broccoli and chocolate

La Imperial* in Hayward has been around since the ’70s as per the dot matrix printing on the front of their menus. This is a difficult review for me because, like some other Hayward favorites (case #1, case #2), I don’t really like it. But some people are wholly devoted to this place, per their Yelp reviews. And since there’s nothing wrong with disagreeing, I’m going to tell you my side of the story.

La Imperial is on C Street in Hayward between Mission and Main. It is directly adjacent to another Mexican restaurant, Los Compadres, which is a bit odd. I have only been to the latter once, but I recall it being very diner-esque and nothing particularly special regarding food or service. But that was a long time ago. And it doesn’t matter because, given the choice now, I’d go pretty much anywhere besides La Imperial. Let’s discuss the pros and cons:

Pros of La Imperial:

• It’s downtown and centrally located
• Parking in front is easy to come by
• The food is pretty cheap and/or the portions are huge compared to how much they cost
• The waitress (at least the one when we were there) is extremely nice, friendly, talkative and good at her job.

Cons of La Imperial:

• It’s on C Street which isn’t the nicer part of downtown
• It’s a diner: leather booths; fake wood paneling on the back wall; old, hideous linoleum floors
• The layout of the furniture is atrocious
• The menus are from circa 1980
• The patrons (at least when we were there) were… low caliber (is there a nice way to say white trash?)
• The food was not great
• The nachos had nacho cheese on them (this will be discussed further below)

Entering La Imperial felt, to me, like being magically transported to a diner in Nevada. It’s like they took a small, crappy roadside steakhouse outside Carson City and put up a few pinatas and a south-of-the-border-esque murals and called it a Mexican restaurant. It was the first time I’ve ever been to a Mexican restaurant and not heard one single word of Spanish spoken (Australia included!). It was extremely eerie and not terribly faith-inspiring.

Inside La Imperial, Hayward

Looking toward the front door inside La Imperial, Hayward

So, the people who like this place DO NOT CARE about atmosphere. And some people don’t, that’s fair enough. I do care and I didn’t like it. So there. The people who Yelp up a storm are lovers of their food, however, and the service.

We ordered nachos, a bean/rice/cheese burrito and an enchilada combo. The entire meal cost $19.76 with tax (add $3 for tip). The nachos were just tortilla chips and nacho cheese like at a goddamn baseball game. This is so wrong in my opinion. At the very least, nachos should have regular shredded cheese melted over chips. I also submit they should have any combination of beans, salsa, sour cream, guac or olives. Jalapenos are also an acceptable nachos ingredient., though I always pick them off. Velveeta or whatever is not ok at a sit-down restaurant. Having said that, I do love movie theater nachos, so I partook. But not without judging harshly beforehand.

Nachos from La Imperial, Hayward

The burrito was ok, though the tortilla wasn’t yummy for some reason. The concoction was a bit plain and since boyfriend didn’t like the salsa (which he usually uses to drown a burrito), he didn’t enjoy it terribly. As a side note, I thought the salsa was tasty though a bit too spicy.

Burrito from La Imperial... should have gotten a pic of the inside...

I ordered a cheese enchilada meal (2 cheese enchiladas, rice, beans and a salad) for $10.50. It was an amazing amount of food and probably the best thing on the table. I liked that they gave me a bowl of salad with home made Thousand Island dressing as opposed to the tiny scattering of lettuce most Mexican places call salad. The enchiladas were fine but they had the most cheese I’ve ever seen in an enchilada. It was like eating a melted block of cheese with a thin covering of tortilla around it — a bit overwhelming. The rice and beans were solid, kudos to them on that.

Salad with chips and salsa from La Imperial, Hayward

Enchiladas, rice and beans from La Imperial, Hayward. Look at the fork for scale -- so much food!

As for the service, the waitress was totally sweet, seemed to know everyone and was on top of her orders. She seemed neither lazy nor incompetent and was probably the very best thing that La Imperial had going for it in my opinion. If she had been a crotchety crone I would have been grasping at straws to compliment much of anything about this place.

Overall, La Imperial is not my kind of place. The atmosphere is grungy and the food isn’t the premium Mexican that I’ve grown to know and love being a native Californian. To those who love it, I’m glad you do. As for me, I’ll try someplace else next time.

*Yet another restaurant for which I could not find a website… come on people!

You may have noticed Pepe’s Taqueria on one of your millions of trips down Mission Boulevard (if you’re a Hayward frequent-driver, that is); it’s on the west side of the street between Harder and Tennyson (across and down a few blocks from Moreau). It’s a smaller place, but it’s got its own parking lot and it’s painted bright yellow so that it blends in a bit less with the flooring stores, consignment furniture lots and appliance outlets.

