Michelle "Cheapskate Mama" N.'s Profile

I wandered in here, lured by the idea of some good products and low prices. Overall, the prices were decent but the selection was smaller than I expected, even giving it leeway for being a closeout store. There definitely are some treasures to be had, I discovered that the prices weren't really enough to justify shopping there all the time if you regularly shop at another bargain grocery store like Winco or FoodMaxx.

YUM!! We're fans of the Brentwood location but trekking all the way to downtown Brentwood just for pho was a bit much.

The Hubs and our little girl are complete pho-natics and opt for pho whenever given the choice to eat out. Me? I can appreciate a good bowl of pho but I like other stuff, too.

Their Antioch location is every bit as solid as their Brentwood one. Excellent food, decent prices. My two pho-addicts were very satisfied. We mixed things up a little and got the papaya salad for our appetizer instead of our usual spring rolls. LOVED their rendition of this, it was so well balanced and flavorful. I also got the shaking beef with garlic noodles, always a hit.

We'll definitely be by this location more often!!

I stopped in the other day  to grab some lunch. When I got there, I realized I had less time than I had anticipated so I asked how quickly I could get my to go order. The waitress suggested getting something from their lunch special menu, as those were quick.

Their lunch specials were too good of a deal to pass up - $5 for choice of sandwich OR 1/4 rack of ribs plus a side. The sandwiches were pulled pork, chicken or burger. I chose the pulled pork with a side of potato salad. I wouldn't normally order pulled pork but for $5, I wasn't going to argue.

True to their word, my lunch came quick -- in less than 5 minutes. I didn't get a chance to really look at it as I was in a hurry so I paid and left. When I unwrapped my order at home, they had given me pulled pork and a side of... coleslaw. Hmm. On the upside, the coleslaw was tasty, a nice mix of fresh cabbage with what tasted like green apple in a light mayo dressing. Tasty and traditional with pulled pork but not what I'd asked for.

The sandwich itself was tasty. The meat was nicely seasoned and had just enough, rather than too much, BBQ sauce on it. The sauce is more on the savory, slightly spicy. I generally like my BBQ sauces sweet but found this to be a good compliment to the meat.

I'd come back, maybe with the hubby in tow to check them out for dinner sometime.

The Hubs and I visited Young Young BBQ and Hotpot on a whim. It was a long overdue date night and we figured that going to hot pot would be a perfect thing to do without our preschooler.

Unfortunately, we didn't realize that this place had changed hands since the last time we had been there (years ago) and was now exclusively hotpot. The little lamb-like character was reassuring -- we love Little Lamb in Union City so were excited at the prospect of the same here.

It wasn't until we were seated that I thought maybe we'd picked the wrong place.

Oh lamb logo... you misled us.

We opted for the "Weekend Special" which was $21.95 and included a plate of either beef or lamb, a vegetable of our choice (we chose Nappa cabbage), a mushroom of our choice (enoki), two more proteins (fish balls and puffy tofu) and a side of onion pancake. Since we were only given one bowl of rice, I can only surmise that this was supposed to feed just one person (?) but the Hubs and I are watching our carb intake anyway so we just split it. We were also provided with dipping sauce, chili pepper and chili oil.

Young Young's hot pot is all individual which is good and bad. Part of the fun of hot pot (for me at least) has always been the communal aspect of the meal but I guess you get that from the spread of meat and veggies. On the upside, you're not fighting your meal-mates off for hogging all the meat that you put in your pot so there is that.

The meat was listed as "rib eye" on the menu but what we got had no marbling or fat to speak of. Healthy yes but fitting for a night out? Not really. Certainly not worth the $10.95 a la carte price. The fish balls were standard, looked and tasted like they were right out of the package. tasty but overpriced. The broth is pretty much plain beef broth and nothing special though it was refilled fairly often. I liked the sauce but I noticed other reviews didn't like it. Matter of individual taste, I suppose.

Overall, the meal was okay. We left sated but not stuffed.The set we chose made the meal affordable and the service was pleasant and friendly. Still, I don't think we'll be back.

Very cute little bakery!! From the outside, the store looks pretty dated but inside is a sugar wonderland. It is very much an old time, neighborhood bakery but it looks like it has been able to grow well with the times.

The bakery cases have a pretty good selection of different treats. When we went there was a selection of cupcakes and other pastries, including no sugar added cheesecakes which was great since we had happened to be visiting with a Type 1 diabetic.

I chose a red velvet cupcake while my sister got an apple pastry and her boyfriend (the diabetic) chose one of the cheesecakes. They loved what they got, said it was tasty.

Speaking for my choice, the red velvet cupcake was absolutely delish! No thrills, no frills, just a very good cupcake. The cake itself had great body -- moist and not too fluffy or too dense with a very light cocoa taste. It was topped with a generous dollop cream cheese frosting. I thought the frosting was a tad on the sweet side but I have this habit of eating a lot of the cake on a cupcake first and THEN eating the frosting. (Weird? Probably.) Otherwise, I think it would have been a good balance with the cupcake.

All in all, totally worth the $2 the cupcake costs. I'm very happy with the quality! I'm not a cupcake snob and I think anything over $2.50 for a cupcake is highway robbery.

