Palomares Cafe

Palomares Café is CLOSED. Dino’s Restaurant (that was located on the Blvd) is now in this location. The owner had decided to close this location and move back to SF per the local paper.

This restaurant has officially closed as of December 5, 2014. The owner is relocating to Sam Francisco. Dino’s, which has been on the boulevard for decades, is going to move into this spot soon.

I do not understand why this place seems to have some very devoted fans. We first tried it at the old location, which at least had nice ambiance and décor. Sadly, the food did not match. We decided to give it another try after Sazio closed, and nothing had changed — the food was still disappointing.
The new location is very close to our house, so we decided to try one more time. Wow. They had months to remodel the place, but the end result is just tacky. Now, Sazio had zero ambiance too, but their food was terrific and the service warm and friendly, so it was easy to ignore the tacky décor. The new Palomares looks like people dug through their garage for some ugly old stuff to hang on the walls, and then let their kids put it up.
And then there’s the service. There were people at only 3 or 4 tables, so no excuse for slow service, but it took quite awhile to get our meal. My husband’s Caesar salad was not exciting, so I was glad I hadn’t ordered one. He had the chicken piccata, which was actually decent. Unfortunately, my pasta was BLAND. I added a bunch of salt, which helped, but it was still pretty unedible. I ate maybe ¹⁄₈ of it. The server never came back to check on us, or I would have told her to take it away and bring me something else.
By the time the server returned, my husband had finished his meal, and most of mine was still sitting there. She asked if everything was okay as she cleared the table, and I said no, it was really bland. She said «oh», took it away, and NOBODY even apologized! They didn’t even take it off the bill! Not only did they not comp the meal I didn’t eat, they didn’t comp the corkage charge for the bottle of wine we brought, or offered free dessert, or anything else to make up for the experience. We were pretty shocked that a restaurant would be so indifferent to pleasing their customers.
What’s even worse is that I posted something about our experience on their FB page, and instead of apologizing at that point and asking us to give them another chance, like any decent restaurant would, they deleted my comment and blocked me from posting on their page. Who does that???

I just had an incredible meal at Palomares Café! We shared the Mediterranean appetizer platter among 5 people first. It was incredible! Delicious and beautifully served. Then I had the beef shawarma, which was also terrific. They serve it on a bed of hummus with cucumber and tomato around it. Also beautiful! My boyfriend got the lamb which was lovely and perfectly cooked. I will definitely be coming back here!

We love finding hidden local gems! We had an excellent dinner! We loved the lasagna and the chicken piccata! The service was top notch!

Amazingly flavorful dinner specials. His jambalaya had generous portions of mussels, clams & scallops. Just the right amount of heat! It wasn’t too fiery so I could enjoy the fresh tomato base with yellow bell peppers. Fresh baked bread with his caponata dip– the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, herbs, olives was a perfect accompaniment. The owner/​chef also makes everything from scratch — I love the Mediterranean appetizers. Hummus is fresh and light & he makes his own yogurt for the Tzatziki sauce for the Gyro. Sheblis makes THE best classic Cosmopolitan! And Ryan makes an equally memorable Martini (my fav is the Dirty martini). Palomares Café is a gem in the neighborhood.

Was part of a large group that didn’t give them a heads-​up to bring in more kitchen staff, and wait staff. So we swamped them on all fronts. That said, they were nice to put up with us.
They cooked me sand dabs. Pan fried, with garlic butter. Quite a meal. Buy this if available. The salmon is also a solid pick.

I feel bad, I really wanted to like this place. Slow, Slow, slow is all I can say and the restaurant was not busy. They don’t have a lot that is on the menu, stale bread, poor service. The restaurant is a Mish mash of décor, several styles, will not go back.

Amazing pasta. The chef who is also the owner has so much hospitality. It’s local, delicious and homey. I had the conhiegilie gorgonzola pasta and it was out of this world. A must try!

Excellently done pasta, and the filet mignon was in a reduction sauce I want to bathe in. *sigggghhhhhhhh*

Just a quick review, I’ll keep it short–
My husband decided to give this place a try since its close by home and we wanted to support the local. Once we walked in, the waitress greeted us and sat us down right away.
I ordered the Pesto Chicken Pasta which taste pretty good to me. It was well favored. However my husband Steak was really plain and tasteless. We also ordered the Potatoes skin for appetizer it was really good dipped in Ranch sauce. The waitress services was great, she gave my daughter a plastic cup fill with some ice and taped the lid so my daughter can be occupied while we finish up our meal. I thought that was sweet and smart. One suggestion, They need some music, it was really quiet.
Overall, service was good, food was okay. I’ll try this place again.

