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Categories: Asian Fusion, Singaporean
333 Santana RowJoin us for Industry night on Sunday the 13th featuring $5 360 Vodka drinks and a band from 2-5pm!
Announced 4 days agoMon. 11:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Tue-Wed. 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 a.m.
Sun. 11:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
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This is an expensive place. It's a little fru-fru too but there are some people who like that kind of thing. I came here with my Uncle who took me out for lunch. We had the roti (very good) and the seafood curry (excellent). All the fish pieces in the seafood curry were so tender! It was excellent. Many restaurants overcook the fish making it dry and stringy.
Food is good but a bit too pricey for what we had.
Don't you just LOVE it when you're seated before another party at a restaurant, place your order before the other party, and they get like all of their dishes before you get one of yours? LOVE it right? Yeah, I thought so.
Sorry Straits, this is a fool me once and I ain't coming back to you ever again situation. It shouldn't take close to an hour to make a Caesar Salad and two noodle dishes, and I know you know that. Even getting our check was a 20 minute ordeal cause our "waitress" (stupid-ass waitress would be more appropriate) completely ignored us the entire time we were there, leaving us to walk up to the receptionist to ask for it since we weren't getting helped by our table. WTF kind of crap is that??? For the 1 hour 20 minutes we were there, FOR LUNCH, she came to our table 2 times: once to take our order and once to deliver our check (after we got up to ask for it).
I hope you enjoyed that $0.01 tip we left for you.
We enjoyed our nice romantic dinner but it was quick because we arrived so late. We attended a conference nearby Santa Clara. So, we were lookin' for a nice spot to dine and enjoy the moment. Monday nights on Santana Row closes early. My bf and I enjoyed great cocktails, good service, good food and lovely atmosphere here. Great decor, asian fusion delights and just friendly service.
We enjoyed:
Cosmo, Vanilla martini, seaweed wrapped beef with lettuce wraps, calamari, and jasmine brown rice. mmm nice snack for us : )
Can't wait to head there again : ) soon!
Pricey, but service, drinks, and food were not bad at all. Drinks and appetizers are standard and do hit the spot. Agreed with all the other reviews about the atmosphere. It was a pretty busy place Thursday after work. The doors opening to the patio area is a really nice addition and opens the restaurant. SR is quite a pricey place, so this scene fits right in.
If you're here on a nice summer after work for some drinks, it's not a bad place to chill.
There's plenty reviews on this place. Six hundred and twenty six to be exact.
We all know how cheesy the music can be.
We all know how annoying the barstaff can be if you're a guy trying to get served.
We all know how much fun it is to watch the cougars do their thang on the dance floor.
And we all know how much fun it is to watch the douchebags try their luck with the afore mentioned cougars.
What you probably don't know is that all you innocent young girls might get to meet the one and only JamesR here. He boogies his way down the bar looking for single women to hand out his (and I use this term lightly) business card to. Silly me. When I mean business card I mean an old blowfish business card, wrapped in a photocopy of an American Cancer Society business card, only with the address and the phone numbers scribbled out and replaced with his new "home phone number" and then expertly sellotaped to give it that "laminated feel". Classy.
The reason I bring this up? He only hit on my JZ while I was taking a dump. On my return, he swiftly handed her his "business card". His one comment to me before sleazing away was "Oh. I thought you were one of those San Francisco boys".
Fail.
The waitresses have obviously mistaken this place for a Gentleman's Club. Class act, ladies. We also found a fruit fly in our spinach salad. Yum.
Three stars for the decent food (without the fruit fly) and location on the lovely Santana Row, but Straits at Westfield Mall seals the deal with me being more "Zen" and less swanky.
DO NOT! I REPEAT DO NOT COME HERE ON A DATE ON WEDNESDAYS!
now, i don't know if it's a thing or not, but wednesdays seem to be drunken karoake night. like seriously. nothing kills a mood more than a drunken white guy singing 'let's get it on!'
but all foolishness aside. straits is pretty swank. the food is served up 'family style' and it's pretty good. not like HELLA GOOD, but good enough to make you feel satisfied. the service on the night we came was pretty dead on. the manager even went to our table to check up on us, which was pretty cool.
like, who does that nowadays?
price-wise. . . it ain't cheap. but, nothing in santana row is cheap.
i'd come back.
