rice ✔
This dish was described as having comes rice, six-spice chicken, potatoes, carrots and yellow coconut curry and being topped with herbs, scallion oil, peanuts and shallots but instead of the “herbs and scallion oil” it came with a spicy red sauce which might have been the “fiery red curry”. The bowl was very good. The star of the show was the six-spice chicken, which did remind me of five-spice but also had a nice acidic flavor and tasted grilled. It was just very good. The yellow curry was a standard coconut curry, a bit on the spicy side and competent but not great. The portion give was just enough to moisten the chicken, rice and potato – so make sure to scrape it all off. The peanuts were chopped too finely to add much texture, but the occasional piece of shallot gave it a nice crunch. The portion made for a filling dinner. I’d certainly have it again. This same dish sells at the restaurant for $15.50
La Palma is a small restaurant chain in Southern California which gained famed when the Michelin guide gave it its “Bibi Gourmand” designation in recognition of its Zacatecan style burritos, which seem to be tortillas rolled around meat and salsa, with no other additions. They’ve become famous enough to sell their burritos frozen through Goldbelly. Locale is now offering 4 different types of burritos.
3 Birria y Queso Burritos ✔
Two of the three burritos – delicious!
Quesobirria tacos are all the rage in California these days, and I can see why this burrito version has become so popular. I loved the softness and elasticity of the tortilla after microwaving it. The filling was tasty, and the cheese worked well to mellow the strong flavors of the birria. My daughter also really liked them. I can see ordering this time and again. The burritos are $5 each at the restaurants, so you get a small discount ordering through here (plus you don’t have to go to LA to get them).
Comal is a well known Mexican restaurant with locations in both Oakland and Berkeley. It’s a favorite place for events, and we’ve gone to a few there. I’ve very much enjoyed their tacos in the past. Locale offers 7 different meals from Comal, 3 bowls and 4 burritos.
Carnitas Burrito with Pinquito Beans, Rice and Salsa Verde ✔
My daughter enjoyed this burrito. The carnitas were flavorful and the whole combination worked well. It was a pretty substantial meal, which my daughter couldn’t finish. Burritos retail for $13.75 at Comal, but they didn’t list this particular one, so it might be a cheaper version than their normal semi-gourmet offerings.
Dumpling Time has five locations in the Bay Area. They specialize in Chinese dumplings. They only offer one or two dishes through Locale. The one we got is no longer available.
Dim Sum and Garlicky Green Beans with Wakame Seaweed Salad ✔
This dish consisted of one pork bao (aka pork bun), 2 shrimp & pork siu mai and 2 shrimp har gow served with green beans and sea weed salad. Unfortunately, it’s no longer being offered by Locale (nor is this combo in he menu at Dumpling Time). My husband really liked this offering and would have liked it again but it’s no longer available.
El Farolito is a run of the mill taqueria in San Francisco, best known (in Yelp, at least) for its cheap burritos. They offer three quesadillas through Locale.
Mission Style Chicken Quesadilla with Crema and Salsa
This was an overall good quesadilla. It had a nice taste and it was more flavorful than I expected. The portion was probably the right size for lunch. However, I wouldn’t order it again. The first issue was the heating. It requires that you take out a pan, melt a tablespoon of butter and then heat up the quesadilla for a minute on both sides. This gives you a crispy tortilla, but the heat doesn’t go through enough to melt the cheese. I fixed this by microwaving for an extra 30 seconds. I didn’t like, however, that I had to dirty a saucepan to heat this up. I do take responsibility for not reading the heating instructions before I ordered it, they were right there on the page. I also didn’t like that it came with a green sauce instead of guacamole. Price was, it was a tad cheaper than what I can get at my local taquería for a similar size quesadilla, but I can choose steak and get guacamole if I order it there, which I prefer.
This is a soul food restaurant with two locations in San Francisco which seems to get mostly good reviews. Locale only offers this dish and mac & cheese from this restaurant.
Southern Style BBQ Pork Rib with Collard Greens and Mac and Cheese
This consisted of just one spare rib with BBQ sauce, mac & cheese and collard drinks. My daughter enjoyed both the rib and the mac & cheese, she felt they were very good – she didn’t try the greens. It was enough food for her, but she is a girl who can never finish any meal – it really should be two ribs to satisfy a normal appetite. She wouldn’t have it again, however, because most of the meal was the mac & cheese and it wasn’t good enough to be a whole meal. The dish is $21 at the restaurant, but it looks like they serve at least 3 ribs.
