Sibby's Cupcakery, San Mateo

Where does the time go?

I've been meaning to post about these mini-cupcakes from Sibby's for over a week now:

They are just as delicious as they are adorable. Jon and I ordered 2 dozen for a recent holiday dinner party. Since we believe in variety, we went with the Sibby's Sampler — which I'm told is anywhere from 4-6 flavors.

We were quite pleased with ours: mocha, grandma's teacake (chocolate), gingerbread, snickerdoodle, eggnog and carrot. In fact, we — and our guests — enjoyed them so much, Jon and I are now scheduled to bring a batch of Sibby's mini-cupcakes to Christmas Eve dinner.

Here's the thing about Sibby's though: There's a minimum order of 1 dozen for the regular cupcakes or 2 dozen for the minis. And they don't have an actual storefront. You call/email your order and they'll either deliver it for a fee, or you can stop by their San Mateo location and pick up yourself. Whichever way you go, it's definitely worth checking out.

Sibby's Cupcakery

Bistro Vida, Menlo Park

Over the past couple of years, Jon and I have enjoyed dinner at Bistro Vida on numerous occasions. I love the ambiance (feels much more like a bistro in Paris than its neighbor, Left Bank restaurant) and the food is usually quite tasty. BUT ... the service is not the greatest. Friendly, but slow.

I kept hearing that the weekend brunch was the real reason to come here, so I finally got around to stopping by on Sunday morning. It was around 11:30am, and the restaurant was about half-full when I walked in. But over the course of my two-hour meal, it filled up almost entirely. Families. Small clusters of friends. Couples. Bistro Vida clearly has widespread appeal.

I ordered the French toast along with a side of frites (which are great here). Maybe my expectations were too high, but I didn't find myself loving the French toast. It was fine, but not addictive — as other diners have deemed it. The texture was more crunchy than eggy, so it's different than most French toasts that are served in restaurants. Different can be good thing, but in this case, it wasn't for me.

I'm glad I made it to Bistro Vida for brunch, but I think I'll stick to the dinner for future visits.

Bistro Vida
641 Santa Cruz Avenue
Menlo Park, CA
(650) 462-1686

Tanglewood, Santana Row

When my sister heard that her absolute favorite server from the The Grill on the Alley (in the San Jose Fairmont) had been hired at Tanglewood, she immediately made a reservation for the Santana Row eatery.

Now I have to say, I haven't had the greatest dining experiences at the upscale shopping center. Food sometimes seems far too pricey for what you get. Stunning decor, but service is lacking. A lot of the restaurants in Santana Row are offshoots of well-known/successful local establishments (e.g., Chris Yeo's Straits Cafe and Sino, Bradley Ogden's Yankee Pier).

Tanglewood comes with a nice pedigree as well. The restaurant's proprietor is Roland Passot -- who is behind San Francisco's highly regarded La Folie. And Chef Quentin Topping is a graduate of Harvard University as well as the California Culinary Academy.

When I went to the Tanglewood web site the afternoon of our dinner reservation, I spotted a buttermilk-fried quail dish that sounded incredible. Did I mention that it comes with honey-butter mini biscuits? Drool. Sadly, it wasn't available the night my sister and I were there. But they had another quail option, served over grits and with a small salad topped with a fried quail egg. Although the quail itself wasn't fried, it was still quite tasty. And those grits were awesome. I could have eaten an entire bowl.

My sister opted for the Ahi salad that I don't remember much about. All I know is, she practically licked her plate clean. So it scored high marks with her.

Given that the Chef spent some time in the Boston area, I decided that my main entree should be a "Real New England Lobster Roll" (as the menu describes it).

I was a bit hesitant because the roll comes dressed, instead of naked, but the lobster mixture was delicious. There were chunks of sweet lobster meat, crunchy chopped celery, creamy mayo, and even a hint of curry. It was a nice combination of flavors and textures. Oh, and they did the bread right (i.e., a buttery New England-style hot dog bun). The onion rings were also very good.

