Banchero's Italian Dinners

Started evening with a drink at the bar with Adrian, lot's of fun. You will love this bartender. I was lucky enough to sit at a table with Carol as our server - incredibly 30+ years service at Banchero's, no mistakes, impeccable service. The food was good and in abundance, just like old fashioned iltalian. You must try this restaurant, You can't go wrong!!!

Pros: Excellent Service

Cons: too much food...................

Posted 03/11/09

This is one of the Best Italian restaurants I have been to for a while. Best foods are soup, salad, French bread, antipasta platter, choice of entre, desert, especially the soup!

Great family restaurant the multi-course dinners are wonderful. Reservations Facility is also available. Good restaurant

Posted 10/23/08

Cheap, but not memorable --- Growing up in Hayward, I had always heard about Bancheros and how great the food was. Boy, was this place over-hyped. Although the service was fast and friendly -- the food ranged from bad to bland. The garlic bread was okay, but not any better then what I can make at home by myself. The soup was very watered down and flavorless. The meat appetizer was too scary to eat and the salad was nothing worth writing about. I ordered the chicken parmesan, which was somewhat salty. My husband had ravioli, it reminded me of the stuff you get out of cans. The ice cream for dessert was fine - but it was probably scooped out of a carton. Overall, you get a ton of food for the money... but you definitely get what you pay for. The meal filled my stomach up, but that's about it. Calling the food "true Italian" would be an insult to all the other wonderful Italian restaurants in the Bay Area!

Pros: friendly and fast service

Cons: the food

Posted 11/09/07

I have been in and out of this restaurant over the years. Required family eating if you live in this part of the East Bay. But on a return visit I found out this place has gotten no better than when i was a kid.

The food is very poor = prepared in too much water or sauce The pasta is so very over cooked - Its like its been sitting in some water all day, by the time it gets to your table its watery and has diluted the sauce.

The soup is not much, it also has the taste that its been sitting all day - it has little content or flavor. The salad I had was wilted and over oiled. The pre meat plate was as one writer already mentioned. " right from the can to your table" the meat tray was poorly presented and not very interesting and I had to pass on it.

The service is OK- the servers reflect on how long the place has been around - some seem very board with the costumers and friendly to the regulars. Its very senior friendly - I would guess some of the seniors that crowd this place have been coming here since they were young and are accustom to the bland taste of this over cooked mush.

The prices are OK - but you pay for what you get , not much.
I am so upset when i read some of their regular costumers post here and say this is the best ever. It worries me that many have not eaten better food as of yet.

Stay away from this place.. or to recreate this food experience on your own, open some canned pasta products and canned fruit and day old salad and - wow you have a Bancheros experience. Vmedia

Pros: Senior Friendly

Cons: over cooked watered down pasta and canned foods used.

Posted 08/01/07

Wow. Where to start. To prepare you for your meal they start you off with an "appetizer" plate which consists of a warm can pineapple, the thinnest slice of salami and mystery meet I have ever seen, canned pickled vegetables, a few olives and a few fuzzy anchovies straight from the tin. If you survive the appetizer.... next comes the soup. Their thinking must be that anything is a step up after the appetizer plate so they could serve walpaper paste and you probably wouldn't mind. The soup, alas tastes like the generic version of campbells but of course is FAR superior to the appetizer plate. The pastas are a bit limp but the ravioli does taste better than.....chef boy ar dee. (Oh i forgot the ice berg salad and the splash you in the face and call you sally VINAGRY italian dressing - it is easy to forget the salad.) The entrees range from mediocre to awful. Stick with simple inexpensive things like the fried chicken. They charge you extra for maranara sauce cause the meat sauce is soooo bad. It's worth paying extra for the marinara. The bread is good. If you learn what not to eat (90% of the menu) you can have a passable meal at a reasonable price. The take out pastas are okay for the kids, they love that junk.