For the price you're paying, full meals are not impressive.
But if you're hanging out for drinks and appetizers-- it'll do-- since it's nice ambience.
Love this place! Roti prata is yum yum as is garlic noodle and wines and drinks and seafood platter. wow. great place to hang out with friends... turns into an awkward dance floor at night..
Only been here to go out, and it sucks... it's too small, and the people here aren't that nice. But one perk is if you are a resident you can show your residence card and get in for free and not have to pay to get in. woohoo!!!
As for wanting to stay there is a whole different story. I am not quite sure if I want to ever dine here because I feel like all the food on the row is pretty chainy and overpriced. So I will try my luck on stevens creek blvd. instead.
If getting pushed around and having small quarters to dance in is your scene than straits is your place to be at. But if isn't then go to sino
This is my least favorite Straits location out of the 3 I have been to. (The other two are San Francisco and Palo Alto)
Food is not terribly bad but I do not like the ambience of this place. This restaurant is pretty noisy. If you come here on a Thursday night when there are live music, it is impossible to talk at all. Waitstaff are not very attentive. A couple times I had to wait a good 15 minutes after getting seated before our server appeared. I also hate the fact that there is often a long wait even with reservation.
The dance floor is tiny and pathetic. The music... sometimes nice other times not. It really depends on the day of the week.
Remind me to read menus before I go to restaurants. Or in this case, re-read.
I go to Straits pretty often when it's after 10pm and the restaurant becomes a bar, so for that I would give it 4 stars. I always have fun and I like their DJs by comparison to other S.Row places. Plus you can actually dance.
I came here for dinner last week for the second time. The first experience was about a year ago where I got a shrimp salad that was great. This time, I got the spicy basil chicken. It was expensive, tiny, and not that good at all. I liked my brown rice better. Oh, and I watched the waiter set it down on the table next to us thinking they ordered it, then come back and bring it to us. Luckily no forks entered my chicken!
I'm going to the Row for dinner again tonight. I am not going to Straits.
This place was alright. I didn't love it, but I also didn't hate it hahaha
My friends and I ordered the chicken lollipops, garlic noodles and potato frites. The chicken wasn't anything special..it tasted tangy, almost like orange chicken. The garlic noodles was alright. It didn't taste garlicky to me. I like my garlic noodles preeeettty garlicky like the ones I get at P.F. Changs. However, I love that it came with a bunch of portabella mushrooms! The fries were pretty good. I could really taste the garlic in each fry. It wasn't just some fried fries with chopped up garlic on top.
The club part was pretty entertaining! Its funny watching the older crowd get down to the likes of T-Pain and Lil Wayne. They did play some old school music throughout the night. Negative on the small dance floor. Maybe they can move some of the dinner tables out of the way so more people can dance.
TIP: if you happen to eat dinner here and your friends end up coming late and have to pay the cover charge, just talk to one of the main bouncers and tell them that you reserved a table and the rest of your group just arrived. They will let them in for free =)
I keep coming back to this place for their lychee-tini's. The hostesses seem to be getting more and more stuck-up - they obviously only hire good looking people but they are not friendly at all.
We sat at the bar and the bar tender was pretty attentive.
You must come for happy hour! It's the best. Appetizers are $3-$5 and drinks are $5 and beer at $3. Sitting is limited though...
My hubby and I ordered:
2 rotis (absolute yum!)
1 spring roll (yum)
1 corn croquette (i'll pass - tad salty)
1 beef salad (good)
1 kirin (yum!)
2 cherry bombs (cherry vodka w/ redbull - yum!)
All of this for about 35 bucks. If you've eaten here before you know that is a real good deal.
I really want to give this place 3.5 stars. I have been here a handful of times ever since it opened, usually on late nights and the whole place is packed. The bar is packed with mostly douchebags, cougars, and disgusting old men. The drinks have never been right. Either too strong that you can even sip it without disgust or too weak.
So I was here on a weekday with coworkers. We got there early for dinner. Their happy hour drink options are almost all fruity. They didn't have more than half a shot of alcohol in there. They were $5 after all. The bartenders, not very pleasant. They acted constipated and uptight. You know what? 3 stars is actually just fine. And that's only for the food.