My sister ordered the chicken, which was sort of a take on the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. It was served over mashed sweet potatoes, with tiny marshallows sprinkled on the plate (even toasted -- a sweet detail!) and some cranberry sauce. Tasty. But I looked at her plate after she finished off her meal, and there were just too many bones to have to pick through. I don't like to work that hard to get some meat.

Next up were the desserts: a triple-layer carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for me, and an apple tart with salty caramel ice cream for her. They were good, but her ice cream was the only stand-out on both of our plates. (That's a little glass of cold apple cider in the photo below.)

The service throughout the evening was top-notch. The server my sister had come to see was actually off the night we dined at Tanglewood (bummer!), but I'm sure he couldn't have done much better than our waitress did. This restaurant, by the way, is beautiful. Dark wood, patterned silk upholstery on the banquettes, and this cool sueded table liner (instead of the usual white paper that sits on top of most restaurant tables). I loved watching the kitchen's sliding glass doors -- such a simple idea, yet it makes so much sense (you get to peek into the kitchen, the servers can see each other and there's no risk of bumping as someone comes in and someone else goes out).

Okay, so is there any downside of this place? Yes. The portions are small. And they're not cheap. My sister and I are not big eaters, yet we found ourselves still hungry after our three-course meal (that was just over $100, pre-tip). If I go back to Tanglewood, I might have to order a couple of appetizers in fill me up. I'm sure they'll be delicious, but whether or not the bill will be worth it is another question.

Tanglewood
334 Santana Row, #1000
San Jose, CA
(408) 244-0464

Shiok, Menlo Park

I hadn't heard of this restaurant before Colin emailed to tell me about it. But once I took a look at the menu, I put it at the top of my list of places to try.

First of all, I have to say: Since we didn't have any prior experience with Singaporean food, we went into this rather blindly. We didn't know what the go-to Singaporean items were -- the Pad Thai or Shaking Beef of the cuisine, if you will. So we just picked what sounded good (from the lengthy menu) and crossed our fingers.

We chose well.

Since it was a chilly night, I quickly ordered myself a cup of the delicious, sweet honey-ginger tea. For our starters, Jon and I went with the Beef Samosa with Yogurt Mint Sauce and the Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce. The lightly breaded chicken was good (you definitely need to dip it into the sauce), but the samosas were outstanding. Inside the crispy pastry shell was a minced beef, onion and potato mix that was flavorful but not too spicy.

Noodles and rice -- comfort foods to me -- seemed like perfect entree selections for the evening. The Hor Fun is described as stir-fried broad rice noodles in rich egg gravy, with vegetables and your choice of seafood, beef or chicken. We opted for just the veggies. While we were expecting a heaping plate of noodles, what we got looked more like a stew. This is because that egg gravy is really thick. But there were definitely a lot of noodles in the bowl, and it was a satisfying dish.

Because I love Chinese sausage and claypot dishes, the next entree was a no-brainer for me: The Claypot Rice with marinated chicken, Chinese sausage, mushroom and bok choy. Simple and tasty. It reminded me a lot of a meal my mom used to make quite often when I was growing up.

Finally, we got to the dessert menu. In keeping with the theme of ordering food that's reminiscent of my mom's cooking, I ordered the Banana Roll (sans the ice cream -- it was just too cold!). Again, the beauty is in the simplicity: Just sliced bananas in a spring roll-wrapper that had been deep-fried. Awesome. Jon ordered the Fried Ice Cream, which was coconut ice cream with a layer of sponge cake around it, deep-fried and then drizzled with chocolate syrup. I didn't sample his, but since he ate it all, I can only assume it was good.

The decor here is attractive, but nothing fancy. I was a little thrown by the melamine cups, plates and spoons; it just seemed a tad too casual. When our bill arrived, we were surprised that our three-course meal was under $50. Maybe all of that plastic dishware (less breakage) helps them keep costs down?