Hawaiian Drive Inn seems to be a 5-location Hawaiian BBQ chain in the Bay Area, serving standard Hawaiian BBQ fare.
Hawaiian Chicken Katsu with Steamed Rice and Green Beans
This was a pretty average Hawaiian BBQ chicken katsu, and there is nothing wrong with that. The green beans, however, lacked all seasoning. The heating instructions also had us using the oven for the chicken and the microwave for the beans which is too much trouble – we just heated the whole thing (minus the sauce) in the microwave. The portion size was similar to the mini-meal size at my local Hawaiian joint which is $12, so this is not a great deal.
Mela Bistro prides itself on serving “Modern Ethiopian Food”. From its website, I can see that the restaurant forgoes the traditional art and trappings from many local Ethiopian restaurants and it has more sleek surroundings. The menu is short and filled with traditional items. That said, this is the one restaurant we are happy Locale introduced us to and the one we re-ordered from our second week.
Ethiopian Style Beef Tibs with Brown Rice and Green Split Peas ✔
This was a very good version of beef tibs. Flavor wise, it was pretty much on point for beef tibs but it felt less greasy than usual – quite an achievement for a dish cooked in ghee. It was medium spicy. It’s served with turmeric rice. This dish is $18 at the restaurant, so it’s actually quite a bargain to get it through Locale. The portion was enough for one meal without leftovers.
Ethiopian Beef Stir Fry with Spiced Turmeric Rice ✔
These seem to be just beef tibs, but served with turmeric rice instead of brown rice and split peas. Once again, they were very tasty, only a bit spicy, and less greasy that beef tibs usually are. Once again my husband was happy. It was a good sized portion. He thought the rice was fine, but would probably get it with the brown rice and peas next time for a somewhat healthier option.
Peaches Patties is a Jamaican restaurant operating from the Ferry Building in San Francisco. The owner previously ran a catering business. It specializes in Jamaican patties, which is their version of empanadas. They get great reviews from these, but they are not available on Locale. They have a few other dishes, including two new ones that don’t appear on their menu. Locale has four dishes from this restaurant.
Ginger Tamarind Chicken with Fried Plantains, Kidney Beans and Jasmine Rice
This dish was described as featuring “tender chicken infused with bold ginger and tangy tamarind, served alongside crispy fried plantains and fragrant jasmine rice.” I can’t say it was a success. The chicken was tender, but the thigh meat felt dry. I usually like sweet-savory flavors, but the sweetness here felt out place, it fought, rather than blended with, the spiciness and the smokiness. My favorite part were the pieces of the chicken that tasted charred, unfortunately there were few of them. I usually don’t mind soggy chicken skins, but I felt this one could be crispier. The plantains were definitely not crispy either and they needed more sweetness. I don’t know, this just didn’t do it for me and I wouldn’t order it again. While this dish is not on Peaches Patties current menu, a similar jerk chicken meal that also includes veggies sells for $20.
Perilla is a casual Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco. It offers three dishes through Locale, each consisting of garlic noodles, broccoli and either pork, crab or five spice chicken. At the restaurant, these dishes are priced at $14.
Five Spice Chicken with Garlic Noodles and Broccoli ✔
This dish was pretty good, the boneless chicken was was sweet and savory with light soy sauce overtones, and the noodles were quite good, not too garlicky. My daughter, who had it, enjoyed it and would have it again. The portion was more than sufficient for dinner, though not quite enough to have much in the way of leftovers.
Sumac describes itself as a “modern Mediterranean street food” restaurant and has locations in both LA and SF. They serve wraps, salads, rice bowls and hummus bowls with your choice of grilled chicken, meatballs, red lentil balls or felafel. Seven of these combinations are available at Locale.
Chicken Hummus Bowl with Roasted Veggies ✔
Both my husband and I loved this bowl of grilled chicken, roasted veggies and hummus. – so much that we had it a second time. The chicken was tender and well seasoned, and worked well both by itself or dipped in the hummus. It was a little weird to eat warm hummus, though. Next time I might scoop it out before reheating. My husband was actually surprised at how much he liked the veggies, but we both skipped the pickled beets. The restaurant version sells for $21, but it also comes with an arugula salad.