Pros: dining room dim, drinks, fried calamari appetizer

Cons: in general? the fooooood

Posted 07/20/07

This is one of the Best Italian restaurants I have been to for a while. Great food, excellent service. We had a group of 10 for dinner and the waitress seated us promptly. We had a blast and I would recommend this restaurant to anyone.

Pros: food, service

Posted 01/25/07

From the canned soup, to the canned and pickled vegetables, to the canned salad dressing, to the bulk spumoni, it's not worth the average $18 per meal at our table of 10. The entrees and garlic bread were good, but I've had better. The atmosphere was a tiny step above Sizzler. None of us are going back. And no one wanted the large bowls of canned soup to take home.

Pros: Faster than we thought, some entrees weren't bad

Cons: Overpriced, canned food taste to soup, cheap tasting salad, lousy location

Posted 01/22/07

Ive been eating at Bancheros since I was 6 im 58 and recently had to move out of California let me tell you lucky people one thing keep going there because it is the best Italian you will ever have and you never know when you might have to leave.There garlic bread is to die for and there soup is the very best and there sauce is old world Italian you cant get anywhere else so relish in it you people are lucky.

Pros: The pure old world Italian food

Cons: Sometimes the wait is a bit much but worth evvery minute.

Posted 06/24/06

Ok the seating and service are fast. The waitress was helpful. The food.... below average, way below. The soup is NOT good by any standard. the bread is alright, nothing spectacular and the Italian dishes taste watered down and "canned." The spumoni however is quite good and is probably a national brand i.e. perhaps Dreyers. I went once and shall not return or recommend.

Posted 06/22/06

You will wait forever in long lines to eat garlic bread made with garlic salt, iceberg lettuce salad served with industrialized salad dressing and pasta that tastes more like Chef Boyardee. There was nothing in the whole meal I liked.

However, if your usual diet consists of McDonald's, Pizza Hut and Hungry Man dinners, I suppose Banchero's will be a notch above.

This place isn't worth it if prices would drop by half.

Not again, ever.

Pros: affordable

Cons: awful food

Posted 07/28/05

I went there the other night after my sister had read about it on here.
I liked that it was reasonably priced and you get all kinds of things with your meal.
The decor was dated as it is in many restaurants in hayward. The soup was very good and so was everything else.
Not the best italian food but worth it because you get all kinds of things with your meal.
Good garlic bead and good spumoni.

Posted 04/25/05

Banchero's is this great family-run restaurant that has been in operation for many years. Decor is dated, but this place isn't a "fancy" restaurant. You get soup, salad, french bread, antipasta platter, choice of entree, and dessert (get the spumoni). Also, be sure to add an order of their delicious garlic bread. I'm a fan of the stuffed shrimp. But you can't really go wrong with anything there. Plus, you can take home the leftovers. The staff are mostly Banchero's old timers, and are friendly and knowledgeable. Reservations only for 5+ people. And they do take out.

Pros: garlic bread, good prices, lots of food

Cons: , occasional long wait, parking can fill up

Posted 01/21/05

My husband and I both have been going to this restaurant since we were 3 years old, (approx. 50 yrs.) it is a family tradition, on both sides of the family! The food is scrumptious, especially the soup! The ravioli is wonderful, the swiss chard served with entrees is mouth watering, salmon or New York Steak are our favorite entrees. Infact, all the food is of high quality and just has that special Bancheros taste that we've come to love. Bancheros has a special place in our hearts. We'vd had engagement celebrations, family get togethers, and it's the first place we take the kids to and now the grandkids to continue the tradition. We've lived in another state for 20 years and miss Bancheros so much that we even get misty-eyed when we talk about it! Needless to say, we visit everytime we go back to the bay area!

Pros: tasty food, worth the wait, home

Cons: can be crowded, limited parking

Posted 10/07/02

great family restaurant the multi course dinners are wonderful try the chicken

Pros: lots of food, flavorful, friendly

Cons: loud

Posted 09/15/02