Shiok Kitchen
1137 Chestnut Street
Menlo Park, CA
(650) 838-9448

Dairy Queen, Redwood City

After picking up Jon from the airport on Friday night, we drove by the Dairy Queen on Woodside Road. It was 9:02pm and the lights were off, the place totally shut down. Weird, right?

The next night, while on a KFC run (please don't judge me!), we noticed that across the street -- where DQ sits -- it was all dark again. Two nights in a row. Nothing going on at the DQ. Was it closed? Say it ain't so!

Jon spotted a sign in the window and decided to drive through the deserted parking lot to check it out. Turns out, they were just closed for the Thanksgiving holiday week (yes, an entire week) so they'll re-open this Wednesday.

Phew.

Jon always gets some sort of peanut butter-related Blizzard (I think) and I'm all about the kids' size chocolate-dipped cone. Of course, now that I'm writing this, I really want a DQ cone. Just 48 hours until the doors open again ...

Oh! BTW, did you know that there's a Foster's Freeze in Menlo Park? I had no idea, until the other day. So I guess if DQ ever does close (which I hope it never does), at least we know that's nearby.

John Bentley's, Woodside

After talking about going to John Bentley's for months and months, we finally ate there this past weekend. Located in an old firehouse, the restaurant is quite charming. The front dining room isn't very large. The focal point of the space is the rather modern fireplace that I really liked (you know, the whole juxtaposition between old and new thing). We were seated in the outdoor-ish dining room. I think it's technically a porch, but it totally doesn't feel like it because of all the enclosures and heat and comfy banquette seating that they have going on back there.

To start, I had one of the evening's specials: figs stuffed with blue cheese, served with greens and crostini. I could have done with a little less cheese in my figs, but it was fine (I spread some of the excess on the bread). Jon had the Dungeness crab cakes, which were tasty, but hardly special in my book. (Note: Maybe I've just never had outstanding crab cakes -- even in Baltimore -- so I don't know when it's really impressive and when it's not.)

Moving on.

For my main course, I enjoyed another special: halibut served over wild rice with green beans in a delicous beurre blanc. Loved it. The fish was so tender and flaky. Jon ordered the roast rack of lamb with scalloped parsnips and a grain mustard sauce. Parsnips! What a nice change from the usual potatoes. Very very good.

Finally, for dessert, I went with the panna cotta with strawberry and mango sauce, while Jon chose the apple tart with (some flavor I can't remember) ice cream. His was better, hands down. The tart was fairly large in diameter, but it was also pretty flat. There was just a thin layer of sliced apples in the puff pastry shell. Excellent. My panna cotta was a little too soft for my taste; sure, I like it creamy, but firmer (more gelatin, please!).

All in all -- food, service, ambiance -- it was a good meal, but nothing spectacular. For the most part, the dishes seemed fairly safe.

Although I'm glad we finally tried it, I think the next time we feel like spending $150 on dinner, we might have to drive right past John Bentley's and over to Village Pub instead.

John Bentley's
2991 Woodside Road
Woodside, CA
(650) 851-4988

Kanpai, Palo Alto

I recently learned that the owners of Menlo Park's Naomi Sushi -- a place Jon and I both like -- opened another Japanese restaurant in Palo Alto. Kanpai takes over the space formerly occupied by Jidai-ya. How do I know this? Because the chopstick wrappers still say Jidai-ya on them.

Details, people.

Anyway! In terms of ambiance and service, Kanpai is definitely a step up from Naomi. It's not too slick though, so you'll still be fine wearing jeans and sneakers here.

This is what we ordered:

• San Jose tofu (deep fried cubes in a light, flavorful broth)
• Edemame
• Ikura (salmon roe)
• Hamachi (yellowtail)
• Toro (fatty tuna)
• Kanpai Special Roll (tempura shrimp + avocado + eel)
• Tempura asparagus
• 49er Roll (tuna + avocado + spicy yellowtail)
• Palo Alto Roll (um ... I can't remember!)

