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In the Tri-Valley, where else can you get a full-sized portion of four chicken lettuce wraps and a Margarita for $15.00? How about two smoked ham and cheese filled waffles for $6.00 or a fill-your-tummy jalapeño cheese-filled bread for $5.50?
I often shop online. But after a few recent forays to Stoneridge Shopping Center, I can vouch that people still shop and eat there. Stoneridge highlights five restaurants and 16 more dining options with takeout or minimal seating on their website.
Sometimes I stop by City Center at Bishop Ranch which lists 16 tempting food and drink options on their website. The two outstanding gourmet restaurants, Slanted Door and LB Steak, serve a $59 signature shaking beef for $58 and a $55 New York strip steak respectively. I may dine around City Center another time.
Here is an overview of wallet-friendly dining at Stoneridge Mall.
P.F. Chang’s offers multiple special deals
You can order the P.F. Chang’s Chef’s Feast for two starting at $24.99 per person. The copious amount of food with soup or salad, a shared appetizer, and two entrées is remarkable and good quality for $50. You can select $5.00 upgrades to dine on options like new firecracker shrimp or popular Mongolian beef. We took home leftovers.
For exceptional value, select from the All Day Every Day Specials with $10 appetizers and $5 drinks served at the bar. We saddled up and enjoyed a fine feast of full-size lettuce chicken wraps and six dumplings plus a Pink Lotus Cosmo and Zen Margarita for $20. Other options on the Specials menu include crab wontons, crispy green beans, draft domestic beer and wine.
A cost-saving Limited Time Special, The Golden Feast, is noteworthy and available through January. Operating Partner Chris Gravel told me that since P.F. Chang’s has changed their concept from Chinese restaurant to Asian Bistro. The feast reflects this orientation by offering Asian fried chicken and bubbles, a tradition especially popular in Korea. An entrée sized bucket of Korean fried chicken or Taiwanese Popcorn Fried Chicken and either Champagne, Prosecco or Sapporo lager has special pricing.
Other dining deals are listed on the Lunch Favorites menu. The price for soup, salad or egg roll, beef with broccoli, orange chicken, Mongolian tofu or other options tops out at $17.
iSee Cream has savory treats, too
Opened in May 2024, iSee Cream is locally owned and managed by Chalina Chen and her husband who live in Castro Valley. Given the name, Chen offers up soft serve with flavors they add to the base ice cream. Depending on the day, you can get combo twirls such as matcha and vanilla bean, ube and milk tea, or strawberry with chocolate.
The value propositions at iSee Cream are the sweet and savory filled taiyaki waffles shaped like a red sea bream fish. These Japanese and Korean street food specialties are filled with sweet and savory flavors such as vanilla custard, cheddar cheese, or traditional red bean paste. The cost is only $5.50 for two pieces presented in a box. The five-piece Taiyaki special pricing will fill you or several people up for $10.50. An upgrade of 50 cents brings smoked ham and cheese or corn cheese with homemade cheese sauce or vanilla and boba.
The taiyaki are made in waffle makers sourced from Korea that are hand-trimmed into the fish shape. The big, open-mouthed fish are filled with soft serve which is also available in traditional waffle cones.
Andersen Bakery Café with pastries and sandwiches
With so many changes in dining at the Mall over the years, I was pleased that Andersen Bakery was open.
Nordstrom and its café closed in 2020. Years ago, Macy’s Women’s store had a café on the second floor. Now the store hosts a scaled down Starbuck’s on the ground floor.
Andersen’s still stocks my friend’s favorite snack, the international cheese bread, a toothsome option for $5.50. The bakery sells a cup of soup with a slice of sourdough for $5.45 and sandwiches such as egg salad for $5.35 or the Ropa Vieja, Cuban inspired slow roasted beef with pickled vegetables, cilantro lime slaw and salsa verde for $11.95
Go Fish Poke Bar presents price-friendly bowls
People paused their shopping to check out the many options at the Go Fish Poke Bar.
My friend’s comment about the Go Fish Poke bar was, “This is a whole meal for $14.00. Poke can be good or bad This one is good.”
You can select three fish options for your bowl with the fixings for $14.00 or five fish for $17.00. There are Naked fish options without sauce such as ahi tuna, salmon and seared albacore. The Dressed options include Signature Poke Mix, Sesame Gomae Shrimo, or spicy scallops.
We dipped into our bowl of the signature poke mix option on white rice with ponzu sauce and toppings of masago fish eggs, ginger and spicy tempura flakes. Go Fish also serves hand rolls and for non-fish lovers, miso short ribs and shoyu ginger chicken.
Croffles and Co. with Peet’s coffee
To pair with your croffle, a pasty that looks like a waffle but tastes like a croissant, Croffles and Co. serves Peet’s coffee and popping boba drinks. Croffles are a popular snack of Korean origin. The Mall location opened two years ago, and another takeout shop is in Newpark Mall, Newark.
The deal here is the plain croffle at $3.50 A set of five plain croffles to fill hungry tummies is $15.00 saving $2.50; seven croffles for $19.00 saves $5.50. But let’s face it. The specialty croffles costing $5.50 have more eye-candy appeal. The triple choco looked good, but unlike many people, I’m not fond of regular croissants and abstained.
Yuyake DanDan Japanese Tapas and more
The restaurant also calls itself an izakaya, which means a casual eating place like a pub or tapas bar. Early on a Saturday night, the only seating at Yuyake DanDan was at the sushi bar.
Opened a few years ago, Pleasanton is the only Yuyake iDanDan location. Yuyake means “sunset” in Japanese—a good time to slurp up beef bone broth ramen with black truffle for $18.00. The ribeye slices on top are tender and flavorful.
With over 45 dishes of tapas appetizers, sushi, nigiri, and bento boxes, the prices range from tofu salad for $7.00 to grilled salmon for $18.00 and higher. As we left, the head sushi chef thanked us warmly for our visit.
The Cheesecake Factory slims down the menu
Across from P.F. Chang’s, The Cheesecake Factory menu touts 250 items. The spiral shape of the menu comprises 12 pages, but the menu’s physical footprint is smaller these days. A taller and skinnier Skinnylicious menu also has multiple sections. Given the need to shop around, and the long wait, I did not dine there. But I noted that until 3:00 p.m., the Chinese Chicken Salad is priced at $17.95 among the Lunch Favorites.
Before we left the Mall, we stuck our heads in California Pizza Kitchen. The long-standing restaurant was busy and dressed up for the holiday.
We observed the decked-out Santa Klaus patiently listening to kids’ Christmas wish lists in the Mall’s Grand Court. Later we saw a festive event unfold in the distance at P.F. Chang’s as a lucky person celebrated a birthday with a free chocolate soufflé served on a gold placement and plate. The dessert is accompanied by an empty wine bottle outfitted with a cap which holds a candle and a sparkler that lasts while you make a wish. A freebie to wish for in 2025.
With all the dining at the Mall, there are two more spaces with restaurant signage expected to open in the future, Tacqueria El Gran Amigo and Master Shen.
Meanwhile, a cheery Wetzel’s Pretzel clerk handed over my Wetzel’s pretzel costing less than $5.50 which served as a basic comfort food during the rush of the pre-holiday season.
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