My fellas and I got there at roughly 11:30p.m. We paid $10 for the cover charge, however they gave us a coupon for a drink up to $13. We wanted LC's, however they didn't provide that (lame) so instead we got tokyo tea, it was a very tall glass and they gave a good amount.
The "dancing" section was hilarious section to look at because it was a clump of people moving around slowly not following the faster tempo of the beats. Lots of sitting area, that was a plus. I'm pretty sure they can charge a lot for such a bourgeoisie setting. After we finished our drinks, we were going to get a second round, and little did we know, lights turned on by 12:00am.
I seriously thought they were kidding, but man, the hours are bad as a customer. But hey, taking it from the workers perspective, I would most definitely wanna be out of there by 1am after cleaning up and home.
Delicious! Came in right before the crowd hit, so lunch/dinner was peaceful.
Started out with a Passionflower flavored Singaporean soda and Roti Prata as an appetizer. The Roti was crispy and slightly sweet, the sauce that came with it was perfect.
The Lemongrass Beef was marinated and cooked perfectly. The Straits frites were fresh and wasn't too overpowered by the garlic. The presentation was cute ... the frites spilling out over the plate and the beef on greens.
Service was good, for a pretty empty place. No complaints there.
Would definitely come back, the Singaporean sodas are very entertaining and delicious. It's like tropical bubbly magic!
Definitely not a place with amazing food, good food - yes.
It's environment was that of a club like…
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Was here few years back and have no recollection of the food here. This time, the overall food was not exceptionally good, but better than expected...since there were no expectations. The portions were big enough that each person had ordered one entree to share and had leftovers. But then again, there were 6 tiny girls plus me.
Service was slow. But our food came out fast, except for one dish. Some of the dishes we had~
Complimentary Calamari: (http://www.yelp.com/bi...) Perfectly battered and fried. Yum!
Vegetarian Pad Thai with Tofu: (http://www.yelp.com/bi...) A bit sweeter than usual, which I can't say I enjoyed. Too many other ingredients that made the noodles seemed nonexistent.
Basil Chicken: (http://www.yelp.com/bi...) This was our favorite dish. The sauce had the consistency of curry. Very bold flavors. Delicious over rice! =D
Grilled Striped Bass with Noodles: (http://www.yelp.com/bi...) The bass was nicely grilled and flavored. But the noodles were mushy under. Very unappealing in both taste and presentation.
Hainan Chicken Rice: (http://www.yelp.com/bi...) This was very good also! The chicken was cooked nicely. Had the exact Hainan taste (for those who had this). The fusion part of the dish is that the skin is crispy, which I enjoyed.
We sat at the outdoor patio where we witnessed all the hollering. See previous review. We were closed off from the restaurant as it transformed into the bar/club, so when we wanted to use the restroom, they made us get our IDs even though clearly we had walked from our table to the door. Inside, people were just all over the place behaving obnoxiously. I felt sorry for the diners in there.
I went to this place with a co-worker of mine. She insisted that we go. I guess she loves going to the place. Me - personally not a big fan of this type of ambience at night - loud DJ, really dimly lit place. I'm not a big fan of not being able to carry on a conversation without yelling. I don't know how it is during the day, but I'm sure it's pretty different. We went on a Thursday night, so of course it looked like everyone was coming out to go clubbing (since apparently that's what it kinda turns into after a certain point) and we are both dressed in shorts and t-shirts. Yes, we felt out of place, for sure.
The service from our server was great. Even with it being so packed, he still came to check up on us pretty regularly. The only problem I had with the service was that the hostess were .... well.... I'll just say Blonde. They told us 20 mins, and then 20 mins later they said "oops, we forgot to include the reservations we have, so it's probably going to be another 20-30 mins." Thank God we ran into a friend of my co-workers. We were gabbing along that we didn't even realize how much time flew by.
BUT!
The food we had I thoroughly enjoyed. The 3 stars is more for the hype of the place, my personal preference on the type ambiance and the ditzy hostesses.
