Vitals: mon-thur 10am-9pm fri & sat 10am-10:30pm sun 10am-7pm accepts credit cards
Cupcakes that look good AND taste good. While the cupcakes seem a bit overpriced for what you get ($3.25 for regular cupcake and they have minis that are less), they are worth it. I also like that they source from local vendors and try to use organic when possible (makes me feel good about supporting this business). Whenever I eat at Santana Row, for dessert I either head to Pinkberry or to Kara's cupcakes.
The cake part is moist and full of flavor and the frosting is always light, airy but not too sweet. I've been disappointed in some cupcakes where the cake was too hard, dense or dry and the frosting on top was too heavy, not so with these cupcakes. Favorites include the meyer lemon, fleur de sel (salted chocolate cupcake), and the coconut. Cupcakes may be a fad, but I hope this one lasts a bit longer.
Definitely try this place, the cupcakes are fabulous!!!!
3055 Olin Avenue San Jose, CA 95128 (408) 247-9120 http://www.plutosfreshfood.com/
Vitals: Monday-Saturday: 11 am - 10 pm Sunday: 11 am - 9 pm kid-friendly credit cards accepted ***
This is a casual dining spot that has good food at a reasonable price. I have to say that I was a bit confused when I first started going here. I didn't know how to go about to order food, but just kind of follow other people's leads. I particularly like the salads here - there's an amazing array of choices and I get to choose at least seven items. The portions can depend, some servers are more generous than others, but generally, the salads are filling. I particularly like the grilled chicken or tri-tip beef on my salad, just for a bit of protein.
The sandwiches are pretty good too. I generally go with the herb foccacia (although the rustic ciabatta is pretty good too). The portions are quite large and you can't really go wrong with any of the choices.
The kids menu is pretty extensive for a small place. I like the fact that they have a range of choices and include some healthy options. I get a bit annoyed when a restaurant only has deep fried options, like chicken fingers with fries or pasta with butter. For only $3.75, I can go with the combo meal and get a main dish, a side dish, a drink, and a krispies treat. Not bad. For the main meal, I can choose between grilled cheese, turkey or peanut butter and grape jelly sandwiches to mac & cheese, grilled chopped chicken breast or tri-tip steak. The side dish can be fries, spuds, string cheese, greens or fruits, and the drink can be milk, juice or soft drink.
We went here early on a Sunday night. It wasn't crowded and the restaurant was quite empty inside (although many tables outside were occupied). The service here is quite nice (I did a quick review of the Yelp reviews and many reviewers complained about the lousy service, which didn't apply to us). If you want seafood (American style), then this place has something that will likely appeal to you.
The menu is quite extensive with a lot of offerings from raw oysters, seafood pastas to non-seafood options like steak, burgers and chicken. Whenever I go here, I always opt for the lobster roll ($19.50). Maybe it's because eating here reminds me of my trip to Maine and how I fell in love with eating lobster rolls. You can have your lobster roll hot or cold. The cold version is basically like lobster salad, cold pieces of lobster with mayonnaise and some celery (kinda like a egg salad) and the hot version is served warm with butter and shallots. My preference is the hot lobster roll. It was so decadent. The roll itself was like a huge slice of buttered bread folded in two, but it was nice and toasted. Inside, there is a fair amount of buttered lobster (there can never be enough), mixed in with some veggies. It was delicious. The lobster roll was served with some chips and coleslaw. I've never been a fan of coleslaw but it added the right counterpoint to the rich lobster roll.
We also tried the market fish with two sides. We were given a choice of different fish (such as sea bass and red snapper), preparations (grilled, baked or pan fried) and sauces (such as plain, lemon caper with butter). The Californian sea bass in a butter lemon caper sauce was also quite good. The portion, while it seemed small at first, was adequate. Sometimes it's hard to dress up a fish, but it was very fresh and the sauce had a delicate flavor that didn't overpower the taste of the fish. I also liked that this restaurant is a part of "Seafood Watch", which is led by the Monterey Bay Aquarium which promotes sustainability practices for seafood. It made me feel better about eating here.
The sides. We had ordered some vegetables and the macaroni and cheese. The vegetable portion was TINY! It was still good, but the small mound of vegetables was pathetic. The mac and cheese, however, was awesome. It was made with cheddar cheese and butter with some breadcrumbs on top. It was flavorful, rich and not too cheesy. Perfect.
Next time, if I can muster up the strength, I'll have to forego the lobster roll and try something else. Or, maybe get my hubby to order something else and try his food.
