Sobrina T.'s Profile

This year I've been on a serious macaron kick. I've gone as far up to Bouchon in Yountville (the macarons there were good, but not as spectacular as I made them up to be in my head) for these delicate, slightly chewy, moist cookies. I've also had the macarons from Cocola in Santana Row and Pamplemousse in Redwood City, but I like Nicole Lee's so much more.

I ordered 2 dozen macarons to put together a few treat boxes for friends and everyone loved them! The pistachio, raspberry, and blackberry were my favorites. The macarons came carefully packaged and were so pretty.

The owners of this business are Robert (Nicole's husband) and Nicole (the baker). They don't have a store front, but offer free local delivery within the San Jose area. Robert was nothing but professional and courteous when taking my order and dropped off my order right on time!

More on macarons: http://www.quietlikeho...

So I went back because I couldn't stop thinking about these adorable bow shorts I saw. I wore them to a friends' going away party this past weekend (pics here: http://bit.ly/aBjNgi). Aren't they cute? Now I need to go back for these blue sandals I saw...

Donuts are usually just donuts, or so I thought. Stan's signature glazed donuts did remind me of the infamous glazed Krispy Kreme in that they are similarly lightly glazed with a crisp exterior. The slight crunch when you first bite in is contrasted against a light, fluffy, perfectly doughy interior. We waited an extra five minutes this afternoon to get a fresh batch, and they did not disappoint. We got there at about noon on a Sunday and they didn't have anymore glazed buttermilks, but they did have lots and lots of glazed which seems to be the thing to order here.

Now, I don't really consider Krispy Kremes to be real donuts -- good as they are, there is something artificial about them, perhaps it is their small size. As the saying goes, "real donuts have curves" and Stan's donuts are about 2-3 times the size of a Krispy Kreme and with a real satisfying donut taste.

The inside of the establishment is sorta dingy, made even dingier by the so-so customer service, but hey, you are at a donut shop after all. After reading a Yelp review about how someone got a talking-to for sitting at the counter when he didn't pay sales tax, I was a little apprehensive myself about doing it, but no one gave us any trouble. It's cash or check only, and ballers beware, they don't accept $100 bills or larger.

La Furia is a cozy and quaint Peruvian restaurant on a low-key Oakland street. Meals are served with complimentary bread (a bit too crusty for my taste) and glasses of water (upon request, due to the drought).

All the dishes we ordered tasted good. In fact, they all almost uniformly tasted of a tangy lime/fish saucy/garlicy zest. I like all three of those, however I was hoping for a bit more in distinguishing flavors among the plates.

We ordered:

Appetizer
-Seven boiled New Zealand Mussels topped with chopped onions, diced tomatoes, olive oil, lime juice

Entrees
-Fillet of fish, shrimp and shellfish lightly breaded and garnished with slices of fried plantains, nuggets of dried corn; topped with a light lime dressing and thin sliced onions accompanied with yucca and sweet potatoes
-Peruvian style paella, fresh shellfish in a pimiento and green pea studded saffron rice
-Ceviche: Seasoned fish and shellfish marinated in lime juice with a touch of chili, served with corn, yucca and sweet potato
-Grilled beefsteak a top a bed of pesto South American style noodles

So while it was good, I don't see myself driving out of my way to get more La Furia in the near future. It should be noted, however, that the birthday girl of the night is a big fan of Peruvian food, and she said something to the effect of, "This is the most perfect restaurant in the whole world. MMmmMMM." The exact message was sort of mumbled from her mouthful of ceviche and paella, but that was the gist of it.

Parking was not bad at all; we parked just down the street and around the corner.

If I were going to die tomorrow, I would be sure to get some ramen before I went. That is how important ramen is in my life. I was hoping that I would be able to count on Santouka as my new "go to" place since it's much closer to my house than Santa is, but Santa still reigns supreme in my book. But just because Santouka isn't last-meal worthy doesn't mean it's not good; it's plenty good. It's much better than Kahoo and Halu and all those other nonsense ramen places. It's probably a smidge better than Maru Ichi's Kuro ramen, but when it comes down to the broth, it's still no Santa!

When this place first opened last month there was a line out the door. Later, I found out it was the grand opening. I went home and researched the Costa Mesa location on Yelp to find out what to order. It turns out their signature dish is the shio broth with the special pork. The special pork was amazing -- super flavorful, tender and fatty. The broth was good, but it was a little too salty-and-sweet-at-the-same-time for my taste. The second time I went I had the soy sauce broth with the regular pork. I think I like the soy sauce broth more since it's more of a straight salty flavor. The regular pork is also very tender, the most tender chasu I've ever had in ramen across the board. Both times the noodles were cooked perfectly. Overall, Santouka is very tasty and if you haven't tried the special pork yet, try to get there early since they sometimes run out.

Know before you go that it's cash only (there's an ATM right next to it but who likes paying those pesky surcharges? And you can't get cash back from the grocery store). Oh yeah, it's in a grocery store (does this really matter? As long as you aren't going on a first date or a reunion dinner with your long lost mother, it should be ok). Lastly, they close at 7:30 (at least during the week that is), so go a few hours before then to get the best selection of broths and pork.

