Broccoli & Chocolate

restaurants * food events * news

New Bar: Dark Horse Lounge

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Shameless plug for my baby sis’s new bar Dark Horse Lounge in Hayward, NOW OPEN!!

Formerly the Whiskey River Saloon at Hesperian and Winton, Jenny has transformed this old-west style bar to a more contemporary version of your local watering hole. With a new coat of paint, some new light fixtures and a hell of a lot of scrubbing, the Dark Horse Lounge is ready to serve you a drink starting today!

dark horse lounge

They’re not serving food other than small nibbles at the moment, but come by for a cold beer, a cocktail or just to say hi to the pretty lady behind the counter (unless my dad is bartending… he’s not quite as pretty as Jenny). I’ll be stopping by today and I’ll keep everyone posted about any Grand Opening events or upcoming specials!

Yeay for opening a business, see you at the Dark Horse Lounge!!!

Dark Horse Lounge on Urbanspoon

Review: Lettuce

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Atmosphere: 3/5   ♦   Service: 3/5   ♦   Food Quality: 4/5   ♦   Value:3/5
Times Visited: Once  ♦   Will I Return?:  Yes!
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Lettuce RestaurantI wish someone would just make a restaurant with affordable, healthy, delicious salads, soups and sandwiches. Lettuce: you have read my mind (or, my previously typed words). Order at the counter, fresh, made-to-order salads with sandwiches, homemade soups and daily pasta dishes? Sign me up.

I’ve really been looking for Lettuce all my life. Failed attempts include Fresh Choice, Sweet Tomatoes and other salad-based restaurants. Those places aren’t doing it right; Lettuce is…. 

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broccoliandchocolate.com

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Finally! I bought broccoliandchocolate.com. No more wordpress in my URL, thank you very much. Exciting!

Additionally, I wanted to point out that you can receive an email when I post a review by subscribing to this blog! Type your email address into the field below the big Foodbuzz advertisement on the right and push the “Sign me up!” button. It’s an easy way to never miss a post and it makes me happy to have a tiny list of people who care! Yeay!

Lastly, B&C is now on Twitter!!! I think it’s a great way to network and pretty much just one more way I can type for the whole internet to see… find me at @brocandchoc!

Review: Family House of Fish & Poultry

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Atmosphere: 1/5   ♦   Service: 2/5   ♦   Food Quality: 3/5   ♦   Value:2/5
Times Visited: Once  ♦   Will I Return?:  Boyfriend likes it… so, yes.
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Family House ExteriorDude. Family House of Fish & Poultry. Let’s not even begin to think this place has its own website. Or that you’ve ever heard of it, even if you’re a Hayward local. Since we went to FH a few weeks ago, I’ve been asking friends if they’ve ever been there. Not one of them even knew the place existed.

Family House is located centrally and prominently on Mission Boulevard in Hayward just south of Carlos Bee. Anyone who knows the least bit about Hayward could easily find it. Yet no one knows about it. It’s the quintessential example of an Overlooked Establishment…. 

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Review: Buon Appetito — Revisted

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Atmosphere: 5/5   ♦   Service: 4/5   ♦   Food Quality: 4/5   ♦   Value: 3/5
Times Visited:  A Few* ♦   Will I Return?:  Yes, please
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Buon AppetitoHello again, Buon Appetito. My first review of Buon Appetito in Hayward followed my first visit about this time last year. Since then we’ve been back a couple times and I wanted to report on the growth of this place for those who haven’t been in a while.

Last time I commented on the new addition of the bar area to the main restaurant. They have now added a third space as they attempt to take over that entire tiny shopping strip. Sandwiching the bar area is a second seating area that could probably seat another 50 people easily. I didn’t ask who their interior decorator is, but it’s clear that they spared no expense — the place looks fabulous.

Buon Appetito

The newest dining room at Buon Appetito, Hayward

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I Love Food, but…

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…I don’t really love to cook. There, I typed it. I’m a food blogger who doesn’t love to cook. Will you still read my blog?

It’s not that I hate to cook, I just typically find it tedious and I’m really not that great at it. What I really like to do is eat. You may have noticed this. I love food. Love, love, love. I just really want someone else to make it for me. Is that so wrong?

The real problem: Boyfriend is out of town for four days. Between the existence of cereal and restaurants, I have managed not to have to face the stove as yet. But this will surely change before he returns. I exert a small whimper.

If there’s one thing I dislike more than cooking, it’s cooking alone and for myself. I swear, anything I touch tastes worse than if I hadn’t personally supervised its creation. Maybe I should just cook blindfolded. Things would at least turn out more interesting…

You really notice how much tasks are delegated in a relationship when your significant other isn’t around. K is in charge of the cooking, the laundry (generally), and typically anything technical or mechanical. The flash on my camera wasn’t working yesterday and I had to figure it out by myself when I would have normally handed it to him. Another whimper.

I could continue to tell you about how, since he’s been gone, I’ve needed things off the top shelf, how I embarrassed myself struggling with my tripod, and how I laughed out loud at a song that came on the radio that reminded me of an inside joke we have, but instead, I’m going to go eat some cereal. Sigh.

Review: Sylantro

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Atmosphere: 3/5   ♦   Service: 4/5   ♦   Food Quality: 4/5   ♦   Value: 3/5
Times Visited: Once  ♦   Will I Return?:  Surely
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SylantroSan Leandro in the house, what, what! I don’t know why I type things like that sometimes. This is my first San Leandro post, I guess I’m excited. And Sylantro is definitely something to get excited about — do you like Vietnamese food? It’s not my favorite, but it hits the spot sometimes. And fortunately, Sylantro did not disappoint.

I would not have guessed that such a nice place would be hidden away in a dilapidated strip mall on Manor Boulevard in San Leandro. Even pictures of the place on Yelp were hard pressed to convince me that it was ok. But, Boyfriend’s mom was in the mood for Vietnamese, so that’s where we went.

Sylantro interior

Sylantro as you walk in.

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Products: Olive Oil Tasting in Napa

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When you think Napa, you probably think wine tasting and grape vines, right? I supposed that’s why most people visit the region, but it’s not why K and I trotted up to the tip top of the Bay last weekend. We went olive oil tasting.

Our pre-trip research found three spots where olive oil tasting is available near Napa. Figone’s in Kenwood, B.R. Cohn Winery & Olive Oil Company in Glen Ellen, and The Olive Press in Sonoma…. 

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B&C Map Update!

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Hello dear readers (ok fine, hi mom), I just wanted to call attention to the fact that The Boyfriend has graciously updated my B&C map link and I now have over 60 restaurants shown in a wholly cartographic* format! Yeay for websites that can augment the content and capacity of my website with little or no technical knowledge on my part!

No, really though, do enjoy the map if you are so inclined. (Printscreen below — I’m not a total computer dud, I do know how to use Paint.)

Map!

*In other words, I’m showing a bunch of markers on a map. But big words are so much more fun than small ones!!

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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