Village California Bistro & Wine Bar

378 Santana Row
San Jose, CA 95128
(408) 248-9091
website

Vitals:
Lunch M-F: 10am - 3:30 pm
Dinner: from 5 pm
Brunch Sat & Sun: 8:30 am - 3:30 pm
Semi-formal, but can be child friendly

We went here for dinner before catching a movie (date night!). Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to try the 3 course dinner (which is $27 for a salad or soup, entree and a dessert), so we just opted for an appetizer to share, dinner entrees and no dessert.

Santana Row is the go-to place for people watching, a lot of good (but crowded and somewhat overpriced restaurants) and shopping in San Jose. Because of the high concentration of a lot of amenities, a lot of people flock here and it's pretty hard to find parking (unless you go during a weekday/weeknight). I like strolling around the Row, go window shopping and find a place to eat. If one place is crowded, then there's always another restaurant down the street.

Luckily, since it was a weeknight, we were able to sit at an outside table. It's almost a casual semi-formal type place. There are white table cloths on the tables, the dishes are presented well and it's a bit pricey.

We opted to try the calamari with garlic aioli ($9). It was not a good start to the meal. We were give a generous portion, but the breading was very oily and the calamari was chewy and overcooked. The garlic aioli sauce was flavorless.

I tried the fennel dusted scallops ($27). The scallops were fresh and done well. Not overdone and not too underdone either (it seems as though many places serve scallops rather raw). The flavor was good, I liked the vegetables that came with it (heirloom tomatoes, some summer squash) and the portion was pretty generous. I guess I wasn't really in the mood for scallops because when I saw my hubby's dish, I knew that I had to switch.




His "pan seared local sole" ($19) was fabulous. It was fresh, flaky and had a fabulous rich flavor (lemon butter caper sauce) that didn't overpower the fish. The vegetables were a nice complement and the potato puree just added a bit of weight that helped fill me up. We've been to Yankee Pier (next door) a few times, and it's sad when a restaurant like Village makes better seafood than one that supposed to specialize in seafood.

I don't know if I would go out of my way to go here again, but I'd definitely give it another try.