Eylan - finally went last night. Sorry no pictures.
I was a bit put off by the room and furnature. There’s the main dining room, which has very small tables, and there’s larger tables along the wall with really unfortunate bench seating (far too low for the tables). There’s a bar area, then there’s an outside patio. Even though I had reserved the outside patio, they seated us inside, and it was loud. The loudness would have probably been OK if the table wasn’t so big. For a “family style” place where you couldn’t comfortably reach to the middle of the table - especailly from the low bench seating - it was uncomfortable.
The room itself is clearly built with an eye to acoustics. There are two fake trees in the middle that break up the sound. There’s a big wall hanging in one area. Wallpaper was in use, and it’s an underapprecaited acoustic treatment. They’re trying. The bar area was more square - because they had to put the bar somewhere - and less cool looking, but there weren’t a lot of people there. The outside area had two very large parties, and is basically enclosed (patio in name only), so wouldn’t have been as pleasant as an actual patio.
The staff spoke quickly and softly for the level of noise. The speed they were talking is absolutely normal for indian culture, as was the slightly hushed tones, but it simply wasn’t working for us. We had to ask her to repeat things over and over. This was also true of some of the dishes that were brought out and “announced”.
They were unsympathetic about a number of things. We asked if some kind of cushions were available for the banquette - no. We asked if we got one of the protien dishes, if they could be served cut so we could share them. No. I finally enquired if they had a patio - yes they did - and she said they seated us in the main room because if the large party, so too bad. Noting my mounting distress, she offered to move us to a quieter table - 1.5 hours in and as we were in the middle of our last course. They were also sympathetic about cilantro, we had one tastes-it-as-soap in the party.
However, good news, the food was great. It was in many was a step up from Ettan, in my opinion, partially because they have a open fire wood stove (like Rooh). Standout dishes were the crab mutabark, the pinapple skewer, the softshell crab. We went with a lot of the server’s recommendations, and they were quite good - although the two times we stepped off that path, we had great dishes too. I didn’t have any of the alcoholic cocktails, but had the low-abv Shandy, which was excellent.
I’ll certainly give it another shot, probably sitting at the bar, and after Stanford goes on break. It’ll never be the kind of place where I’m a local and get to know people (like Ettan, there’s always new people there).
In other mid-pen news, there’s a new game in town with Clark’s Oyster Bar opening in MP, haven’t tried it. Good looking space.
We stopped for desert at Levant in MP, and it was charming and a bit empty (wouldn’t have been empty if there was more housing in MP, but that’s a local land use debate which can get spicy). A few interesting mashup deserts like the tres leches baklava, and they have honest turkish coffee.
I did retry Bistro Mitte for german in San Carlos, and the food is quite good. The room is still a little offputting, with the too-high bar. If it was closer I’d probably put it on the list more. Instead, we’ve been putting Johnston’s Saltbox into higher rotation.
Dumpling Hours is doing well - cranking out the hits. Dumpling Time opened an outpost in Stanford Shopping Center, haven’t been yet.
The buzz on Pizzeria Cardamomo in RWC seems high, and it seems to be taking a bit of pressure from Vesta.
I had a peculiar meal at Izakaya Keitan in San Mateo. The place clearly uses gas not charcoal for grilling the yakitori, and some skewers were rather dry and tough, although some were pretty good. Not the best game in town (it’s a very good yakitori town).
Tried Kajiken ramen, the “aburasoba”, which is dry, more like Italian spaghetti with japanese toppings. I rather liked it, although I think Taishoken still has my number 1 spot in San Mateo ramen.
In closings and openings, City Pub in RWC has closed. This unassuming place has been extraordinarily long lived - a friend has been hosting a weds lunch there for something like 3 decades. They would have been higher on our personal list if the 30 taps of beers had something other than IPA. I hear it’ll get replaced by an irish bar .
Personally, I find myself at Freewheel / Los Gallos / State of Mind most frequently of anywhere. Open late, mix-and-match food court style, pleasant patio. The only problem is trivia night, or a band. I usually love live music but whoever books there should kick it up and get slightly better bands (and a better set-up). Other than that, it’s fairly perfection.