Therapy is one of my favorite stores and fits right in to Campbell's quaint little downtown! I think the Mountain View location is bigger but this store still has quite a selection in terms of clothing, bags, shoes and jewelery. 9 times out of 10 I find something I have to have when I visit, which is unfortunate since I visit often. I recently picked up a gorgeous gold necklace as a treat for myself after finishing my GMAT. It's very unique looking and was less than $40! Therapy has a great boutique vibe without the super steep prices and snooty sales people.

Two doors down from Zazie's, Bambino's must feel like the ugly step child of Cole Street brunch spots. At least, that's what I thought while I was feeling bitter that my party of 6 decided to dine there instead of Zazie's due to Zazie's ridiculous hour wait. It was hard to pick something off the menu because nothing was listed as what I really wanted, Zazie's amazing french toast. I ended up ordering the pancetta and artichoke omelette and was resigned to feeling sad about not getting any french toast when all of a sudden the server brought out some mini scones. They were absolutely delicious and brightened my mood immediately.

When my omelette came out, I was impressed by how well all the flavors worked together and the cheddar cheese inside was melted just right. I was also a big fan of the toast that came with my dish -- really thick, excellent, tasty bread. The country potatoes were bland which was a dissapointment since I am all about my country potatoes.

Service was ok, nothing spectacular, but ok. The restaurant decor was cute and quaint and there were lots of open tables.

I was a little disappointed when we left but only because I had had my hopes on that Zazie french toast. In retrospect though, Bambino's makes pretty good brunch.

I had been wanting to try Beretta since the very beginning of this year and finally went on Friday night with a group of friends. It was very crowded and somewhat stressful waiting near the bar for our table. We had a party of 5 and it seemed to take forever to get our table. But the restaurant had a very nice ambiance and hip decor. The lighting is the type that makes everyone look good, but makes it hard to read the menu.

We got a bunch of small plates to share and they were good, but none that completely blew me away. When I go to a nice place with dim lighting that makes everyone look good, I expect to taste wild bursts of flavor in my mouth or exotic ingredients melding together in a delicate dance. But all the small veggie plates we ordered were ones I felt I could have whipped up at home in just a few minutes. We had the asparagus, olives, cauliflower, broccolini, zucchini and herb onion bread. Although the veggies weren't super impressive, the herb onion bread was pretty good.

For our main course we got the prosciutto, tomato, arugula and mozzarella pizza and the baccala and potato pizza. The prosciutto pizza was tasty and very flavorful. The baccala pizza was a fish pizza (didn't know what baccala was before that) and it tasted about as good as you can imagine. (which, if you don't like fish on your pizza, is not the best). One of the pizzas was soggy which was disappointing. Also good to note is that their pizzas are thin crust. We had the squid ink risotto too and that was the one show-stopper of the night. It had great flavor!

For dessert we had the strawberry tart -- delicious -- and a few scoops of gelati and sorbetti. The gelati was nice but the sorbetti was a little odd tasting. It tasted like lemon mint and strawberry basil. Those flavors were definitely not doing a delicate dance that night.

I was skeptical at the start of the meal that I would not need to run out and get a few more tacos afterwards to fill me up. But somehow, by the end of the meal, I was full. I don't know how that happened since it seemed like each of us got only a tablespoon of the assorted items we ordered.

Overall though, it's a fun place that's worth a try and I think I would be back for the risotto.

The decor here is stunning and the ambiance is very nice. For the price of the food (about $70 per person), I expected a lot more. It was very mediocre. We had:

-Appetizers: Crispy rolls with crabmeat, shrimp and shitake mushrooms & Vietnamese steamed dumplings with chicken and shrimp
-Organic baby greens salad
-Main course: Seared Mekong Basa with scallion flowers and spicy lemon sauce
-Dessert: Coconut and mango tropical mousse cake with mango sauce

The basa was good but too salty for my taste. Everything else was just ok. The dessert was a bit sub-par and was frozen in the center. That certainly wasn't the best way to end the meal.

However, on the plus side, we had a large party in a private room and the service was spectacular.

I've been waiting a whole year now to get married, if only so I could have a cake by Margaret. This year I remembered her divine cakes would make a great Valentine's Day surprise for my boyfriend, a big red velvet cake fan. A few days before Valentine's, I emailed Margaret to order a 5" red velvet cake. She is very responsive via email which is a big plus in my book, especially in this day and age where people even get married through all sorts of online mediums (and will consequently need more delicious cakes for their weddings...)

Anyway, I pictured the 5" cake to be about 4 bites big, but I remembered how delicious the cake tasting was from a year earlier and I figured it would be worth the $20. When she walked out with the cake, I was blown away. It was so beautiful with red hearts all over its perfect white butter cream frosting; I could barely bear cutting into it later that night. It was also much larger than I thought it would be. With its 3-layer height, we've been eating slices of it for the past 3 days!

It's moist, light, not too sweet and flavorful. The cream cheese frosting inside is splendid. Did I mention it was so beautiful? It was a great Valentine's treat!