One of the nice things is that the nigiri is sold in single pieces ... Well, it's nice in that if you're just looking to sample something, you're only committed to one bite of sushi. But the prices are a bit steep, I think. Our overall dinner came to about $80.

I thoroughly enjoyed my selections, but Jon remarked that his -- which are the last three on the list -- were just okay. He thought the asparagus was too bitter and the 49er Roll not spicy enough. And this is coming from a man who doesn't even like really spicy food; I guess his point was that it was bland.

We ate fairly early last night -- and it was a Tuesday night -- so Kanpai wasn't too crowded during our visit. But I hear that the place gets packed later in the week and during the weekend. While I would definitely make a return-trip here, I may have a tougher time convincing Jon -- especially with so many other good sushi/Japanese food options in the area.

Kanpai
330 Lytton Avenue
Palo Alto, CA
(650) 325-2696

St. Michael's Alley, Palo Alto

Okay, this is going to be short and sweet ... Because I'm in the middle of working on several freelance articles ... And I wanted to mention this little eatery, but don't have time for anything too detailed.

I met up with some friends for brunch at St. Michael's Alley on Saturday, and since it was the first visit for everyone, we all commented on what a cute place it is. (Note: I like that they actually offer brunch both weekend days, and not just on Sunday.) The dining room isn't very big, but there are a couple of outdoor tables and seating at the bar as well.

Dishes enjoyed at our table: cinnamon-pear pancakes (the daily special); fruit sundae (which was basically a fruit salad, served in a bowl -- not a parfait glass, as I thought it would be -- with granola and yogurt); and Blue Monkey pancakes (blueberry and banana combined). All were delicious, and not too pricey. My short stack of pancakes and a side of crispy bacon came to about $10.

The restaurant wasn't too crowded when we showed up (which was good for us, since they don't accept brunch reservations), but it started to fill up around noon. On a sunny morning, when people aren't huddled inside their warm homes underneath a pile of blankets, I imagine that St. Michael's Alley probably attracts even more diners looking for a tasty meal, as well as lovely ambiance and service.

St. Michael's Alley
806 Emerson Street
Palo Alto, CA
(650) 326 2530

Oakville Grocery's T-Day Menu

I have absolutely no intention of ever -- EVER -- cooking a Thanksgiving dinner. Luckily, there are other members of my family who enjoy doing that. But if you're playing host this year and feeling a little unsure when it comes to your culinary skills, get yourself to Oakville Grocery.

They're offering traditional, but definitely gourmet, to-go meals. All you have to do is reheat, place on pretty platters, and serve at your Thanksgiving table. You can even test out Oakville's Thanksgiving meals at their customer appreciation parties, scheduled for this Thursday night at the Stanford and San Francisco locations. The entire Thanksgiving menu will be available for you to enjoy, as well as some goodies from the Fall Catering menu. (I'm sure this is going to be waaaay better than Costco free food sampling!)

From Oakville's press release:

Starters include homemade butternut squash and pear soup, wild mushroom tartlets, Medjool dates stuffed with blue cheese and walnuts and petite crab cakes. Side dishes range from our traditional classic cranberry sauce, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, turkey gravy and artisan bread dressing with fennel and apples to Oakville favorites such as creamed spinach with Parmigiano Reggiano, maple-baked sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts with pancetta and cippolini onions. Oakville is known for its wonderful cheese and charcuterie selections and the stores are brimming with local and imported artisan products from house-made Gorgonzola Torta to Farmer’s pate.

As for dessert, finish off your feast with an assortment of delectable pies from Napa Valley’s Sweetie Pies Bakery. Choose from freshly baked apple crisp, classic pumpkin or maple pecan.

You can order your Thanksgiving meal from Oakville as late as Sunday, November 19. And in case you can't make it to either of the parties this week, call them up and they'll fax you a menu. So easy, it's making me think that maybe I should host a Thanksgiving dinner one of these years!

