as some of you may have noticed, i have left fresno & returned to the san jose area. right now i am living in downtown san jose & i figure that some of you might be interested in my impressions of the dining options available. so far i have limited myself tostratta &71 saint peter , unless you count the occaisional chicken wings & beer atthe san jose bar & grill .

i have to mention once again that the owners of the first 2 restaurants mentioned are friends of mine, so take what i say with however many grains of salt as you believe appropriate. if you asked armand or mark, however, i'm sure they would tell you that i can be overly critical of deficiencies. the bottom line for me is that if i didn't think they did a great job, i would not have kept returning to dine for the last 9 years.

i went to 71 last thursday evening with katy & our 1 year old son, ethan. ethan has always been a challenge in restaurants, but he is getting better. we both had their"late summer tasting menu" . katy had the sea bass entree & i had the rib-eye preparation. everything else was the same & it was all very good to excellent with a "wow" going to the roasted loin of rib-eye main course. i had the wine selections for the additional $15 & katy abstained due to her pregnancy. the wine pairings were very well matched & enjoyable with the meal, but there was nothing that made me take enough notice to seek it out for purchase. in my opinion, both the meal & the wine selections represent an a+ for qpr at $28 & $15 respectively. there was one disappointment, however: the lemon custard napolean for dessert did nothing for me, but at these prices i could have ordered the creme brulee if i were so inclined & still felt like i had recieved good value. i certainly hope they do a fall tasting menu & i will be back to have this again soon.

i will be dining at stratta tomorrow night & there will be much wine by the bottle. i will report back to this thread.

oh, while this thread may obviously derive inspiration from jones' "san francisco dining impressions" thread from another time & place, please do not be too disappointed if i am not nearly as prolific, diverse or, frankly, as good as he is in the art of the restaurant review.

You know what I think of Stratta and 71 St. Peter! Absolutely the best!

Gus, Try Emile's on South 2nd. Emile is a friend and he needs the business. Food is good too.


Emile's

i know right where it is & i will try it soon . thanks.

Arcadia in the new Marriot is worth a try too. I didn't care for the "Mac and Cheese" this last Friday, but everything else was excellent.

well, i haven't made it toemile's yet david, but i'll get over there soon. i spend quite a lot of time atstratta , less at71 st peter , but this is mostly due to proximity & the fact that stratta has a bar . both of these places have consistently very good food. of particular note at71 st peter is that their current rissotto is the wild mushroom & absolutely fantastic. i am working on these guys to become morewine friendly . they already consider themselves to be, but there is room fo improvement . upgrading the winelist selections, improving the stemware & having some special nights with half-price wine or free corkage would be cool.

e & o trading company company is my favorite restaurant downtown other than the 2 mentioned above. i believe this is their 2nd location with the original being located in san francisco. their crispy oven roasted javanese salmon & the hardwood grilled ahi tuna are both wonderful & i'm usually ambivalent about fried rice, but theirindonesian fried rice is easily the best fried rice i have ever had.

i was disappointed in my only experience with thethai house . i ordered theangry beef & found it to not even be mildly irritated, much less angry (it was bland). they brew their own beer at the san francisco location & serve it down here as well.

bella mia was disappointing.

gordon biersch was very disappointing as well. i haven't found a good burger downtown yet .

good pizza is available atgrande pizzeria.

good mexican food is available attaqueria lorena, which is a ways away over on 24th street but worth the trip. good tacos are not availabe attres gringos which is downtown.

that's it for now, y'all .

Is the new PF Changs open yet? It is just a couple of doors down from Stratta.

Good Hamburger? Try The Grill on the Alley in the Fairmont. I think it is the best steak house in San Jose too. I am having our company Holiday Party there this year.

The risotto at Stratta is the second best in the world!

pf chang's is a ways from being open yet. i see the construction every day. i will definitely try the grill on the alley. thanks, david.

try the Bar at AP Stumps for a good burger. It's not always on the menu, but just ask about it and they'll make one for you. Agree with David's Grill on the Alley for any piece of beef as well. They feature a local winery every month also and I think it's Bonny Doon right now.

I think the best Mexican food downtown-ish is La Pineta on South First almost right under 280. Most of the ordering takes place in Spanish, which is always a good sign

I'm talking to Philippe, the General Manager and Somm at The Grill, about having some no-corkage nights and/or half-off wine list nights next year. He is very open to something of this type. Will let you know what comes of it.

thanks, tilly . i'll definitely give both a try. spanish language skills are an asset at most downtown or near-downtown taquerias .

i keep forgetting to ask, david, who has thebest risotto?

E & O Trading Company has a very nice environment and great drinks, infact we really enjoyed the meal as well. But the prices seemed quite steep for what we had.

71Saint Peter has always been one of my favorites and it can be quite the romantic environment.

We've heard alot aboutChacho's for Mexican food. MadameNCVL visited there last week and really enjoyed the lunch. From what I understand they've been voted best Mexican restaurant a couple of time by Hispanic Magazine. We'll be giving them a try soon.

Check outInca Gardens sometime. We had a very memorable meal there and plan on visiting there again very soon.

One of our most consistantly dissapointing restaurants has gotta beLa Pastaia. I know, I know, so why do we keep going back? I thought I would give them one more chance last Valentines day for their special lovers package .......... ugh......... good thing the company was excellent!

norcal,

i remember you saying that about inca gardens. i believe they are going away soon so i need to try it soon. chaco's sounds like a must try. good to know that i should skip la pastaia.

Inca Gardens was totally overwhelmed the night we tried it, not enough staff to handle the pre-theater crowd. A damn shame too because we where really looking forward to it (Stef grew up in Chile). We keep saying we're going to go back and have not made it yet.

Hey Gfleener, what's the restaurant on First Street down by the court house, Hedding. I've been there twice but can't remember the name of it. Great bar, the service was wonderful and we had a great meal there as well. it's a popular hang out for many of the City Employees that work in the area.

norcal,

i am not familiar with the place you mentioned, but we did walk past chaco's last night on the way home from dinner & we are heading there for lunch right now .

It is call "847".
It is located at 847 S. First St.

A new place to try is "7".
It is on the Alameda near Sunol I think.

Also if you havn't been toRestaurant O in Campbell I would put it on your list for very soon. I think Justin Perez, the chef, is destined to become very famous.

Talking about The Grill on the Alley... I received this email from them yesterday:

Join us tomorrow (Thursday) night for $3 Kettle One Martinis and $2 bar appetizers from 5pm-8pm in the bar at The Grill on the Alley in downtown San Jose. Thursday Martini Nite continues this week with your choice of Classic Grill Martinis with Traditional Kettle One or Kettle One Citron for only $3. Enjoy a variety of bar appetizers like Popcorn Shrimp, Chicken Pomodoro, Cobb Salad and the Grill Cheeseburger - all for only $2! Martini Nite takes place every Thursday night (except on major holidays) - join us next week for SHAKERS Vodka and a new & improved appetizer menu.