Paradise Grill - Castro Valley, CA

Paradise Grill
Previously known as Paradiso at Willow Park (Golf Course)
17007 Redwood Rd.
Castro Valley, CA 94546
(510) 537-3063



Paradise Grill is also known as Willow Park Event Center's Paradise Grill and Mike Wiesner's Paradise Grill. They are located at the Willow Park Public Golf Course on Redwood Road in Castro Valley.



Service: Excellent. Friendly. No complaints at all!
Atmosphere: Pleasant and upscale cozy.
Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and peas: absolutely delicious comfort food...I cleaned my plate!
Grilled flatiron steak (10 oz.), creamed spinach, bleu cheese potato gratin: perfectly seasoned and cooked medium rare, very tender steak with yummy side dishes!
Peach & blackberry cobbler, vanilla bean ice cream: superb fruit cobbler, portion large enough for sharing, could use a bigger scoop of ice cream! :)

Paradise Grill in Castro Valley is a place I would definitely come back to, whether it be for another dinner, lunch or one of their special brunches on Easter or Mother's Day.

Ketch Joanne Restaurant & Harbor Bar - Half Moon Bay, CA

Ketch Joanne Restaurant & Harbor Bar
17 Johnson Pier
Pillar Point Harbor / Half Moon Bay
Princeton-by-the-Sea, CA 94018
(650) 728-3747
ketchjoanne.com



Ketch Joanne Restaurant & Harbor Bar is located off Capistrano Road (west of Highway 1) past Crab Landing. It is located next to Princeton Seafood Company. The interior of Ketch Joanne Restaurant is done in a typical marine-inspired theme with wooden walls. They're open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and they have daily and monthly specials.



Service is friendly, but they could use a lot of improvement on their food. Here is my run-down on each item we ordered tonight during our first visit to Ketch Joanne Restaurant:

Fried Local Artichoke Hearts ($9.25) - These were actually quite delicious and were served with ranch dressing. Unfortunately, there was a hair in the batter of one of the artichoke hearts, so this dish was removed from our table as well as our bill.

Fried Calamari ($10.95) - The batter was too soft, loose and greasy to call this dish a success. I expected much better from a seafood restaurant in Half Moon Bay. On a positive note, the tartar and cocktail sauces were good.

Barbecued Oysters in the Shell ($9.95) - Out of four oysters, one shell appeared to have only the "remains" of where an oyster once was. Another shell had a very tiny oyster and the other two looked okay...but we decided to get the fried oysters (in hopes that they would be more substantial, like they usually come at most places) instead of having them remake the BBQ oysters.

Fried Oysters ($9.95) - There were six fried oysters that came with tartar and cocktail sauces and although I thought they were good...they were not spectacular.

Half Dungeness Crab in the Shell ($15.95) - Although the crab itself was good, it was served chilled (wasn't expecting that!) and it was a very small half a crab...quite overpriced, in my opinion.

Miramar Fish Grotto - Santa Cruz, CA

Miramar Fish Grotto
45 Municipal Wharf
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
(831) 423-4441
miramarfishgrotto.com



Miramar Fish Grotto is located at the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf, near Beach Street and just west of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. They're located between Riva's and Carniglia's on the further end of the pier where most of the restaurants are. Miramar Fish Grotto offers a daily happy hour between 2:30 and 6:00 pm with $3 well drinks and $4 appetizers.



We were lucky to be seated at a table by the window at Miramar Fish Grotto, as the water views are tremendous here and we were glad to take advantage of them while we dined. To begin with, I ordered a margarita on the rocks and he ordered a bloody mary and both turned out to be delicious! We ordered a couple of appetizers as well, their fried calamari and fried clam strips...and although it was a very tough choice to decide which one I liked best (as both were extremely good) I think I would go with the calamari...it was probably one of the best I've ever had and definitely the best I've had this year!



Another item we couldn't resist ordering at Miramar Fish Grotto in Santa Cruz was their clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl and we both absolutely, positively thought that was the BEST clam chowder we ever had...MMMMMMM!!! In addition to such a spectacular culinary experience, we had an excellent server named Jenny. Miramar Fish Grotto in Santa Cruz has definitely earned my 5-star rating! :)

Golden Dragon Buffet - Brentwood, CA

Golden Dragon Buffet
6281 Lone Tree Way
Brentwood, CA 94513
(925) 516-9858

Golden Dragon Buffet offers a $7.99 lunch, Monday to Saturday from 11am - 4pm. We ate here for the first time and being a buffet, it was good to see that it was busy! They offer the typical items that a Chinese buffet offers: Chinese, Sushi, Seafood, Mongolian BBQ, fried food, salad bar, fruit bar, dessert bar and so on.

I discovered the most delightful dessert there...Tapioca Taro! It's actually a soup and I know it sounds odd, it even looks odd (check out my pic at the bottom of this post)...but it was SOOOOOO good that I kept going back for more, despite being a hot summer day. :)

I also liked their Sake (Salmon) Nigiri - which I made "sashimi" because I didn't eat the rice. The green beans in their Chinese food section were spectacular, the Chow Fun and General Chicken were good and the Chicken w/Broccoli and Chili Chicken were so-so. The sushi rolls weren't that great, but it's what you would expect from a buffet, anyway. The salmon was surprisingly moist, but it didn't have much flavor. The crab salad (from the salad bar) was awful.

Golden Dragon Buffet is MUCH better than the two Chinese buffets in Livermore and I definitely plan on returning for more of that Tapioca Taro soup! :)

















Sushi, Salmon and Crab Salad


Chinese Food & Fish


Tapioca Taro

Red Lobster - Fairfield, CA

Red Lobster
1525 Travis Blvd.
Fairfield, CA 94533
(707) 421-8292
redlobster.com

Superb service from Conrad C. at this Red Lobster next to the Solano Mall...but the cheddar biscuits weren't as good as I remembered having them years ago (they were a bit dense). The Caesar salad was good and very typical but the Maui shrimp & salmon didn't taste as good as it looked. The zesty shrimp was the better of the two as the salmon was disappointingly overcooked.





Cheddar Cheese Biscuit


Caesar Salad


Maui Shrimp & Salmon $16.99

Baci Cafe - Pleasanton, CA

Baci Cafe
500 Main St
Pleasanton, CA 94566
(925) 600-0600
bacimainstreet.com

First time eating here tonight and first time I tried a Kobe beef burger. Honestly, it was a very good burger, similar in quality to that of the burger I've had at Harris Ranch, but I couldn't taste any distinctiveness in it being "Kobe" beef. DH had the cioppino, which was excellent but just quite a small portion for a $25 entree.

The much-talked about "fruit water" was nice, although it smelled better than it tasted (yes, it tasted good but I didn't think it was all THAT). The sourdough bread was not very good and for some reason, they didn't even bring butter with it, which would have made it a little better. I've had enough carbs lately (actually, more than enough!) so I just didn't eat any and that was fine with me.

Service was good and the ambiance was nice, although there was only one other table with a party of four during the time we were there. Normal slow Tuesday evening, I guess. We may come here again in the future, but I don't think we'll be rushing back here anytime soon...there's too many other restaurants out there to try!

Dinner for two including tax and tip: $28.32
(courtesy of a $25 Restaurant.com gift certificate)