Dine Downtown returns June 21 to June 30 with deals at 25 downtown San Jose restaurants. Here’s a look at some of the chefs working behind the scenes to make the delicious event happen.
Restaurants News - page 53
From June 21-30, Dine Downtown San Jose will offer 25 intriguing downtown restaurant options to enjoy. San Jose has always prided itself on being at the forefront of thinking and technology; the same can be said of Downtown San Jose’s numerous restaurants. Prix fixe menus ranging from $20 to $75 cover the exuberant flavors of San Jose’s modern global fusions, timeless downtown institutions and gourmet dining experiences.
If Moveable Feast founder Ryan Sebastian has his way, people in Silicon Valley will have 1,000 food truck-related events to consider this year.
As George Gershwin once wrote, “Summertime, and the livin’ is easy.” Blues music was in full swing as we entered the dining room of the The Smoking Pig BBQ Company on North Fourth Street in San Jose. Bent notes and smooth, hypnotizing rhythms brought some sass to the scene as the waitress fixed a hair over her ear and jaunted over cheerily to greet us.
Before settingfoot in the new Restaurant Guo Cui in Cupertino, go ahead and erase all Chinese dining experiences from your mind—at least ones from this area. The owners have gone to great lengths to breathe new life into what an American Chinese restaurant can be, right down to the ambience, which marries traditional Chinese culture with a flair for modern interior design and a casual atmosphere.
I was at Habana Cuba, a local go-to for Cuban food in the South Bay that is also shaking up the breakfast scene. Tropical morning cocktails and intriguing plates like the “not-so-French” Cuban French toast have drawn many diners to this iconic location on Race Street, which is now serving a Cuban brunch from 8am to 1pm on the weekends.
Hai Nam, a new Vietnamese restaurant in East San Jose, is centered on chicken, particularly its flagship dish, com ga hai nam (whence the name of the place is derived). Roughly 80 percent of the dishes are chicken-based, including pho ga, which is Vietnam’s chicken noodle soup, while the more common beef-based pho is nowhere to be found on the menu.
When people hear the word “macaron” (mack-ah-ROHN), they often think of a sweet, chewy little mound of shredded dried coconut known as a macaroon (mack-ah-ROON). In actuality, a macaron is a French, meringue-based almond cookie. Resembling a minihamburger in appearance, a macaron consists of two brightly colored small cakes with eggshell-thin crusts sandwiching a ganache, buttercream or fruit-jam filling.
While this is a casual deli/cafe that sells some Middle Eastern foods, its specialty is Turkish food. Where Five Star Falafel shines is with its kebabs, shawarma wraps, Mediterranean salads and lentil soup.
The name makes it sound like a yogurt place. But Toppings Tree in Santa Clara is one of a handful of Filipino restaurants that have sprung up in the South Bay. Curiously, Filipino food makes up a mere 1 percent of California’s restaurant industry, although Filipinos are the second-highest Asian population in the country. This lack of Filipino restaurants remains a mystery. Some say that Filipinos prefer to eat at home.
