Randy "Amex Aficianado" F.'s Profile

Pacific Catch is a welcome addition to Pruneyard along with the always excellent Patxi's Pizza in it's newest South Bay location.

I had heard of Pacific Catch on that iPhone commercial of a few years back (I assume this is related to the SF restaurant of the same name) and had tried their signature poke at a few Yelp events.

Upon entering, you're greeted by a new and modern restaurant space.  There's a great bar area and plenty of seating in the nicely lit interior.  The decor definitely raises the bar for Pruneyard and was the highlight of our evening.

We were seated in a adjacent section to the main dining room that features a wall waterfall and warm ceiling heat lamps.

Upon being seated, we were presented with the daily specials (mainly entrees) and the regular menu.

For some reason, when I heard the name Pacific Catch, I expected a traditional seafood restaurant.  But the menu only confused and confounded me.  Instead of being divided into appetizers, entrees and desserts, the menu highlights their signature appetizers and the plentiful bar options.

If you look for entrees (ie: fresh fish), you are instead met with a hodge pose of items that are a cross between Asian fusion and Americanized fare.

The main offerings here are sushi rolls, ethnic rice bowls, seafood salads, sandwiches, and island tacos.  How exactly all these different items are related is unknown to me and it's hard to see what the restaurant is striving to offer.  I would have thought fresh seafood, but many items are cooked and others deep fried.

The ethnic rice bowls were a similar hodgepodge offering Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and Thai "influenced" rice bowls.  The problem is that in the Bay Area, there are the originals that do the real thing but much better.  Our Thai rice bowl had barely any curry and was more a vegetable stir fry on rice.  The Japanese poke was like a chirashi bowl but without the variety or taste.  Plus they charge more if you want tofu with your rice bowl.  So I guess this is a health food place right?  Than what's up with all the deep fried seafood platters?

In the end, Pacific Catch seems to me to be trying to be that one stop restaurant to satisfy any craving (sandwich, tacos, salads, Asian rice bowls) but ends up probably not doing any particularly well.

With higher prices than the competition ($15 rice bowls, $19 with two items if you want to mix Thai curry with Korean BBQ ribs???), the decor and bar is the main draw here.

As a final spin on the place, they serve warm edamame and gold fish crackers as complimentary appetizers and have store bought mochi that they sell you individually for $1.50 and that you can buy to dip in chocolate like a French fondue.  Puzzling to me, but judging by the clientele maybe I'm the minority.

I would expect Pacific Catch to be a hit in a place like the Midwest but the Bay Area deserves better. I hope they work on a clearer restaurant vision cause I'd love to come back to the nice restaurant space.

2.5 Stars.  Pacific Catch takes credit cards including Amex.

Ristorante Don Giovanni has long been a staple in downtown Mountain View and with a large banquet space appears to be a popular choice for company events.

On a quiet weekend, we dropped by for the first time in a continued quest to find great Italian in the Bay.

Straight off the bat, one has to be impressed by how large and open the space is. Bright lights highlight the large dining room and talk ceilings are a stark contrast to most Castro Street establishments.

The menu is classic Italian and features appetizers, pastas, and main courses.  The clientele was a bit older on average but also featured multi generational family gatherings. Service was polite and friendly.  Our selections:

Polenta with mushrooms and tomatoes - a generously sized appetizer with four polenta pieces smothered in olive oil and mixed with mushrooms and baby tomatoes. The dish was tasty but a tad oily for my taste.  But it's olive oil so it's good for you. :)

Linguine con Vongole - a classic pasta dish with clams and available with either red or white sauce.  The pasta came out steaming hot and the clams were tender.  The white sauce was a nice combo of garlic and olive oil. Overall, the dish hit the spot and was solid, albeit a tad salty and unspectacular.

Veal scappolini with prosciutto - great selection of vegetables with beets, string beans and peppers.  Includes a nice scoop of mashed potatoes and the veal was tender and nicely cooked.  It's topped with prosciutto, giving it a salty kick and cheese, perhaps not as healthy as I was hoping.

Overall, we had a good meal at Don Giovanni.  Service was very friendly and there definitely is an old time charm with the food offered and how it's prepared. Prices were fair, but I've yet to find Italian quite as good as I've had in Boston and NYC.  The solid option for Mountain View though.

Ristorante Don Giovanni accepts credit cards including Amex.

