Kathleen M.'s Profile
Date
Mountain View, CA 94041
(650) 864-9940
Zucca Ristorante
Categories:
Greek,
Mediterranean
We ended up at Zucca for the first time upon discovering there was an hour long wait at our intended dinner destination Xanh a few doors down. Simultaneously we found ourselves in the middle of a rainstorm. ("Well we could look a few more blocks down Castro? Eh,screw it.")
We started with the potato and mushroom croquette app. It was hot and mashed potato-y inside, but (small quibble) I wish the harissa aioli had a stronger flavor. It was my favorite dish of the night. This $6.50 app came with a lot of dressed greens so I was happy I didn't order a salad.
My entree was the eggplant moussaka, which for $12.95 was the cheapest entree on the menu (coincidence that I ordered it?). The husband's chicken scallopine marsala was only $1.50 more. I felt like there should have been more of a difference in price between the veg and non-veg entrees. My moussaka came with salad - again, glad I skipped getting a salad - this time with beets and shaved parm. The entree was good but really needed something to elevate it. The chicken was pounded very thin and the sauce was good but not great. The husband's favorite part was the spinach (it came with spinach and mashed potatoes). Again, the sides were not listed on the menu. Those are things that would be nice to know if you were say, going to order an app involving potatoes. (Not that one could be sick of potatoes, but still...)
We noticed that other tables had bread so we finally flagged down the manager and asked him about it. He apologized and said that the bread was just coming out of the oven now. However, when the bread arrived five minutes later it was suspiciously lukewarm.
Despite its temperature, the bread was good, and it's touches like house-made bread, shaved parm on the salad, and an abundance of pepper grinders that led my husband to remark that this is the type of restaurant that looks and is expensive, but the food isn't really all that great. (Most entrees are around $17.)
The service was okay. The hostess came through the door when we stopped to look at the menu outside and awkwardly stood there while we considered our dining options. She also took our coats as we entered and returned them at the end of the meal.
We ended the meal with the banana baklava ($7.50). We recently had a non-traditional baklava - baklava ice cream! - at Dish Dash and it was amazing. The Zucca version was more like a banana spring roll (made with phillo dough) but bland and without enough caramel sauce. The husband said his half had plenty of caramel and that I wouldn't want any more because it tasted bitter. The accompanying pistachio ice cream was fine.
Food = 4 stars
But Prices Bring it Down to = 3 stars
I visited Three Seasons two times before and liked it so much that when a Groupon came along that gave us $40 worth of food for $20, I jumped at it. Unfortunately the Groupon didn't also say that dishes like the Mango Beef had risen in price from $15 to $24 in less than six years, while also declining sharply in quality.
The Mango Beef - a favorite on a previous visit - was the biggest disappointment. The Niman Ranch beef wasn't at all tender and the mango was unripe and actually crunchy. This was probably the worst dish over $20 I've ever had in my life. (Note: the website says this dish is $19. It is $24! Might want to update the website with your ridiculously inflated prices.)
The Yellow Curry Chicken ($19 in actuality; $17 on the website) was easily the best dish of the night. White meat chicken. Sweet potatoes. A complex sauce. Can't go wrong there. This is one of the best renditions I've had.
Ahi Tuna Rolls ($13 in actuality; $12 on the website) were only okay, and the six rolls seemed small given the price. The seared ahi just didn't quite work in roll form with the mango slivers, and the sriracha served on the side didn't add anything. I am sad that they took my favorite Beef Rolls off the menu.
We also ordered rice (white - $2, brown - $2.50), served in particularly small portions. I was disappointed that my rice wasn't included with my leftovers even though I requested it. Our server however was fine (he wasn't the one who took the food away so I'm not blaming him for the mystery of the missing rice).
The center atrium is nice but it doesn't add up to bleeding the customer dry. We paid $20 for the Groupon and another $33 out of pocket. Even *with* the Groupon, it wasn't worth it.
(And lastly, where did the bats go? Watching bats in the building across the way was my favorite part of my previous dining experiences here.)
Listed in: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner…
1 Previous Review:
-
9/7/2005 First to Review
Pros:
See bats while you eat.
Cons:
See bats while you eat.
You got bats on my fancy Vietnamese restaurant! You got fancy Vietnamese restaurant on my bats! Perhaps they taste great... together?
I had a great meal at Three Seasons the other night in Palo Alto. The most surprising thing here though – BATS! That’s right – if you eat outside you will be treated to bats (hundreds of ‘em) flying directly over your head from the adjacent building.
Needless to say we ate inside.
Anyway, on to the chow:
Beef rolls (6 very plump rolls for $10) to start (beef, peanut, fresh pineapple, spicy vinaigrette). There is a huge assortment of spring rolls and satays to choose from on the menu. Of all our dishes this tasted closest to what you might find in a regular Vietnamese place. All the ingredients tasted very fresh and sharp. A great start.