We ordered the Roti Prata - quite lovely. great appetizer to start with. The Curry was great. my co-worker also had to have their Straits Frites - basically french fries. personally - i didn't like them. But she even said - she doesn't really get it for the fries, more for their dipping sauces that they serve it with.
For dinner - I ordered the Spicy Basil Chicken. We shared. There was enough. It was GREAT. The chicken was so moist and tender. We couldn't stop eating it even though we were WAY full. It just was THAT good.
Overall, I'd go back. It's a bit pricy, but considering the type of place that it is, I wouldn't expect it to be any cheaper.
So I've never been to Santana Row.. this was my first experience..
Brief Summary
- Very busy area
- Very "LA"-ish
- Expected a wait but got seated immediately, which I appreciate
- Didn't like that you're so close to the table next to you that you could possibly have a double date without consenting.
- Decent service
- somewhat high prices for "ok" selection
so Santana Row, huh? I guess it's supposed to be the bay's version of rodeo drive or something similar? I like the atmosphere of the area and Straits really reminded of me of LA.
I think you have to look damn good in a little black dress to be a hostess at Straits. And we were quickly seated by one the hosts..
I like the "loud, fast paced" atmosphere of Straits with a bar and the kitchen flaming up.
I dislike sitting so close to other people. If you're engaging in a conversation like other people were around me, you could really listen in. But because it gets so loud, you find yourself almost yelling at each other so its inevitable that you hear someone else's convo.
Nevetheless service was decent. I don't know why I thought the ginger soda was gonna be good, but maybe I just wasn't in the mood for ginger. But my server did mention that she would check on me and take it back if I didn't like it, which she never did. So I just didn't drink the ginger soda and basically wasted 4 bucks.
Our order included:
The Roti Prata
Shrimp Pad Thai
Laksa Risotto
The Roti was amazingly and surprisingly good. I've never had Roti and it was delicious! Definitely a new favorite appetizer!
The Shrimp Pad Thai was decent. Not the best I've ever had, but still top 5 considering. I don't like that it only came with a few shrimps but then again it's "santana row", right? It was decent but nothing compared to my fave Thai spots.
The Risotto was interesting and definitely was a first for me. It was heavy and comforting. I was pleased with it. But definitely, was a lot of seafood packed in the somewhat small dish. I'm not super huge fan of seafood but I was really happy with my first experience of risotto. Will be trying it again.
We didn't get dessert. But all in all the evening itself was great. I was pleased with overall experience and might indulge again. There's a lot of things on the menu that need exploring and hopefully I'll be back soon to try out some different things.
I wish I could give more stars as the waitress was nice and the food good. The Laksa almost reminded me of the great food of Singapore.
I am old and set in my ways and have only tried a couple of items. I have a jaundiced view of ''fusion'' which seems to mean altering the tasteful and aromatic foods so that they are acceptable to a McDonald's palate. I truly wish the taste Nonya food could be transported to the USA. I am sorry but in my opinion this restaurant does not succeed.
Perhaps I ask too much but what about: Zhu ten tang, sop ayam, gado gado, chap chye, or fish curry.
For sweets: black sesame cream, red bean porridge, sago pudding, onde-onde or pisang guyang.
I realized this is unfair and will return to sample Bee Hoon Mei goring and others. My hope is that they discover sambal and begin to cook with spices one can taste.
Food was okay.. Service.. well.. Let's just say they were lucky they added gratuity on our bill..
What I've tried:
Crispy Calamari
Kaffir lime cocktail sauce
and jalapeno aioli
11.
Singapore Satay Sticks
Grilled skewers of chicken or
lamb served with a spicy
peanut sauce
9.
What I'd recommend:
Singapore Satay Sticks
Watermelon Mojitos
They make a great watermelon mojito, probably better then most places I've been. Also their regular mint mojitos are pretty yummy (my drink of choice)
This place gets waaaaay too packed at night when all the SJ cats storm S. Row... Or at least when they used to. There is some lounge seating, but not much.
Straights is great for Happy Hour. I've met some interesting business professionals here and not just young metro looking guys in their affliction shirts with muscles that are border line too big for their bodies.
Okay. I admit it. I'm a fan. I visited since the remodel on a Thursday and had a good time. Service seems to be quicker (looks like they added a few more bartenders). The place just got a face lift and isn't as dark.