The interior has a dated, fast-food feel to it; nothing special there for sure. But what did you expect from a taqueria in the bowels of Hayward? I was just excited that there was no bullet-proof glass between me and the cashier. The menu is posted above the counter and offers all the taqueria-style favorites (burritos, tacos and the like) for pretty cheap prices.

Inside Pepe's: the front counter.

Inside Pepe's: The seating (and a yawning man).

A duo of signs at the front door boasts the “best fish tacos” and “best Mexican food”. I beg to differ and suggest they re-think this strategy as I in fact ordered a fish taco. It was ok, but it was a bit dry and is nothing in comparison to Tacos Uruapan. Having said that, however, the wet burritos are something quite special indeed.

Fish taco, rice, beans from Pepe's

Boyfriend ordered an “El Cheapo Burrito” which is essentially a veggie burrito with rice, beans, guac and sour cream. The zinger was that he ordered it “wet” meaning that they slather the burrito in enchilada sauce and cover it in melted cheese. This makes all the difference and their enchilada sauce was absolutely heavenly. I have no idea what was in there that would be so much better than other enchilada sauce, but it was indeed far superior.

Glorious "El Cheapo" wet burrito from Pepe's.

And the El Cheapo held true to it’s name at only $4.50. And it could have fed a horse* so this option was indeed a good value.

The rice, beans, salsa and chips were all pretty good; these are other items I use to gauge the quality of Mexican restaurants. As nothing was terribly amiss and that wet burrito was cheap and delicious, I would have to say that I may return to further investigate the wonders of the wet burrito.

Plus, gotta love robot man inside Pepe's.

*If said horse enjoyed Mexican food, of course.

Ever drive down Mission Boulevard (in Hayward) and see the the droves of Mexican restaurants that line the street? There are a great many of them, it’s true. Los Dos Hermanos is one of the many choices on this lonesome, long strip of road and resides on the west side of the street between Tennyson and Harder.

While it fits in with the surrounding single-story, run-down buildings, everyone seems to know this place. The sign is big and the building isn’t really in bad shape, especially compared to the neighbors. But have you gone in? Doubtful. I couldn’t find anyone I knew who had actually eaten here, though rumors floated around that it wasn’t great. I decided to try it out for myself.

Interior of Los Dos Hermanos, Hayward.

Inside the restaurant, the decor was meager but acceptable while the low ceiling and poorly lit foyer were a bit off-putting. Seats by the window allow in plentiful light during the day and the hostess/waitress was a nice woman. The menu was well done (I have a thing about poorly organized/presented/constructed menus) and includes plentiful choices of Mexican fare. It wasn’t the fresh-mex that I hoped for—creative (and often healthier) fusion dishes aren’t the specialty here. Not that I had expected this, but it would have been a nice surprise.

Menu cover at Los Dos Hermanos, Hayward.

I ordered the ensalada camaron (shrimp salad), which was well-made (see the care taken in organizing the extras on the salad) but wasn’t really anything special. The shrimp were ok, the salad was fresh enough, but the dressing was bottled and the toppings were unimaginative. Boyfriend ordered the veggie burrito with cheese enchilada, rice and beans. All was well with this dish—they are certainly qualified to cook traditional Mexican fare.

Ensalada Camaron (shrimp salad) at Los Dos Hermanos, Hayward.

Veggie burrito, cheese enchilada, rice, beans from Los Dos Hermanos.

Overall, like I say about many Mexican restaurants and taquerias in the area, there are so many different places to try around here that there’s no reason to return to a mediocre restaurant. If LDH were the only place in town, I’d have no problem returning since the food was decent, the price was reasonable, and the service was adequate. It’s the abundance of fabulous Mexican places in this area that will probably keep me from making any more trips to Los Dos Hermanos.

If I do go back—or if you decide to try it—note that they are listed on Restaurant.com where you can buy a $25 gift certificate for $10 (with a $35 minimum purchase) so you can save a few bucks! Also, this is a rad picture of chips and salsa, both of which were good at Los Dos Hermanos:

Chips and salsa from Los Dos Hermanos, Hayward.

La Piñata opened its first restaurant in Hayward in 1983 and has since expanded to five other Bay Area locations.  Apparently they are doing quite well.  We patronized the original Hayward location the other day, and were a bit surprised by what we found.