Skipped the small plates (mostly seafood and I was with 2 people who were seafood-unfriendly) and went straight to the large plates:
Lemon Grass Chicken (with red bell pepper, green onion, and caramel sauce for $13) was quite good but not as good as any of the beef dishes.
Shaking Beef (cubes of beef wok-tossed with green onion, black pepper and garlic sauce for $15) had good flavor but the beef was cooked more (medium?) that it should have been (also on our friends’ previous visit they said it was better when less cooked).
Mango Beef (beef wok-tossed with fresh mango and oyster sauce for $15) was excellent with a nice tangy-ness to the marinade on the beef. This was my boyfriend’s and my favorite dish.
Under sides, we ordered the Garlic Noodles (fresh egg noodles sauteed with garlic butter sauce. Topped with parmesan cheese and fried shallot for $6). This dish we ranked the worst of those ordered. The flavor was very non-descript and the randomly sprinkled-on fried shallots added nothing.
We ended our meal with a pair of $7 desserts. I didn’t get a chance to try our friends’ mango with sticky rice, which was the tiniest portion I’ve ever seen of this dish. My boyfriend and I split the chocolate banana spring rolls with vanilla bean ice cream and caramel sauce. These weren’t as small as our friends’ dessert, but not large by any means. The spring rolls were good but not amazing. The ice-cream, with many visible pieces of vanilla bean, was quite good, and ended the meal nicely.
We left full and content and ready to fight the bat onslaught outside. Unfortunately they were nowhere to be found. We saw them before at 8 p.m. and I have a feeling they only fly out certain times a day (as at Carlsbad Caverns or in Austin where the bats fly out at a certain time each night).
There are also garlic fries but the garlic makes them way too soggy. Regular fries are better. If you're only judging Clarke's based on burgers and fries, 5 Guys (my nemesis) is better at this point. But then there's my dreamy wonderfully spicy Louisiana link. 2 stars (burgers/fries) + 5 stars (Louisiana deliciousness) = 4 stars.
You add or take home all the condiments you want from their condiment bar. They offer other mustard in addition to French's which is a big deal to me. Oddly, the tomatoes are separate from the other condiments. "Rustic" doesn't even begin to describe the benches and tables which barely make you feel like you're sitting inside. But it doesn't really matter once you sink your teeth into one of those dogs.
Listed in: I'll Have that Mountain View…
Dan B. recommended the mole and even though it wasn't an option on the burrito menu, they added it for $1. SO glad I did that. It gave the chicken burrito a more complex flavor. We also had a regular chicken burrito (which comes with rice and beans - I chose pinto instead of refried), with guac for $1. It was good and I added salsa to it which improved things. (I would have preferred pico de gallo like at Andale.) The meat in both burritos was probably dark meat (I'm a white meat snob), but was fine.
Las Muchachas appears to specialize in seafood platters and other Mexican specialties. Burritos occupy relatively little menu space and they don't have a big burrito making operation on the front counter. All burrito business is done in the back.
One thing I liked was that without even telling me they packaged up my chips and salsa to go. The chips were nice and thick, the salsa average.
I walked out spending $13 for both burritos, and together we were only able to finish one. No worries, the other one held up well for not one, but two more lunches!
Listed in: I'll Have that Mountain View…
Cupertino, CA 95014
(408) 257-4057
Azuma Japanese Cuisine
Category:
Japanese
The restaurant reminds me of Japantown with screens and no other decor. Azuma's a big restaurant and it looked like every table consisted of a large booth. You have to take your shoes off and leave them by your table and let your feet dangle under the table like at a traditional Thai restaurant.
This is not a place for sushi rolls. Other than California rolls, they don't even have them. Here it's sashimi or dinner combos or bust.
We both had combo meals. Each was about $17.50, which is rather high. It makes me miss Kamakura's $11.25 special. I had to ask for silverware, which I normally do at Japanese restaurants (chopsticks and meat that I might need to trim just don't mix), but was surprised when they didn't have them. But then they found some. Anyway, I'm just mentioning this because they might be out when you go.
We started with the miso soup. I thought there was a slight aftertaste and found it grainy and cloudier than usual. My husband didn't notice a difference.
Next came the salad with typical iceberg lettuce. Why can't Japan discover romaine? The dressing - the restaurant sells it by the bottle - was pretty good. It reminded me of poppyseed dressing, and wasn't the usual Japanese restaurant gloopy stuff.
My husband had the beef teriyaki, and it is by far the best beef teriyaki we've found, and comparable to Kamakura's. The beef is actually not well done (it's a Festivus miracle!) and cooked to your specifications. His combo came with a generous portion of sashimi.
