Lunch date #48: December 13, 2013 The
last for this year!
I thought it would be nice to take mom
out for a special holiday lunch so I wanted to find something a bit more
upscale; certainly a step-or two-up from the Sunshine Saloon we tried on
our last lunch date. Considering the plan to try all of the restaurants in
Pleasanton, and that we had already tried most of the "nicer" ones, I
was scrambling to find the perfect spot. I realized that we had not tried the
current inhabitant at the Hopyard Village (Hopyard and Valley) location that
seems to change hands every few years. We went to La Vite Ristorante
(3037 Hopyard Road; http://www.laviterestaurant.com/),
and were delighted that Emily was home from SB and able to join us!
Location 3.5 points-since that is what we awarded the location when we
went to the Hopyard across the parking lot. Sometimes it is tough to get a
parking space in this lot, however.
Ambiance 3.5 points: fairly cute interior, but nothing special, with somewhat
of a bistro style décor. Mom liked the wall hangings, but pointed out it was
not anywhere near the impressive interior of The Cheesecake Factory, for
example. The adjoining banquet room looks a bit dated. I thought it was fair.
Menu selection 3 points: Reasonable selection for a typical Italian-American
style café. Mom was disappointed not to see minestrone on the menu. They offer
soup or salad to accompany each entrée, and have a fair selection of sandwiches
and pasta dishes. Mom and I both ordered the chicken panino and Emily, excited
to be eating something other than dorm food, went with the salmon-pasta lunch
special.
Service 2 points: Very disappointed. I actually had made a reservation
through Open Table, due to the holiday season. There were two large
office-holiday lunch parties (one in the banquet room) and only one other table
seated. It was odd that they gave us a somewhat disappointing table tucked in
the back near the kitchen, when the center of the restaurant was open. Also, when we were ready to order, the server
told us we had to wait a bit as she wasn't ready to help us. Seemed that there
was only one server taking orders, and the one large party near us had not yet
ordered. Then, she ended up taking our order before theirs-go figure! The
salads were all served pretty quickly after that, but the server seemed very
abrupt and not at all friendly.
Food quality 2 points: Again, even more disappointed. The salads were very
average: crisp lettuce drowned in dressing. Emily's salmon pasta was caked in a
pasty-cream sauce with overcooked, bland salmon. I felt the panino was very
boring-lacking flavor and the only thing positive for mom was the large portion
size. We both took home half of our sandwiches, but I never even ate mine!
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| Emily-out guest diner |
Value 3 points: The sandwich prices at $10 each including salad were
very good-however, again when considering the quality of the food, the value
score is affected. The price for the salmon pasta at $13 would have been a good
deal, if more edible! We were unhappy to see the fee of $3 each for hot coffee
or basic iced tea.
Overall score for La Vite 2.8 points: This one certainly fell short
of our expectations. The results on Yelp are mixed. I'm wondering if the
ownership has changed. It was Garlic di Pasta previously, and I thought better
quality then. It is not unusual for an Italian-American style restaurant to
disappoint me (especially after traveling in Italy recently), but this one is
well below many others in town including Pasta's, Baci, Chianti's
and Mangia Mi. We still had grand
holiday lunch-largely due to the company and enjoyed our conversation and time
together, despite the ho-hum food. Needless to say, we won't be in a hurry to
return!
