Dan H.'s Profile

Sure, this place has a bunch of stars, but they didn't help on Tuesday night.

My girlfriend had been to this one some time ago and since we had tried Maggiano's a while back we figured we could give this one a try to compare.

Got there a bit before the dinner rush, maybe 6pm, about 3 tables worth of customers already there, two server staff on hand, didn't seem to be too overwhelming.  We were seated and got three little pieces of bread and a pesto-oil sauce to dip in, which was actually not so bad.

Ordered three items, one was a pasta shell fish dish, the others were half-plates of a shrimp-pasta-cream-sauce and a tortellini-meat-sauce.  Our server didn't ask whether we wanted more bread or salad or soup or anything, she was off pretty quickly.

Food arrived some time later, after a few tables of people who had arrived after us were served.  That was the tip-off, since when our three dishes arrived (a runner brought them over) only the shrimp pasta dish was sort of "hot" in the center (probably due to the cream sauce), the shell fish dish was edible, and the tortellini was actually cool.  As in, not really even warm.

I set that dish aside and when the server came by to as how everything was, I figured I would only point out the one, so when I said "this one is cold," she said, "oh, yes, it was sitting out too long."

Now... if you are a server and you aren't surprised that your table has received cold food that you apparently know has been sitting out, you deserve less than the tip we left that night.

They did probably microwave the plate to heat it up, it wasn't bad but the meal was a disappointment overall, the service was lackluster, and there was no attempt to make amends... no coffee, no comp, no apology from the manager, no real acknowledgement.  

Maggiano's was many orders of magnitude better (though I haven't been back there), if you're looking for Italian in Santana Row.

As I type this, 2 of the other 3 reviews are from 2 years ago, so let's bring it up to date a bit.

First of all, Susan, the owner of this establishment, is a very very very nice person and while she is pleasant to talk to, don't think she's not if you're already having your own private conversation off in the corner.  She's friendly with other business owners on the street so you can often catch her across the street at Fibbar Magees or Via Sol, among other places.

I myself am not a big wine fan, more into the beer.  In fact, that's why I'm not giving that 5th star, because I'm a total beer snob!  But aside from that, it is a wine-oriented establishment with a few different kinds of beers and some eats so that's the only fault there.  You're having some wine...

The wine selection to me seems fine.  Remember, I'm a beer drinker, so when I have tasted some wines, Susan has made some thoughtful suggestions that have been spot on.  Why, just today at the Farmer's Market, we grabbed a crepe and wandered over to Susan's place where she let us grab a table to eat our find.  That lead to two glasses of a nice white wine that she suggested and it went with the food splendidly.  We finished off with some pretzels and people-watching and a little conversation with Susan here and there between the passers by.

Bottom line, Brandon Wines is a cute little shop with a nice, friendly owner and if you're in Sunnyvale you won't do badly to stop in and take a taste.  Oh, by the way, Susan is more than happy to have you bring something from one of the other restaurants on the street (or wherever), sit yourself down and try some wine with whatever you have.  She also has corkage arrangements with many of the places on the street.  Go check it out, tell her Dan sent you...

I was working the election polls at the elementary school across the street and decided to take my lunch break at Seto, having heard good things about the place for so many years.

I ordered some tempura and katsu don.  Why not sushi?  Well, it was just me, it was a quick lunch, and the sushi looked slightly expensive so I figured I would check it out first with something a bit more economical.

Hmmm.

Miso soup was not so good.  Eating just a piece of tofu, there was a dishwater-like flavor left behind.  I'm not saying they use dishwater to make their miso soup, but for some reason the flavor was just off.

The katsu don was passable but not great.  The pork was dry and the egg lacked excellent flavor.

The tempura was pretty good.  I'm a sucker for tempura, though.

Finally, the service.  Eh, not great.  The place was pretty slow at about 1pm so maybe it was just a lack of momentum, and I was a solo eater so maybe I wasn't quite so interesting, but they didn't have to make it quite so obvious.

End of the day, I doubt I would go back.  Not necessarily horrible, and perhaps their sushi is better and maybe going with one or two more people would have made for a better overall experience, but I'll shop around a bit more.