I had the salmon teriyaki, which was only just fine. In fact, I'd had a salmon kabob marinated with teriyaki sauce from the seafood counter at Nob Hill Foods a few days before, and the Nob Hill salmon was much more tender with a more delicate sauce. My combo came with tempura. It wasn't the lightest fried coating I've ever had but it was still good, and included prawns, green beans (yay! not often seen in tempura), sweet potato, and I think zucchini.
Both combos came with broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, carrot, and canned serrated beets.
I missed the complimentary extra Kamakura has at the end of the meal - plum wine (sake) brought by the sweet, super dressed up, old lady proprietess. Azuma just has complimentary green tea for your meal. I'm not a green tea afficionado but should I be concerned about any odd things I find at the bottom of my cup that aren't tea leaves? I drank it anyway but I'm seriously not sure...
Listed in: It's Teri-Yummy or…
So the other day he wanted to get some pizza from Papa John's. Since he was the one picking it up, I figured I'd indulge him. Mistake #1. (Mistake #2 was my actually eating the pizza.)
I thought the pizza had too much sauce, which apparently my husband had requested. So I can't really fault Papa John's for that. However, I can fault them for bland, uninspired sauce, so yay me! Our tomato, onion, bell pepper pie just tasted incredibly blah. My husband has coupons he wants to use for Papa John's now, and I'm like "Great! You can go by yourself."
Our nearly 17 month old twins LOVE pizza. They usually gobble up all their pizza from A Slice of New York. However, they only picked at their Papa John's and left a lot of it on their high chair tray and on the ground for me to pick up. I like to chalk up their rejection of Papa John's to their budding pizza palate. Apparently they got their blue eyes and their good pizza genes from me.
In short: never again. Even my babies say so. Except they say it like this: "Bupupupupsfweofji."
National pizza chains in order of best to worst:
Pizza Hut (thin crust)
Domino's
Round Table
...
and then there's Papa John's
Listed in: I'll Have a Silicon Valley…
(510) 436-6666
Lisa Zomer
Category:
Makeup Artists
Neighborhoods: Temescal, North Oakland
Now that the lip gloss caveat is gone, I do have one remaining caveat with working with Lisa - she can be slow to respond to e-mail.
Listed in: All Things Wedding
1 Previous Review:
-
9/28/2007 First to Review
Lisa Zomer did an amazing job on my wedding hair and makeup. She works on a bunch of movies, which makes it fun during your session to be a total starf*cker). However, because she works on a bunch of movies she can only make appointments three months in advance. Having the uncertainty of waiting so close to the wedding to make the appointment is definitely worth it though - Lisa does great work.
Lisa has the best reputation among girls on The Knot with good reason. She made my hair look beautiful, and did a wonderful job on my makeup - she airbrushed it on and it looked very natural, and it was complimentary to my (fake) red hair and super pale skin.
On the big day she did make-up and hair for me and the moms, and she was a fun and calming presence. She even provided me with tea bags in her purse to help my voice (which went away after talking too much at the rehearsal dinner).
My only, *only* complaint would be that she finished working on me about 10-15 minutes later than scheduled, which also meant I didn't get the complimentary lip gloss for touch-ups (thankfully unneeded). I was on a tight schedule to get to the ceremony and have pictures done early and I felt like I was down to the wire. She arrived early so she seems pretty punctual; I think this was an anomaly on her part.
Enter Just Kids. My 15 1/2 month-olds were super shaggy. They were long overdue for haircuts but I had waited for my parents to be in town and then my kids got sick! My parents left and came back two weeks later and they got sick again! So on the last day of that visit, when the babies were finally over their sickness, we headed out to get my ragamuffins looking spiffy again.
My husband was late meeting us and then I insisted that he take some before photos. Thankfully no one else was there and the stylist (and maybe proprietor?) was very patient with us. (Us go overboard on the pictures? That's unpossible!)
First was Julia. She endured the tugboat for about 20 seconds before being moved to Mommy's lap. She definitely wasn't thrilled, but once she was given a new toy to play with she was happy-- or at least tolerant of whatever this was going on. Her bangs were cut so she could see again and her hair was trimmed in the back, sort of like a bob.
Next was James. We expected a struggle and we were right. He loved sitting in the tractor but as soon as the stylist touched his hair he was bawling. He continued bawling in Mommy's lap, and of course his cut took much longer because it needed to be shortened all over. James was seriously thrashing - it was like cutting the hair (or fur) of the Tasmanian Devil - but the stylist was understanding and made it through. James no longer looked scruffy but was a cute little boy. Looking at the pictures he was also a pretty defeated looking little boy. Poor little guy.
