Nowhere Else Can You Experience A Fun And Casual Elegant Dining Experience All In One Warm, Friendly And Inviting Atmosphere Than At Paradiso Restaurant In San Leandro, California
by Heather Cassell
A good restaurant is one that you want to return to over and over again whether it’s the food, the people who serve you, or both.
Paradiso Restaurant in San Leandro, California is one of our go-to restaurants on any given night when we are in the East Bay.
Our friends have been going to this restaurant for more than 20 years and we have now invited our friends to join us for dinner here on occasion.
Paradiso immediately is inviting from the moment we step through the door, not only because the waiters know our friends and us. The restaurant beckons diners in with its panoramic views of cozy Bancroft Avenue from its bright corner location. Inside, it provides a warm and welcoming atmosphere while they leisurely dine.
There are multiple rooms from the window seating, to the main dining room, to the event rooms, and the bar area. Each provides a unique atmosphere for large gatherings of families and friends and nooks for romantic dinners to casual dining.
Bar seating with views of the bar or the kitchen is available for couples and solo diners.
Dining
The Italian-American food is predictably delicious and perfectly complemented by an excellent list of California wines and spirits.
One of my girlfriend’s and my favorite salads to start off with is the crab and avocado. We share the salad served with crab stacked on top of a perfectly round mound of fresh avocado with slices of mangos, tangerines, and grapefruit and garnished with a dash of pepper.
The menu is filled with wonderful dishes, but I typically order the cabernet braised short rib with the creamy polenta and a choice of either seasonal or staple vegetables, usually asparagus or spinach. I generally pair it with a Justine Cabernet.
When Chilean sea bass is offered as one of the specials, I indulge my taste buds in a different experience at the restaurant.
My girlfriend often likes the filet served garnished with a red wine reduction sauce, mashed potatoes, and seasonal vegetables or the 14-ounce ribeye garnished with melting compound garlic butter on top with a side of rice pilaf and seasonal vegetables.
We round off the evening sharing either the molten chocolate cake, a classic Sunday or tiramisu. I will have a cup of coffee with my dessert. My girlfriend’s desert is a glass of the Inniskillin, which isn’t listed on the menu, but the staff keeps a bottle for some special guests.
Paradiso opened in 1996, offering guests a casual to high-end dining experience with sustainable and quality meats, seafood, poultry, produce to wines and spirits. The restaurant strives to meet guests desire for high-quality service, including dietary needs offering a variety of gluten-free and vegetarian options on the menu or when asked.
The restaurant serves brunch on the weekends and lunch and dinner every day and evening of the week.
We have our choice of restaurants in the East Bay, but less than a handful have kept us returning time and time again. Paradiso is one of those restaurants.
THE DIRTY DISH
Paradiso Restaurant, 685 Bancroft Avenue, San Leandro, California 94577. 510-430-9310. . www.paradisosanleandro.com.
TYPE OF RESTAURANT: Italian, Fine Dining, Independently-Owned
RATING: [0 – 5 – color code: 4 = black
(0 inedible – 5 simply scrumptious)
AMBIANCE: Casually elegant with a warm and inviting friendly atmosphere from the servers to fellow diners.
SCENE: The food is upscale and well-dressed, but you don’t have to be to dine here. Everyone from families, friends, and dates come in from the jeans and shorts types to the fashionably well-heeled and dapper suit jackets.
SERVICE: The servers have been with the restaurant for decades and welcome guests from their first time to those who come back time and time again providing the most sincere and warm service. It’s simply excellent in a genuine way.
NOISE LEVEL: The restaurant can get noisy at times with all of the conversations simultaneously happening, but not to the level where you can’t carry on your own conversation at your table.
RECOMMENDED DISHES: Every dish on the menu is excellent, but I am partial to the cabernet braised short ribs and the crab and avocado salad. Our friends often order the seared tuna
SIP: The wine and spirits list offers a variety of high-quality wines and liquor. I prefer a nice glass of Justin Cabernet. For dessert, my girlfriend goes off of the wine list and asks for the Inniskillin, a dessert wine which is kept for those who are in the know or servers discretionarily introduce to guests.
CHECK, PLEASE: $$$ = $40 – $60
(price of dinner/lunch/breakfast/brunch for an individual meal not including tip)
THE EAT: The good food plus the warm and friendly atmosphere is what puts it on our go-to place to eat in the East Bay.
WORTH THE NIGHT OUT?: My taste buds are salivating to dine here again
Book your next California adventure with Girls That Roam Travel. Contact Heather Cassell at Girls That Roam Travel at 415-517-7239 or at .
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