Food was great (I has the sea bass), but ambiance was lacking. I’m thinking they need to team up with The Doolittle next door– they have ambiance down.

Came here for lunch and ordered soup de jour with salad and mediterranean combination platter. We did see some negative reviews of this place but still wanted to try it anyway.
We came to know that the owner is from Jordan and the wife is from Genova, Italy, so they should know how to prepare their own authentic dishes.
Soup de jour was an absolute winner and was served in a good big portion size with salad. Enough to satisfy the hunger just for $ 7.95. What a deal!
Mediterranean combo platter was definitely authentic — the real deal! Their baba ganoush was one of the best I ever tasted, hummus was silky smooth and delicious! Dolma was cooked just right with good amount of herbs and lemon, Tabbouli tasted fresh and healthy, not soaking in oil at all, Yogurt was thick in texture and accompanied by herbs and cucumbers. Falafel was crunchy outside and soft inside, not on a dry side at all. Pita bread was freshly prepared and carried flavor. Tropical ice tea and the regular ice tea also was well prepared without any sugar added.
Overall the food was well prepared and carried its authenticity for the love of its country. However, we are going back to try Italian next time and will update our review.

Not sure how this place is going to stay open, unless they are banking on pulling in the desperate crowd coming from the hospital across the street. Three of us dined here for the first time. We just had to try out the new location. Speaking of location.. . To move from a decent sized space at the better end of the blvd. to a dumpy inside corner space that is behind a liquor store and next to a dive bar.. . Uh, what were you thinking???
Once inside, it’s not so bad. But, still…
I will be short and not so sweet on the rest here.
The service was unattentive, and we waited much too long for each piece of the service end of the experience. There were only three other tables of diners, and the dining area is just one big open area. So, it should not have been a challenge to see how all the tables were doing from any location within the room. Asked for water and ice tea three times before the server would bring it. But, boy was she quick to keep bringing the alcohol drinker HIS drinks.
Food was not good for all three of us. The Mediterranean dishes were flavorless and overcooked. And my pasta dish had been plated and then reheated, with super dry chicken. Almost inedible. When we commented to the server, she simply responded with «oh, I’m sorry you didn’t like it»…
And, then to wait and wait and wait for the final check.. .. Ugh.. .
We also noticed that from the time we arrived until the time we left, not a single new diner came in, and not a single of the other three tables got up to leave. It’s almost like they had been paid to sit there all night. Weird I’m just saying.
The owner would walk in and out of the dining room several times, yet would never stop to talk with any of his patrons. I find that the absolute indicator that he truly doesn’t care. Or, maybe knows what we would say, and just doesn’t want to have to listen to it.

Really wanted to like this place, but was very disappointed. The server was nice, but the food was terrible. I ordered pumpkin ravioli. They brought me ravioli with something white inside. I asked if it was pumpkin. They said yes. I asked again. They told me to try it. They checked with the kitchen. It turned out not to be pumpkin.
When they finally brought out the pumpkin ravioli it was severely undercooked. My boyfriend had the salmon risotto and was very disappointed. They has also erased the price from the sandwich board outside, so it looked like it was only going to be $ 14.95, but turned out to be $ 22.95. We decided to go somewhere else for dessert.: (

I generally don’t like to give bad reviews but last night was bad enough to warrant warning others. My husband and I went for Valentine’s Day and while the food was ok (not great) the service was terrible.
After we were seated (without napkins on the table or ever being brought) in a cramped area way too close to other tables, a server didn’t even bring us water for 20 minutes. After we got water we waited another 10 minutes to see our waitress to order. Another 20 minutes after we had already ordered, our waitress comes back to tell my husband that what he ordered was not available! Apparently it takes 20 minutes to find that out.
Almost an hour and half after we got there we received food, however, it was not our food. I ordered chicken and received fish. My husband received the wrong side dish with his steak. At this point I didn’t want to send the food back since we had already been waiting so long so we ate it. 15 minutes later our waitress comes out with what we had actually ordered looking confused.
While the food was not terrible, the fish was too salty and my husband’s steak was not cooked evenly — one end was medium rare and one end was medium well. After botching our orders we thought the waitress would at least comp one meal after she apologized and said she would ‘take care of it,’ but that was too much to hope for. The best part of the night was laughing at how horrible the service was for everyone in the restaurant. We were not the only ones being ignored.
Seems to me that they the staff needs lessons in customer service and they need to hire more people to get up to minimum restaurant standards.