Turkish Kofte Bowl with Basmati Rice and Chickpea Salad ✔
These are lamb and beef shoulder meatballs served with rice, chickpea salad and a labneh sauce. The same bowl sells for $18 at the restaurant. This was a good, filling and satisfying meal. The meatballs had that chewy texture of kibbeh – I think it’s achieved by over grinding the meat -, which I’m not super fond of, but they were well seasoned and very tasty. The buttered basmati rice reminded me just how nice buttered basmati rice is on its own. The chickpea salad was fresh and piquant, and I enjoyed it even though I’m not a fan of chickpeas. And the yogurt sauce was thick and refreshing. Everything was slightly spicy, however, But overall a very good meal that I’d have again.
Turkish Red Lentil Wrap with Tabouli and Herb Labneh Sauce
I got this for my vegetarian daughter and she found it edible but unexciting. It was a good portion, at least (the photo shows just half a wrap). She probably wouldn’t order it again. It sells for $16.50 at the restaurant.
Tenderleaf (Ghost Kitchen)
Tenderleaf is described as a “a beloved Bay Area gem, is a cozy, locally-owned restaurant” located in San Francisco. As far as I can tell, that is a lie. A google search failed to find any restaurant with that name anywhere in the Bay Area, much less a “beloved one”. Instead, it seems that Tenderleaf is a ghost kitchen operated by the owners of Locale. To me, this seems extremely deceitful. I don’t have a problem with ghost kitchens myself, but I do have a problem with dishonesty.
The address that Google has for Tenderleaf is in the San Leandro industrial area, and I’ll probably drive by and check it out some time.
Tenderleaf offers 9 dishes through Locale, the most of any restaurants.
Mom’s Meatballs in Marinara Sauce with Italian Sausage and Parmesan
This dish consisted of four medium-size meatballs and 2 sausages, topped with tomato sauce and a little Parmesan cheese. I warmed it in the microwave. There was definitely plenty of food. I liked the meatballs. They tasted very much like the meatballs you can get at your average pizzeria – I’m thinking of Porky’s Pizza Palace in particular. They had a good texture, they weren’t too soft and not too gritty, and a nice flavor. I would imagine that these are not “homemade”, but it’s not like I can get meatballs that taste like that at the supermarket. The sauce was pretty standard marinara, a little on the acidic side. A bit more cheese would have been better, but you can always add your own. I also liked the sausages, which were pretty dense, and smooth, and tasted primarily – but mildly – of fennel. Obviously this would have been better over some pasta, and next time I might just boil some myself.
Trisara is an affordable Indo-Nepalese restaurant that gets 5-stars on Yelp. Unfortunately Locale only offers three of their dishes, the momos below and two biryianis.
Nepalese Chicken Momos with Steamed Broccoli ✔
My husband thoroughly enjoyed these momos – Nepalese dumplings – which were served with a tasty tomato chutney. They were tasty and comforting. The broccoli was just steamed, and he would have preferred it with some seasoning. Still, he’d order this again. The portion of 8 momos sells for $14 at the restaurant, but here you only get 5 momos and the broccoli.
Vik’s Chaat is a very well known Berkeley Indian restaurant. It’s a casual eatery, meant for college students. It’s been there for decades and has always been very popular. I went there once, over a decade ago, and I don’t remember loving it, but I didn’t write a review. Locale offers 3 dishes from Vik’s Chaat.
Tandoori Chicken with Spiced Chickpeas and Basmati Rice
This dish consisted of a chicken leg – separated into thigh and drumstick – served with basmati rice and spiced chickpeas. I wasn’t super fond of it. It tasted like the sort of tandoori chicken you can make it at home, in your own over, with tandoori masala. The masala sauce, which was a bit spicy, clung to the chicken, which I don’t particularly like. I much prefer the tandoori chicken found at most restaurants where the chicken skin has been died and the flavor has been absorbed by the meat, rather than resting on a marinade outside. Still, it wasn’t bad, just not as good as the Americanized versions of tandoori chicken you usually get at restaurants. It did remind me of why I didn’t like Vik’s when I went. A similar tandoor chicken dish at the restaurant which is served with dal, instead of chickpeas, and with naan and raita, costs $18.
Zareen’s, along with Burma Superstar, are the only restaurants Locale mentions on their Facebook ads and comments. This seems to be because they were listed in the 2020 Michelin guide. It’s an Indian/Pakistani restaurant with locations in Palo Alto, Redwood City and Mountain View. Locale offers 7 dishes from this restaurant, though two are tikka masalas and three spinach curries.
