Jim C.'s Profile

Delicious Afghan food in a sleepy corner of a run down strip mall. Don't let the exterior deter you from entering this cozy and warm restaurant.

Kebob dishes - Very tasty and juicy - the chicken and the shrimp are my faves and the usual go-to dishes.

Kadu - sauteed pumpkin topped  w/yogurt and lamb meat sauce was surprising tasty... would have never tried if my friend hadn't ordered it.

Korma Challaw Badenjah - mistakenly thought this would be more like chunks of beef and epplant with sauce on top but turned out to be more of a saucy dish with small bites of beef and eggplant. Still was tasty but very creamy/saucy.

Service is usally extremely friendly but sometimes they get busy and service is slow.

Bottom line: Tasty Afghan food option in San Carlos (if you're not in the mood for Korean and cheesesteak in the same strip mall).  I may still lean towards Shalizaar as my local fave for kebab plates, but Kabul can definitely hold its own.

Father, forgive me, I have sinned. I bought a dozen of Anthony's sinful cookies... and they were awesome.

Can't believe SF didn't have another store like this before... JUST cookies. FRESH BAKED COOKIES with 10+ kinds everyday.

My faves:
- Toffee chip - delicious to the last morsel, esp if you like toffee. Perfect, not too much toffee, not to little
- White choc chip - loved every bite, esp for you white choc fans
- Walnut choc chip - really fresh walnuts, yum... esp for the nut fans

My least favorite was cinnamon sugar. Just too much cinnamon for me but others might like it.

Hint: Get their daily cookie schedule as they have 8 regular kinds and 6 that rotate on different days.

Bottom line: Actually, Father, forget it... I'm going to get another dozen.

Was excited to check out the "McDonalds of the Philippines" but hugely disappointed.

Yes, I could've had a more standard burger, fried chicken, spaghetti, etc. but I decided to try the most authentic looking item on the menu - "Palabok Fiesta" - "premium bihon noodles with mouth-watering palabok sauce".  It was this completely nasty mound of goupy microwaved noodles with this sauce that was not "mouth-watering" whatsoever. I had 2 bites and threw away my $5+ meal. Yuck.

Bottom line: Sure, I'm no Filipino food expert, but their palabok is no way to introduce yourself to Filipino food. Stick with the fried chicken and burgers. The baked goods at Blue Ribbon next store did look interesting.

Horrible customer service.

Was waiting to talk to one of the banker specialists to open some accounts with them. Was told 5-10 minutes. Waited patiently for 25 minutes until one of them freed up. Instead of tending to me, the specialist started helping at least 3 ppl waiting in the regular line from his side desk. WTF...um, I been F***** waiting 25 minutes versus 5 minutes like them?!  5 minutes later after I continued to be ignored, I was pissed and walked out.

Bottom line: Have had okay experience before here, but after this time, I hell ain't going to this branch ever again. If you want to be completely ignored and feel unvalued, come to this branch. If you want go feel appreciated, go somewhere else.

Ghetto indian street food from a truck - LOVED IT!

Been dying to try out this Indian food truck getting so much hype but have been too lazy to make it up to Burlingame on weekends. Saw that it was going to be in Redwood Shores next to Oracle so had no excuses.

Despite it being close to 1:30pm, there was a swarm of 10+ Indian customers around the truck so that was a great sign of authenticity (and of course, me being one of the 2 non-Indians that were there the whole time).

Chicken Tikka Masala Burrito ($6) - 5 stars - AWESOME - rice and all the ingredients inside were so moist. Shockingly savory Indian food - in fact, I'm tempted to go back there and scarf down another.

Tandoori Chicken Taco ($3) - 4.75 stars - really tasty and moist chicken with lots of tasty spices/sauce (and lots o onions!). And the 2 soft corn taco shells perfectly completed it

Kathi Roll - Chicken ($5) - 4.75 stars - pan fried bread thing fried with an egg and topped with chicken, pickled onions, and chutney - looked rather plain but the chicken and flavors were great

They have other items like deconstructed samosas, lunch/dinner plates, and even entire dinner packages for $24 or so.

And you gotta love the Indian woman running the show - you can tell she really wants to please everyone. And her mom is outside taking orders when they're busy inside the truck.

Bottom line: GREAT S**T!!! may even go back to catch them for some more while I can. Never thought Indian food truck food could be so good... the Mexican taco trucks may be getting some new competition!

Crepe du jour... whatever that means, I don't know any French. But they do make tasty crepes!