The first time I went here, there was a line out the door, they didn't let me take photos inside and I had a hard time finding a place to sit.

Fast forward to a year later and the place is still packed, but the lines are more reasonable and you actually have a chance to find a seat.  

While 85c is similar to other ethnic bakeries I've been to (ie: Paris Baguette, Satura Cakes, etc.), there are a few things that set it apart.

One, I do like the sea salt coffee.  I had it hot the first time and wasn't impressed, but the second time I had it cold and the server must have put a decent amount of sea salt so that it penetrated the drink and not just the foam.

The second thing is that with the mass turnover of items there are several great consequences: 1) they sell so much volume that they can price items much lower here than anywhere else.  I've found this formula at a few places in LA and it's one reason the Norcal chains can't compete on price.  The coffee here is cheaper than Starbucks. 2) because of the turnover, everything is amazingly fresh.  Great soft pastries and delicious cakes.  

85c may not be worth the hype of lines out the door, but it is worth the wait.  Great prices, great bakery items and a thumbs up this time for the coffee.

What a great place!  Just reading about Mama Porto's story is inspiration enough to want to come here.  It's the epitome of the American dream.

The Burbank location is new, large, and super busy.  Stopping by for a late lunch, we were greeted by lines of people buying the pastries, cakes, sandwiches and more.

Luckily, turnover and service is fast so tables open up quickly.  Our selection:

Potato ball - their famous item and so good.  At only $0.90 each, you deserve a few of the fried potato balls of goodness filled with minced meat.

Chicken croquette - batter is filled with creamy chicken and spices and deep fried. Also $0.90 and great for an appetizer.

Cubano sandwich - tasty ham, pork and cheese sandwich on great bread.  If theres one criticism, it's that the sandwich wasn't hot enough to melt the cheese fully. Great value though at under $5, like most sandwiches here.

Mushroom soup - made fresh daily and with great fresh mushrooms.  So good we got two more orders.

Horchata Smoothie - delicious as it sounds.

Fast, delicious, and affordable, it's easy to see why Porto's is so popular.  The potato balls are as good as advertised and everything else is fresh and tasty.  I don't know how they have this quality at this price, but it's a winning formula.

Porto's accepts credit cards including Amex.

Simple food served fast and furious. Portillo's is an establishment with roots in Chicago and brings with it their signature Italian Beef sandwiches and sausages.

We ordered one of each and weren't disappointed. I literally scarfed down the Italian Beef that I ordered dipped (in au jus sauce I believe) and with hot peppers.  The bread was nicely toasted and the thinly sliced beef went down easily drenched in tasty sauce.  The hot peppers added a nice kick.

The Chicago beef sausage was ordered with everything on it and came with a pickle, hot and sweet peppers and tomato.  I've had a lot of hot dogs but this one in a large toasted roll and plenty of condiments hit the spot.

Portillo's is a popular establishment and it's easy to see why.  Large portions, tasty (albeit high calorie) food that brings a taste of the Midwest here.

Portillo's accepts credit cards including Amex.

Snow Ice.  For some reason, the proper consistency and finely shaved ice has not made it fully to NorCal.  

So for that fix, I head here to SoCal.  Class 302 was my first introduction and with generous portions, great flavored shaved ice and delicious toppings, it remains my gold standard.

I came to Salju because my sister said it had even more variety.  And indeed it does.  Offering flavors like durian, coconut, and black sesame, there are almost 10 or so unique choices.  The ice is similarly fine and the portion sizes ate decent, served in large froyo style cups.  You also get your choice of up to three toppings and, again, it's reminiscent of a froyo shop.  

What Salju lacks compared to Class 302 though is the character and style.  Rather than a unique classroom style interior, Salju is a blank white slate.  The snow ice comes out in plain white cups and isn't even half as impressive as Class 302.  

Finally, and most importantly, though I liked the flavor choices I found them all to be too subtle.  I even had the durian version and didn't have the bad reaction I have to the fruit.  

Salju is a good snow ice choice and I'd you're craving more flavors, it might be your stop.   For me, I'll stick to Class 302.

Salju accepts credit cards.

Kyochon, please come to NorCal!  

After a disappointing fried chicken experience at Furaibo, I was a bit guarded about how good the wings would be at Kyochon.  As a chain and, for this particular location, located in a mall alongside Hot Dog on a Stick, Kyochon isn't where you'd expect to have world class wings.  But they did.