We were able to get a $25 gift certificate from Restaurant.com for $2 (it's usually $10, but we were able to use an 80% off coupon). What's nice about this certificate is that the minimum was quite low, only $35 (although an automatic gratuity of 18% applies). Although our order exceeded $35, using the certificate enabled us to try a few new things and we didn't feel constrained to order the cheapest dishes on the menu.
377 Santana Row San Jose, CA 95128 Phone 408.260.7082 website
Vitals: Open daily for lunch generally from 11:30-3 Open daily for dinner Sun-Thurs from 3-9, Friday and Saturday 3-11 Credit Cards accepted not really kid-friendly
This is list a tapas version or fancy version of Mexican food or "Mexican cuisine". The decor on the inside is very dark, with dark wood and dark iron chandeliers that hang from the high ceiling, it makes me think that they are trying to recreate the old style restaurants from the late 1800s.
First, the service is terrible here. I was here on a weekday evening and it was surprisingly full of patrons, but sadly, it seemed understaffed as I only saw like 2 waiters for the entire restaurant. Our waiter hurriedly put down our dishes and seemed to dash to the next patron, and didn't even bother to ask if we needed anything (um, the small bread plates are too small, we need larger ones to eat our food, please). We literally had to get up from our table and walk to a waiter to ask for larger plates and to take away the stone that held the guacamole. It took them a while to even ask how we were doing and fill up our glasses of water.
But on to the food. The guacamole is a definite must. They make it fresh and to your liking. The waiter comes with a tray with different ingredients and you can specify how spicy you want it, and whether you want tomatoes, onion, cilantro and lime. With the handmade tortillas, it's such a simple treat that is so yummy.
Appetizers are good but portions are tiny. The cerviche de pescado was good, but it came in a small martini glass. I guess it's artful and presentation was unique, but it make for a skimpy offering.
I've tried most of the entrees or "Especialidades". Favorites include the "Pechuga rellena de guitlacoche" or chicken breast stuff with a mixture of different vegetables and the standard carnitas. I'm a pretty simple gal and most dishes that impress are pretty simple.
If you want to get a side, definitely get the "Arroz blanco con platanos fritos" or while rice with fried plantains. You have to like plantains, but they were soft, sweet and hearty. An interesting side was the "Torta de elote" or savory corn bread with a savory sauce.
As for the kids, the kid menu is very limited. It only had like 4 options. Of course, they had the standard quesadilla with cheese and a rice with beans dish, but I wish it had more choices.
This a pretty pricey place to eat, but I was able to use a coupon to Restaurant.com. Generally for $10 you can get a $25 coupon. Sometimes there are specials and you can get the coupons for up to 80% off. Whenever I use a coupon, there are always a few restrictions (ie, I had to order at least $45 worth of food and they add an automatic gratuity of around 18%), but it definitely saves me a lot. It's great, it enables me to go to restaurants that I otherwise would pass up.
So, if you're in the mood for Mexican and want to try more classical dishes in a nice setting, Consuelo is a good bet. It may be a date place (depending on whether you need to go somewhere) since the service is so slow, you'll be able to linger a long time at your meal and chat with your date.
There's an amazing array of choices and combinations. It's truly a custom burger your way. You choose your meat (beef, chicken, turkey, veggie or market selection), cheese (ranging from blue cheese to classic American), up to 4 toppings and even your bun.
Hubby had a regular 1/3 lb. burger with grilled onions, mushrooms and swiss cheese and I had a turkey burger with grilled onions, roasted red peppers, tomatoes and cheddar cheese.
Maybe I went on an off day, but I was just not impressed with the beef burgers at Counter. The meat was just not that fresh and it just ruined it for me. In some ways, if you just want a traditional burger, maybe Inn-N-Out would do, as these burgers are expensive; however, if you want a customized burger with different unique toppings, then this place is probably a good place to go. Even though the burger was just OK, the turkey burger was good though.
I have to say, the burgers are big! They do pile on the toppings and it's almost impossible to eat, but somehow I found a way.
We also ordered the "Fifty-Fifty", where you get to try two different starters. The choices were fries and sweet potato fries, fries and onion strings or sweet potato fries and onion strings. We chose to try to sweet potato fries and fries. The sweet potato fries were great - crispy with a hint on sweetness. The regular fries were fine, nothing special.
This is a pretty kid-friendly place. The kid menu, while not as extensive as the adult menu, was adequate. We also ordered the grilled cheese with french fries and my kid was satisfied. I liked how we could choose to order apple sauce instead of french fries.
I'd come back again for the sweet potato fries and maybe give the burgers another chance. It's right by a playground, so if I were out with the family and wanted an easy place to grab some food and let my little one play a bit, this would be a good bet.
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