Clos LaChance is doing a few events with O this month, including having O do the holiday dinner at the winery I believe. We are going to try and get there this weekend or next week to check it out. I'll post a review when we do.

Last night, we had dinner at Chacho's, MadameNCVL had the chicken sopa's and chicken mole enchilda, I had the chicken fajitas. The sopa's were good but nothing to write home about, but the mole was very good, dark in color, spicy and nutty, with a taste of raisin's. I really enjoyed the chicken fajitas, a very good proportion of chicken to onions and green peppers. The chicken was tender and came sizzling in a wonderful sauce with all the fixins. MadameNCVL is a big fan of chips and salsa but was a bit disappointed, very watery salsa with mostly onions and the chips were a bit on the greasy side. All in all a great little mexican restaurant with a very friendly staff and a fun atmosphere!

Now the tequila bar! Chacho's has over 100 premium tequilas on the menu and a few more that aren't on the menu. We only made it through three

NCVL,

Address please. And are they open for lunch?

Chacho's
18 S. Almaden Ave.
San Jose, CA 95113
(408) 293-1387

Looks like they are open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Disclaimer: Although the family name is the same I am in no way related to or associated with this restaurant.

You mean to tell me that all the Sanchez' in the world aren't related

Well, we have been known to get quite busy ....

it has been a while since i have updated this thread. in the last month i have not dined out much in any event; unemployment & searching for a new job, a new baby & traveling around for training in my new job have kept me busy & watching my expenses a bit as well. before that, i had gotten in the rut of eating at stratta 2-3 times a week, bringing my own wine which i shared with the staff & keeping my own glasses there as well. stratta never disappoints me.

i did try the grill on the alley once & i was underwhelmed, especially with the service. i had a ribeye that was big & expensive & unexciting, 1 glass of wine, calamari for my son & a soda for $75. i probably would have had another glass of wne if i could have gotten some service (i could have walked over to the bar, but it wasn't that important).

i have been back to e & o trading company several times & enjoyed it every time.

we went to the new pf chang's only once. the service was poor & the food was alright. this is the mcdonalds of asian food- they're all over the place & if you know what you like, the menu's the same everywhere.

my daughter, elyse, is 5 weeks old now & my mother-in-law came to town on thursday, so we got her to babysit & i took katy down to stratta for dinner. her mother was late so i went down to meet a friend for appetizers while she got ready. i took a bottle of the '00 bressler & a '94 sebastiani cherryblock cabernet & tiklein & i shared a plate of calamari & an order of spring rolls. i had decanted the bressler for just under an hour & we just opened & poured the cherryblock. i was sipping the bressler slowly & enjoying it while my friend tim & the one of the owners of stratta, armand, were alternately tasting & comparing the 2 wines. much to my surprise, they both preferred the cherryblock by a wide margin. i will say that at this point they were both very good wines, but the cherryblock did have more mature, more integrated flavors.

tim left & i ran back home. (actually, i walked. we live on the same block as stratta .) katy was just finishing getting ready for dinner & her first night out since having the baby & her mother still wasn't there. her mom called shortly to say she was just pulling into the garage so ethan & i went down to welcome grandma & see if she needed a hand with anything & soon we went back down for dinner.

katy ordered the unagi appetizer & i ordered the "oysters 2 ways". of course i had some unagi & she had a couple of oysters & then we split a bowl of cauliflower soup. then i had the wild boar chop & katy had the filet. the only mistake of the night was the boar. it was a little lean & tough, but what the hell i was being adventurous. katy's filet was great & we had the chocolate meltaway for dessert. all in all a very enjoyable meal. about this time tim (tiklein) called & said he was coming back over since his metting was over & he needed dinner & his better half was on her way back from an evening with a girlfriend & would meet us there. shortly after he arrived katy's phone rang & she needed to go rescue her mother, so i stayed & tim ordered a pork tenderloin dish that seemed really good & he seemed to enjoy. cynthia showed up shortly thereafter & they split the meltaway as well & we then went up to my place so they could visit with katy for a while before they went back home

as far as the wine was concerned, both bottles werevery good. the bressler got better the longer it was opened & i saved a taste for armand of each to get his impressions toward the end, but i haven't yet discussed this with him. katy has always loved the cherryblock & it has sentimental value for her so it was no surprise that she liked it better. for my part, i enjoyed them both very much & would put them both in the 91-92 point range.

last night my family was out of town & i went back to stratta & had a new york steak & fries with a '99 merryvale cab.

tonight i have an old friend in town & my family is still out of town so my friend & i will be going to stratta with a bottle of '01 paloma merlot & another bottle of the '94 cherryblock. (i still have 5 of these left & i don't think they are going to get any better.) his son & his son's girlfriend will be going to 71 st peter.