Chicken Tikka Masala with Basmati Rice
I was underwhelmed by this dish. It consisted of shredded chicken tikka in a masala curry and yellow rice. The chicken was tender and had a nice smoky flavor but was otherwise very underseasoned. The sauce lacked the complexity you look for in a tikka masala sauce. It wasn’t bad, but it was underdeveloped. The portion was adequate for a single meal. In all, I think I rather pay more at my local Indian restaurant but have a better curry and leftovers for a second meal. This curry is $16.25 at the Zareen’s restaurant, though I’m not sure if the portion is the same size.
Paneer Tikka Masala with Basmati Rice ✔
I got this for my vegetarian daughter but ended up eating it myself. I liked it more than the chicken tikka masala. The panner was spongy and slightly sweet and combined perfectly with the sauce and the rice. The sauce was pretty standard, but I think better than last time. The portion was substantial enough to leave me full. I’d get this again.
This restaurant-within-a-bar is popular in town, but did it impress me?
I’ll admit it. Until a minute ago, I thought the name of this restaurant was “Por qué no? Tacos” or “Why not? Tacos” which made quite a bit of sense to me. Why not have tacos tonight? Really, why not? Alas, after visiting their website I realize it’s actually named “Porque no? Tacos” which translates to “Because no? Tacos”. What exactly does that mean? Your guess is as good as mine. Not that any of this matters, but my daughter thought the name sounded like one that gringos would give to a Mexican restaurant, and now I have to wonder if that’s indeed the case.
Be that as it may, I wasn’t there to research the ownership of the restaurant but to have some tacos. Or rather, I had intended originally to get some tacos, but after perusing their menu and reading some reviews, I was actually more interested in a couple of other dishes – though I still had to try a taco. My experience was sort of mixed, as you can read below.
Porque no? Tacos is the “grill” part of Frank’s Bar and Grill on Marina Blvd. The restaurant part takes up most of the space. You order at the counter and food is brought to you to the table. The problem with Porque no? Tacos being located in a bar was that the music playing was extremely loud. We could hold a conversation without quite having to shout, but we did have to raise our voices. For old folks like us, that was pretty uncomfortable. If I returned, it would be for take out.
Indeed, Mike reminded me that he had gotten me take out from this restaurant some time before, but I forgot all about it. I do remember, that this place was much hyped a couple of years ago and that I had been very curious to try it. I guess it neither met my expectations or disappointed me enough to register in my memory.
The first thing I got was a grilled steak street taco ($4). This consists of two small corn tortillas filled with chopped steak, chopped onion and chopped cilantro. They have bottles with somewhat spicy green and red sauces that you can put on it. I enjoyed this taco quite a bit. The filling was abundant, and the beef was tasty, particularly after I squeezed the lime on it and added some of the sauce. I did think it needed some sort of crema, however. Maybe a lime crema? Still, I’d have it again.
The All Day PQN? Chilaquiles ($20) had gotten great reviews, particularly when combined with al pastor pork, that I had to order them, despite the fact that I much prefer those with green sauce, and these came with red sauce. I wasn’t thrilled with them when I tasted them. First, I didn’t really like the al pastor pork, which had a sour-bitter though not quite burnt taste, and none of the sweetness I expected. All I can say, the marinade just didn’t do it for me. I also didn’t like all the raw red onions. When included in a bite of chilaquiles, they totally overwhelmed the other flavors. I would have preferred that they had used guacamole instead of fresh avocado. The avocado wasn’t quite fully ripe, so it made it hard to mash without breaking the tortilla chips further – plus the dish needed more acid. And it really needed some sour cream. In all, this dish was not as good as the sum of its parts.
I had the leftovers the next day – with some cream cheese, as I was all out of sour cream – and they actually were better, the flavors had combined by then and developed umami.
I was very intrigued by the Torta Jalisco ($15) consisting of “three day marinated Aguascalientes style pulled pork, tomato, lettuce, onion, avocado, house cheese and jalapeños,” so I ordered it for Mike. It came with fried potato chips. Mike liked it quite a bit – aside from the ingredients he dislikes and took off. He liked the flavor of the pork and the level of spiciness. He’d have it again. I, however, was a of a different mind. To me, the pulled pork had a similar flavor profile to the al pastor pork, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they used the same marinade. It had those bitter undertones. I wouldn’t order it again. The chips were OK, too hard for my taste but the flavor was fine.
Service was cordial and quick. I might go back for tacos and even try a burrito – and might even get the chilaquiles again, but all with steak.