Valentines Day let-​down.
So, I have dined at both Palomares Café when it was up at the other shopping Center and at Sazio’s. From what I have read, the two parties (Sazio’s cook and the Palomares Owners) have joined to open the New Palomares Café. The expectation would be that the results were great. I vote «not so much».
We had reservations. We’re seated early as we made sure to get there early as we wanted to have a drink at the bar. Didn’t happen, because that’s not an option. That was fine, so we ordered at our table.
We arrived at 7:36pm… Had 1 water refill, was wished «Happy Thanksgiving» (a sign that the staff is a little frazzled), had to order a different dish as the one I originally chose was out of stock and had to wait at least 30 minutes for my bar drink (probably had to google the drink recipe).
When we finally got our food, the presentation (especially for the prices) was, «MEH». Spaghetti and meatballs, could use a piece of garlic bread to pretty the plate or even 2 small breadsticks. The same goes with the chicken Alfredo. My son loved the meatballs, he said they were amazing. My husband said the chicken felt like it had been rehydrated and the sauce was too thick.
My dish, although not what I had originally wanted, was tasty. My only complaint was the potatoes were very dry and the ice cream scoop serving made it feel like a school lunch.
I received my second drink after dinner, although I had ordered before our dishes came to the table. Because it was already 9:45pm, I was ready to go. This was dinner for 3 on Thanksgiving, I mean Valentines Day and it left me feeling pretty let down. I know this is a re-​start for this business. But they need to get it together. Until the next time…

So this is its second location and they have a new business partner — the guy who used to own Sazio (which had to be torn down to make way for the Eden Medical Group building). Even though my parents LOVE Palomares Café, I’ll admit, it’s not my absolute favorite, but it isn’t bad either.
In fact, I think with this new location, they’ve upped their game. Unfortunately, they don’t have a bar you can sit at anymore (liquor regulations?), but you can order from your table. Their specials posted on the board are pretty good and offer a lot of fresh seafood and pasta. They still have their classic Mediterranean menu that was featured at Palomares Café’s old location, if you still want your favorite classic.
Good food, good service, and one of the few nice restaurants in CV.

People in Castro Valley are always complaining that we don’t have any good restaurants… they haven’t eaten here. The food is fantastic. Full of flavor. And a very calmand pleasant atmosphere.

So we came here on a Saturday night. My wife and I were looking for a place to have an appetizer and a glass of wine. What we found at the Palomares Café was a rude, disorganized and incompetent staff.
I arrive there to find out what time they close. There’s no signage on the front that says what the hours are. That’s fine, I understand that they just moved recently. I go inside to ask what time they close and the lady didn’t know what time they closed. She had to talk to some guy in the back to tell me they close at 11pm. That should have been a sign for me to walk away and go to the doolittle 2 doors down.
So my wife and I get seated. Another server puts water and bread on our table. While we are waiting, another server looks at us and asks «are you guys going to be ordering food?».
Well, I didn’t ask walk into your restaurant just to have a seat and look at the Mediterranean art on the wall or stare at paint. What do YOU THINK?
After about 5 minutes (the restaurant was not busy at all. Maybe 8 people in the place), a THIRD server takes our order. After Server #2 decided to ask such a stupid question, we decided we weren’t hungry and just wanted wine.
So after another 8 minutes of no wine, we decided to find something else to do and left.
There are many questions that I will never have answered:
How many servers does it take bring bread, water and take a customer’s order?
What kind of server asks such a stupid question like «are you here to order food?»
How do you not know what your hours are?
I will never step foot into an establishment like this.

First customer at their new location. Very happy that they are open again. It is a shame the Alameda Planning Commission and MAC forced them to put a wall up in front of their bar. Great place to go. Menu is the same. Can’t wait until I can go back. Great local non-​chain restaurant worth supporting.
Just wish MAC and Nate Miley would support local small business instead of only chain stores. Otherwise they would not make it so difficult for businesses to thrive in my home town.