Been tempted by their grand opening banner which has been calling me for a month or so everytime I drive me. Out of the ashes of Verde Cafe has emerged a decent French crepe place. I thought this would be one of those (annoyingly) cutesy Asian crepe places that sell bubble tea too but it doesn't appear to be Asian run and they seem serious about their crepes.

They have over 10 kinds of hot meal-type crepes and also 10+ dessert type crepes so lots to choose from as well as paninis and ice cream.

Chicken pesto crepe ($7.95) - 4.25 stars. Quite tasty, was very large and filling for lunch. I like pesto so there was lots of pesto. Abundant amount of cheese so good for cheese lovers. And came with an attractive side salad on the plate with tasty dressing.

Service was a bit slow as it did take almost 10 minutes to get my crepe so don't expect this to be a fast food kind of place.

Informal low-key place, tables inside and outside, okay parking in the back (but could fill up quickly), and free wifi.

Bottom line: Crepe-a-licious. Nice change of pace for lunch from the usual sandwiches or Asian food in the area. Reminds me of the crepes at Laurel St. Cafe or Bistro Maxine but without the personality of those other places.  Crepes + free wifi = I'll be back.

Now closed... Sorry to see another mom and pop shut down.

Bottom line: And now the high school kids will have to find a new liquor store to hang out at...

Move over Orange Bowl and Rose Bowl, here comes Sunny Bowl.

Sunny Bowl's secret weapon is a lineup of tasty Korean bibimbap bowls (rice w/meat and veggies on top served with some hot sauce). They have 7 different kinds and all come generously portioned with rice, ample veggies, and meat all for $4-7 each.  And for about $1 extra, you can get a bigger portion of meat fit for a running back.

Tried the beef and chicken ones. Beef was pretty tasty. Chicken was cubed and less tasty than the beef. The secret is mixing the Korean slightly sweet hot sauce with all the ingredients so don't skimp on the sauce.

Special teams -
- Egg battered fish appetizer - tasted much more egg than fish (and very thin sliver of fish) but I liked it.
- Kimchi pancake - seemed ok. My was cold after I got takeout but I bet it tastes a lot better hot
- Froyo was just ok, a tad icy and not creamy enough. But flavor was decent.

This place is quarterbacked by a humble and customer-friendly Asian man who seems to want to please. And the younger woman who works there during lunch time has a very smily and sunny personality that makes this place worthy of its name. Consider her the cheerleader.

Location is very convenient off 101/Shoreline on a sidestreet and has a big parking lot. In a small strip mall next to Subway and a Japanese place. Cozy little place with at least 10 tables.

Bottom line: I'm more of a fan of hot (dol sot) bi bim bap but the food was a very pleasant surprise. You bet Sunny wll be on my list of good-tasting, more healthy quick takeout places. And great value for the amount of food. Touchdown.

Surprisingly tasty Italian chain food with very friendly service.

I've been to numerous Pasta Pomodoro's in San Mateo, San Jose, and Sunnyvale over the years and was never huge fan. And I am a bit of an Italian food snob so avoid Italian chains as much as possible. HOWEVER...

Pased by this location 2 months ago when I was madly hungry so decided to give it a try. Surprisingly it was great and I've been back here a couple times since. And service here is just super friendly that I feel like a king everytime I come here.

My faves:
- Melanzane (penne and eggplant in spicy tomato sauce, $9.50) - 4.25 stars- was a delightful surprise with a perfect not-too-wimpy but not-too-firey spiciness
- Frutti di Mare (spaghetti w/seafood, $12.50) - 4 stars- overall tasty dish. Seafood isn't the best and freshest but the whole thing works

And their bread is so tasty, esp with the olive-based dipping sauce with a ton of stuff in it.

Bottom line: It may not be authentic Italian, but this location gets it and has been pretty solid multiple times. Thanks for the great service. And takeout has been fast and easy.

Was looking for a new heavy-duty microwave and thought I'd check out this place since I see their ads in the SJ Mercury News all the time.  Wanted to see what this old-school, non big-chain place was all about.

Expecting to find very friendly customer service given the small chain, instead I found a big sleepy old-school place lacking energy and warmth. They did have more microwave models on display than any other place I saw but over half of them were only available as display-models. A sales guy did come over but even  Best Buy and Sears seemed to have friendlier service.

Bottom line: Old school didn't do it for me. Hope this dinosaur local chain can find a way to stay in business against the big guys.