Just stopped by the place today and I have to agree with pretty much everybody else who has written to date.  Great flavors and interesting toppings (maybe too much cereal, but they have some decent ones aside from the real fruits you can toss on there).

Slight disclaimer, my girlfriend met the owners of the place before they opened and they got to talking about yogurt in great detail.  She was already looking forward to checking out the place before two months before they opened.  It appears that their attention to detail, personality, and good taste are paying off in spades.

Definitely stop by and check it out.  Love the decor, also.  Just electric enough to brighten your day, but not overpowering.

I have to admit, I stopped by the Peacock strictly because I know one of the bartenders and I told her I would.

That said, I would say the Peacock is a nice little hangout for the regulars.  I am a regular myself at a few other places, and I can see quite plainly wy the regulars like it.  It's comfortable, simple, pretty unassuming, and from what I understand there are some business practices that make it sort of "fun" to hang out there and drink.

Since I know the bartender working while I was there I won't comment beyond saying she is very cool and the other regulars there seemed to enjoy her work quite a bit.  I will also point out that when I ordered my Rusty Nail I got a slew of commentary from the crew manning my side of the bar... that happens all the time.

It's not really a dive bar so much as a "neighborhood bar"-- during the day, anyway-- so if you need to sit down for a quick drink with a client or a pal or whatever you'll be fine here.

Fibbars is a fun spot just about any time.

We used to wander over from an evening of beer and munching at Stoddard's and finish out the evening over a pint of Guinness or two, I would call myself a Fibbars veteran if we can include the 90s.

I recently started going there again and it's every bit as good.  The bands are hit-and-miss, but that's how life works.  The Friday band a week ago [EDIT: It was The Switch, according to the band calendar on Fibbars website] was really really good, other times the bands are more loud than good.  The dance floor definitely picks up as the alcohol flows-- last night, in fact, I saw a newly-married bride in white busting a move.

The people working there all seem quite nice.  I haven't met everybody, but those I've actually had a chat with are really interesting-- in fact, one person there in particular is "astonishingly interesting," to quote myself.  

I like a pub that's a little quiet to hang out with friends, and while hanging out on Friday is fun, it's a nice spot to go through the week to relax and hang out with friends you bring with you or new ones you meet there.

I liked this place about 8 years ago when I first tried it, and I still like it.

I'm no sushi expert.  Not even close.  But I find very little to complain about after a few visits to Rokko recently.  Mostly on Tuesday nights, though I had been there for lunch a few months ago with another friend and we stopped in there on a more-crowded Wednesday, but Tuesdays do seem to be a bit on the quiet side. This works well if you have a conversation to get to, though it is also not an empty library or anything like that.

The servers are very nice and pretty outgoing.  Only once so far was there some confusion and weirdness about our order, when a few things for different people ended up on one big plate that left us slightly confused, but we figured it out.

I like the Tempura roll, which is probably a sure indicator that I'm a novice.  Spicy tuna and salmon rolls are also good.  I need broaden my horizons there and see what else they have going on.

Bottom line, it's a nice little place, but I am not using the sushi microscope as some might.

This place is always packed.  Always.  I've been walking along the sidewalk of Murphy and people have literally suggested I go to Dish Dash without caring whether I was looking for vittles or not.  People love this place.  Now that I've been there, I guess I have to agree that it's delicious.

I actually went there on a Tuesday about three weeks ago and the place was... well, you know.  Luckily it was two of us and we were able to get a little table off to the side near the kitchen.  Since we were out to dinner for a weekly startup business meeting, I suppose I could wank about the noise level, but anyone who goes here for a quiet evening isn't observant.  So I'll chalk that up to atmosphere.

I had never been so I probably went a little safe, trying the bamieh, which is a lamb shank with okra and a tomato sauce.  It was quite tasty and easy to eat.  We had humus to start off, but I think if I were going to try another dish I would go for something with more "going on," so while the bamieh was quite good, I think I would probably try bariani or  M'sakhan.

