Where to go since Manresa will be closed?

[VivreManger]

The only nights I have in the San Jose area are Monday and Tuesday, unfortunately the nights that Manresa is closed. My question is where to go in the San Jose -- Palo Alto area on a Tuesday night. What is the next best place? I really that there is nothing else comparable to my first preference, but I have no choice.

I am hoping to do Indian on Monday and I will have done a lot of East Asian in Hawaii & LA, so what can you recommend?

[MaxH]

I am hoping to do Indian on Monday and I will have done a lot of East Asian in Hawaii & LA, so what can you recommend?

←

Might duplicate those cats a little but I've trimmed this down from a long pool of places I keep track of. Asterisk (*) means only one visit so far, so impression is tentative.

Memorable meals, often good value:

Afghani House, Sunnyvale (408 248 5088)

-- two cousins operate competitors up peninsula

Bittersweet Bistro, Hwy 17 at Rio del Mar

Brigitte's, "Santa Clara" (408 404 7043)

--real French modest bistro, near Sunnyvale and Cupertino

Café Marcella, Los Gatos (408 354 8006), Grill, near Manresa

Cafe Yulong, downtown Mountain View (650 960 1677)

-- unusual menu, exotic, best Chinese in downtown MV I think

Cascal, downtown Mountain View (650 940 9500)

-- tapas, elegant, opened November 03

Chez T. J., Mountain View (650 964 7466), high-end

I Gatti, Los Gatos (408 399 5180)*

Il Fornaio, downtown San José only (408 271 3366)

-- noisy, distinctive; visiting Italian chefs

Paradiso, San Leandro (510 430 9310)

Pearl's Cafe, Fremont (510 490 2190)

Il Porcino, Fremont (510 791 7383)*

Marché, Menlo Park (650 324 9092)

Mei Long, Mountain View (650 961 4030)

Le Petit Bistro, Mountain View (El Camino) (650 964 5931)

-- real French modest bistro, hearty, sound

71 Saint Peter, downtown San José (408 971 8523)*

A. P. Stump's, downtown San José (408 292 9928)

Village Pub, Woodside

There is a larger group of interesting, spirited, one-of-a-kind restaurants of good value and sometimes very moderate prices. Examples:

Bangkok West, Hwy 17 at Aptos (408 479 8297)

-- actually east, not west, of Bangkok by about 1.5:1

Chelokababi, Sunnyvale (408 737 1222),* Persian

China Stix, Santa Clara (408 244 1684)

Eulipia, downtown San José (408 280 6161)

-- keeps changing owners

Habana-Cuba, San José (408 988 2822)

Iberia, Menlo Park (650 854 1746)

-- good old Señor Relinque, a radio personality

Kabul, Sunnyvale (408 245 4350) -- Cousin of Afghani House

Mistral, Redwood Shores (650 802 9222)

-- good for groups, two good PDRs

La Pastaia, De Anza Hotel, downtown San José (408 286 8686)

Pezzella's Villa Napoli, Sunnyvale (408 738 2400)

-- Max

[MaxH]

Forgot to mention -- For peninsula and S. Bay I also recommend published restaurant reviews of my friend Robert Rich, collected at http://rrich.com/ along with supplements on wild mushrooms. ('Tis the season for those.)

[samgiovese]

The two perennially highest rated restaurants in the South Bay are Le Papillon on Saratoga Avenue, and its sister La Foret in the Almaden area. Neither will give you the Manresa experience, but I just had a dinner about 3 weeks ago at La Foret that was very good. Also, the Plumed Horse in Saratoga is always excellent. All three of these have superb wine lists, and I really don't think you could go wrong with any of them. All this is said with all due respect to MaxH, whom I hold in the highest esteem, and whose palate is impeccable!

[IrishCream]

Max...what an incredible list. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. You summed up the South Bay in one post. I wish someone could do that for San Francisco and the East Bay.

[tanabutler]

I very VERY much enjoyed Habana Cuba. The LECHON A LA CUBANA is perfect. Just think.

Let me give you a single warning.

Do not order a cocktail. Do not order anything but wine or beer.

They don't have a liquor license, and substitute a blend of particularly sour Korean jockstraps and redolent Japanese gym socks (some kind of Asian "liqueur") for rum or whatever, and the result was honestly one of the worst beverages I've ever tasted. And I mean that the word "beverage" makes me think of melted Jell-O as an offering at one of my sister's so-called "pot luck" Bible parties. (Anyone who thinks this is a religious statement can bite me.)

The wine list is surprisingly wide, with many by-the-glass offerings.

It's a good, good place. Order a mojito at your own peril.

[MaxH]

Samgiovese (whom I may know under another name?) you are being much too kind and deferential here. I've heard excellent reports of Le Papillon and especially La Forêt but alas not eaten there yet, so could not place them in context. (Always the implicit issue with restaurant advice from individuals!) I have eaten well at Plumed Horse over the years -- did I omit it from those lists?

I'd better explain more. (I never have time to do these postings thoroughly.) That list was posted without thought of being comprehensive, but rather as some of the places I've had good experiences with. From a larger pool of 200 or 250 or so restaurants in the region, for which I have business cards, menus, sometimes notes. A dozen years ago, I kept the cards in looseleaf transparent sheets in a binder, and I used to photocopy groups of the sheets, for co-workers or visitors or event planning, where restaurant suggestions were needed. In the middle 1990s, when the Bay Area Restaurant Guide was going strong (the whole area's restaurants online, in a handy data-base format), I posted 95 recommendations there. But, like many other Internet forums that seemed to be a whole little universe to their participants at the time, it faded away; soon newbies had never heard of it. (Any Internet newbies here, please take note.)

The list that I just posted here, besides being terse, was trimmed down hastily, and it omitted (by the original request) excellent other Asian restaurants that I know about, for example. (Amazingly, Jeanne Bonk's legendary Empress of India is still going strong, for example.) I've felt for many years that the South Bay's -- this South Bay, not the farther south one with the Beaches -- restaurant strength has been unique immigrant-run restaurants, some of them pretty classy -- Ali Tehari's place, Afghani House, for example. (After he split off from his cousin at Kabul in Sunnyvale and opened up in 1995 at a remodeled former Mexican buffet on El Camino near Lawrence, and aimed with determination for an elegant, as well as gastronomic, Afghani offering.) The region was not known as much for unique "high-end" or destination dining, as some other regions are, but samgiovese and I have mentioned most of the high-end places I've heard of. Lots of good "business" dining also. I remember temporarily covering a tab for a large business dinner at Eulipia in SJ with solid fresh new-American cuisine (1996?) but am under the impression that the ownership changed again after that. A place I think I omitted from that list is the Capital Club in SJ, which has had a couple of excellent and very accommodating chefs over its 15 years but requires membership with dues, so it does not count as a general restaurant.

I was interested especially by samgiovese's mention of "highest rated restaurants in the South Bay." Ratings imply a rater, and I would like to hear of any sources for good restaurant appraisals for the South Bay. Aside from popularity polls of various and sundry kinds (by publications, and of course a popular guidebook), the only reasonably comprehensive, consistent, professional restaurant writing for the region that I have read has been Sheila Himmel's in the SJ Mercury News, but again, I don't claim any omniscience. I would read with interest other people's recommendations of dining info for the region.

Anyone here is also welcome to PM, or email to max@tdl.com (no spam, please). -- Max