Arya Restaurant, Cupertino

Watching a movie at the AMC Cupertino Square 16 multiplex in Cupertino has become a Friday ritual for my friends and me and is compelling us to discover new restaurants in Cupertino. Bored with going to Mandarin Gourmet, BJ's and Blue Mango each Friday, we decided to try some new place and a quick search on google brought us to Arya. They call themselves a "Global Cuisine" restaurant that servers Persian, Italian, American food but its essentially a Persian place with a few dishes of the other cuisines thrown in the menu. And I have to admit they do a good job at their Persian food. The exterior of this restaurant does not prepare you for the plush upscale decor inside. We started our meal with a glass of white wine and the Middle Eastern appetizer sampler which consisted of an extremely generous amount of Maust O'Mooseer, Maust O'Khiar, Hummus and salad served with pita bread. For the main course, we ordered the Chicken Koobideh and Pollo Firenze. The Koobideh was one of the most flavorful and juciest I've had and the saffron rice with butter was a great accompaniment. The Pollo Firenze was spinach stuffed chicken served with mashed potatoes and a creamy white sauce and although it was good, it was no match for the Koobideh !! Finished up the dinner with a mango pudding served with fresh strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. Definitely a place worth visiting again in Cupertino ...

Limon, San francisco

My latest favourite in the Mission !! I'd heard a lot of good things about Limon and had been wanting to try it out for atleast 2 years now. I had no clue what I was missing or I'd have been a little more proactive... Limon is by far the best restaurant I've been to in the Mission. The cuisine here is Peruvian and I went there with a couple of friends one Saturday evening and ended up spending a good 2 hours enjoying the food. Started off with a pitcher of Sangria. I've mentioned earlier that the Sangria at Charanga was my favourite, well here's the new favourite !! For appetizers we had the Chiccaron de Pollo which is chicken marinaded in spices and deep fried. It was nice and juicy with a wonderful unique flavor to it. For the main course, we had the grilled chicken served with mashed potatoes and a spicy coconut based gravy and fried red snapper fillets served with rice and another spicy gravy. The flavor in each of the dishes was unique and we were left licking the plates craving for some more. We wrapped up the wonderful evening with a generous serving of Creme de Papaya. I must also mention that the service here was excellent with the waiter giving us some very useful suggestions and checking on us every few minutes and refilling our glasses with Sangria :). I can't wait to get back to Limon once again ...

Dish Dash, Sunnyvale

Downtown Sunnyvale isn't exactly a foodie's delight, except for this small Mediterranean Cafe. I have been to Dish Dash countless number of times and each time, the food and service have been great. My favourite dish here is the Beriani which is beef cooked in a yogurt based sauce and served with saffron rice garnished with dry fruits. On occasion I've had their Sabanech which is a lamb shank served with black-eye beans, rice, spinach and garlic. I've had Sabanech at a few other places, but the one at Dish Dash beats everyone else. The lamb is so tender that it just falls off the bone and the spices are just perfect. Their Meze appetizer plate which is a combo of Hummus, Babaghanoush, Tabouli, and Falafel served with Falafel is probably the best appetizer plate you can have at a Mediterranean restaurant. The beer and wine collection here is adequate and their appetizers are nothing to boast about. If you're around Sunnyvale, do yourself a favor and go to Dish Dash instead of one of the several lousy Indian restaurants in the area...

E' Tutto Qua, San Francisco

My friend Christian calls the Pizza at E' Tutto Qua the second best in the world, the first being a restaurant in Milan, and I have to agree with him!! The pizza I had here is probably the best I've had to date. The restaurant is supposed to have excellent pasta as well but we left that for another time. Conveniently located at the intersection of Broadway and Columbus, this restaurant sports a nice bar, an awesome wine collection and a great dessert menu in addition to the wonderful pizzas!! Ended up having the Bruschetta for appetizers and the Pizza Tutta Qua, Pizza Diavolo and another pizza with anchovies accompanied by a bottle of Chianti Classico which was the first time I had wine with pizza and actually loved it... They had a great dessert menu and although I was tempted to try more than just one dessert, I exercised some control and just went for the Grand Marnier Tiramisu which was the softest and the best Tiramisu I've ever had. Came out of E' Tutto Qua thoroughly pleased, but then had to walk down 4 blocks to my car in the cold and wind, but it was so totally worth it !!!

Falafel's Drive-In, San Jose

The best Falafels I've ever had!! Period. This roadside eatery in a rundown neighborhood seems like an unlikely place for good mediterranean food but there it is and it absolutely rocks!! Apart from their Falafels which are best sampled in their juicy and messy pita wrap, they make really good gyro and kabab wraps. Their hummus and babaganoush are both very fresh and tasty and I would enjoy them more if they served them with fresh pita bread instead of a store pita right out of a plastic bag. They also serve fruit shakes but I've never tried as I'm not that big a fan of fruit shakes. I do not feel really comfortable going to this place at night because of the neighborhood which incidentally happens to be just about a mile from the very upscale Santana Row. However, this is a fabulous place to have a quick, cheap and satisfying lunch.