Porque no? Tacos 2014 Marina Blvd San Leandro, CA 94577 (510) 984-9711
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
Taco Bell, like sister companies Habit Burger, KFC and Pizza Hut are on the boycot list, as their parent company, Yum brands, invests in Israel. Please help stop apartheid and genocide by Israel by not doing business with companies that financial benefit from the killing, torture, maiming and oppression of Palestinians and who de facto support crimes against humanity.
I’ve eaten tacos for years, decades really. Not too many tacos, though, because I never quite got the point of them. Often, I wasn’t fond of the toppings, or the taco sauce and the tortilla-to-meat ratio never seemed to make sense to me. Plus I’m not a huge fan of corn tortillas in the first place. So, for me, it’s been all about burritos. Until a few nights ago, that is, when my daughter had a taco hankering herself and decided to drive to Tacos Los Amigos in East Oakland to get some. I asked her to bring a single beef taco and boy!, it was love at first bite. I finally get tacos.
I can’t tell you what it actually is, but the combination of beef, diced onion, cilantro and whatever else was on those tiny tortillas just did it for me. I don’think it was the sauce because when I got them again, they had a white sauce (it was a more orange one that first night). But both sauces worked. The tacos just tasted fresh and authentic (though I think I don’t know that I’ve ever eaten tacos in Mexico, my travel adventures there are limited to the Yucatan, the land of salbutes and panuchos, which are delicious, but not really tacos). I actually appreciated, for once, the flavor of the corn tortilla. They were tiny, mind you, but they were gooood.
Al Pastor Tacos
I was just as happy with the two al pastor tacos I got during my second visit (or rather, the second time I sent my daughter to get them). The slightly sweet pork was tasty and went very well with the other standard toppings. I might have even liked them more than the carne asada ones.
There are several problems with Los Amigos, however. One is that as it’s located in East Oakland, I don’t feel very safe sending my teen daughter to get me some (though she does), plus the truck is not really close to my house. Second, they are not cheap – at around $3.50 for pretty small tacos (think 4 tacos for a normal dinner). Third, Los Amigos seems to have eclectic hours – they weren’t there last Sunday evening when I sent my daughter to get more tacos (but they were Monday night). But the biggest problem is that I’ve been left wanting more tacos now.
I’m not the biggest fan of Chipotle – mostly because it’s boring and expensive. I understand why people might seek it in places that don’t have a great taqueria (or taco truck) in every corner, but I fail to understand its appeal in California. Still, my daughter likes it, so we ordered it for lunch a few days ago.
This time I decided to try the quesadilla, which is basically a deconstructed burrito grilled long enough to melt the cheese. It’s served with 3 “sides” which really mean the ingredients you’d otherwise have inside the burrito, things like rice, beans, salsas and sour cream Burrito extras, like guacamole, are still extra for quesadillas.
The steak quesadilla was tasty, but it felt smaller than a burrito (probably just my imagination), and having the salsa/sour cream/guacamole (the latter came in a different container) outside the burrito only made it more difficult to eat. The shape of the quesadilla, and the fact that it’s cut in two diagonally made it even more impractical, the filling kept falling out as I tried to dip it.
At $11.40 (prices vary by location*), it was a pretty poor value – though I’m sure no worse than anything else at Chipotle.
On the plus side, the ingredients were fresh and the beef has less gristle/fat than that at some local taquerias. Also on the plus side, Chipotle is very vegan friendly. Not only do they offer sofritas, a plant based protein, as a vegan alternative to meats, but their rice, beans, tortillas and chips are all vegan. Often times, Mexican restaurants use chicken broth for their rice, or lard for their beans and/or tortillas.
Chipotle – San Leandro 1505 E 14th St.(510) 667-100310:45 AM – 10 PM
* For the sake of looking at how minimum wages impacted on Chipotle’s prices, I used their very helpful website to price a steak quesadilla at different Chipotles. This is what I found:
In Seattle, WA, with the highest minimum wage in the country at $16.69/hr, a Chipotle steak quesadilla is $9.85
In San Francisco, CA with a $16.32/hr minimum wage, it’s $11
In Berkeley, CA with a $16.32/hr minimum wage, it is $10.25.
In Manhattan, NY with a $15/hr minimum wage, it’s $11.15
In my city, San Leandro, CA, with a $15/hr MW, it’s $11.40
This restaurant has once again changed names and, perhaps, ownership. I think it’s still Mexican. I haven’t tried it but given all the bad experiences we’ve had at that location I won’t go there until someone swears to me on their puppy’s life that it’s the best restaurant in San Leandro.
