Luthien's Profile
Alexanders - Cupertino
Strange, because I've had somewhat of an opposite experience from you. I have enjoyed most meals I've had here, but the service was always very uneducated. They didn't check to make sure that the wines by the glass they served us were uncorked (one was), and one time we made sure to confirm that by their definition, a rare steak had a "cold, red center" but the manager came out after it was served and we showed the server that it was not what we ordered and said what we wanted was a "black and blue" steak.
Wasabi tobiko / caviar in San Francisco
Yes, Tsar Nicoulai has it in the ferry building. It's a little novel, but why buy that when you can get it "unflavored"?
Any caviar sightings at Costco?
I've seen it at multiple costcos in the past week. Stamped good until February.
What's Good at Ad Hoc Besides the Fried Chicken
I've been to Ad Hoc three times and each time it's been worth it. We've always gone without knowing the menu and have still enjoyed it. We've had Osso Bucco, braised beef ribs, and recently pork tenderloin with a side of polenta made with marscapone as the main courses. All of their food is just prepared so well that I think it is worth it to go in blind. I heard the next day after we went was going to be veal scallopini and I had to hold myself back from going again.
If you're looking for other restaurants worth the drive, Bistro Jeanty (as someone else mentioned) is definitely worth it as well.
San Jose Dining Recommendations
This thread was pointed to in a more recent thread so I have to update here.
Skip A.P. Stumps, Arcadia, and Tied House. The first brought us out severely heat damaged wines, cancelled our reservations on us without calling us on one occasion, and substituted a fish I had ordered because they ran out and didn't ask me if I cared for the substitution. The second went way down hill in the past years, and the third brought out a hamburger when we ordered a cheeseburger. When we talked with the waitstaff on rectifying the matter, it took them forever and their solution was to bring out a slice of cheese.
Jeffrey's in Menlo Park - now open
Now that Brix is closed, I suspect it is going to get a higher amount of people going.
Just went there today. The garlic fries were rather good (though I did ask for more garlic on them). Had a bite of husband's burger and that was also rather good and done medium perfectly.
I haven't been to Kirks, but I'm happy to have a good burger joint since the last time I went to Red Robin, it came out well done and cold even though I asked for medium.
French macarons in Redwood City - Pamplemousse Patisseries et Cafe
I'm so glad this post was bumped! The macarons here are just what I've been looking for the past months!
Walking distance of Crowne Plaza, San Jose?
Arcadia has continued its downhill trend in the past years.
Free Copia admission in January / February - what is good about it?
Husband and I used to be members there. The first time we went to the death by chocolate, it was amazing. They had several vendors and various chocolates. The second time we went there, a lot of the specialty chocolate places had disappeared and it was now more "cheap" chocolate usually paired with something. The third time did not boast anything better than the second so we decided to skip it. You aren't supposed to take the products out of the area as far as I was told.
We also attended a couple wine tastings and talks. I sometimes found their education to be biased or misleading. Since we don't really drink many wines other than dessert wines, we don't get as much value out of it as a more broad wine drinker might.
A first time Tanto San Jose visit.
Went to the other Tanto (owned by the same people) and it was just as good. So far, I've tried chazuke at Izakaya Mai and a location in Fremont and Tanto's chazuke was far superior (Mai tasted tinny and the Fremont location tasted watery).
Tried Niku Tofu and it was very, very tasty!
Tanto really has their dashi down pat!
San Jose or Morgan Hill sushi location request
Ooh! That might be doable (20 minute drive, but we've done 15 minute drives for things). I'm not looking for fancy, just *actually* good sushi and close to work. I've had so much bad sushi down south. :(
Thanks for the recommendation!
San Jose or Morgan Hill sushi location request
*Very* south. The 85-101 junction is five miles north of where I work.
Oyakodon on the Eastside?
There used to be a place called Cafe Hiro in the U-district that made THE perfect Oyakodon in the mid 90s. If I could just find out where that chef went!
