Broccoli & Chocolate

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Review: Dell Cafe

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Atmosphere: 2/5   ♦   Service: 2/5   ♦   Food Quality: 3/5   ♦   Value:5/5
Times Visited: Once  ♦   Will I Return?:  Why not
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Dell CafeIt’s Saturday. You want breakfast. Unfortunately, you’re in or around Hayward. Where to go? There are a few choices. I’m not a personal fan of the chain restaurants, so rule out your Denny’s and IHOPs right away. The next steps up are your Emil Villa’s, JD’s, Main Street Diners and Doug’s. Unbeknownst to me, Dell Cafe is also around for your breakfast eating pleasure.

Dell Cafe can be found at 2637 Castro Valley Boulevard, just after the mini golf place but before Redwood Road. I don’t actually think I’ve noticed it before. We passed it trying to find it. But, Yelpers like the place and I wanted a waffle. And hence we arrived at Dell.

This place is a diner. Actually, it’s more like a Diner. Old school style, capital “D” Diner. It’s small with a dozen or more patent leather booths, cheap varnished wood-veneered tables and two rows of counter seating that meet at a corner right as you walk in.

Dell Cafe

Inside Dell Cafe.

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Review: Crepes de Art

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Update: Crepes de Art in Hayward is now closed.

Atmosphere: 3/5   ♦   Service: 3/5   ♦   Food Quality: 4/5   ♦   Value: 3/5
Times Visited: A few  ♦   Will I Return?:  Most likely, sir
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Crepes de ArtCrepes de Art is a creperie — yes, a creperie — in Hayward. You read correctly, the forces of the world have combined in statistically improbable ways and delivered a slice of French chic right smack in the middle of downtown Hayward. And I accept this benevolent gift with promises to keep crepe-ing it up so long as they stay in business.

So, crepes. Have you met me before? It’s going to be hard for me to muster a complaint about anything crepe-related. Fortunately, I have no complaints about the crepes from Crepes de Art to date, they are quite good. The price is right (two crepes for around $11) and they are full of delicious foodstuffs as ordered…. 

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Review: JD’s

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Update: This restaurant has closed.

Atmosphere: 2/5   ♦   Service: 3/5   ♦   Food Quality: 3/5   ♦   Value: 3/5
Times Visited:  A Few   ♦   Will I Return?:  Likely
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JD'sJD’s can be found at 2837 Castro Valley Boulevard in (yep) Castro Valley, just next to the Chabot Theater. It’s true that we don’t have a large variety of good breakfast places around the mid-east Bay, but JD’s is as close as I’ve come to filling this niche.

Historically, I’ve always liked breakfast. In recent years, however, I find that a full egg, hash brown and toast meal makes me feel a bit queasy. Hence, I don’t patronize the breakfast foods, especially at restaurants, nearly as often as I used to. Regardless, if you’re looking for breakfast out on a lazy Sunday, JD’s isn’t a bad place to go…. 

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Review: Main Street Diner

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Update: This restaurant is now closed.

Atmosphere: 3/5   ♦   Service: 3/5   ♦   Food Quality: 3/5   ♦   Value: 4/5
Times Visited:  One   ♦   Will I Return?:  Probably not.
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Main Street DinerOpened earlier this year, the Main Street Diner is located in Hayward on (you guessed it) Main Street between B and C. Main is such an odd street for me in Hayward, mostly because it’s not main at all. I access the freeway via Foothill or traverse the city using Mission, all the while habitually bypassing the tiny street between them: Main Street.

Main is quite quaint, however, (for Hayward, at least) and the Main Street Diner invites me near from the outside. The inside is three rooms: an entry, a main dining room (with free WiFi) and a large-ish offshoot dining room connected by a large, open door frame. The walls are painted with murals depicting European cityscapes that are actually pretty cute…. 

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Review: Emil Villa’s Hickory Pit

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Atmosphere: 2/5   ♦   Service: 3/5   ♦   Food Quality: 3/5   ♦   Value: 3/5
Times Visited:  A million   ♦   Will I Return?:  Probably at some point
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Emil Villa's HaywardAh, the Hickory Pit.  At least that’s what my family’s always called this Hayward Establishment on Mission Boulevard, just near the intersection of Jackson and Foothill.  If you look on the actual sign as it stands today, the words “Hickory Pit” do not appear.  It rather says “Emil Villa’s (world famous) California Barbecue”.  Did it used to say “Hickory Pit”?  I need some comments from the peanut gallery on this one.

Regardless, the Pit (that’s what Grandma used to call it) hasn’t changed a bit since it opened in who-knows-what decade.  It is yet another Hayward establishment that’s hanging on to the past with its tan vinyl booths, checkered tile floor, and old-fashioned food…. 

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Review: Honey Honey

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Atmosphere: 3/5   ♦   Service: 3/5   ♦   Food Quality: 4/5   ♦   Value: 4/5
Times Visited:  Once   ♦   Will I Return?:  Would love to
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Honey HoneyHoney Honey is a crepe restaurant way out in SF on Post Street and has yummy crepes for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  The place is cute, the prices are reasonable, and the food is good.  I think there are a handful of crepe places around SF, but HH is certainly a great place to start if you’re feeling crepe-ish.

In addition to a huge variety of sweet and savory crepes including strawberry, apple, banana, or Nutella; Florentine, eggplant, pesto, or Mediterranean (respectively), they also serve pancakes, waffles, omelettes, bagels, sandwiches, burgers, soups, salads, and pastas, whew!!  The menu is enormous and posted on the wall as you enter the restaurant…fortunately (sort of) the line was long when we were there so we had adequate time to consider our options–it’s quite a read to get through the whole thing…. 

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News: Mimi’s Cafe Free Breakfast Deal

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Update: Mimi’s is now closed.

This is just a teeny quick note about Mimi’s because I thought it was such a good deal that I should share it with the internet.

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Mimi’s is a total chain restaurant, no buts about it.  There’s just as much crap pasted to the walls and artificial pep in the hostess’ smile as at Applebee’s, Marie Calendar’s or TGI Friday’s.  But at Mimi’s Cafe they offer a free breakfast deal if you join their online club.  I know, I hate online clubs too.  I don’t want junk mail or a thousand emails a day, and I don’t want to be sold to a bunch of other spam lists.  I can’t attest to the last of the three, but I’ve only gotten 2 emails from them in the past few weeks, and I didn’t even give them my mailing address…. 

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