Daily Archives: August 29th, 2008

Pasta Primavera – San Mateo

Dinner tonight @ Pasta Primavera (PP) in San Mateo off 4th Avenue was good. I’ve been to the Walnut Creek one at least 3-4 times already, so I already had an idea of what to expect.

I personally like the San Mateo Pasta Primavera over the Walnut Creek Pasta Primavera. Even though it’s the same restaurant, there are slight differences to each…

  • PP in San Mateo has better dipping sauce. — You can taste the sun dried tomatoes, spices and oil in this dip, which is very tasty. I don’t know what’s in the Walnut Creek dipping sauce…I can’t tell.
  • PP in San Mateo has better service. — Our waitress was friendly, attentive and quick. My first 3 experiences in Walnut Creek were bad. Food was good, but service sucked most of the time. It sucked because I kept on getting the same waitress, who sucked at waitressing :P . She messed up on our order and the order for the table next to us. She never offered us parmegian cheese or fresh ground pepper for our soups and meals – I saw all the other waitresses do this for their tables. And she never checked on us to see if we needed anything or how we were doing – no refills on water, nothing!
  • PP in Walnut Creek makes Shrimp and Scallops Carmen better. — I can’t figure out why, but Shrimp and Scallops Carmen dish tastes better at the Walnut Creek location. However, it doesn’t taste that much better. I’ll go to San Mateo over Walnut Creek any day.

John’s Seafood Primavera was really good. So good that I wanted to trade my dish for his. Seafood Primavera is definitely recommended.

Shanghai Dumpling Shop…

Skipped out on free pizza to eat with John and Patrick @ Shanghai Dumpling Shop for lunch – a very wise decision :)

I was surprised to see the wide variety they offered on their menu. John and Patrick have been there before, so I ate whatever they wanted to pick out.

What we got:

  • 2 orders of dumplings
  • 1 dish of fried noodles with fried sparerib
  • 1 red bean pastry – very dessert like

Verdict?

Food is good and I’ll definitely come back.

I really liked all 3 dishes. Dumplings were flavorful and actually had broth inside (I’ve had a bad experience @ dim sum where we ordered shanghai dumplings and they were dry as hell). Noodles were a bit on the greasy side, but that’s nothing unusual. It was flavorful as well and so were the spareribs.

Red bean dessert is something really I like, but I’m not sure how many others would agree. I’ll order this dish the next time I go. I’d only recommend it if you like red bean or asian puff-like pastries that have red bean.

Cost of food was fair. For all 3 of us, total came out to about $11 per person. I think it’s safe to say we all left with satisfied stomachs for the price.

Thanks to the guys for introducing me to Shanghai Dumpling Shop!!! :)

Boom Boom Boom…

hahahhahahah!

Oh man. While driving to work this morning, energy 92.7 played a song that I haven’t heard in years. I couldn’t help but laugh.

Man, ol’ skool. A song like this back-in-the-days seemed naughty. Now, it sounds like a joke. haha. How times have changed.