This restaurant is tiny.  Like, the size of my mom’s living room tiny.  I counted 14 tables in the whole joint, and that’s with very little walking room in between.  When we arrived it was packed.  Note to readers, 6.30pm on a Friday is actually quite busy for La Piñata.  Tons of people already seemed to have gotten the message and were traipsing in and out procuring take-away.  Good call.  But we were committed to a dine-in dinner, so we stood in wait for a table.

This is how I learned to do the La Piñata shuffle.  There is no semblance of a waiting area, and there really isn’t even a place for a single person to stand and not be in the way of waiters rushing to tables and patrons meandering over to the bathroom.  We stood smack in the middle of the room, eerily looming over adjacent tables not two feet away, and tactfully avoiding wait staff and other customers with a sort of two and fro shuffle every 15 or so seconds.  It was an odd introduction to be sure.

After about six minutes we were approached by the hostess (the waiters paid us no mind) who told us that a table would likely be ready in about ten more minutes.  We proceeded to re-station ourselves by the door where we hovered over the shoulders of different dining customers, scurrying out of the way each time the door opened, and still doing a sort of tango when a waiter rushed by.  The hostess was indeed correct in her time estimate, however; a table in the quietest corner of the place (which is, notably, less than ten feet from the noisiest area) was ready in about ten minutes.

The crowded, tiny interior of La Piñata, Hayward.

We then were able to tend to the reason in which we came – which was not, for the record, to wait awkwardly in too-small aisleways – and had a look at the menu.  To be honest, most Mexican restaurants have approximately the same menu.  It’s not like other types of food that have a standard set of ingredients and like to change things up a bit (Italian, Indian, American).  Most Mexican restaurants seem to have about 90% of the same stuff as the rest of the restaurants.  This always disappoints me a bit as I like a nice surprise.

But, I was prepared for the menu having looked online before going, and selected a mildly pricey shrimp in garlic sauce dish.  It came with the standard rice and beans, corn tortillas (delicious, by the way), and, oddly, a side salad.  We’re all accustomed to the Mexican meal side salad – about ten flakes of lettuce, some grated carrot bits on top, a few cubes of sliced tomato and possibly a splash of dressing if you’re lucky.  This was above and beyond the call of Mexican Salad Duty – half my plate was covered with mixed iceberg, carrots, cucumber, beets and slathered a bit too generously with thousand island (my other option had been ranch).  And all that without a mention of this inclusion on the menu.  Odd? A bit.  Undesired?  Not at all.

Dinner at La Piñata: Shrimp and salad with rice, beans and tortillas, and burrito/enchilada combo meal behind.

Boyfriend went with a veggie burrito/cheese enchilada combo with rice and beans. It was reasonably priced (something around $8) and was quite filling.  He enjoyed the veggie burrito because it had fresh guac, but the ingredients were a bit disproportionately organized throughout the burrito – in engineer-speak, it was neither homogeneous nor isotropic.  I do recognize though that it’s hard to make broad statements since veggie burrito eaters all seem to have different opinions about this particular food item.  Overall he was pleased, so all was well.

I thought my food was pretty good, though it was obviously too much for me to actually eat.  I should have realized beforehand that my garlic shrimp would come drowning in a bowl of butter sauce, but this was nothing that a quick fork-lifesaver couldn’t fix (extracting shrimps from said sauce and proceeding to de-tail and eat to avoid the 1/2 cup of butter that came with my dish).  Rice: good.  Beans: good.  Corn tortillas: really good.  Salsa: a bit too hot for me, but still good.

As for the corn tortillas (which they must make there – there’s no way those are store-bought), Boyfriend noted something rather interesting to me about an alternative way for me to eat this always-awkward side dish.  For some reason when tortillas are provided alongside my meal, I’m never sure what to do with them (excluding fajita meals).  I always have the urge to carefully pack a nice ratio of each of the other food items on the table into a tortilla and eat it that way.  But I don’t like to eat food packed into a tortilla.  It’s difficult and messy and I’d rather apportion each item individually instead of rely on whatever ratio happens to fall into my next tortilla bite.  In Mexico, apparently, you just roll up the tortilla and eat it by itself, alongside the other side dishes.  It worked fabulously and was delicious as a stand-alone side, especially with a bit of shrimp, rice, and beans already waiting in my mouth.  Good idea!

The rest of the meal went smoothly: quick and efficient service, nice waiter, good food, and a bit more breathing room when the place cleared out a little after we’d been there a half hour or so.  I’d certainly try it again, and would check out the other locations as well; apparently they differ quite a bit in ambiance and size.

Chips and salsa at La Pinata.