The bakery has a nice little seating area with a few tables, as well as a comfy couch and some arm chairs. Loved it! Great way to relax a little to enjoy some treats. The service was prompt and friendly. We'll be back.

These sandwiches should come with a warning label: MAY CAUSE FOOD COMA. They're huge!!

I stopped by here today after passing by it I don't know how many times. Glad I did! I ordered the Italian Dagwood on a sourdough roll -- salami, mortadella, pepperoni, cheese, tomato and onion with garlic mayo. I was very happy to see that all the meat was sliced fresh to order. Nice!

I also decided to order half pint of cucumber salad to get some veggies in. Cool chunks of cucumber with onions and fresh tomatoes, dressed in a lemony vinagarette. Yummy stuff, wish I had more room for it.

Ooooh man, yummy yummy in my tummy!! This was a seriously good sandwich but I could only finish half of it. There was no way I could finish this all. I happily packed up half of what I ordered to finish at dinner. My original plan was to grab a dessert from nearby Alpine Pastry. Whoa. Did. Not. Have. Room.

If you're looking for ambiance, Luigi's ain't it . It feels sort of like your grandma's living room: sort of stuck in a time warp but in the best way possible. Many of the signs are hand lettered and taped up hastily around the store. You really don't see too many of these places in Contra Costa county at all so finding it was a real gem.

The only hang up I had about the place was that service isn't the fastest though it is friendly. I'm more than happy to give them an extra few minutes to make a good sandwich, especially since they cut the meat to order, but cubicle dwellers and anyone else on a time crunch may want to take note.

Where have you been all my life? I've always thought I wasn't a fan of Mexican food but El Molino has made me see the error of my ways.

Two words: Taco Dorado. 99 cents of pure, yummy fried taco happiness. I'm drooling just thinking about it. C'mon -- two these babies, just $2 worth of food and you're STUFFED. Happily. How much more could you ask for?

Another word: Bionico. I had never heard of this fruit salad with cream delight before but I'd go back JUST for this. Even better, each serving is chopped up by hand. BY HAND. How's that for love? Fresh, fresh fruit. No shortcuts, just good, wholesome, real food.

Real food, easy on the pocket prices. Oh, El Molino, I think I love you.

I've been here twice for lunch, opting both time for mini-plates which come with one scoop mac, one scoop rice. Mmm, loves me that local double starch diet... at least with the mini-plates it isn't as bad for you.

The first time around, I got chicken katsu. It was tasty with juicy chicken inside and a crispy breading outside. Their katsu sauce tasted like it was bottled but eh, it was tasty. Second time around, I got the BBQ chicken. Nothing special but it was still tasty and a good value. The give a good portion of protein on the mini plate and I had trouble finishing it!

They were having a special on malasadas (Portugese-style donuts) -- $3.95 for 10 pieces; they usually sell them at 5 for the same price so it seemed like a good deal. They were delivered to my table piping hot, covered in sugar. They smelled delicious but I think they fried it in the same oil that they fry everything else in. The malasadas were still edible but definitely not as tasty as they could have been so that was sort of a downer.

They also sell saimin and spam musubi. I've yet to try their spam dishes but I'm glad to see them on the menu. Any Hawaiian joint without spam on the menu ain't the real deal.

This is a 3.75 rating. Yeah, sounds sorta silly but read on.

I've been meaning to check this place out for awhile. The hubs and I decided to take the kiddo out for a nice little family afternoon. This place is conveniently located right off of Todos Santos on Salvio.

We got there around 1:00ish on a Saturday. The server was very nice and immediately offered us a high chair for our three year old. (She's on the smallish side so easily fits in a standard high chair.) We were also provided with a sectioned child plate and plastic utensils. Not a lot of Asian places that we've gone to will give us nice, non-breakable stuff so this was a real bonus.

We were given edamame while we pondered our choices. We got two of their lunch specials (served 11:00AM to 4:00PM IIRC) -- hubby got the bulgogi pork, tempura and potsticker while I got the short rib and wings with special sauce. We also got an appetizer sized chap chae for our daughter. They have a good selection of sodas -- the hubby very happily got a orange cream soda. Yum.

Our dishes were all really good. I normally don't really like chap chae but I couldn't stop eating their version. Hubby was very happy with his pork and I loved the chicken on my dish. I would go back just for the fried chicken wings. Even my meat-hating daughter loved the chicken and beef!

The minor downside is this place is very Americanized. It probably isn't much of a surprise given the area. They don't give out the plethora of side dishes (panchan) that most Korean restaurants do. If it wasn't for this, I'd happily give them a full 4 stars. Our lunch specials came with salad and rice. They do have kimchee you can ask for; we did and it was delicious.

All in all, this place has solid food and their lunch specials at least are a decent value.

Fresh and Easy is sort of like the love child of Lucky's + Trader Joe's with a lot of their own branded items mixed in with competitively priced national brands.

The selection of items limited with the number of brands but the brands that you can choose from seem to be higher quality. A lot of their branded items looked interesting to try. You have to buy in the quantity specified to get the sales  price, like it is 2 items for $6 but individual items cost more; pretty standard for many supermarkets around here.

I love the concept but I'm still on the fence. I'll have to see how far my normal grocery budget will get me here.