Super Duper Burger – Valley Fair

The food court at Valley Fair mall in San Jose has been remodeled and has gone upscale, being renamed “The Dining Terrace”.  Seems like Westfield kicked out the fast food vendors and installed more local foodie places.  One of those is San Francisco’s Super Duper Burger, which serves gourmet burgers at reasonable prices. Super Duper …

Max Brenner, Las Vegas – Chocolate by the Bald Man

If you love chocolate and are in Las Vegas, you should try Max Brenner, Chocolate by the Bald Man, located in the Forum Shops at Caesar’s Palace. We did not try them for dinner, only for dessert, ordering the “Fondue for Sharing”. We opted for the dark chocolate fondue (you can also choose milk or …

Bonchon Chicken, Sunnyvale

Have heard a lot about Koeran style fried chicken, with a few places popping up in the South Bay. The buzz has been the best one is Bonchon Chicken, which started in LA and has expanded here.  We decided to check out the Sunnyvale location You can either do dine in or take out. The …

Review – The Counter, Mountain View

It’s been a while since I had gone to The Counter, primarily because the first location was in Santana Row, which is typically super crowded during meal times.  A new one opened in Mountain View in a less busy location, so decided to hit that up with Theresa and her co-worker. The concept: Design your …

Review – Smashburger, San Jose

Smashburger is the latest trendy fast casual burger joint serving a more “upscale”  burger. The differentiation from an In n’ Out or Five Guys is the cooking process. They roll up the burger in a ball and “sear” the outside before flattening during the cooking process, resulting (at least according to its marketing), a juicier …

Review- Pastis, Palo Alto

Decided to seek out and try some new brunch places and found Pastis in Palo Alto. Located on California Street, not far from La Bodeguita Del Medio, a restaurant we had been to before. Pastis bills itself as an authentic French bistro serving brunch and light lunch fare. A good sign of Pastis’ French authenticity was …

Reviews – Sauced, Livermore

Theresa and I decided to hit the Livermore Outlets one afternoon and arranged to meet our friend Kulwinder for dinner.  After throwing around a few suggestions, we settled on Sauced, which is located in the main downtown area. The restaurant was packed on a Saturday night, with over an hour wait for a table. The …

Review – The Melt, Stanford Shopping Center, Palo Alto

Been meaning to try The Melt after hearing the hype in the media a couple of years back.  The Melt, a chain of restaurants based on grilled cheese sandwiches was started up and financed by the founder of Flip Video, Jonathan Kaplan.  I guess after making a fortune in selling Flip video cameras and then …

Review – BiBimBowl, Mountain View

Tucked in a strip mall close to where Theresa works is BiBimBowl, which offers Korean rice bowls and tofu soup.  I Diners can build their own bowls by choose the type of bowl (regular, stone, sizzling platter), rice (white/brown), protein, and sauce/spice level. I have always like Dol Sot Bi Bim Bap because the stone …

Lola – Seattle

We were looking to fuel up on brunch places before hitting Pikes Place Market in Seattle, and Lola’s seems to be highly rated on Yelp.  Located in the Hotel Andra, off the right of the lobby, the restaurant was bustling when we got there and had to wait about 30 minutes before our table was …