Mara "SUPER" T.'s Profile

$12 fresh, round, hard, green grapes? Sign me up!

Seriously, my husband is always like 'HOW MUCH???' whenever I come back with multiple Whole Foods bags in my sweaty little hand.

But in my grape-buying defense...have you tried the Safeway/Lucky grapes for $4? They suck. So I'd rather pay $12 for grapes I am going to actually consume than $4 for grapes that will sit and rot in my fridge. Call me crazy.

So...yep, already a WF lover thanks to their fruit dept. But I am absolutely smitten with this new Whole Foods location in Cupertino....thankfu lly it's near work so we end up here quite often for lunch.

Though WF is notoriously expensive, they do have the odd deal from time to time. Aka I got 3 lbs of fresh turkey breast chunks in their deli section for $12 yesterday for a group dinner thing and it was tasty when heated in the oven with a bit of broth over it. Their amazing mushroom gravy and spicy cranberry relish were staples in our house over the holidays.

As everyone else has already said, this place is massive. Imagine Home Depot as a grocery store. With better organization. Though, you can easily get lost for 15 or 20 minutes, wandering around from aisle to aisle, and then end up in the checkout aisle going 'how did this get into my basket?'...or more often shades of...'WOAH where did my basket go and why is this CART full??'

I also love how they carry so many specialty gelatos and ice creams. They have Gelato Classico pre-packed which is one of my favorite local eats (Powell's carries it), as well as Gelato Massimo which is a local Monterey Bay company that makes a light gelato, half cals and fat and they have pumpkin. And it's GOOD. My husband who doesn't love light items is always looking for it in the freezer (it's long gone buddy). The super large WF's are the only ones that carry it now, the small WF's don't have space.

Sushi bar, pizza by the slice, turkey dinner in the middle of summer, fresh packed salads, soups, smoked chicken breast, fresh made guac, pre-packed fresh chopped fruit. A ton of lunch options as well as the odd side dish for that dinner you don't want to actually cook for...this place rocks. Is it wrong that I like to take lunch field trips there JUST to wander around and see what new goodies I never knew existed?

Parking can be hit or miss but you can typically find a spot. The staff is always friendly, chatting you up at checkout and who doesn't love their '5 items or less' checkout (or maybe it's like 7...who knows...I never make it into that line anyway) for a quickie lunch purchase? As for staff, I find them uber helpful when I need GPS help in the cavernous store.

Too bad it isn't located right next to my house. Cuz I think I'd just pay them to let me live there. It's kind of like a mortgage right?

I seriously can't believe that there aren't like 500 reviews for this place already. I have been going to the Alley on S. Palm Canyon for years! Maybe it's a PS best kept secret, but I am dying to get one of these over near us. They have ~5 locations, but they are all in the PS area.

What kind of shop are they?? I don't even know how to classify it...other than I always feel like this place has a serious case of Multiple Personality Disorder.  But maybe a good kind of confused.

There's a huge kitchen and supply section, and they sell dinnerware at a huge discount..and it's very cool too. Like stuff you'd see at CB but for $2.99 a plate/mug/bowl. I could create a complete 8 piece place setting for under $100 here. I was actually about to this time...because my PB everyday set is like 7 years old with chips, but Greg dragged me away, cruel man!!

Then on the other side of the huge building, they have furniture and home decor items. We bought a rattan bench here 4 years ago for $35 and it has sat in our entryway since. We get a ton of compliments on it and my husband uses it daily.

I always want to bring home multiple home decor items but lucky for my better half, we never can fit what I want in the car. Apparently now they sell online too so I can't wait to check out their site and start shopping.

They also taunt you with small fun home items like picture frames, huge mirrors and french country style clocks for CHEAP--and these are items you'd easily see in boutiques all up and down small towns in N. CA, marked up a zillion percent. This place excels in imports big time.

Then fill in the rest of the store with random items like stationery and greeting cards, fake plants, and knick-knacks...and you might have a somewhat accurate mental picture of this fabu place.

