La Vite Ristorante: Rather disappointing

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!

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!

Sunshine Saloon: "The Shine"…not to dine!

Lunch date #47: Friday November 15, 2013

After a long break in our lunch project, we thought we'd get back to it by hitting a real American sports bar for some good 'ol grub. Not sure what made me think of the Sunshine Saloon Grill and Sports Bar, aka "The Shine"…maybe with Thanksgiving around the corner, I was thinking about how the college kids would converge there for their traditional annual Wednesday-night-before-Thanksgiving reunion. Sometimes these bars actually have some pretty decent food by day, so we thought it worthy of a try.

Location 3 points: In the Mission Plaza shopping center: no frills here; but lots of parking. No great curb side appeal.

 Ambiance 1 point: At first glance a typical sports bar; however, this one needs an update. The carpet is dirty/worn and looks like it has gum-spots in it. The tables are peeling formica and the chairs rickety. The fans are caked with dust. Mom pointed out all of the flat-screens, and was wondering why I was being so critical. "What did you expect?" she wondered out loud.

Inside "The Shine"

Menu selection 3.5 points: I was quite surprised at the vast selection. I thought they'd have burgers and some fried food, but they also offer a long list of salads and sandwiches. At first I thought to play it safe with a burger, but I really wanted something a bit less fatty. The server was really pushing their "fresh" crab sandwich. Is it really fresh? I asked. He told us you really can't buy fresh crab here (?), but that it was fresh when canned. He even went so far as to bring us a sample! Hmmm I thought, knowing last Friday was the first day of crab season and knowing that there is such a thing as fresh crab, and went with a turkey/avocado grilled sandwich to play it safe. Once Mom spied the Philly Cheese Steak sandwich, she was sold. She was kind of disappointed though that they don't offer coffee.

Service 2.5 points: He definitely tried with the free crab sample, but that was about it as far as service goes. He was the only server/bar tender on site, and we were the only women in there. He was busy tending to the "guys" there for their Friday afternoon beers. Food was brought promptly, no drink refills. Had to flag him down to get to-go boxes, but he was very friendly.

Food 2 points: Here's where it fell apart for me. Remember my idea to play it safe? Wrong! This was the worse sandwich I've ever had. The sour-dough was over buttered and greasy, the dressing on the bread, I later found out, was a blend of mayonnaise and the deli-mustard they have on the tables that contains shredded horseradish. There was no mention of this unusual sandwich accompaniment on the menu, and I didn't think to ask in advance. I don't care for horseradish and it pretty much destroyed the sandwich for me. On the other hand, Mom really liked her cheese steak sandwich-packed high with tender beef, lots of cheese and very large portion. We both agreed the fries were dismal.

Mom liked her cheese steak sandwich

Value 2.5 points: This is tough one. The prices were great at about $8 each including the fries. Problem is that when the price is great, but the food is poor…the value score is low, in my opinion. Mom liked hers so we compromised.

Overall score for The Sunshine Saloon 2.4 points: I wasn't put off by the ambiance as I really didn't expect better, but I thought that sometimes these "dive" bars can have some pretty decent food. Perhaps I just ordered the wrong thing, or should have asked what they put on the sandwich, but I was disappointed. Since Mom was happy (which is all that really matters anyway), I'm trying to buffer my rebuke…but the more I think about it, I'm sure I'll never go back to the "Shine"…at least not for the food!