Feburary 2011
Harley’s Burgers has changed ownership and concept and is now a Burger & Mexican food joint. It sort of changed names, it’s menu claims it’s now “JDs Burgers & Mexican Food” but the Harley sign still remains. So does the modest building, and small dining room, though it seems to have been brightened up. Still, this is as modest and divish a restaurant as you can get in San Leandro, and that is its “charm”.
In its previous incantation, Harley’s served OK food at relatively low prices – we went once and though we live a block away, we never felt the need to return. Still, it served the worker and customers of nearby auto shops well. That can no longer be said. We went there for lunch today and I can honestly say that my 8-yo would eat a head of broccoli before eating one of their burgers again. The plain cheeseburger had a small, dry, tasteless beef (we presume) patty, covered in some weird cheese sauce and smothered in some kind of Thousand Islands type dressing. It tasted of nothing but the dressing and the weird cheese, it was just disgusting. The accompanying fries were fine, cooked in oil that was just about to go stale, but steal edible. Camila had a cheese & bean burrito ($3) which she did like, so perhaps their Mexican offerings are better. I still wouldn’t trust them.
To add insult to injury, Harley/JD’s prices are pretty high. A cheeseburger is $7, $8 if you want it with bacon. You can get something a hundred times better at Boulevard Burger for less. Our lunch (well, I did not eat, but Mike and the girls did) of two burgers w/ fries, one bean & cheese burrito, two sodas and one orange juice came to about $20.
Needless to say we will not go back, at least until a new owner chef takes over.
JDs (Harley’s) Burgers & Mexican Food 2170 Washington Ave. San Leandro, CA 510-667-9040 M-F 7 AM – 7:30 PM
Last week our friends Arthur and Eddie suggested that we go out to dinner at Tequila Grill before the kids headed to a show at the library. I’m always in the mood for not cooking (well, that’s not really true, but I thought it sounded cute), so I thought it was a splendid idea. Well, perhaps not splendid as I haven’t been impressed with Tequila Grill in the past, but it’s nice to get out. And alas, it’s good I have that attitude because Tequila Grill failed to impress me yet again.
I had the milanesa sandwich, and the milanesa was nice and tender but not very flavorful. There was also too little meat to bread ratio. The fries it came with were perfectly fine.
I also ordered some guacamole and I did like it a lot, it was fresh and well balanced. Alas – there were no chips to eat it with (I did ask for them, they just never came). I found out that french fries with guacamole sort of work.
Mike had the flautas and he thought they were just OK.
I didn’t ask Arthur and Eddie what they thought of their dishes, but Elektra – who’d come with us along with her kids Orestes and Aegea, didn’t seem very impressed with whatever she ordered. Orestes’ actually found his burrito nauseating, though he couldn’t quite figure out why.
The younger kids seemed fine with their quesadillas (I didn’t try them).
So no, I won’t be rushing back to Tequila Grill, though I imagine I’ll end up there again some time.
Tequila Grill 1350 E. 14th St. San Leandro (510) 895-5351
Update: San Gaspar reopened after a fire. I haven’t been back since.
I’ve been meaning to write the restaurant review for San Gaspar for a couple of weeks now, but I haven’t gotten to it so my recollections have gotten dimmer. I can tell you that we went with my friend Arthur and his kids, this is a place they frequent and like quite a bit. I thought it was pretty good too. The food was quite well priced, in the very low teens for pretty large platters. I had the carnitas and they were very good – large chunks of flavorful meat, not too dry. They came with a huge portion of good fries. Arthur had the chimichanga and he also enjoyed it. On the other hand, their quesadilla – which we ordered for the kids – was pedestrian. Mike’s enchiladas were also just OK. Their chips and salsa were pretty tasty, but not old-Chevy’s quality.
The restaurant itself is pretty modest, but it reminded me of the sort of restaurants in Mexico. It was comfortable, and had their been other people there, I’m sure it would have been convivial. As it was, pretty empty, the kids (an we had 5 with us) were able to enjoy some freedom and play around.
In all I had a good experience and would go back. Mike, on the other hand, wouldn’t be rushing back.
San Gaspar Restaurant
201 E 14th St
San Leandro, CA 94577
(510) 562-6197
Update: San Gaspar reopened after a fire. I haven’t been back since.
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