Did I say I want one near us? Please please please The Alley Gods...put one of these within at least a one hour driving distance of San Jose, CA. I will forever be your best client. Or one of them anyway.

The most expensive AND most fabulous breakfast you'll probably ever have.

Anyone who knows me knows that our most fave breakkies ever consistently have come year after year from Norma's. I make a mean pancake at home but my skills are a pale nothingness of comparison to the yumminess that happens every morning at Norma's.

I'm pretty picky about giving 5 stars to just about anything, except sweets, but we have stayed at the Parker 4 years in a row...and Norma's is the place we consistently look fwd to for amazing breakfast. Their lunch can be hit or miss at times (lobster mac is amazing though), but BREAKFAST is an absolute must have here.

Because we've been there so often, we've tried almost everything on their breakfast menu..and it's quite an extensive menu. I always wish our visit was 10 days long, because I need more days for all the goodies I want to eat. If I could JUST have breakfast for 4 days, I think I'd have it here.

Our previous visit, I discovered their Lemon Griddle cakes with fresh Devonshire cream..and let me just say..OH MY GOD. These literally melted in my mouth. I started my meal with the fruit and yogurt plate and figured I'd share the griddle cakes with my hubby, but somehow they found their way almost entirely into my mouth and he got maybe onemeasly bite.

I spent the rest of the trip daydreaming about them...even while I made myself try other items on the menu. The Banana Macadamia Nut pancakes were good, but they made the mistake of being consumed the day after the lemon griddle cakes...so they could have been amazing and it wouldn't have mattered. Don't think they were though. Amazing, that is.

Then the next day we tried the Blueberry Pancakes with Devonshire Cream. Definitely an improvement over Banana, but not as good as Lemon. Seeing a pattern here?!?!

So this year when we went, I knew what I was getting this time around and had the Lemon Griddle cakes two mornings out of three...with the third being reserved for Crunchy French Toast. I love my breakfast routines. They also will scramble up some pricey egg whites for a quick protein fix along with your carbo-loading on the pancakes and french toast. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.

The one item that was definitely as good as the Lemon Griddle Cakes was the Crunchy French Toast with Caramel Sauce. I had this many moons ago at the Norma's in NYC and it is what set the bar for absolutely fabulous french toast for the next ten years...so it always has had a sweet spot in my heart..and absolutely never disappoints. Only the fattest slices of texas toast, crunchy rice crispies, and hot caramel sauce? What else do you need (besides more lemon griddle cakes)?

Other yummy wins...egg white omelets with asparagus and mushrooms; the fresh granola with nuts and berries and paired with low fat yogurt is a definite hit, even for my hubby who isn't a healthy food nut, he always requests we get it at least one morning; he also loves the various types of eggs benny they have there...if you are a fan try the truffled artychoked benedict, divine; we both love the smoked salmon, caviar, and capers on a toasted bagel option as well.

Their coffee is french press and quite tasty, I could just sit there all day and drink it in cup after cup...actually we do some mornings while trying to wake ourselves out of the vacation fog that happens so quickly here.

Definitely try their smoothie of the day in the little sample size they bring you, our favorite was the watermelon apple they had on a previous visit and this time a cinnamon honey one hit the spot. They bring you the sample then you can order a glass if you like it.

The only previous snafu we have had here was when it was my better half's bday last year, and the staff forgot to acknowledge it even though I'd set it up previously with the concierge. But when I mentioned it off to the side, they promptly brought out with a beautiful glass container of chocolate mousse with a lit candle in it and sang to him (see picture!). All better.

I could rave for days about this place and their breakfast, in fact, damn...this review is already quite long. It is expensive and I think they raised their prices even higher, but the food is exceptional if maybe not quite worth what you pay...however nothing coming out of MY kitchen has ever been as good as those lemon griddle cakes, so maybe it IS worth the $$$.

We are constantly on the search for amazing contenders to rival Norma's breakkie but alas, nothing has come so close yet. My husband says maybe that's a good thing because otherwise it wouldn't be quite so special to us. Exactly why we'll be back next year for...you guessed it. Lemon griddle cakes.