Great Pan-Latin Dining and Imbibing at Joya

Perhaps Palo Alto’s handsomest restaurant, Joya packs ‘em in on warm evenings.

(This will be published by South Bay Accent in June, 2012.)

“Modern Latin cuisine.”  This conjures images of warm beaches, spirited conversation and lusty food in a pleasant haze of fruity cocktails. Palo Alto’s Joya (pronounced “hoy-uh” and meaning gem or treasure) has been delivering this seductive package to hordes of appreciative diners since 2008. With the summer season now in full swing, Joya is rolling back the two walls of glass at its downtown corner location so stylish patrons can feel the balmy breezes and imbibe some ambrosial white-peach sangria while tearing into an abundant array of voluptuous nibbles.

Mint Leaf’s Unique Approach to Fusion

(This review will appear in South Bay Accent in April, 2012.)

For adventurous eaters, fusion cuisine delivers the rule-breaking surprises that can make dining about more than sustenance. Most definitely, Saratoga’s Mint Leaf doesn’t dish up the same old, same old.  Nominally an Asian fusion restaurant, Mint Leaf has a menu that seems to be a mash-up of Chinese, Japanese, Malaysian and various European and American regional foods with a healthy sprinkling of Thai cooking throughout.

In short, the food here is unique.  Owner Mint Sirisawad hails from Thailand and his wife Bookhi runs the kitchen. However, Mint Leaf is no linoleum-floored, over-lighted ethnic cafe with servers who barely speak English.  It’s a sexy, swanky, white-tablecloth little place decorated in red and gold with comfy silk pillows, soft music and fast but attentive servers.  Happily, it’s also reasonably priced and there are adequate vegetarian choices.

Palacio Delivers Modern Mex in Historic Mansion

Four is the charm in this gorgeous old building that has housed three previous restaurants.

(This will be published in South Bay Accent in December, 2011.)

At first glance, an 1891 Queen Anne-style house with turrets, gables and abundant gingerbread would seem to have nothing in common with Mexican cuisine.  But the ghosts that supposedly inhabit the historic Coggeshall Mansion in downtown Los Gatos must be working a little magic because recently opened Palacio (loosely translated, it means “mansion” in Spanish) has quickly become the hottest show in town.

Madera: Don’t Forget Your Wallet

Soaring ceilings, neutral colors and comfy banquettes and chairs let guests enjoy the view.

(This review was published in South Bay Accent Magazine in October 2011.)

Menlo Park’s Sand Hill Road is ground zero for venture capitalists so certain standards apply if you move into the neighborhood.  When the super-posh Rosewood Hotel chain built a luxurious resort and spa a few years ago on what used to be open grassland just over the crest of this famous road, the resort’s restaurant needed to levitate into the heady territory inhabited by those whose second car is a Lamborghini.

Quiet Brilliance in Woodside: Station 1

The environment is simple at Station 1 but the food is anything but.

The chef and owners of charming Station 1 restaurant in their refurbished dining room. This spot used to be John Bentley’s.

(This review appeared in South Bay Accent in July 2011.)

It’s a no-brainer to offer luxury food in a billionaires’ burg.  Nevertheless, no truffles, caviar, foie gras, lobster or other haughty ingredients darken the walk-in at the latest entry to tony Woodside’s restaurant scene. Rather, Station 1 serves a three-course, fixed-price menu that celebrates vegetables and more humble foodstuffs such as red snapper, chicken, farm eggs and even — yikes — tripe.

Kitchen Wizardry at Baumé

Dining at Baumé is a tasty, unusual adventure with just enough kitchen pyrotechnics to elevate it well above other restaurants.


This serene, modern French restaurant in Palo Alto beckons to jaded foodies

(This review was published in South Bay Accent in April 2011.)

Although we’re blessed to live in one of the world’s great food regions, it’s also easy to get jaded here.  The menus from the Bay Area’s many high-end restaurants seem to blur together after awhile, with one exquisite dish made from fresh, local ingredients seeming much like the next one — albeit all of them delicious. And then there’s Baumé.

Slinky Vietnamese Fusion: Xanh in Mountain View

Xanh looks like a nightclub and serves appealing fusion cuisine

(This review appeared in South Bay Accent in January, 2011)

Fusion cuisine is an innovative mash-up of different cuisines — and Vietnamese food is one of the best starting points. Sprinkled with non-native recipes and ingredients through the country’s history of would-be conquering foreigners, Vietnamese cuisine is a bit fusion-like already.  In the hands of owner/executive chef Thuy Pham of Mountain View’s sizzling Xanh restaurant and lounge, this take on Vietnamese fusion is deliciously liberated and as seductive as watching the sunset from Phu Quoc Beach.