Oakville Grocery
When: Thursday, November 9, 6-8pm
Where: Palo Alto (Stanford Shopping Center); San Francisco (The Cannery at Del Monte Square)

La Bodeguita del Medio, Palo Alto

I love this place. It's as simple as that. The food, the drinks, the vibe. La Bodeguita is now one of my favorite restaurants in the Peninsula.

Last night, Jon and I walked in (without a reservation) just after 5:30pm. Since that's what time the Cuban restaurant opens, we didn't have a problem getting a table. But if you're planning to arrive after 7pm, get a reservation. The main dining room -- as well as the bar area, which features some tables as well -- were both full when we were done with our meal.

We started off with a pair of mojitos. Fantastic. Even though I had to go non-alcoholic because I forgot my ID and the waitress actually carded me! Anyway. The drinks -- they live up to their reputation as the best mojitos in town. With rum or without.

For our appetizers, I opted for the empanadas -- a trio of flaky pastries stuffed with shredded pork -- and it was delicious. Loved the textures and flavors, and even the coconut sauce lightly drizzled over the dish (I'm not usually a fan of coconut-anything). Jon couldn't decide between the crab cakes and the croquetas, so he ordered both. The crab cakes were good, but weren't anything extraordinary. The deep-fried potato fritters, however, were awesome with the tamarind-chipotle dipping sauce.

The entrees: I had the ropa vieja (tender shredded skirt steak served over yellow rice with a few plaintain slices) and Jon had the masitas (spicy roasted pork with white rice, black beans and carmelized onions). We couldn't agree on whose dish was better (I thought mine, he thought his), but we did come to the consensus that both were amazing. The only disappointment for me were the plantains. They were on the dry side, and some slices were even gummy. I actually prefered the sweet plantain chips that served as garnish on my plate.

I purposely didn't finish off my entire dinner because I was saving room for dessert. We decided to share the Havana Bananas, which consisted of carmelized bananas, walnuts, and vanilla ice cream sprinkled with cinnamon. It was simple and tasty, but nothing special.

Last night, there were quite a few large groups in the dining room -- and this does seem like a great place to imbibe and dine with a gathering of friends.The decor here has a tropical feel to it, and Hemingway's influence is clear (his picture is on the menu, and his words are featured behind the bar). The restaurant's walls are filled with paintings from Cuban artists.

You may not be able to make it to the original La Bodeguita del Medio in Havana. But I can't imagine the food is that much better there anyway. And the Palo Alto eatery does offer plenty of rum cocktails and even cigars. No passport required, but remember to bring your ID.

La Bodeguita del Medio
463 South California Avenue
Palo Alto, CA
(650) 326-7762

Erik's Delicafe, Redwood City

I am not much of a sandwich person, yet I still find myself drawn to Erik's Delicafe. Since I used to frequent the establishment back in my Santa Cruz college days, I think the appeal is partly nostalgia for me. I won't go to Quizno's, Subway or Togo's, but Erik's I will gladly order from.

Erik's isn't the kind of place you crave or even go out of your way for. I happened to be at a fabric store in Redwood City yesterday when I spotted it in the strip mall. Since my husband had never been to an Erik's before, we decided to pop in.

There's nothing fancy about the menu here. In fact, you could argue that the sandwiches can easily be made at home in your own kitchen. And what's wrong with that? Erik's offers simple, solid food at affordable prices. And, at a time when fancy sandwich shops are charging double-digits and leaving customers dissatisfied, Erik's is a nice respite. The sandwiches are made to order (quickly, might I add) with fresh ingredients. I usually opt for the half-sandwich/cup of soup combo. (I love the names of the sandwiches -- yesterday I had the Raging Bull, but the R.E.O. Speadwagon is also fun to order.)

I admit that the ambiance here is a little cheesy -- with the fake barnwood walls and ceilings, iron kettle in the room, etc. But where else around here can you get your beverages served in mason jars?

Erik's DeliCafe
See web site for locations throughout the Peninsula and South Bay (mainly the latter).