Amber India Restaurant, San Jose

Amber India is one of the fanciest Indian restaurants in the Bay Area. Located in the upscale Santana Row in San Jose, it caters to folks looking for some good Indian food in a comfortable and elegant atmosphere. Amber has a very good wine selection and an excellent bar. I went here about a month back with some marketing folks from work and we had one of the most enjoyable meals. We started off with some cocktail samosas and the Tandoori platter (Kakori Kabab, Peshawari Tikka and Zafrani Jheenga) for appetizers alongwith a 2003 Iron Horse Winery Cabernet Sauvignon. The Tandoori platter was absolutely fabulous and went along very well with the wine. For the main course, we had the Peshawari chicken and the Achari Ghost both of which were very good but the best dish of the evening was the Chicken Dum Biryani cooked in the Hyderabadi Dum style. I can say without hesitation that the Dum Biryani in Amber is the best I've had outside of Hyderabad in India. So if you do visit Amber, do not forget to sample the Dum Biryani. Amber also has a wonderful Lunch Buffet where they serve Phirni fr dessert which is my favourite. Amber has two branches in the Bay Area - Mountain View adnd Santana Row and I prefer the Santana Row one. Amber however does not serve very spicy Indian food as they cater more towards the American palate. If you want some real spicy food, you should be heading to the Tenderloin neighborhood in San Francisco...

Rose Market, Mountain View

Rose Market is a Persian Grocery store that serves some of the best Persian Kababs I've ever had !! Conveniently located at the intersection of Castro Street and El Camino Real in Mountain View, this place is packed at lunch time. The ordering process here is a bit confusing and unorganized. You go into the store and wait in line to order at the checkout counters. You're given a ticket and you have to go out to the other end of the building to collect your order and the worst part of it all is that they do not tell you that at the counter!!! So the first time you go here, you'd be confused as to where all the food is coming from, but the key here is to move in the direction that everyone is moving and you'll figure out the process :)... Their Koobideh is awesome and on my last visit, I tried their Barg Kabab which has become my new favorite. All the kababs are served with Cilantro on a Lavash bread and you could order a side of saffron rice that goes very well with the kababs. You also get some good Zoolbiah which is the same as the Indian Jalebi. The Baklava that you get in the store is also pretty good and one of my friends discovered that its awesome with Ice cream...

Kennedy's Irish Pub and Curry House, San Francisco

Kennedy's Irish Pub and Curry House is my favorite watering hole in San Francisco. They had the most amazing collection of beer on tap. The surprising thing about this place is that it serves Indian food and in my opinion, a place like Kannedy's can survive only in San Francisco. Where else would you find a sports bar, Irish pub and Indian restaurant bundled together ??!!! The pitchers here are priced at a very reasonable $ 15 and I get some of my favorite European beers on tap - Boddingtons, Guiness, Smithwicks, Fattire, Warsteiner etc. On my last visit, I was there with 8 other people and ended up ordering 6 pitchers of all the above mentioned :). And for the first time, I also found out that if you buy 5 pitchers, you get the 6th one free !! A couple of my friends who don't drink beer weren't very happy that we'd dragged them to an Irish pub but the bartender made them an awesome drink from Soju and Sprite which got them in a mood to enjoy the evening. Soju is the Korean equivalent of Sake. We'd also ordered some appetizers - Curry fries, Onion pakoras and Sambar Vada which were all pretty decent. I used to come here more often a few years back because they had really good Indian food too but over the years, the quality of their Indian food has deteriorated and I wouldn't recommend eating dinner here. Kennedy's also has a couple of pool tables and a foosball table and a few of my friends decided to play pool with a couple of other guys hanging out at Kennedy's. Although both teams sucked, my friends were the ones who ultimately lost.

Schnitzelhaus, San Francisco

I wouldn't call myself sober when I ended up at Schnitzelhaus after the San Francisco Lovefest. I'd downed about 7 drinks and comeup with a new superhero "Meterman" who could walk thru parking meters :) !! But for once, I'd trusted my Austrian friend to pick the restaurant and he highly recommended Schnitzelhaus. This Austrian/German restaurant at the intersection of Folsom and 9th Street has a homely family restaurant feel. Not much in terms of decor but I still somehow liked the place, maybe because I was just too tired and got to sit after a few hours. We practically ordered everything on the menu and I don't really remember all that I ate. I do remember the Goulash being awesome and the I loved the Schnitzel served with spicy potatoes. There was another chicken dish which had a creamy spicy sauce. I always had the impression that German/Austrian food was bland and all potatoes but after eating at Schnitzelhaus, I got a feel for real good German food and I enjoyed it. By the time we finished our meal, I was getting sober and realizing that I had way too much to eat, so decided to skip on dessert. I got to know later that their Apple Strudel with vannila ice cream is supposed to be awesome and I might go there again just to try that ...

Pizzeria Delfina, San Francisco

I finally managed to go to Pizzeria Delfina after trying to go there twice in the last one month but it just wouldn't work out. The first time, we were looking for parking and found one right in front of Dosa, so ended up going there. And the next time I decided to go there, one of my friends wanted to try out Pizza Orgasmica which ended up being good but not at the same level as Delfina. This time, I was determined to go to Delfina, come what may !! The overall experience was awesome as always. We ended up sitting at the bar as the place was packed and would have taken atleast 30 minutes to get us a table. Since we had two veggies with us, we decided to go for all veggie appetizers - The marinated cannellini beans and the Ricotta cheese salad. I absolutely loved the Cannellini beans in their creamy sauce with just the right amount of spices and the ricotta cheese served with stuffed chillies and spinach was fabulous too. For the main course, we ended up ordering the Pizza Margherita (veggie) and the Pizza Salsiccia. The pizzas here are the authentic italian style thin crust pizzas which I like a lot better than the american style deep dish ones. Our Salsiccia was amazing with a well done thin crust, spicy italian saussage and 2 different cheeses. The veggies didn't quite enjoy their pizza all that much because it hardly had any veggies and ended up just being a cheese pizza with 3 different cheeses. Washed down all the food with Birra Peroni which is a light Italian beer. For dessert, we tried the Canoli which wasn't upto much. I've had better Canoli at Lunardi's Supermarket and ofcourse my favourite Italian dessert place - Caffe Greco. On the whole, a very good dining experience with a friendly wait staff.