Fast Food for the New Millennium

Calafia Cafe in Palo Alto proves that “fresh” and “fast” aren’t mutually exclusive

(This review appeared in South Bay Accent in November, 2010)

Google is best known for its prowess in Internet search and other online technologies but the Mountain View advertising giant spawned another innovation that gets less attention. Nothing less than redefining fast food in the new millennium.  You can taste the evidence any day of the week at Palo Alto’s Calafia Cafe: in a toothy, mouth-pleasing barley corn salad, fabulous thin-crust pizza or chile/garlic-glazed hanger steak.  Rather than relying on grease, empty carbs and the freezer, Calafia’s fast food is “slow food served fast,” as defined by owner/chef Charlie Ayers.  This means health-conscious, sustainably sourced ingredients turned into dishes that can usually arrive at your table reasonably quickly.

Zitune Serves the Moroccan Food of Your Dreams

Replacing Jocco’s a couple of years back, Zitune serves some of the most exciting food on the Peninsula.

(This review appeared in South Bay Accent in March, 2010. Regretfully, Zitune closed in 2011. Here’s hoping the talented chef lands somewhere else soon.)

Moroccan cuisine is like dancing. As practiced by your uncoordinated cousin Wally, it’s entirely forgettable but when someone like Mikhail Baryshnikov leaps across the stage, it’s transporting.  Most domestic Moroccan restaurants follow a theme of somewhat gloppy food eaten in semi-darkness with the fingers while belly dancers shimmy past periodically.  And then there’s Zitune.

Frequently called the best restaurant in Los Altos by local foodies, Zitune marries the lusty, spice-driven flavors of Moroccan cuisine with the fresh, modern fare served in fine-dining establishments.  Dancers, low cushions or keening music would be as odd in this sophisticated restaurant as paper hats on the servers.  Chef Chafik Larobi — who owns Zitune with his wife Kim Auerbach — uses his considerable cooking skills to reinterpret and elevate his native cuisine into something creative, modern and utterly delicious.

Authentic Mex in Saratoga

(This review appeared in South Bay Accent in December of 2009)

Tacos piled high with guacamole, sour cream and tons of yellow cheese. Huge burritos packed with gloppy brown refried beans. Enormous platters of nachos with plentiful toppings.  The essence of Mexican food?  Not really.  These American creations have as much in common with authentic Mexican food as chop suey does with real Chinese cuisine.  Meanwhile, the true regional cooking of Mexico is varied, delicious and in short supply in the South Bay.  But if Andrew Welch has his way, this will change — starting in affluent Saratoga, of all places.

Mayfield Cafe: Tasty Meals for the Rest of Us

This casual bistro/bakery aims to serve all Palo Altans

(This review appeared in South Bay Accent in September of 2009)

Imagine t.v.’s “Cheers” bar turned into a casual neighborhood eatery with quietly ambitious cuisine and you’ll approximate Mayfield Bakery and Cafe in Palo Alto’s refurbed Town & Country Village kitty-corner from Stanford Stadium. Trade the lovable drunks for designer-jeans-clad soccer moms and kids, dating couples, smiling retirees and VCs gobbling up business meals, but the concept still carries: a friendly, low-key establishment where everybody might not know your name but all are welcome.  The response has been very positive, even in the midst of the troubled economy.

Nick’s on Main is All About Comfort

Owner/chef Nick Difu has it all working — food, friendliness and atmosphere — at his restaurant in downtown Los Gatos.

(This review appeared in South Bay Accent in April of 2009)

Pleasure has greater currency during troubled times. For example, savoring five-cent chocolate bars helped many Americans get through the Great Depression. Self-nurturing is therapeutic and for South Bay residents seeking an antidote to today’s economic uncertainties, one of the best places to indulge is three-year-old Nick’s on Main in Los Gatos.

Crab Landing Delivers Coastal Views and a Huge Menu

Inside its walls of windows overlooking Pillar Point Harbor, Crab Landing features sushi, a raw bar,  seafood menu, steaks and two cocktail bars.

(This review appeared in South Bay Accent in April of 2009)

The only guests who couldn’t find something to eat at Crab Landing in Half Moon Bay would have to be penny-pinching vegans who disdain great coastal views. For everyone else, this huge newish restaurant overlooking the fishing boats in Pillar Point Harbor and the sweeping Pacific beyond takes a greatest-hits approach to its offerings that is calculated to please the widest swath of diners. Its two levels contain an oyster bar, a sushi bar, two cocktail bars and a wine cellar while presenting a menu of popular seafood dishes from across the country and well beyond — in addition to signature cocktails (the lychee martini is a hit), soups, salads, steaks, prime rib and ubiquitous desserts. There’s also al fresco patio dining, where the edge of renowned surf spot Mavericks crashes in the distance.

