GreenKnight's Profile
Quieting the Monkeys in Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, and Redwood City)
1. Tried Coconuts but had very dry jerk pork and wings. Perhaps a bad day?
3. Will try the two recommendations--and the take out suggestion.
5. Tried the fish tacos. Agree pretty decent. Prefer the fish on corn tortillas. Carnitas was OK, as noted, but given how nearby it is for me, will probably satisfy most cravings.
6. Have come to enjoy Cafe Barrone. A number of the sandwiches are pretty decent.
7. Tried Amici's and was underwhelmed. Will go back and try again based on the recommendation above. What pizza would you recommend specifically?
Quieting the Monkeys in Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, and Redwood City)
Yes, tried COI. Enjoyed it quite a bit. Wine tasting was excellent, too. Will return, but a bit far away for frequent dining.
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Coi
373 Broadway, San Francisco, CA 94133
Breakfast joints in Silicon Valley
Just a little north of you is Mayfield Cafe in Palo Alto. They have a breakfast pizza with prosciutto and poached egg. Break the egg open and let the yolk flow.... I usually ask for two poached eggs on my pizza. They also have an excellent crab cake dish with poached egg. Far better than any Hobbee's. They are better for savory dishes than sweet dishes, however.
Quieting the Monkeys in Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, and Redwood City)
Oops, not the right place in the post above. The right place for carnitas tacos is linked below. Never tried the one above....
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Taqueria El Grullense
1280 El Camino Real, Redwood City, CA
Quieting the Monkeys in Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, and Redwood City)
Just the corn carnitas tacos at:
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El Grullense E & E
999 El Camino Real, Redwood City, CA 94063
Quieting the Monkeys in Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, and Redwood City)
Thanks. Will try Junoon's chicken. I can understand not liking butter chicken or the like. Too creamy, oddly sweet, very heavy...but despite that I still enjoy it.
Quieting the Monkeys in Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, and Redwood City)
They're the best we've tried here. We've had better in LA, of course, but we'll take what we can find. Will try La Azteca.
Eat_Nopal: do you have any favorites in the area?
Thanks.
Quieting the Monkeys in Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, and Redwood City)
We tried the coctel de camarones at Fiesta del Mar Too. I'm thinking it must have been the margaritas that helped the dish. They came in a large glass, in a gloopy, sweet "coctel" sauce that badly needed acidity. We tried several dishes, including the their "spicy" shrimp specialty dish that wasn't spicy or special, and their mole, which had too much star anise (or some other spice).
Quieting the Monkeys in Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, and Redwood City)
Thanks, Michael. We're from LA, but I often spend large parts of the year in NYC, both of which are great places for ethnic food, and NYC is tops for high-end dining. We now live nearby University Ave. in Palo Alto.
We tried Hyderabad House (on U. Ave) based on your previous post in the other thread. Interesting that you don't see flies there in the restaurant. Must have been a recent problem. Do you find that it's mostly just reheated dishes, or is there a time when the meat doesn't taste/look days old? Enjoyed the flavor on the achari. Tried the chicken biryani, but maybe the lamb is better....
Quieting the Monkeys in Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, and Redwood City)
Most are repeat offenders in the list below. I agree with you in general, unless you actually get food poisoning, which is hard for me to forgive.... I think one visit is sufficient, though, if you are trying something specific. They may vary from day to day on the item, but you should be able to get the general idea.
Tamarine: 5 X.
Fraiche: +5
La Casita Chilanga for tortas (got the works): 1 X, but in the unforgiven category for me.
Hyderabad House for biryani and achari: 1 X, kind of in the unforgiven category, but might try again anyway.
Back a Yard for jerk pork: 3 X
Hobees for omelets and coffee cake: 4 X, but not by my choice.
Evvia for lamb: 4 X, mostly not by my choice.
Zibbibo for multiple items: 3 X
Left Bank for multiple items: 3 X.
Vida for multiple items: 3 X.
Shiok for multiple items: 2 X.
Manresa for tasting menu and wine pairing: 1 X, but may try again for lunch. Due to price I'm tempted to put it in the unforgiven category.
Kaygetsu for kaiseki: 2 X
Xanh for multiple items: 2 X.
Quieting the Monkeys in Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, and Redwood City)
Thanks. The El Gullense is listed below. Understand they have off days and there's a limit to the quality of meat. I just have a hard time if the quality of the meat stands out. For instance, at La Casita Chilanga we were OK with quality of meat, but not OK with feeling ill afterward (that's a euphemism BTW).
Definitely willing to go to Sunnyvale, just trying to hit the closest areas first.
