Well, i’m not in Silicon Valley, but I live near Monterey, which is close enough to Silicon Valley that people are willing to do the hour and a half commute from here to there and back every workday. It’s also close enough that towns around here are worried that because housing is fairly cheap here (in my city it’s $185,000 on average), that people who live in Silicon Valley will buy up all the available housing, and cause housing prices here to skyrocket.
Dude, you really should have asked me if there was anywhere else in Monterey to eat besides the restaurants on Cannery Row! I could have taken you and Psy down to Alvarado St.
Tons of them are near Alvarado (mostly Euro, though there is one Japanese and a Chinese restaurant). If you were willing to follow me around we could have gone to have Chinese at Chef Lee’s Mandarin House, or Japanese at Koto (the manager loves me and my friends. She lets us do free karaoke).
Monterey has restaurants from the dirt cheap to outrageously expensive (like The Sardine Factory). Nearby Pacific Grove has some good ones. The most expensive is The Old Bathouse. I’d say the number one industry in the Monterey area besides tourism is restaurants.
Sassy: Thanks for the recommendations. Price is somewhat no object, though we don’t want to go off the deep end. “La Felce” sounds like what we are looking for – some classic Italian and still in North Beach. Should be a great weekend for it!
Bill H.: “The Basin” is a place we just stopped at for drinks once, after eating sushi at Midori in Sunnyvale. The bar was very fun, and I liked the place for people-watching. At the bar was a mixture of aging hippies, dot coms talking about their newest deals, trophy wives, artistic-looking types, etc. Pilsner Urquell on tap, oodles of martinis, and we saw a lot of good-looking, new American style cooking going past to the diners at tables. We’d like to come back for dinner some night based on what we saw. Not cheap, though.
“Sent Sovi” looks awesome, but very high-end. Still, it is rated as the best French restaurant on the Peninsula. Maybe for a birthday someday!
GaWd: Yes, it’s garlic time in Gilroy once again! Everybody come and do some serious garlic chowing down. It should be a sunny warm weekend. Try stopping off at El Toro Brewery on Hill Road in Morgan Hill afterwards to down some cool brewskis. Tell Geno Acevedo that Carol sent you!
Everyone: I’d like to do a Silicon Valley lunch someday. Anybody got any ideas of a good meeting and eating place? If we have any Thai fans, the newly-opened Krung Thai near the Valley Fair Mall completely kicks the ass out of any other Thai restaurant. Priced at the high end of moderate, abfab food, and the service is wonderful. On Winchester just north of Stevens Creek.
Speaking of Moose’s in the SF Bay Gaurdian they just won this honor.
As for Italian restuarants, North beach is ok, but parking’s always a bitch and it’s a little too touristy for my tastes. My favorite Italian place is La Villa Poppi. It’s at 3234 22nd St., S.F. (415) 642-5044 in the mission. Amazing little place, very tuscan influenced, very small and romantic. They only have 4-5 tables. The Chef/owner cooks, and his wife/co-owner usually waits tables. The food is just amazing. I can’t stress enough how wonderfull it is. It’s also, if I remember correctly, price-fixe. You choose either a three, four, or five course meal. And then choose your dinner from a small selection of apatiezers, first, and econd courses, and deserts. the menu changes nightly. they also have a very good selection of Italian wine, I had a very nice Scillian one there,
I knew this was the best place on earth - GaWd lives here, and there are more restaurants then residents! This is probably going to be the most difficult decision to make for a Doper get together - where to eat in the Bay Area.
Seems like we’ve got Dopers all the way from Sonoma to Monterey, to the East Bay. The Peninsula sits squarely in the middle. There are also a few amazing places on the Sam Mateo county coast, like Half Moon Bay and Pacific Grove. I am all for a get together at any of those locations. That still leaves soooo many choices of restaurants - everything from Sushi to Fondue!!
For the Saratogans - I have been to Dinner on several occasions at a great restaurant in the Downtown area, Italian food, nice bar, great service - is this Bella Saratoga? It was extremely good both times.
Ahh, yes…at home, enjoying the fumes of garlic, pools of olive oil on stuffed mushrooms, Scampi by the pound, beer by the gallon, sweaty drunks in the parking lot…
Is anyone besides me going? Saturday afternoon I’ll be serving beer in the beer tents!
I live in downtown San Jose two blocks from school. Does anyone know of any good Indian resteraunts around here? I know there are a couple in Mountain View one on the way to the airport (wouldn’t call that one good though) but other than that I am stymied.
I live just a few blocks from Camrahn (?) Bay in San Mateo. You can do much better than that place. I liked Le Colonial in downtown Oakland better. But in that area, do yourself a favor and go down and over a block to Little Sichuan on 4th. Very spicy Sichuan food, and really good. Down by 20 - 25th & El Camino, try Silver House for great Cantonese-style seafood, and also Cathay Kitchen isn’t bad either… Oh yeah, and they Santa Sushi somewhere around 8th & B for the best ramen in the Bay Area!
Well, if you’re in Sunnyvale, try Sarovar. Or, if you want to go where the Indian folks go, try the Dhaba around El Camino and Lawrence. There isn’t a menu or standard fare at the Dhaba; what they have is what there is to choose from. When they run out of one dish, they make something else, so it’s constantly rotating.
I had never had Indian food before I moved to San Jose 8 years ago. Now it’s my favorite. Even cook my own chole and paratas and stuff.
