Oryza

I was invited to "brunch" - I suspect that was a shifty ploy by KT and SP to get me to get somewhere before noon on a Saturday - but it was a great choice despite being decidedly just a lunch. Oryza is located on the edge of the Valley Fair Westfield mall in San Jose and seem to be going the semi-upscale Asian Fusion lounge route that's popular.

We started off with endless mimosas for some at our table, and a watermelon tea for me. The watermelon tea was more like a thin watermelon juice, and quite refreshing.

I thought the pad thai was mediocre and could do with a bit more flavor, and no different from a pad thai found in any random Thai joint.

The "kimchi bacon" is basically kimchi fried rice with bacon and your choice of another meat- I chose beef. Quite good!

The seared ahi salad had pieces of gorgeously seared salmon in a nice tangy vinaigrette. Using  edamame base was a nice touch, though some green leaves could have added a little more texture.

"Sweet Chicken" was good and has nice spicy kick to balance the sweetness, but too salty.

The seafood noodles were slightly disappointing and unexcitinig in flavor. No comment on the seafood itself though as I didn't taste.

And lastly, the garlic noodles were amazing. Very flavorful!

Overall, Oryza seems like a hit and miss place with the food - a Fusion Roulette of extremely delicious or mediocre. The atmosphere is quite nice and the servers were great, serving our table with humor and jest even as some of our mimosa-ed up tablemates made some... distinctly mimosa-influenced messes. I actually really enjoyed myself and the food here, and think it's a great hangout. It should have a more lounge-like atmosphere at night or happy hour, so I might stop by sometime then to try it out then update this post.

Oryza

Oryza Yelp

San Jose, CA

Loving Hut Milpitas

What do you think when you hear vegan restaurant? If you're a meats afficionado like me who has spent some time around Berkeley, it's possible you'll think "kale hell topped with self righteousness and flaxseed." - because that's what came to my mind when it was suggested to me by my coworker BQ that we eat vegan for lunch. Vegan?! Me?! Please, learn to tell better jokes...

But to my surprise, Loving Hut in Milpitas turned out to be a gem. Loving Hut is actually a chain but each Loving Hut location has its own specialized (but apparently mostly Asian inspired) menu. The Milpitas location has both Asian and western foods, and the Chinese dishes were our focus. They have vegetable only dishes and also several vegan versions of traditionally meat-centered dishes using "soy protein."

Szechuan eggplant, a dish seen in normal Chinese restaurants too. Eggplant is nicely cooked, though it could be spicier.

Mongolian Delight - I guess a vegetarian version of Mongolian Beef, very tasty and the soy product used has great texture.

Szechuan Strips is their soy protein in a slightly spicy sauce. I thought it was too mild to be considered Szechuan flavor (spicy to tears or bust!) but it was quite flavorful.

"Clay Pot Sensation" is a faux-fish dish. The picture doesn't look too impressive but the seaweed wrapped soy actually tastes like a delicious, Asian style clay pot fish dish.

"Divine Light" is soy protein with peppers, sprinkled with brewer's yeast. Unlike the other dishes, this did not have a sauce - still tasty, but the soy protein is a bit dry.

This is quite likely one of my favorite lunch places - fast, delicious, guilt free (hey, I might have had heavy cream in my coffee and a donut this morning, but at least I'm being healthy for lunch, right?) and so delicious even the most dedicated carnivore would forget they're in a vegan restaurant...

... except for maybe when they see a cheesy front wall plastered with pictures as kind of a (possibly unintentionally funny) shrine to veggie celebs. One of my faves and I'll continue to update as I make my way down the menu.

Loving Hut (Milpitas)

Loving Hut Yelp

Milpitas, CA

Gochi

FT and I went to another Japanese Tapas place in Cupertino (what is it with Cupertino and Japanese tapas?) for a special occasion and massively pigged out.

My favorite of the night was also presented at the start of the night: hamachi carpaccio. Despite being called a carpaccio, the fish was slightly cooked, possibly due to a hot drizzle of oil. The ponzu and the jalapenos sauce were a great kick but still mild enough to let the yellowtail show its fresh flavor - absolutely delicious!

We asked our waiter for a pork recommendation and got a pork belly. This was really thin sliced chasiu with a heaping of spring onions. Very nice, though a typical kind of taste profile.