Los Gatos Loves Noisy Cin-Cin Wine Bar

Newish hot spot occupies former location of Cafe Marcella

(This review appeared in South Bay Accent in January of 2009)

Posh Los Gatos has long had the South Bay’s most convivial restaurant scent. Dining out in this cute town is about more than sustenance as patrons – local and those who wish they were – flock to the burg’s expanding array of lively eating spots to meet, greet, quaff, jabber, ogle and in general have a great time. In this spirited environment, Cin-Cin Wine Bar quickly emerged as perhaps the quintessential Los Gatos eatery, dedicated to nutrition but particularly to fun in the local style.

Cascal in Mountain View is Muy Bueno

Hopping Cascal has a gorgeous interior and semi-Latin cuisine that draws big crowds

(This review originally appeared in South Bay Accent in April of 2004;  the menu has changed somewhat since this review, so some updates have been made to the beginning.)

The Spanish translation of “winner” in 2004 was clearly Cascal restaurant. When this hopping Latin-themed joint at the corner of Castro and California (hence the name) in downtown Mountain View opened, it made you think it was still 1999, before the economy tanked. Back then, if the dot-coms had as much business savvy as this bustling bodega displayed, maybe we would all still be using our stock portfolios to plan early retirement.

Nobu Spinoff in South Palo Alto is a Winner

Jin Sho/Nobu’s Yellowtail with Jalapeno

(This review appeared in South Bay Accent in November of 2008)

Nobuyuki Matsuhisa – known just as Nobu – is the most famous Japanese chef in the world, running a slew of restaurants on several continents that deliver his delicious style of modern Japanese food to appreciative, well-heeled audiences. For Peninsula foodies eager to sample Nobu cuisine, air travel has been required. Until now. Two chefs from New York’s Nobu exited the Big Apple, bringing their experience, skills and many Nobu recipes to South Palo Alto. Happily, owner-chefs Ichiro Takahashi and Noriomi Kaneko set up shop at their new Jin Sho restaurant armed not only with Nobu’s cooking sensibilities but with considerable knowledge of classic Japanese cuisine.

Plumed Horse – Worthy Overhaul and No Bargains

(This review appeared in South Bay Accent in May, 2008.)

The reborn Plumed Horse in downtown Saratoga defines how the concept of “luxury” has changed in the past half century. First opened in the early ‘50s in a location once reputed to be a stable for cart horses, this venerable spot coasted along for years as a pricey purveyor of Continental cuisine. Back in the day, this used to be what fancy food looked like: a limited repertoire of rich, “European” recipes like pepper steak, lobster bisque, Beef Wellington and other preparations that often involved furious tableside preparation by tuxedoed waiters straight out of an old New Yorker cartoon. During the era of cheap gas and small tv sets, the Plumed Horse was non plus ultra.

Lure: Killer Seafood with a Light Touch

(NOTE: Unfortunately, this restaurant recently went out of business. I hope the chef lands another gig so her fans can keep enjoying her inspired cooking.)

The concept of pets often resembling their owners has a corollary in the restaurant world. Dining in an establishment run by an owner/chef, you’re likely to sample unusual, highly personal cuisine that reflects the passions and prejudices of one individual. For some chefs who spent their earlier careers toiling as an underling in someone else’s kitchen, executing someone else’s vision, the holy grail is to be The Boss in their own place. And some owner/chefs do look like their food.

Cetrella in HMB is Better Than Ever

(This review appeared in South Bay Accent in June of 2007.)

Half Moon Bay has more going on than the traditional pumpkins and fog. Fine dining has made an appearance in this cozy seaside town in recent years and in the case of lovely Cetrella, Half Moon Bay now has a full-fledged destination restaurant. Located on the south end of the blip of a downtown, Cetrella looks like a millionaire’s Tuscan estate on the outside. Inside, it’s all clean, understated elegance and top-notch food to match. Discriminating Peninsula diners can get the twofer of an outstanding meal and glorious sunset all in the same place.

Kaygetsu: Simply the Best Japanese

(This review appeared in South Bay Accent in November, 2006.)

In Japan, they study the art of simple perfection, as seen in their translucent porcelains, exacting calligraphy and even in the three compelling lines of a haiku poem. This same rigorous esthetic is applied to dining. However, visiting a formulaic sushi bar and sipping cheap hot sake – the typical American’s exposure to this cuisine — is not the best example of the multi-dimensional sensory experience in which the Japanese excel. Rather, to find transcendent, authentic Japanese cuisine, look behind the Shell station in an out-of-the-way shopping center in Menlo Park. There you’ll find tiny Kaygetsu, which serves what many consider the best Japanese food in the Bay Area, if not beyond.