San Jose or Morgan Hill sushi location request
When going on my own, I will travel far. However, I work in the south bay. The *very* south bay. There's got to be some place down here that is at least "okay" and within our commute time limit for lunch. I haven't found it yet and I've gone to five different locations.
Please help me locate a sushi place I can go out with my co-workers?
In defense of Izakaya Mai, San Mateo
Just went there again last night.
The gindara was flaky and tender, but lacked flavor.
The mentaiko chazuke was not as good as Tanto's and was watery.
The broth with the champon was really tasty and the ingredients of mussels(?) squid, fishcake, and cabbage were all good, but the noodles tasted like overcooked lo mein. I have no previous experience with champon so I don't know if this is correct or not.
The chicken karaage was fantastic! Very flavorful.
My two pieces of hamachi were acceptable.
Curry was still tasty, but of an average quality to sub-par quality rather than what I know it can be out there.
A first time Tanto San Jose visit.
Mavjop and I went to Tanto last night because Gochi (another izakaya we have yet to try) was fully booked.
We had the following (apologies that my memory is so bad that I can't recall the exact names)
Nori Chazuke: I ordered this on a whim and was very pleasantly surprised. The Dashi was very flavorful. Not overpowering and not too light.
Kani Koroke: round half-dollar sized medallions of fried potato croquette. While tasty, we didn't notice any kani.
Dashimaki Tamago with nori, negi, and daikon: I was hoping this would be sweet like tamago nigiri. I was wrong and couldn't really taste the dashi. Mavjop enjoyed it and it went well with....
shioyaki pork and negi: very tasty thin strips of pork with plenty of salt.
katsu with miso paste: I'm not a fan of white meat, but Mavjop enjoyed this. I enjoyed the side of potato salad that it came with.
Saba oshi sushi: I'd never had this before. Marinated Saba with what I believe was shiso leaf over a block of rice. Yum!
Yaki onigiri Cha: This unexpectedly (we've never had it before) came with ikura and tiny fish in the broth. Also flavorful, but I preferred the simpler nori chazuke.
Everything was tasty to at least one of us. I preferred the environment here over Saizo (hard for me to get past yakitori made over an electric grill) and thought it was better quality as well (most definitely in the sushi department). I definitely intend to come back here to work my way further through the menu as we missed out on fish, duck, and noodle dishes as well as their hidden (not translated) okonomiyaki.
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Tanto Japanese Restaurant
1306 Saratoga Ave, San Jose, CA 95129
Chinese-ish bride going mad seeking moderately priced Chinese banquet in SF for reception.
Sounds like Gold Mountain is being taken care of in the "known" department (I've also been there). I'd probably try out the recommendations that are the alternative to it.
I had my banquet in San Jose at Dynasty. Our tables were around $500 per table and we got *several* compliments about the food. The price can go up or down per table, but that price range had what we wanted. We were both over 30, but my parents contributed toward the price (I reminded them about completely for my younger sib's wedding two years ago).
And wow! That is a small banquet! I was also fighting with my Chinese Mom about the open-ended guest list because all the "last minute additions" were driving me insane with confirming the reservations with the restaurant.
Best bet is to develop a relationship with the restaurant you are interested in. I'd eaten several times with Dynasty before and even planned a mini-banquet (20 people) there so they were familiar with me by the time I was making wedding banquet plans.
Best Peking Duch with pancakes not buns
If they aren't, I am! I appreciate a nice bao, but I miss the regular *thin* pancakes as well (definitely don't like the flour and corn tortilla wrappings I've seen around here) and haven't found a local place that has them.
SFO Terminal 3?
It turned out that Fung Lum was open before 7 so I ate there since I couldn't stomach the sushi prices ($12 for 4 sake sashimi pieces?). The dim sum was incredibly overpriced as well ($5 for a bamboo container of 3!) but at least I knew the dim sum would be filling whereas I can't always trust sushi to be filling. The dim sum was okay, but a little greasy. Not near as greasy as bad dim sum places, but an incredible quality for airport food. The ham soi gat (sp?) was fresh out of the basket. It had little filling in it, but I was pleased with the deep fried mochi surrounding it.