Yaki onigiri (roasted rice ball) with ume (plum) and tuna. Very crispy, though it's hard to eat the topping and bite through the crunch at the same time.

We ordered risotto stuffed squid mostly for the novelty factor. It was tasty though much heavier than I expected.

Garlic steak? This was tasty and tender, but, as FT shrugs, "nothing super special."

Chazuke is rice in dashi soup. I personally prefer to take my rice dry or in nice yaki onigiri form, but FT enjoyed it as a light ending to the meal.  

Lastly, a green tea creme brulee. Nice and crispy.

Overall, Gochi was delicious! For it's portions, it trends of the pricier side, but it's worth it for a treat. We saw others digging into huge portions of their clay pot rice, which we unfortunately didn't have the stomachs for anymore. The ambiance is nice, and the place was packed on a weekday, so reservations are a good idea. Highly recommended for a small splurge if you're in the south bay area! 

Gochi Japanese Fusion Tapas

Gochi Japanese Fusion Tapas Yelp

Cupertino, CA

Jones

A group of friends and I stopped by Jones in the Tenderloin for a late dinner in the middle of a night of drinks. The inside tables were full, but we took a table in the (mostly) empty outside patio area.

There's a multipage drinks menu with some tasty mixed drinks, but we focused on their one page dinner menu.

Braised rabbit and pappardelle- this sounded interesting but turned out a bit bland. When shredded, the rabbit tasted like a bland shredded chicken.

Roasted Coho salmon with black risotto and kale - the salmon was a bit dry. I actually liked the risotto though, and there were good flavors. 

Crab cakes - I didn't get to taste the crabcakes, but they seemed alright.

Truffle fries - nicely done.

I personally liked the flavor of the roasted cauliflower (lots olive oil and capers!) but a bit too mushy. Wealso had the spaghetti bologness, which was bland. So bland it didn't even deserve a photo. 

Some in our party got a ginger mixed drink from their long drink menu, which was tasty. However, most of the food was unexciting and bland. When we left it was still quiet, especially for a Saturday night, but the outdoor area is very nice. A nice place to chill with drinks with a lovely outdoor area, but there's better options in the area if you're looking for dinner.

Jones
San Francisco, CA
Jones Yelp

Crown and Crumpet (Ghiradelli Square)

Afternoon tea is something I picked up while studying abroad in Hong Kong and since then have always wished would gain popularity here in the states. Who doesn't get that 3pm slump, and just have a quick cup of coffee and some stale snacks to tide them over until dinner? Now, imagine that instead you can go and have legitimate sandwiches and sweets and teas... yum.

Crown and Crumpet is located in lovely Ghiradelli Square in a small corner shop (until May 2013). This is the tea party of every big girl's little girl dream: vintage furniture, pink and white floor tiles, decorations of pink and florals and kitschy designs covering every inch of the cozy and adorable room.

AW and I took a girls day out to come here, and ordered the set tea for two. It comes with two pots of tea. We chose a black tea and a green tea, and though I can't remember which ones we chose (there's a large section), both were quite delicious.

The food is brought to you on a three tiered serving tray.

You get, per person: 4 half sandwiches, two scones, one crumpet, and four desserts.

I believe the selection varies day by day. We had a salmon/cream cheese, egg, an unidentified one in the back that I don't recall, and a curried sandwich which I found interesting but AW didn't like that much. 

Each person gets one plain and one chocolate chip scone as well. I liked the crumpets the best (so soft... so fluffy), and hence did not get a close up photograph. Clotted cream went lovely on allof these!

The desserts, however pretty, tasted only mediocre though.

It was a fun two hours sipping tea and nibbling finger foods. You can order additional items, but we found that this tray was way more than enough for two people. At $26 per person the food is, admittedly, not spectacular, but we enjoyed ourselves and had a great time. This is not the kind of place you'd go for great food, but more a good place to hang out and catch up with people in a fun atmosphere.

I saw that Crown and Crumpet is moving to a downtown location in May 2013, and I'll be interested to possibly try them again after the move.

Crown and Crumpet
San Francisco, CA
Crown and Crumpet Yelp

Campton Place

FT and I went to Campton Place in Union Square for the January 2013 San Francisco Dine About Town. We were excited to try a Michelin star restaurant again (the last time was for the previous year's Dine About Town) and the menu looked tasty.

