Pizza Bello

Pizza Bello
3037 Hopyard Road, Ste. C, Pleasanton, CA 94588
925-264-5996

Pizza Bello is a new Italian restaurant located next to All Star Sports in the Hopyard Village Plaza. I happen to be a Peet's junky, so I acquired a flyer there good for 10% off a food purchase.

Today, the power went out in my neighborhood, so I went in search of something to eat and a cool environment with Wifi. Peets was packed so I headed over to Pizza Bello, thinking to give them a try.

When I entered, the establishment was empty and there was only one employee in sight--a dark-haired man in the kitchen, visible through the service window. I studied the menu, noticed prices were high and the sandwich menu only listed two options. Still waiting, I decided to try the Italian sub anyway because it looked good.

I looked up, attempted eye contact with the man in the kitchen who was facing the window, so he must have been able to see me. He never said hi, never called the cashier to let him know they had a customer, never acknowledged me.

After five minutes, I walked out and went across the parking lot to Mr. Pickles. There the male employee offered a friendly greeting as soon as I walked in and waited patiently while I decided what I wanted from their huge sandwich menu. The Mr. Pickles sandwich was great--fresh bread, moist chicken, bright green, soft avocado, fresh toppings.

He threw in a free chocolate chip cookie when he rang me up.

My advice to anyone thinking about trying Pizza Bello is to bypass it and head directly to Mr. Pickles.

Handles Gastropub -- 4 Snarks

855 Main Street
Pleasanton, CA 94566
925-399-6690

Yet another new restaurant has opened in the Pleasanton Hotel, which has been the site of at least two restaurants (to the best of my knowledge): the former Pleasanton Hotel restaurant and The Farmer's Restaurant.

Mr. Snark and I love to try new restaurants, so we loaded Miss Bear, our precocious three-year-old, into the minivan and headed over there around Noon on Saturday afternoon.

Now, this is speculation, but I think part of the reason that previous restaurants in this location have failed are partially due to three reasons: 

1. Main Street has so many restaurants and food offerings, it is an intensely competitive area.
2. The Pleasanton Hotel is located in a sorta out of the way area, right after you come over the little bridge that runs over the creek.
3. Parking in this area sucks and it is difficult to locate the lot BEHIND Pleasanton Hotel.

On the other hand, longtime residents of Pleasanton know where The Pleasanton Hotel is located and where to park. But for those not in the know--you drive past the hotel and then turn right into the lot adjacent to the Rose Hotel. Then drive to the back of the lot and turn right to enter The P-Town hotel's lot.

Handles Gastropub -- I LOVE the name.

Management should be made aware that their double banquet doors without a sign are deceptive and confusing. (These are the doors at the top of the little bridge before you get to the patio seating area.) Mr. and Mrs. Snark observed anther couple tug futilely on the doors, shrug and then leave.

(I tried to tell them a couple times that the entrance is ON Main Street but they weren't listening.)

A little further along the building is a helpful sign stating that the entrance is ON Main Street. But that's not soon enough for not-so-bright people. Management, move that sign to the left, onto those banquet doors. It'd be sad if Handles Gastropub went out of business because  one in ten customers can't locate the front doors.

That said, we entered and were seated immediately. We chose to sit inside. The interior of the restaurant appeared deserted. More people were sitting on the patio.

Service was sluggish.  There weren't any salt or pepper shakers on the tables. The interior was clean and attractive.

We started with an appetizer--the California Cheese Board. The cheese platter was pretty steeply priced at $12.95 and I was disappointed when it arrived with only two cheeses on it. The Jack cheese was really good, as was the soft cheese that we speculated might have been a Camembert. It had a mild flavor but was really runny. However, it paired well with the candied walnuts and dried cranberries. The grilled flat bread was also good. The seasonal fruit wound up being just a few sliced strawberries. Again, for thirteen bucks, I expected more.

We ordered a chicken strip child meal for our daughter. Chicken was moist and delicious and fries were very tasty. In fact, fries were almost all my daughter ate.

I had the turkey, bacon and avocado salad from the specials menu. The salad was excellent (and HUGE). The turkey was cut small, as was the real bacon. The lettuce was fresh and crisp. They didn't drown the salad in herb dressing, and the cubes of avocado were soft. I ordered without tomatoes so I can't comment on them. I was very happy with my entree.

My husband ordered the Handles Pastrami Reuben. He stated he was happy with his sandwich and it was "made the way a Reuben is supposed to be made". I didn't sample his sandwich but I did observe the bread appeared to be far superior to what you'd find in most grocery stores. It had rich swirls of color throughout, like you'd expect from bakery bread. 

The husband also swilled a couple of their Alisal ale, which he also declared delicious. I'm not a beer drinker, so I stuck to soda. The beers were reasonably priced at $5 each.

The bill came to about $55 for the three of us.

After the meal, it took a while to find our waitress to obtain our daughter's sundae, a to-go box and the bill. I admit, the service and the lack of variety on the cheese tray are pulling my rating down a star. So I'm awarding Handles Gastropub only 4 Snarks instead of 5.

They serve Sunday brunch, so I can guarantee we'll be back again. I hope they get their sign situation squared away  and remain in business so we can continue to go there for a long time to come.