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The Mazeh Restaurant says Mazeh Cafe on the outside, but it's really a restaurant, the one that has the white cloth (although covered by paper). Two owners, a husband and a wife, greet you, guide...
The Mazeh Restaurant says Mazeh Cafe on the outside, but it's really a restaurant, the one that has the white cloth (although covered by paper). Two owners, a husband and a wife, greet you, guide you through the menu and generally provide a great service. The restaurant has about a dozen tables, so it's a pretty small space, but it does get crowded closer to the evening, and from the interaction you could tell those were regular customers.
Parking is plentiful, since it shares the strip mall parking with Cost Plus World Market. The restaurant is clean, well kept and one of the walls is painted with a view of San Francisco.
The menu http://www.cafemazeh.com/ features a pretty wide selection of Mediterranean dishes, and healthy helpings of appetizers, as well as fusion-style pizzas with Persian and Mediterranean toppings. Lamb Chuala, which I tried, was presented on a sizzling skillet, like fajitas in Mexican places, with tender lamb, bell peppers and plenty of onions adding to the spicy mix.
While you're at it, try Turkish coffee. If you haven't tried it before, it will be a good experience. It's a bit sweet, but provides a quick energy boost and plenty of concentrated caffeine in a small cup.
The prices are reasonable with most of the dinner entrees ranging between $9 and $15. The lunch menu is available as well. I didn't feel like trying a dessert, but Persian Ice Cream looks like something worth trying on the next visit.
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Located by Sunnyvale Sheraton by the intersection of 101 and 237, Faz Restaurant and Bar positions itself as white cloth dining restaurant with a pretty good selection of Mediterranean food and...
Located by Sunnyvale Sheraton by the intersection of 101 and 237, Faz Restaurant and Bar positions itself as white cloth dining restaurant with a pretty good selection of Mediterranean food and extensive wine list. The place is open daily for dinner from 6:30 to 10 pm, and the menu can be found on the official Web site http://www.fazrestaurants.com/menus/sunnyvale_menu.html
Faz greets you with rather pleasant surroundings overlooking the Sheraton internal garden with fountains, small pond and some squirrels. The dining hall also features a grand piano and two television sets in the bar area.
The appetizer menu looked pretty good and we tried what was called the Mediterranean platter, featuring Grape Leaf Dolmas, Hummus, Tabbouleh, Babaghanoush, Tomatoes, Pepperoncini & Imported Olives. The food was great-tasting, the vegetables were fresh, the olive oil and hummus were at just the right level of spicyness.
None of the restaurant specials looked too enticing, so we went with the chicken meals. The pizzas, however, are brick-oven-made, which I guess adds a special taste if you decide to get one. The half-chicken was juicy and tasted great. The veggies were grilled in garlic sauce, which added a good aroma to the meal.
The service was prompt and expedient, and overall it's a great place to visit again for a nice dinner. parking is alaways available, as this is the hotel parking space.
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Long Life Noodle is located in Stanford Shopping Mall facing the parking lot, and has a pretty good menu for a noodle house. There's an expectedly large selection of noodles in all combinations,...
Long Life Noodle is located in Stanford Shopping Mall facing the parking lot, and has a pretty good menu for a noodle house. There's an expectedly large selection of noodles in all combinations, some weird drinks, like cucumber juice and ginseng iced teas, as well as a good variety of rice dishes.
Check out their newest additions that are not on the menu - there's a chalkboard right as you walk in listing the newly added items. The service was very courteous and fast. This is not a fast food, but the food was served within 5 minutes ordering, probably due to the fact that there weren't too many people in the restaurant for late lunch on Saturday.
The prices are reasonable, with most of the dishes costing under $8-9. The dishes featuring seafood and shrimp are surely high on noodle contents and low on seafood ingredients, but overall the lunch menu and decent portions won't leave anyone hungry.
Long Life Noodle has outside seating, but few people volunteered for the parking lot view.
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Pho Quyen Noodle House is hard to notice as you drive down El Camino Real amid all the strip malls, but once you visit the place, you will remember it. Due to it being located inside a larger strip...
Pho Quyen Noodle House is hard to notice as you drive down El Camino Real amid all the strip malls, but once you visit the place, you will remember it. Due to it being located inside a larger strip mall area, parking is plentiful.