Campton Place is located in the Taj Campton Place hotel on the northeast corner of Union Square. The hotel, for all its claiming to be a "palace", was actually quite cozy and when we walked in, we weren't even sure that taking the few steps down took us into the Campton Place restaurant.

The place was unexpectedly very small, with less than 20 tables. It was also unexpectedly bone quiet when we arrived - note to self, a noon reservation is possibly too early for lunch. As we ate, the restaurant did fill up a bit to a nice soft chatter of people chatting and silverware clinking.

Despite advertising three courses for their lunch Dine About Town menu, we were handed a menu with only two. Oh well! Our waiter also recommended a separate dish of the day - truffles shaved by the gram on top of pasta - but being the type of people who go to Dine About Town in the first place ("...wait, a gram costs HOW much?") we opted to stick with the set menu.

Amuse-bouche: avocado, green apple, and arugula foam. The flavor of the green apple was crisp and strong, and you could get a little bit of the avocado creaminess. Arugula was, sadly, missing - or maybe it's Campton Place using the mom-approved tried and true method of slipping vegetables into our meal.

Sunchoke veloute with a nice crunchy beignet. It was rich, creamy, and sweeter than I expected. FT and I both enjoyed. 

You got your choice of either sourdough or olive... of course, I asked for one of each. Glorious soft butter slathered on top. Yum.

FT and I both picked the beef short rib as our course as the other option was fish, and neither of us wanted to give up our carnivorous leanings. When this came to us it did not come with a sharp steak knife, so I briefly imagined how awkward it would be to saw at my meat and have a piece fly across the room. 

Luckily for me and the guests surrounding, the beef was unbelievably, melt-in-your-mouth tender. The sauce was rich and decadent, and I liked the cauliflower puree as well. We both loved this and wish we could've had more!

Lastly we shared a dessert - cheesecake mousse with grapefruit sorbet and citrus. It was delicious and a good take on cheesecake, though we did feel a little miffed that this was a $9 dessert for something so underwhelmingly small. Note to self: mousse cheesecake is not the same thing as cheesecake mousse.

Overall, all we had were delicious, and this is a good chance to try a restaurant that we normally would not be able to afford and a great deal for the price. We got the wine pairing, which added another $18 to each - but hey, you only feel this fancy once a year!

Oh and, if you ever go, you can ask for one of the window seats but you can also opt for one of the best surprises of the day: shockingly, the comfiest restaurant booth ever.

Campton Place
San Francisco, CA
Campton Place Yelp

Gokaku

What better way to start off this blog than a post of a birthday dinner?

This was actually a last minute decision from an afternoon of picky eaters, and finally my friend NN suggested Gokaku, a Japanese tapas joint in Cupertino. It was a Sunday and fairly busy, but we called ahead and were seated as soon as we got there. 

The place is located in a nondescript strip mall in Cupertino with suburban strip mall classics. The sign for Gokaku itself said "TAPAS AND SUSHI" in bright neon lights, so it was a surprise to walk in to a nice, cozy atmosphere.

The menu was extensive, but they had their top picks shown in the menu - and I'm never one to turn down a special.

Seafood nachos - nicely flavored spicy tuna with a great sweet sauce. I found nachos were a weak and easily soggy vehicle to carry all the toppings, but the taste of the fish was on.

"Secret Shrimp" was fried shrimp in a creamy and tangy sauce. Usually I'm not one for deep fried shrimp but this was quite nice. I believe the top right is the sashimi salad? Name is unimportant because this was delicious - nice fish:vegetable ratio (read: lots of fish) and strongly flavored.

Fried baby octopus - nice crunch

Croquettes, a tofu wrap sushi roll, and takoyaki. The croquettes were standard, but the rolls and takoyaki were delicious. It's hard to find any decent takoyaki in the states so I was glad to have found these.

Okonomiyaki was delicious, but standard.

Star of our night - beef tongue with vegetables. There's fried garlic bits too. Everything was tender and flavorful - I only wish we could've had more! Five people devoured this in no time...

The prices were overall reasonable, especially for Japanese tapas this tasty - probably on the middle to lower end of these kind of tapas places. There was a selection of drinks but alas, we had all driven separately. Next time!

Gokaku

Gokaku Yelp Page

Cupertino, CA