Food Near Cisco Campus, San Jose

[preeyanka]

Hi, I'm a foodie masquerading as a corporate slave (read: intern) in Silicon Valley this summer. I'll be living within walking distance from the Cisco Campus in San Jose and I was looking for recommendations on restaurants, farmer's markets, specialty grocery stores........anything to do with food. I have no car so things near the Cisco Campus would be great although for a special dinner I could wrangle a car/light rail. I'm vegetarian but I eat pretty much anything in that category and I cook lunch/dinner fairly often as well. Hope to hear your tips and recommendations!! Thanks

[melkor]

I haven't the foggiest idea where a vegetarian on foot would go for food near Cisco - the falafel drive-in and Dasaprakash are the only vegetarian places in the south bay that I've had passable food from and both are probably too far to walk.

[preeyanka]

Well, I'm back responding to my own question in case anyone needs any advice while they're in Silicon Valley. Here's some restaurants/amateur vegetarian food reviews if you're on the public transportation in the San Jose, CA area.

1. Banana Leaf

My group took me there on my second day of work. This Malaysian/Thai restaurant is located in McCarthy Ranch which we accessed using VTA bus 23. This restaurant is packed during lunchtime with people from the surrounding companies. We started with a hot and sour soup (whose official name I can't remember) which was warm but a pleasant spicy kick aftertaste. One appetizer, roti prata (which appears to have indian origins) consists of this thin soft flatbread that comes with a curry sauce. The roti telur is similar except that egg is cooking in the bread. For the meat eaters, the satay was also good. There were spring rolls but they were nothing extra ordinary.

There are plenty of entrees to choose from. The first few pages focus on the meat entrees but the last page has an excellent list for vegetarians to choose from. If you're a vegetarian, I recommend the sizzling vegetable delight in spicy black pepper sauce or the vegetarian pineapple fried rice which is served in a pineapple. While I've seen the latter elsewhere, Banana Leaf does an amazing rendition. One dish I would recommend everyone to pass is the Pad Thai. While I have never gotten it myself, I have seen several friends on multiple occassions(meat eaters included) who ordered it and were severely disappointed when the noodles came very heavily sauced and overly sweet.

Drinks and desserts are fun here. I've had the thai tea and the deep fried banana which was done in a taro breading which adds slightly unusual twist. For people who are a little more adventurous, try the Ice Chendol.

I definitely recommend this place: check out the website at http://www.bananaleaf-usa.com/index.html!

2. In-N-Out: As a college student I had to include this. This California burger place is a lot of fun for an East Coaster. Although by looking at the menu you may think that this place has nothing for a vegetarian, I get the grilled cheese, animal style and it more than fills me up. For those of you who haven't been, animal style involves their special sauce, grilled onions and cheese. I'm mesmerized by their fries, the employees use a gizmo to cut their potatoes into the perfect shape and deep fry them in front of you.

3. Temptations: One day I went to Downtown Mountain View with my aunt (this area can also be accessed with the light rail) out for dinner. When we saw this Indian-style Chinese fusion, we both were really excited as previously, it could only be found in India. While a couple dishes were excellent we were disheartened after our first visit. However, we are willing to give it the chance that it was simply an off night. For drinks, I ordered a sweet lassi while my aunt ordered the pomegranate martini. For a person who enjoys the fresh fruit, she found the drink a little too sweet and a bit artificial tasting. I however, fared better with the lassi, a drink made with yogurt, sugar and water. For an appetizer, we ordered the vegetarian Chinese bhel which consists of deep fried noodles and vegetables in a sweet and sour sauce. While it was good, it could have done with a little less sauce. I would also recommend this dish as a side as a crunchy counterpart to the rest of the dishes.

For our entrees, we ordered the Manchurian gravy and the chili paneer. The Manchurian gravy was a hit as the "minced vegetable balls" (they taste much better than this description) were exactly as both of us remembered them tasting in India and I would recommend this dish. However, the chili paneer was a complete flop. The paneer was tough, chewy and tasteless. The sauce was the exact same gravy used in the manchurian when we were expecting a red spicy sauce instead. I did see some other diners eating some of the meat dishes like the Chicken Lollipop and they seemed to enjoy their food so maybe we were simply unlucky.

Milpitas Square (also accessed with VTA bus 33) - East Asian Shopping Center near the Cisco campus. This plaza is grounded by the Ranch 99 Super Market. I was lucky enough to be guided through this area by my 3 Chinese roommates but the main idea is to explore the bakeries, bubble/pearl tea shops, restaurants.......new Chinese favorites for me include red bean buns, egg custard tarts and taro bubble tea but there's so many things to try. And did I mention it's pretty cheap - definitely somewhere to check out although you will have to keep an eye out if you're vegetarian.

While I won't review the rest, here are a few more places that I've been to in the area as a foodie and I'd recommend checking out:

Downtown San Jose, Milan (Bombay style fast food not too far from Cisco), Santana Row

If you have any recs, feel free to share!

Edited July 2, 2007 by preeyanka (log)