Apparently Thursday is the New Friday. Busy busy busy. Good crowds.
I can't believe I haven't reviewed this place yet!
I was a Santana Row virgin back in high school…
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This is a review for dining experience - not the psuedo nightclub experience ;).
Pros: Generally the staff are very helpful and friendly. They're always extremely willing to cater for food preferences (happy to sub out meat etc) and are very cautious with food allergies. They have some decent Gluten Free offerings. We usually enjoy the Poh Pia (minus the sausage) and my BF loves the Samosas. For mains, the Shrimp Pad Thai is usually tasty enough - not a brilliantly authentic or flavourful dish but always reliable and satisfying, the Green Seafood Curry has been really good on occasion. Last time we tried a new dish - I think it was the Ikan Panang, it was really quite good. Nice sweet/chili flavours.
Cons: The music and crowd can get a little off-putting on weekend nights - but if you dine outside your experience shouldn't be too disturbed.
Great Food. If you want to spend a lot of money of food come here.
Everything I have tried tastes great. Although the Tuna Tower reminds me of cat food.
The drinks are just okay. I personally prefer a dive bar for drinks. All the bottles come from the same place. But if you want to go out, get a drink and be hit on by an old foreign guy that doesn't know English or the concept of personal space, this is your kind of bar.
One of my favorite places to go and hang out with my friends. I love the vibe and the crowd; the food is pretty good but a little expensive. My favorite dish is the Singapore Satay Sticks, its Grilled skewers of chicken or lamb served with a spicy peanut sauce.
I would recommend going on a Saturday verses Friday night because the music is much better.
It gets very crowded and loud on the weekends; too bad the dance floor is not bigger.
But overall every time I go there I have a great time. :)
3.5 out of 5 stars
The Food
teh Fried Calimari appetizer was good, the Chicken Lollipops were good, although they didnt seem very healthy. the steak was very good, and lastly the Seabass tasted decent. 2 starz for teh food, 1.5 stars for our server, Tessa, who drew a heart around her name on the check. she was smiling and happy the whole time she was helping us out.
Hooray for Xanax! (just kidding)
The Nightlife
its really hit-or-miss when you come here. about 75% miss, 25% hit. the crowd is usually a mix of people in they late 20's and middle-age working class. also, on busy nights, its too crowded to walk around. one could easily get frustrated trying to manuver around crowds of ppl.
i sometimes get the urge to elbow someone in the back of the head because they wont move out of my way.
Lamb is my favorite food. However, I was disappointed because the lamb here is very hard.
My manfriend & I have been here way too many times. The first couple times were good stuff. After those many times, the food here didn't seem appealing as it use to be. We usually get the crab cakes, roti prata, crispy calamari, and the lemongrass beef. Those are my favorite dishes. But the last time that I went there, I had fish and it was not impressive at all. Since then, I never came back to Straits. I think we will return one day, and hopefully that one day will be good as it use to be.
Nice menu and wine selection, friendly staff and lively atmosphere.
Exotic decor, great food, and good service for large parties. A handful of my friends have had their birthdays here and we were always well taken care of. The fruit sodas are yummy, and the roti prata is always a hit. Some of my other favorites are the Chilled Seafood Platter, the Lemongrass Beef, and the Ahi Tuna Tower. Lots of good stuff here!
Cool Spot To Relax & Chill.....
Just went last Saturday, $10.00 Cover charge which I'm game for, keeps the pockets full or lint and buttons away.
Like the saying goes....
"If You Ain't Got No Money Take Your Broke Ass Home."
But I'll let you in on a secret, pay the cover and they give you a coupon for $13.00 value at the bar. More then fair right?
The folks are pretty laid back, surroundings are up to date, drinks are well distributed.
Downsides, small and at times hard to get around, and can for sure use a bigger dance floor. Besides that Yay! I'm a fan.
I have been there a few times for dinner. The food is really good and service is great too! Our server actually remembered me after 6 months of me going there. My advice is just have dinner and get out. The party scene at Straits sucks, it's just an overcrowded venue with terrible music or should I say terrible djs.
4 stars are only for the dining experience!
