Notes to Self: Restaurants

[brooksmoses]

In the pile of extraneous books we're sorting through is a 2000 Zagat Survey for the San Francisco Bay Area. Before putting it in the box, I decided to flip through it to see if there was anything local that seemed interesting. I found the following, which I'm noting to myself here so I won't lose them. (And perhaps they'll be useful to someone else, or someone else will have comments on them.) I've no idea if these are still open -- six years is a long time in the restaurant business....

• Amber India, 2290 El Camino, Mountain View. ($26)
• Estampas Peruanas, 715 El Camino, Redwood City. ($22)
• Nola, 535 Ramona St., Palo Alto. (n/a)
• Pluto's, 482 University Ave., Palo Alto. ($13)
• Swagat Indian Cuisine, 2700 W. El Camino, Mountain View. ($21)

That's leaving off Compadres (3877 El Camino, Palo Alto), Left Bank (635 Santa Cruz, Menlo Park), and Osteria (247 Hamilton, Palo Alto), all of which we've eaten at and found somewhere between very good and outstanding.

Definitely not enough to be worth keeping the book, but still useful.

Comments

Gosh darn it, Brooks!

[akosut.livejournal.com]

What did you have to go and mention food for? I've never been to Swagat, and I've never heard of Estampas Peruanas (Redwood City is a little too far north for me), but I haven't been to Nola or Pluto's in years, and now I'm craving them both. I've been to Amber India a few times, but I don't recall enough to have an opinion, except that it's been quite some time since I've had Indian food, and I could use some.

Re: Gosh darn it, Brooks!

[leback.livejournal.com]

I thought Amber was pretty good the one time I was there, but not worth the price as compared to other local Indian restaurants. I don't like Nola--that may be because I don't have much of a taste for Cajun food, but I also had the impression of just not thinking the dishes I had were of particularly good quality. I've only been to Swagat once, but I don't remember being favorably impressed. (Unless I'm thinking of the wrong place--come to think of it, I thought the place I'm thinking of was in Palo Alto.)

Never been to Estampas Peruanas or Pluto's.

[ladycalliope.livejournal.com]

I love Pluto's! I've been there twice in the month of May so far, and I can get full on under $6 -- side salad with steak (the salads are huge, and if you get the meal size, you'd better be HONGRY), and "just water, thank you."

[tshuma]

Pluto's and Amber are still around. I was at Nola once, but for the life of me I don't remember anything either particularly good or particularly bad -- I just never went back.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

What about The Stinking Rose?

[leback.livejournal.com]

Umm, it's 40 miles away? The restaurants Brooks listed are all local to us.

Also, IME, the food at The Stinking Rose was barely mediocre.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

Ahh; geography is not really my strong point.

I've only been there once. I did enjoy what I had (although I was a little confused by the theme; it wasn't all that garlickey).

[leback.livejournal.com]

*nods* I certainly don't expect someone 3000 miles away to be acquainted with local geography. I just can't generally resist pointing out that We Don't Live in San Francisco. :-) (And if I knew Toronto-area geography better, I'd probably have a good analogy handy, but instead I have to hand-wave about its being One of Those Things, Darnit, so there you go.)

Anyway, re: The Stinking Rose, I will keep that in mind if I'm ever back there. I ordered something famously garlicky (what? I don't even remember), and while it had plenty of garlic in it, it didn't have much else going on. Maybe they do better when they stray from the gimmick.

Re: Gosh darn it, Brooks!

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

I have not heard good things about Nola, myself. I have not ever been, but the reports I have heard make me not want to try.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

*hehe* I can understand that. I actually knew you didn't once my brain had been jogged, but it was the initial mention of the San Francisco Bay Area guide book thing that made me get confused about that.

I wasn't able to order a lot of the famously-garlickey stuff because most of it wasn't vegetarian, so that may have saved me. :) I don't know that I'd give it a strong enough recommendation to say that if you've already not liked it that you need to give it a second chance, but whatever I got (which I unfortunately can't recall) was good.

[mschlock.livejournal.com]

I believe Swagat is gone. Amber is good, but pricey. Lately we've been getting roughly the same meal for roughly half the price at Taj India, which is conveniently across the street from my house. (And at Taj the samosas are at least freshly fried...)