Never got to have dinner as our plane was delayed by 2 hours, getting us in at 1:30 am, although we were two rows back on the same plane with Thomas Keller. Yes, THE Thomas Keller.
Oh, and don't buy the Crystal Geyser water there. It's from the LA source rather than the Nor-Cal source and thus (in my book) tastes bad.
SFO Terminal 3?
For this flight, I'm in T3. It sounds like Ebisu is good enough such that one should just pop down to international no matter which terminal one is in, but it won't be open by the time my flight takes off.
SFO Terminal 3?
We're flying out early in the morning (7:50am) and are going to be in need of breakfast options so I wanted to hear about any updates on Terminal 3 eats.
I've seen Tomokazu (opening at 6am) recommended:
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/405584
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/438982
We'll be leaving before Ebisu even opens (8am) and Fung Lum will be cutting it too close (7:30am though we may be able to make it there for our return trip arriving at 11pm.. but who wants to eat at a restaurant an hour before closing?)
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/41913
So, any updates on food quality or other recommendations? Might as well add the ones we can't get to so that people can just refer to the terminal 3 thread.
Tasting Menu Crawl - Gary Danko no!
They had both a chocolate and grand marnier the second time to last time I went. I chose the latter. I know they've since stopped making one of them, but that it changes depending on the season.
Tasting Menu Crawl - Gary Danko no!
I ate there several times last year (2006). Some things were spectacular (the souffle with raspberry gelato comes to mind as well as the duck breast) and some things were bland (the salmon medallions..). Their cheese selection has been great and honestly, by the end of a 5 course meal, I can't eat that much cheese. Overall, I've enjoyed my dinners there and like the decor.
Plan is to go there again in November.
Gary Dankos or French Laundry
I've actually wondered about this. If you don't feel you have enough to comment for a full review post, should you add onto a thread?
Is it a bad thing to dig up a thread if all you're going to do is add it to Places?
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The French Laundry
6640 Washington Street, Yountville, CA 94599
Gary Danko
800 N Point St, San Francisco, CA 94109
The 2007 Chowing with the Hounds Picnic report!
Cardamom ice cream! Seriously, it is really good stuff!
The 2007 Chowing with the Hounds Picnic report!
You can order it directly from the winery. A couple friends of mine and I get together and buy a couple cases every year.
Junk Food & Office Productivity
Some people would disagree with the "bad for you" due to carb and sodium avoidance.
In defense of Izakaya Mai, San Mateo
Went there Friday night. Most everything was tasty although they totally screwed up our vegetarian's order. We ordered vegetarian udon and confirmed absolutely no meat and no fish. Yet, a piece of fishcake ended up in it. With the futomaki roll, it had both salmon and surimi in it.
The oyako don was okay. I prefer more flavor. The Gindara was really tasty, but a rather small piece from what I'm used to. Seaweed salad was good, but how can one really mess that up? Curry was tasty, and the sushi was surprisingly not bad. I would have figured in a restaurant that was all over the place that the sushi would be mediocre and it wasn't! There was a good amount of Japanese clientel and our waiter spoke Japanese as well so we could confirm certain dishes listed in English were the ones we were familiar with in Japanese. I really liked how they had mini-dishes so we could get a bunch of different things.
I would rank them over Saizo. We went there within the last month and my sashimi was extremely cold and the guy's knife work was horrible. He was sawing through the fish rather than letting the knife melt through it.
Must-eats for a Tokyo first-timer
I'd also definitely recommend Magokoro for lunch for their Soon Dobu:
Magokoro Restaurant
Momose Building 1st Floor, 3-7 Surugadai, Kanda
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Japan 101-0062
Phone: +81) 03-5283-1550
URL: http://www.magokoro-table.com
Must-eats for a Tokyo first-timer
Ya can't just say "true Ramen". There are *so* many different kinds of ramen out there and they're all real:
Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum
2-14-21 Shin-Yokohama, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama 222
It costs money to get in and really, a portion of ramen inside (which you also have to pay for) is enough for a meal, but it is definitely authentic.