Signature wings - double fried and available in soy garlic and hot and spicy.  Both were fantastic.  While the soy garlic is delightfully tasty, the hot and spicy is super flavorful with a fantastic burn that gradually builds up.  

Honey wings - a newer variation that is also double fried but with a sweet honey based glaze.  Very good but I'll take the signature versions any day.

Grilled wings - supposedly a healthier non fried version.  It's tasty but very similar to the soy garlic wings you might make on the home BBQ.  A nice change of pace but I'll still take the signature.

Pickled radish - served cold and good for cooling the tongue after eating too many of the spicy wings.

Kyochon was a great surprise.  Absolutely loved both the soy garlic and the hot and spicy wings.  The only criticism I'd make is that the wings aren't cheap.  10 wings cost from $9-11 and given the small size, most will need 20. :)

Kyochon accepts credit cards including Amex. Hopefully they come to NorCal soon, though I hear Bonchon is similar.

If variety is the spice of life, than Foo Foo Tei is the spice of the ramen world.  

Offering well over twenty varieties of ramen, if you have a craving for certain soup you can probably find it here.  The traditional miso, shoyu, and shio are offered here but so are hot and sour, curry, and creamy soup.

One of the most popular options is the tonkotsu flavor with creamy soup.  We ordered this and the basic order comes with a hard boiled half egg, scallions, and a fish cake slice.  Corn, bean sprouts, seaweed, and butter are all extra.

Personally, although I like creamy soups (cream of mushroom is an all time fave), it wasn't my cup of tea with the tonkotsu broth.  It seemed to dilute the flavor.  We ordered corn and it came served in a separate bowl.  The ramen broth wasn't hot enough for me and I was a bit disappointed by the sparse toppings despite the typical price.

Overall, Foo Foo Tei was a fun change of pace for this ramen fan, but I prefer the traditional interpretations like Santouka.  Maybe another flavor like hot and sour would work for me, but with the long waits and sparse toppings, I'll probably go elsewhere.

Foo Foo Tei accepts credit cards, but not Amex.

**3.5 Stars**

Quan Hy, located in Westminster, is one of the nicer Vietnamese restaurants in the area and probably one of the nicer ones I've seen in general.  Some of the places in San Jose could learn a thing or two.

The cuisine is Central Vietnamese and we stuck to the favorites my friend recommended.  

Banh beo - I've only has this dish in an excellently home made version but I loved the restaurant version here too.  Minced shrimp meat pieces are toppings for thin rice flour pancakes.  The fish sauce mix is subtle and before I knew it I had easily helped finish 3 orders.  Yum!

Mi Quang - the other unique dish here is the yellow dry noodle dish here.  Its served with a tasty sauce, some shrimp, and vegetables.  It was good but I like hu tieu noodle soup much better.

Lemonade - I ordered a lemonade and it came filled to the brink with crushed ice.  Literally, after two small sips, all the liquid was gone.  When I asked the waitress, she told me to add water (wth!!!).  My friend ordered a 2nd one and it was largely the same.  I ended up adding hot tea to it to melt the ice and I enjoyed watered down hot tea lemonade.  I suggest you order your drinks here sans ice.

Overall, we has a great meal here and I loved how we were able to sample unique dishes.  The prices seemed a bit higher but were readily explained by the better decor.  

Quan Hy accepts credit cards.

Uncle Yu is a strange combination but I suppose it works for LA.  The full restaurant name is Uncle Yu's Indian Taiwanese cuisine and, at first glance, seems like an odd combo.

In actuality, the Indian refers to Native Indian theme of the restaurant which encompasses the forest decor and the waitresses who are all dressed as Pocohontas.

The cuisine type is actually Taiwanese and it's not bad.  We ordered a variety of traditional dishes like 3 cup chicken, tofu and intestine hot pot, salted egg with loofah and even stinky tofu.

The stinky tofu was the weakest item of the night being made with large, soft tofu but we enjoyed the 3 cup chicken and salted egg with loofah.  

Despite the odd decor, this place is popular and was crowded on a weeknight.  Also a beer house, I noticed that most enjoyed the place just for the food.  Perhaps alcohol becomes more prevalent on weekends.

Uncle Yu's accepts credit cards, but not American Express.