Its not downtown, but Le Papillon is still very good. I had a group of 10 on Wed. and loved it. Filet was perfect. Soft shell crab apetizer. And as always, the star is the grand Marnier Soufle. Staff is well trained.

There are several places that are very good. Mostly SJ is a dining wasteland, but there are a few bright stars. 71 Saint Peter is a favorite. I had one bad meal there recently, but in general it can be counted on. E&O Trading company is excellent. La Foret & Le Pappilon are both very good. La Foret is the most romantic restaurant around. Grill on the Alley has very good meat, but the prices are astronomical. Great sushi at TGI Sushi in Campbell. Don't go for the atmosphere, but the sushi is excellent.

It is not downtown, but one of our favorite dining destinations is Santana Row. In the evenings, it is everything you wish downtown would be; lots of folks wandering around, a good selection of good restaurants, amazing bars, great atmosphere. Try the bar on the top of Hotel Valencia; beautiful view.

And one of the very brightest stars in the San Jose area... Stan's Donuts! Possibly the best donuts in the world, wins the donut challenge every year, and has for as long as I can remember..

Downtown San Jose=restaurant wasteland? No Randy! In addition to the places you listed downtown there is Emile's, Paolo's, A.P. Stump's, and really my favorite from the same guys at 71 St. Peter; Stratta.

Head out to Campbell for "O". Over in Santa Clara is Bradley Ogden's Parcel 104. And don't forget several great places in Los Gatos and Saratoga.

IMO there is no greater place in the world with a better selection of great food in the world. Certainly the many, many ethnic communities in the Bay Area cook up some of the best in the west. 60 minutes to anywhere in San Francisco. 60 minutes to Monterey or Carmel. 75 minutes to anywhere in the Napa Valley. 20 minutes to the Pacific Ocean for great seafood, and 20 minutes to the vegetable capitals of the world in Salinas, Watsonville, Castroville and the like. And I haven't even mentioned access to wine country.

No place in the world is better! And if you choose to hit any one of two dozen farmer's markets over 7 days a week cook at home... you've got the world's best appliance store to get your cooking appliances from

Now all you people who live other places in this beautiful country... DON'T BELIEVE ANYTHING IN THE PREVIOUS POST!

This is a terrible place to live. You wouldn't like it! Florida is wonderful. Or if you want to move west check out Las Vegas. Just don't come here!

DavidN, I love living here, except for the traffic and the overpriced appliances

BUT... compare the # of restaurant choices to San Francisco, Napa, Vegas, LA, New Yawk, etc and you'll see that in general high end dining is not in as much demand here as in other areas. Too many damn Geeks!

We do have an amazing number of ethnic restaurants to choose from, and they are great. There was a joke went around a few years ago, about how you knew you were in the bay area if your 2 bdrm fixer upper cost $500K+, and you could easily name 9 different types of asian cuisine.

Randy, so you name a few of the most well know food friendly areas as proof that there is little food choice in San Jose? Seems like there are only 6 or 7 cities in the country that are going to satisfy you.

Ormbee, this is probably true (number of cities which could satisfy Randy). One of the cities which can satisfy his criteria just happens to be up the road (SF) and is the comparison for all cities in the San Francisco Bay Area when it comes to just about anything. San Jose (and Oakland) pale in comparison for fine dinning establishments. Although both cities do well toward the lower end and I would say that Berkeley holds its own in the lower end category. I would also say that North Oakland is pretty good for fine dinning but the middle and south section are pretty much a wasteland for fine dining.

But the whole point is that SF is less than an hour away. And San Jose (which does have several ***** restaurants) is situated so that Monterey and Napa are also easily accessable for a dinner. There are no other towns in the world that are this close to four of the greatest restaurant towns ever.

Oakland!

Easier access to both SF and Napa and a straight shot down 880/101 to Monterey. Housing is cheaper here too (thought the schools suck rocks).

Ormbee, you completely misunderstand me! There is NOWHERE that will satisfy me

Ok, seriously... the amount of dining here is small compared to SF -- yet we have more people living here. I am thrilled that I live close enough to all these other areas to enjoy them. I firmly believe in being thankful towards what I have rather than resentful towards what I do NOT have. And, I look at the areas that have the number of dining choices I would like to have, such as NY, Chicago, etc... and I do not want to trade SJ for the problems in those cities. This city has close to perfect weather. The industry that is perfect for me is centered here (well, mostly here!) The people here are generally nice, except when they are driving.

Tonight I'm taking the family to Stratta. I'll post my review tomorrow...

And how are you even going to get close to Napa? That old Nash won't make it over the hill to Vallejo.