The bathroom was very neat and clean, as was the entire restaurant.  I didn't hover over the kitchen, but I think that when a restaurant leaves their kitchen open to their customers to see, they have a bit of confidence and that seems reasonable here.  I noticed that all of the surfaces (walls, floor, decorations) are hard and flat, and this doesn't help the din... again, I don't think people are going here for quiet conversation, so maybe this adds to the effect.

Finally, the host and staff were very pleasant.  Our server was patient with my lack of knowledge of the menu and made a couple of suggestions. And to end the evening, the owner of the place did NOT threaten me with any sort of physical violence... not so of that OTHER Mediterranean restaurant on Murphy.

I've become a bit of a Murphy rat in that I hang round downtown Sunnyvale on Murphy Ave with laptop and accouterments, trying to get a bit of work done while meeting all kinds of people (and occasionally enjoying the waft of wort cooking at Firehouse, but that's another review).

I ran into a bunch of the Palace Cafe people out one night at another location and got to talking to them.  This was only about 3 weeks ago, say mid-September as I write this, but they were all very friendly and outgoing.  Being the regular that I am, it was clear that I would have to split some time between my usual haunt and this newer laptop landing zone.

I've read some other reviews here and I had only been to the PC once prior for a sandwich, which did indeed take too long.  That was probably back in May 2007 or so.  Well, I didn't know anybody there, but now I do, so of course there's a little bit of slack available.

After spending about a week there during the day, here's the rundown:

Monica the manager is a force to be reckoned with.  I have a strong feeling that if concerns expressed in some other reviews here were brought to her attention at the time, she would be on it.  Be courteous and honest and I believe she will be the same.

The crew there is, from what I can tell, somewhat inexperienced [EDIT: read "give them a break"].  If anyone there happens to read this, Olga has set your benchmark for outgoing personality [not to take anything away from the others, but there is a winner].  

The food seems good so far.  I've had breakfast there a couple of times (before I met these folks and since) and while one might argue that breakfast is a hard meal to get wrong, well, they do not.  I'll try to grab a sandwich or some other non-breakfast items and see what's up.

Finally, for the laptop nerdles, their wireless connection is flaky and frequently causes issues [for the super-nerdy, my ssh connections get rest frequently and apt-get update takes FOREVER, but email and other smaller transactions aren't so bad].  They have large, square tables that do not wobble, but the electrical outlet count is slightly low.  That the place is quiet and maybe has many, many available tables is a great thing for those of us looking to get work done.  That the people working there are very nice and friendly [again, now that I've gotten to know them, YMMV] is probably the only downside as I'm a sucker for a nice conversation over actual work.

Oh, and I'm checking "Late Night" because on Fr/Sa they stay open until 11pm, and some friends and I met up there for some hot chocolate and nerdy discussion at 10pm the other night and it was perfect.

First of all, I've been hanging around this restaurant and their other property, Coffee & More, so much that I've become friendly with just about everybody involved in both businesses, so I'm slightly biased later in the story.

That said, this is one of the sleeper hits of Murphy Ave.  Having been a Stoddard's Regular for so long back in the 90s, I always looked across the street and figured some sort of wardrobe forethought would be in order just to walk through the door of the place.  Not sure if this was true back then, but don't let the cloth napkins and tablecloths fool you... it's a fun, family-feeling restaurant that does not judge (or they haven't said anything, anyway).

Someone else pointed out the Cevapi, which are indeed delicious.  If you're throwing caution to the wind, try mixing Gnocci and Tortellini in the cream sauce with bacon.  Yeah, that's cheating, because bacon makes everything delicious... and that works here as well.

It's family-owned and on Friday and Saturday you'll run into the kids, Maria and Anton.  Matto turns out the tasty vittles while his wife Dee runs the place and keeps their catering projects in order.  Your server day to day is Jorge, the sharp-dressed man who opens and closes the place daily (except Sunday and Monday... he has to sleep sometimes).

Friday night is probably the most sociable, but don't let an empty dining room at lunch scare you away.  Great food, nice people, good times.

[this sounds like I'm trying to sell the place, I guess, but they really are nice people and I've sort of made this my second home... if it helps, I brought my mom here when she came for a visit and introduced her around.  So you know it's true...]