The menu features soups, pho, rice dishes, variety of drinks (weird and traditional) at very decent prices, few of them above $7.99. The restaurant is quite clean and well-lit, the service is also quite commendable.
We tried ginger chicken and a rice dish with chicken and shrimp. The food was excellent, and the rice was plentiful. The restaurant also has a pretty good selection of pearl teas and Vietnamese drinks.
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Webb Ranch
Category:
Horse Riding Instruction
2720 Alpine Rd
Portola Valley, California 94028
(650) 854-7755
If you're heading North on Highway 280, the Alpine Rd exit to the right will lead you to Webb Ranch fresh fruit and berry stand, which features fresh organizally grown produce. However, turn to the...
If you're heading North on Highway 280, the Alpine Rd exit to the right will lead you to Webb Ranch fresh fruit and berry stand, which features fresh organizally grown produce. However, turn to the right, and watch on your left for an inconspicuous sign, and you can visit the Webb Ranch personally.
From 10 am to 4 pm from Wednesday to Sunday for $3 entrance fee (per person) one can visit Webb Ranch UPick field http://www.webbranchfarm.com/ to get a treat of fresh berries and to pick some. You have to drive for about 3-5 minutes through the dusty road near horse stables till you hit the berry fields. When we were there, the raspberries, loganberries and blueberries were in season. The prices were $2 per pound collected and a standard $3 entrance fee. The place is cash only and it's preferred that you pay the full amount (entrance fee + per pound fees) in the end, rather than breaking it down.
You can bring your own containers, but they do provide containers for free, and will even bag the berries when you check out. The field itself is a bit dusty, right out in the sun, so getting there at noon on a sunny day wasn't such a great idea. Take a water bottle and be prepared to catch some sun tan while there. Parking is plentiful, and the employees are friendly with explaining where you can pick up berries and what ripe berries look like.
You can taste however many berries you'd like, as this berry buffet is paid for by the $3 entrance fee.
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Zucca pitches itself as premier Mediterranean restaurant, but offers a concoction of Mediterranean, Italian and Asian dishes fused together.
The interior is quite nice, with endless wine...
Zucca pitches itself as premier Mediterranean restaurant, but offers a concoction of Mediterranean, Italian and Asian dishes fused together.
The interior is quite nice, with endless wine selection, dimly lit tables and waiters quietly moving around with wine glasses and huge plates.
The prices are reasonable, but you can't help but think the restaurant is a bit overpriced - the prices would be pretty good if the food at this level was outstanding, but the food quality is just ok. The dishes we ordered were heavily soaked in oil and vinegar, even though the skewered scallops do not exactly require that.
The dessert menu featured a few items typical of any restaurant http://www.zuccaristorante.com/dessert.html and, once again, nothing stood out.
Zucca's is a good place for occasional dinner, but in my case I am not overly impressed with it.
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Compadres Mexican Bar & Grill is a great place to get tasty Mexican food in rather large quantities at reasonable prices. First off, the place is next to a pretty good oil changing shop, so it's...
Compadres Mexican Bar & Grill is a great place to get tasty Mexican food in rather large quantities at reasonable prices. First off, the place is next to a pretty good oil changing shop, so it's possible to combine a visit to two good places into one. You have to park behind the oil changing shop or out on El Camino Real, which gets kinda cumbersome later during the day, but if you arrive there early enough, parking shouldn't be a problem.
The menu is pretty impressive, featuring a wide variety of margaritas and other drinks expected from a Mexican place, a good selection of appetizers (we tried Texas Quesadilla with Chicken, and it was great) and impressive entrees including "The Best Damn Enchilada You've Ever Tasted Period". The appetizers are generally in $8-15 range, the meals are in $10-25 range. The plates are pretty big, and every meal is complemented with a healthy dose of beans and rice.
The desserts are not that plentiful, and include fried ice cream (I haven't tried that) and variety of derivatives from it. The service is pretty good, the complimentary chips are tasty with complimentary salsa not very spicy, and the supply of drinks is maintained quite well throughout the evening with a dedicated waiter running from table to table pouring just water.
The drawbacks include shaky tables, uneven chair, and the look and feel of the interior, which is generally old and feels a bit musty. Nevertheless, it's nothing to be considered a major drawback. Compadres Mexican Bar & Grill is definitely a good place to go for lunch or dinner.
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Gilbert's offers a combination of ice cream / gelato / frozen yoghurt shop with Wharf-side entrance, and a restaurant/bar facing the Monterey Bay. Generally a place offering the clam chowder outside...