I took my wife here on a Thursday evening, thinking it would be a nice date place since it looks really hip and bustling from outside whenever we visit Cocola bakery. As you walk in, the ambiance is really appealing with dim lights, really well designed layout, lights and fixtures. It is a major pickup place for middle aged single men. I mean , at one point just out of curiosity i counted 21 men and 3 women at the bar area, almost all the men looking at the scantily clothed hostesses like they're ready to eat them. :) Anytime a good looking female pass by the bar to go to the bathroom, a bunch of men in tight t-shirts would stare her down, It was an awkward evening.
Anyways, food and service!
Service was nothing special, take our order, deliver our food, ask if everything is ok.. Nothing bad, or good, average.
Food was the biggest disapointment. My "Lemongrass chicken" looked appealing as i got it with a really nice presentation on the plate but, taste and texture was way off. Chicken was covered with some kinda batter which was really really dry, and with strange spices. It was barely edible. My wife's Indian Pasta with prawns was not much better either. Hardly any shrimps in it with really thick and sticky tomato sauce.
I could only take a few sip from my $12.00 Mango Margarita.
What a bummer.
What was it the garlic noodles & the spar ribs. a good combo. my only improvement would be to increase the portion size a little bit. - pleasant on the eyes. Impressive bar runs lengthwise across restaurant, but the dance floor is situated right next to the front door, so the waiting area is a bit iffy.. nice location, with outside seating.
i had a semi-bad experience here, a server spilled wine as she scooted threw some narrow tables onto new $100 dress shirt. they comped my meal & paid for drycleaning. The shirt was forever vandalized, but i probably had it coming no matter what.
(Dinner review)
My friend had her birthday dinner here. She made reservations for 15 people a week in advance. It was a Friday night, Reservation for 15 people at 7pm. We all show up at 6:30 because she lied to us and told us reservations were at 6:30 (We all tend to lag.. haha) we check in with the host to tell her we were all there.. she said just to wait outside or at the bar till our reservation time.
The bar was extremely crowded, I'm assuming because of happy hour so after 1 drink I decided to give up and just stand outside.
7:15 comes and goes.. Hostess says our table is getting set up..
7:30 comes and goes.. Hostess apologizes but told us our table is not ready yet
8:15.. The birthday girl is a little pissed off and decides to talk to the host again. I think there was a shift change because a new girl was there. We told her our situation and she said that there was another group using our table and we were just waiting for them to leave..
9pm.. 2 hours after our reservation we finally sit down. Now not to sound shady.. but we did not get any comps, no free drinks, not even an apology from the manager.
The worst thing is, with a table of 15 it takes forever for the food to come out and half way through our meal straits turns into a bar/lounge, and we are sharing our dining area with drunk people and loud blasting music.
I don't know why we waited. It wasn't my birthday.. I just stood there irritated with the rest of our group. I'll never come back. The food was decent but there was no reservation organization at all. no one was apologetic about postponing my friends birthday 2 hours..
just awful..
SERVER GIRL WAS THE RUDEST MOST UNPROFESSIONAL "WORKER" IVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE. I didn't get a chance to try any food or the EXPENSIVE drink I ordered because my waitress was too f*cking lazy to actually start making the drink- instead sat and chatted w her visiting friends for 10 minutes before she even started. I couldnt believe it. And when I had ordered my drink, she didnt say a word- just grabbed my menu out of my hand. Before ordering, I had seen her check on a group of male patrons to see how their drinks were, and she was quite cheery w them. Psh. After those 10 minutes of my sister and I watching this idiot talking w her friends instead of even starting our drinks, we were disgusted. When she started to make them, we got up and walked out. I don't pay $12 to be treated like crap. Thanks though. THIS GIRL HAD BROWN LONG HAIR AND TONS OF MAKEUP- IF THE PEOPLE RUNNING THIS PLACE HAVE ANY WORK ETHIC, THEYLL FIRE THIS FOOL.
HEADLINE: Dinner / drinks was OK, and we escaped before the nightlife crashed the scene
Santana Row was alive this past Saturday evening ... lotsa street festival type stuff going on. Wifey and I had just caught my obligatory monthly visit to a chic flick (that's why we're married 24 years ...) and we had 7:00 reservations at this place.
