388 E. Santa Clara St
San Jose, CA 95113
The best deal for lunch close to San Jose State University. Run by Ben, a SJSU Graphic Design alum. Vegan Vietnamese food. For years I ordered the "two item rice plate" with brown rice, sesame "chicken" skewers, and an eggplant and tofu dish. Then finally I discovered their prize, the Pho, or "Spicy Noodle Soup." Now I'm stuck on it for good. I have ruined a couple of shirts eating it, but it's worth it. I go there to pick up food for any potluck or party, and also to get things to have on hand at home (I still love the sesame "chicken" skewers.)
Vung Tau
535 E Santa Clara St
San Jose, CA 95112
This is a really good, busy, family-friendly Vietnamese restaurant a few blocks from where I live.
This restaurant appeared recently in the American Airlines in-flight magazine in an article on the best Vietnamese restaurants in the US! And it appeared to have the top ranking of all of them!
Below: prawns with rice vermicelli. You have to ask for the vegetarian menu-- the Chinese broccoli and vegetarian red curry are my new favourite, with the veg spring rolls and the veg green papaya salad.
Punjab Cafe
322 E Santa Clara St,
San Jose, CA 95112
If you're at SJSU, walk north from the Engineering building to Santa Clara St. This is a small and popular Indian restaurant that opened a couple of years ago. The staff are very nice, and will give you a 10% discount if you pay cash. I go here to pick up Navratan Korma and Palak Paneer when I'm out of food at home. Good food. Once again I remembered to take the pic After we started eating...
Sa By Thai
346 E William St
San Jose, CA 95112
This is the Thai restaurant I frequent most often in San Jose. It's just two blocks south of campus. They have a huge menu and are super nice people. Nowadays I usually get the green curry tofu and fresh rolls. I took this pic of green curry chicken back when I still ate chicken.
Cafe Pomegranate
221 East San Fernando St
San Jose 95112
If you want a proper lunch near SJSU, this is the best place to go. Friendly, popular, and great Mediterranean/ Persian food. The daily specials include salmon kebabs with rice and an amazing salad, pictured below. No matter what you get, get the half (or whole) salad. Lunch comes out to be between $10 and $12 with a drink, but it could easily feed two people most of the time. Also pictured, the cream of broccoli soup and side salad.
Chaat Paradise
(650) 965-1111
165 E El Camino Real
Mountain View, CA 94040
Vegetarian Indian restaurant. The Chaat Paradise Chaat Basket is one of my favourite foods ever. So is the super-delicate, non-gummy Saag Paneer. The Aloo Gobi is great too (all pictured below.) I love this place and it's super affordable.
Noodle Theory
6099 Claremont Ave
Oakland CA 94618
510 595 6988
Awesome place.
Get the sesame noodles, the dry sauteed green beans, and the shrimp dumplings.
Much older posts:
Krung Thai
642 South Winchester Blvd.
San Jose, CA 95128
Phone : 408-260-8224
Really really good Thai food. It's a huge, super busy restaurant. The "seafood choo chee ta-lay" is amazing (red curry with crab, fish, prawns, squid and mushrooms,) the Tom Kha Gai soup is not as good as it used to be. Tee Nee Thai's is better.
Gaesung House of Tofu
2089 El Camino Real Santa Clara,
CA 95050-4054
Phone: (408) 248-8638
Super good, I loved everything we got, the place is nice, the bill was not very big! You get a huge assortment of delicious small dishes with every entree (see below.)
Yume Sushi
1428 Park St
Alameda, CA 94501
This place has the best sushi I've ever had, but there are some negative aspects to the place. The restaurant seats about 11 people total. If you don't arrive at 5.00 PM you'll wait easily an hour. If you arrive at like 5.15 you may get a seat, but not at the bar, and if you don't get a seat at the bar you may as well not eat there. It's only awesome if you sit at the bar and let the chef choose your food. If you do that, it will blow your mind.
Koi Palace @ Daly City Serramonte Plaza
365 Gellert Ave
Daly City, CA 94015
Tel: (650) 992-9000
(From 2008?)
Bruce and I went here last week with my sister, her husband and baby, and her in-laws, who did all the ordering off the Dim Sum menu. The food was amazing. We saved the menu with Wai Tong Fung's choices marked, for a future visit. We wondered why we had to show up at 11 AM... it soon became apparent, and Thelma Fung explained that the wait can be two hours if you don't show up at 11.00.
Shanghai Delight
218 Barber Ct
Milpitas, CA 95035
(408) 434-6888
This place is in Milpitas. It's always super crowded with big families. It's good to go with a bunch of people, and don't plan to linger once you're finished, there are people waiting for your table.
Update: we went there for Bruce's birthday with a bunch of people, and this time there was too much fried food. Less interesting than last time.
Tee Nee Thai
1423 The Alameda
San Jose, CA 95126
(408) 947-7927
A good addition to the San Jose Thai restaurant scene. I used to go to Krung Thai, but this place is closer and a little less crazy. Krung Thai still has a lot more menu options, but the waitstaff are less frazzled here. The Tom Kha Gai Soup is really good here. So is the green curry with chicken (and eggplant and zucchini.)
Make sure you ask for summer rolls, not spring rolls. The spring rolls are fried, the summer rolls aren't.
Los Cubanos
22 N Almaden Ave
San Jose CA
This restaurant is kind of new. I don't love everything on the menu, just some things. I recommend ordering the "dinner size" version of the chicken Cuban tamale (usually it comes as an appetizer.) It's a delicate corn tamale with a huge piece of stewed chicken with olives and red peppers, and it comes with black beans, rice and the restaurant's awesome fried sweet plaintains. Some of the other dishes are a bit too oily for my liking, like the sea bass.