Each cut was $20 and included a certificate for the occasion and a mini Ziploc baggie of their hair. The stylist earned her $20 with James' thrashing but Julia's was so quick it made me think there should be a different rate for girls. Generally I thought each cut was good, though later I noticed that Julia's bangs were slightly uneven, and James' hair had some longer pieces in the back.
After we left, when I was putting Julia into her car seat, I noticed she had tried to make off with one of the salon's toys which I then made my dad return. Julia: portrait of a year-old klepto.
But Thai Spoons is near our house on is relatively cheap on the Thai food cost spectrum so one night we tried it anyway. My husband got two dishes plus rice to go. We had the Pad Kee Mao which was only okay, and the Ginger Chicken which came with celery and a lot of meat quality issues.
Pros: It's cheaper
Cons: You lose your Thai food soul.
Listed in: A Thai-Phoon of Thai
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"Kathy Dinner Panic"
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San Jose, CA
Yelping SinceJuly 2005
Find Me InFront of a deliciously crappy reality show
My HometownSan Diego, CA
My Blog Or Websitehttp://www.shrinetoche...; me on TV talking about Yelp: http://tinyurl.com/oj52oq
When I'm Not Yelping...I'm creating poo-namis over at La Perla Mexican Restaurant
Why You Should Read My ReviewsYeah, I farted. Jealous?
My Second Favorite Website The Last Great Book I ReadPresidential Trivia Fact Book
My First ConcertDonnie & Marie Osmond (forgive me - I was 6)
My Favorite MovieEmma
My Last Meal On EarthAfghan lunch buffet at The Helmand
Don't Tell Anyone Else But...I have a website devoted to Chevys. Now I'll never have any street cred.
Most Recent DiscoveryI planted a flag on Haiti and declared, "I name this land... Kathleenonia!"
Current CrushAlways and forever: Jerry Steiner from "Parker Lewis Can't Lose"
It's a weekday night in downtown Sunnyvale but - no shok! - no place to park (pok?) I end up in the Macy's lot and walk a blok past diners floking to Dish Dash, cute froks at Isabella, and hear an accent at Fibber McGee's that sounds like it's out of "Lok Stok and 2 Smoking Barrels."
OK, I'm done with that tedious exercise.
I came here for our monthly Mom's Night Out, partly because I am a sucker for a prix fixe menu and in January Rok has one on Tuesday and Thursday nights. $60 for two people get you two salads, two entrees (under $20), and a cheese and a chocolate fondue to share. Good news on their deal - you don't have to have a group divisible by 2. We had three people and we each got to have what amounts to a $30 deal.
Course 1: Salad
I had the avocado salad and found it quite tasty. But this isn't why I'm here. Bring on some fondue!
4 stars
Course 2: Cheese Fondue
We had the Garlic Herb Cheddar because the three of us loved a similar version at La Fondue, well, you sir are no La Fondue. One of the gals thought the cheddar (as opposed to La Fondue's Swiss) might have been too assertive. I was put off by the taste of the creamy herb sauce. Dippers included bread, mushrooms, gherkins (more please!), cauliflower, broccoli, and pearl onions.
2 stars
Course 3: Entrees
Choosing entrees under $20 when most are over $20 (and sound better) is tough, but we were (mostly) resolute. I had the 8 oz. beef tenderloin. Even though my steak was on the rock for a long time, I think the tasty salt crust kept the edges from burning. One friend had the pork tenderloin (it was okay but admittedly I'm not a big pork tenderloin fan). The other had my favorite entree (probably because I'm not that much of a meat fan) - the portobello mushroom topped with feta.
The entrees really stuck to the rocks (roks), but ended up not being a problem. The dipping sauces were fun to try but ultimately unnecessary.
4 stars
Course 4: Chocolate Fondue
We had the Chocolate Truffles made with dark chocolate (yay!) and caramel, as well as Himalayan pink salt. I like salted caramels so I was onboard with the salt. The salty flavor seemed strong in the first bite, but then I didn't notice it after awhile (so I'm not sure if it was too salty or not). The fondue would have fit right in at La Fondue, which is high praise. (In fact, I think it was better than La Fondue's milk chocolate, caramel and pecan Flaming Tortoise fondue because Rok's is made with dark chocolate.) Dippers included apple, pineapple, strawberry, banana, pound cake, cream cheese (or cheesecake?) bits, marshmallow finely dusted with (I think) Oreo cookies, pirouette cookies, and pretzels. (The pretzels were salty overkill with our particular fondue.) The chocolate was so good my friends skipped the dippers at the end and just licked their fondue spoons.
The server was nice but I was without water for a somewhat long period. She brought us more dippers and was good at explaining how to cook our entrees.
With the deal it came to $38 after tax and tip. The last time I ate at La Fondue and ordered a la carte with a bunch of girlfriends and shared salad, cheese, and chocolate fondue it was $35. Rok is fun but La Fondue is better.