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San Francisco/Bay Area restaurant reviews by Chris NorrisArchive for Santana Row
Sino Restaurant, San Jose (Santana Row)
Sino Restaurant, San Jose (Santana Row)
June 2008
Way Good. Sino Restaurant is located on Santana Row and is a Chinese restaurant started by the founder of Strait’s Café, a local restaurant specializing in food from Singapore and Malayasia. There are several Strait’s Cafes in the Bay Area, including one just down the block from Sino on Santana Row, as well in Palo Alto and San Francisco. We’ve found Sino to be every bit as good as Strait’s Café. Two great aspects of Sino are the outdoor seating, although somewhat limited, and absolutely wonderful dim sum. In fact, Sino is serving some of the best dim sum we’ve experienced south of San Francisco. We’ve tried about a dozen different types of dim sum at Sino, and found all of them to be exceptionally good. The Shanghai dumplings in particular completely take us back to eating dumplings in downtown Taipei earlier this spring. Not many foods do that!
Left Bank, Menlo Park & San Jose (Santana Row)
Left Bank, Menlo Park & San Jose (Santana Row)
June 2008
Way Good. Left Bank is a dependable French Brasserie with several locations in the Bay Area. I’ve been to both the Menlo Park restaurant and the San Jose restaurant situated on Santana Row. Both serve above average food and have a unique dining atmosphere. The Menlo Park location is frequented by venture capitalists, lawyers and a smattering of others at both lunch and dinner. In fact, the Menlo Park restaurant is a great choice for a business lunch since it isn’t usually packed and you won’t need a reservation. Try finding that on University Avenue in Palo Alto, the other good choice for nearby, nicer restaurants! The Santana row location has great outside seating, which makes for fine people watching and a relaxing dinner over a bottle of wine. The food is typical rustic French, consisting of steaks & fries, fish, chicken and duck. I’ve tried most of the menu over the past two or three years, and have found it to be consistent and always good.