Gilbert's offers a combination of ice cream / gelato / frozen yoghurt shop with Wharf-side entrance, and a restaurant/bar facing the Monterey Bay. Generally a place offering the clam chowder outside might seem like desperate for customers, but in case of Gilbert's it's just a case of advertising really good fresh seafood.
The menu offers a good variety of fresh seafood items, with some items market as restaurant's specialty. The atmosphere is quite casual and friendly, the appetizers are good, and the entree items are generally not on the expensive side, between $15 and $35. They have a pretty good wine selection, featuring some local wines from Monterey area.
The fresh clam chowder is worth trying out, as this is the cafe specialty, as well as hot crab bake - a concoction of crab meat, shrimp and other seafood served hot on the sourdough. During the night time the view from the windows offers quite a nice picture of Monterey lights.
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When you visit Monterey, you probably have a certain list of places to visit and things to try. Monterey Bay Aquarium is probably on that list, as well as Monterey Fisherman's Wharf, followed by...
When you visit Monterey, you probably have a certain list of places to visit and things to try. Monterey Bay Aquarium is probably on that list, as well as Monterey Fisherman's Wharf, followed by downtown. Monterey Hotel is conveniently located within walking distance from all the places of interest in Monterey, and since it's right downtown, getting a cup of coffee in the morning or having a quick bite generally means crossing the street.
The hotel is historic, having been built in 1904. However, it has very nice interior, and none of the weird smells or unsanitary conditions you'd expect from old buildings. The staff is quite friendly and helpful the newcomers to Monterey to figure out their way around. The hotel lobby contains the list of all the takeout menus available in Monterey (not that you'd want a pizza delivery, having come to the seafood capital of NorCal).
The cons of being a historic hotel include the lack of elevators (not a problem for most of the people in the 3-story building) and horrendously squeaky floors. We were on the 2nd floor, and were going to bed early, due to overdose of walks on the fresh air, and I swear they held the walking competition the floor above. The room was also smaller than what you'd expect to get for similar money at a chain hotel.
There's continental breakfast served downstairs every morning 7-10 am, which includes bagels, yoghurt, cereal and a selection of fresh fruit. The hotel is within 20-30 minute walk from Monterey Bay Aquarium, and it's definitely a very nice walk on the trail by the ocean. It's realtively easy to get to from the highway.
There's no onsite parking, an the valet parking at the hotel is $16 a day. We were there for the Memorial Day weekend, and the downtown streets and parking lots are open to the public for free on weekends and holidays, so we managed to get a spot on the street right outside the hotel. If you positively cannot find any parking in the street, drive to the very end of Alvarado, and right behind the Washington Mutual building there's a public parking garage.
Hotel's advertised WiFi hotspot was not secured, but did not want to associate with my laptop even at 100% signal strength. I got Internet for maybe 10 minutes (which was manifested by all instant messengers popping windows like crazy and Yahoo! Messenger making those gun sounds notifying me of new mail) and could not get online after that, even though the wireless connection displayed 100% quality all along, which makes me think it wasn't my laptop that was the problem.
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Located on Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey, CA, Isabella's has to try hard to attract the customers among competing places with similar fresh-seafood menus, and it does a pretty good job. The menu is...
Located on Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey, CA, Isabella's has to try hard to attract the customers among competing places with similar fresh-seafood menus, and it does a pretty good job. The menu is quite extensive, offering many fresh seafood choices, with crab and lobster at market prices.
The interior of the restaurant is quite upscale for a wharf location, and overall we got a great service. The butter garlic dungeness crab was a specialty that day, and it's definitely worth trying out, if you feel like having a big meal, since the crabs served are generally pretty large.
The restaurant doesn't offer a good selection of alcoholic or specialty drinks, but it's well compensated by their wine selection. Wines were generally overpriced, since they figured out that when you get great food combined with the view of Monterey Bay, you'd want to complement it with a nice bottle no matter what.
The dessert selection is pretty good, with about 7 desserts brought out on a specialty tray. The helper to the waiter (not the waiter himself) turned out to have very little knowledge of the dessert names and ingredients, but the waiter made excellent recommendations.
Isabella's has quite a few outside seats, that turned out to be too windy when we were there at lunch hour. However, the fast-changing weather is compensated by the view of sea lions and departing whale-watching boats.
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