Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Grand Opening - Abigail Cafe

Out at the West End at the Ballena Bay development is Abigail Cafe. This is a new sandwich shop specializing in Moroccan and Mediterranean foods. The owners are very nice people. I hope the deli shop is a success because this is the third business in that location since I have been in Alameda. The former names of the space were The Good and Plenty Cafe, Ballena Bay Cafe and Deli and now Abigail Cafe.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Get Your Party On!

Park Street Art and Wine Fair is this weekend! Prepare yourself for the street party. First rule of thumb, do not eat deep fried food as your first choice. This will eliminate a lot of food choices at the fair, but your body will say thank you later. In past years, there wasn't a lot of variety of desirable arts and crafts or food, so I hope this year is improved.

Best bet is to ride your bicycle to Park Street and go to the bike parking lot for safe keeping. Parking is FREE.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Revisit of The Gold Coast Grill

I was both surprised and delighted to see a packed dining room of customers at the Gold Coast Grill one Friday evening. The restaurant hired a piano player for the night, which was fantastic to listen to memorable oldies and 1970 tunes inspired on the keyboard.

The restaurant had three menus: one was the daily specials, one was the regular menu and one was the Recession Special for $13.95 for a three-course meal. Hands down, the Recession Menu had the most value, but for some reason I chose an entree on the regular menu. Entrees are served with a soup of the day or a house salad.

I ordered the Eggplant Parmesan with a house salad. The portion of the house salad was huge! The salad was a simple mixed greens salad with a tomato and cucumber wedge and one pitted olive. As for the entree, Eggplant Parmesan is a safe choice because the kitchen knows how to make eggplant really well. The dish had three eggplant patties with Marinara sauce and melted mozzarella cheese. Even though this is a vegetarian meal, the eggplant is so hearty that you don't miss the meat. The two side dishes were roasted potatoes and boiled vegetables. The side dishes were a bit boring, however the eggplant made up for the deficiencies.

The dessert menu was long, but nothing caught my eye. The menu was typical of ice-cream, chocolate mousse, bread pudding, baklava, and creme caramel. The kitchen gave me a small wedge of baklava with honey on top to taste. I did not enjoy the baklava. The baklava was heavy and soggy. The baklava was three days old, which is a lifetime for baklava to be sitting. Baklava should be consumed in 24 to 48 hours. There was no crunch or flakiness to the phyllo dough. The dessert was a heavy, sweet mess.

I would come back for the music and the food. The prices are moderate and the portions are decent.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Fugdelato

Fudgelato expanded their food seating area and took away space from their shoe business. In the process, Fudgelato also stopped making a good portion of the candies they made. I went there recently specifically for their chocolate dipped marshmallows and they stopped selling that candy. Ugh! Alameda needs a high-quality candy store and they are scaling back their variety.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Flavors of India

I had a quick dinner at the Flavors of India. The first thing that came to mind was that the smell of the dining room was overwhelming. There was a definite curry smell in the air and unfortunately the other smell was body odor. The two odors were a bizarre combination.

The night was late and ordered Pappadum, Lamb Vindaloo and rice. All of the food items were quite tasty. The sauces (burgundy and green) that came with the Pappadum were flavorful and are identical to the ones they offer at India Palace. The Pappadum was not greasy and had a nice crisp crunch.

I ordered medium spiced Lamb Vindaloo and could have ordered the spicy because the medium was a little light on the heat level. The vindaloo tasted great and came with a lot of lamb and not a lot of potatoes. I wish the dish had more potatoes, but nonetheless the dish was delicious. This dish also did not have much oil to it, so I was happy about it.

By the way, the source of the body odor was a wait staff person. I found this out at the end of the meal when this person gave me the check.

Despite the small set back, I would come back to this place for another meal. The food was good and the menu was varied. The Alameda location is number four, for the owner, so I am to assume the owner and cooks have worked on dishes over and over again to fine tune the food.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Still waiting for a Pearl's Burger

During the fourth of July holiday, I went to Pearl's Burgers to observe the progress on the construction. I was shocked to see that no progress was made in the last few months. What is going on?

The marketing flyers are different on the windows stating that Pearl's was on the Food Network Show, The Best Thing I Ever Ate ... So when are Alamedans going to get the opportunity to taste the so-called best burger in the Bay Area?

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Progress going on at Tillie's old space

Chip board is covering large windows at the former space of Tillie's on the corner of Webster and Santa Clara. I hope a new diner or food establishment is moving in and fixing up the space.

The West End of Alameda is desperate for eating or breakfast choices since Tillie's and Acquacotta are out of business.