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El Grullense E & E
999 El Camino Real, Redwood City, CA 94063
Quieting the Monkeys in Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, and Redwood City)
Thanks for the recs. We'll give Trend and the oyster sandwich a try. We tried Cafe Brioche but can't remember the meal.
On Mayfield, we enjoyed the eggs Florentine; they needed salt but we'd get them again. We also liked their breakfast pizza with the poached egg.
Definitely willing to go to San Carlos (will try refuge), San Mateo (enjoyed the omakase at Sushi Sam's), etc. We just wanted to fish out the best stops in the closest areas to where we live.
Quieting the Monkeys in Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, and Redwood City)
Please don’t be offended by the frank feedback, but for further tuning, here are some of our reports on recommendations we’ve already tried:
Tamarine. If you think this is good Asian food...you haven’t tried good Asian food. We’ve tried most of the appetizers and a large portion of the mains. While everything is edible and has a reasonable flavor profile, the dishes lack anything compelling. Not worth the price.
Fraiche for chocolate frozen yogurt with apricot topping. Good combination, but we prefer the regular frozen yogurt with ollalieberry, mochie and/or granola. Something gamey about the way the yogurt cultures interact with the chocolate.
La Casita Chilanga for tortas (got the works). Great after a bender, but a little heavy and greasy. Unfortunately, cleanliness might have been an issue, because it left us a little ill, so we won’t return.
Hyderabad House for biryani and achari. Decent flavor, especially for the achari, but low quality meat, which was reheated, and flies all over the restaurant. Won’t return due to the abundance of flies. Get a fly swatter.
Back a Yard for jerk pork. Decent but not great on flavor and quality of meat. Side dishes were mediocre. Might return, but not often.
Hobees for omelets and coffee cake. Mediocre on both counts. Will not return.
Evvia for lamb. Basic roasted lamb—not deep or refined with flavor. Other dishes were only OK. Not worth the price.
Zibbibo for multiple items. They need a decent palate to guide their dishes and not worth the price. Will not return.
Left Bank for multiple items. If you think this is good French food....
Vida for multiple items. See above but cheaper than Left Bank, so not quite as bad.
Shiok for multiple items. Good but not compelling. Lacks depth of flavor. Marginally better than Tamarine. May return but not often.
Manresa for tasting menu and wine pairing. Worst high-end tasting menu and wine pairing ever. That’s saying a lot. Sommelier’s palate has no evidence of discernment. Confuses “new and interesting” with “quality and balance.” Actually served a wine that had a nose of cat pee. Seriously. And that was just one of many....
Kaygetsu for kaiseki. Good quality and flavor. Not terribly compelling and expensive. May be back.
Xanh for multiple items. Good but not compelling flavors. May be back.
Quieting the Monkeys in Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, and Redwood City)
Thanks for all the posts on restaurants in Silicon Valley. My lady and I have been systematically trying recommendations for the last six months (after researching all the posts), with a spotty record—mostly misses, very few hits. It’s hard to filter out all the noise, since a restaurant rarely or never has a menu full of great dishes. Even a tasting menu at the French Laundry or El Bulli is littered with hits and misses for a discerning palate. In an effort to “quiet the monkeys” I have a request for recommendations that would really help picky newcomers, like us: please post in rank order, the five (or fewer) best spots to eat with the specific best thing(s) to order.
For alignment, here are some of our favorites that have been recommended by the hounds:
1. Iberia in Menlo Park for patatas bravas--fried potatoes with a garlic sauce. (Other things that are good there off the small tapas menu: pork skewers, bacon wrapped dates, gazpacho, and their tempranillo red wine.)
2. Shanghai Family Restaurant in Mountain View for their thick Shanghai fried noodles. (Scallion pancakes, pot stickers are also good.)
3. El Grullense in Redwood City for carnitas tacos.
4. Jonathan’s in Menlo Park for fried chicken and fried catfish (you can order them together; eat them with the hot sauce). (Other sides/items were not good that we’ve tried.)
5. Amber India in Mountain View for butter chicken (part of the buffet).
In response to posts (like the list above), it would be great to get the collected wisdom of the local hounds by noting items that might be “better.” For instance, someone might post, “I think the carnitas tacos at El Grullense are OK, but they are better at....” Please only post the items you think are truly great and worth revisiting (fewer than five is fine, but we’d like to start with just five per person to force quality over quantity of recommendations).
For humoring this rather rigid request, we’ll report back when we’ve tried out the items and restaurants—in ranked/stacked order. I’ll also post under my own post here with our current findings to date.