We were greeted at the door and immediately seated out on the side causeway by a young lady that was dressed for either the "window district" in Amsterdam or the entrance to either of the two tunnels in Manhattan, if you know what I mean ... she basically was wearing nothing more than a blouse that exposed two thirds of her re-engineered boobs, barely covered her crotch and ass, and had knee high boots to match ... OK, we're off to the races ... God, honey, you could poke an eye out with those things ... be careful.
But I digress ...
We really came here to grab a couple of drinks and sample their small plate menu ... our waitress showed up immediately, ahem, properly attired, and took our drink orders ... me a Tanquerey martini on the rocks and the Boss ordered up a Lemongrass Mojito. Both showed up in a timely manner given the place was filling up quickly at this point, but alas, my martini came prepared the normal way ... shaken, without ice.
Realizing her mistake upon some gentle prodding, our waitress delegated the drink to another of the waitstaff and asked to "have the drink put on ice".
Now martini lovers, you know you can't put a shaken martini back into a glass on ice and expect it to be anything near a martini on the rocks ... sure enough ... it came back in a glass filled with ice and was totally diluted. That's just a fundamental bar rule you cannot break ... I don't care about the margins of having to throw out a drink ... c'mon ... one star deducted right there. ... By the way, the second one was made properly and was infinitely better tasting.
The Boss's Mojito was very, very good ... but at a Hamilton a pop, it better be, right? Anyways, these went down like lemonades for cryin' out loud.
After perusing the menu we ordered up a hella amount of food ... From the small plates section of the menu we found terrific variety ... and then from the full dinner menu we decided to try the Black Pepper Lobby ...
Our first course that arrived was the Poh Pia spring rolls that were very fresh and delicate. The filling crisp and delicious with the vegetables, prawns, sausage and nuts ... the dipping sauce was beautifully presented as drizzled on the plate and brought a terrific flavor and spice to the dish ... fabulous!
The second was the Beef Satay ... again, very nice presentation with about half a dozen beef kabobs nestled in a terrific peanut sauce ... the sauce was light nuanced ... not heavy handed in any way like most. These were gobbled up almost immediately.
The noise levels at this point were beginning to escalate with the crowd inside the bar beginning to build and the foot traffic coming into the Row through the causeway almost four or five across.
The next dish was a HEAPING bowl of Coconut Fried Rice with Prawns ... Nasi Goreng ... I almost finished the whole bowl by myself ... rice was perfectly cooked, many subtle flavors ... I only wish the prawns stood out a little more ... they seemed just ever so slightly stir fried or steamed ... they did not bring anything taste-wise ... but the rest of the ingredients were very, very good ...
The finale was the Black Pepper Lobster and this, after such a remarkable succession of small plates, was an unmitigated disaster in terms of presentation, taste, mechanics, and value.
Silly me, I was thinking 'black pepper lobster' like you get in Hong Kong or Beijing where they literally deep fry the crustacean in oil thoroughly infused with coarse black pepper. The black pepper infuses the meat inside the shell while it's in the boiling oil and it's simply magnificent to all the senses.
THIS, was not that. This was a lobster whose shell and appendages were simply doused with some black sauce ... it didn't infuse the meat at all ... it was all external to the shell / meat. We were left with shell crackers to fend for ourselves ... but think about it ... how the hell are you supposed to crack claws and legs with all this goupy sauce on it??? Only the tail had been taken out of the shell and it was swimming in the sauce.
We needed bath towels to wash the sauce off us by the time we finished. Not a dish we'd order again and certainly not worth $39.
So, a bit uneven throughout the evening, a pleasant enough dining experience people watching on the Row, and we were able to emerge from the den around 9:00 before the circus side show inside the bar area commenced. We emerged and saw the same oldish looking blond cougar camped out on her chair in front of the bar as when we arrived, ready to hold court ... alas, no one was noticing ... I was glad to be heading home.
San Jose, CA
Category: Greek
San Jose, CA
Category: Sandwiches
San Jose, CA
Category: Pizza
San Jose, CA
Category: Lounges
San Jose, CA
Category: Cajun/Creole
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