98 South Bay Accent Mandarin Gourmet, Palo Alto, 650/328-8898 Cupertino, 408/725-8168; San Jose, 408/281-8898. Upscale restaurants popular for their classic Chinese specialties. $$ Ming’s, 1700 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto. 650/856- 7700. This large, elegantly appointed restaurant specializes in southern Chinese cuisine, seafood and vegetarian dishes. $$-$$$ Pagoda (Fairmont Hotel), 170 S. Market St., San Jose. 408/998-3955. The traditional cuisine of Canton, Kwangtung and Szechuan, beautifully served at this popular restaurant. $$ Sino, 377 Santana Row, San Jose. 408/247-8880. Featuring fine Chinese cuisine, stylish Sino is the handiwork of Chris Yeo, whose plush restaurant is both a visual and culinary experience. $$$ Su Hong, 1039 El Camino Real, Menlo Park. 650/ 323-6852. Neighborhood restaurant featuring a lovely tea-smoked duck. $ Tai-Pan, 560 Waverley St., Palo Alto. 650/329- 9168. Hong Kong-style Cantonese cuisine served up in an airy, upscale setting. $$ Taiwan Restaurant, 1306 Lincoln Ave., San Jose. 408/289-8800. Started in 1982, this popular Willow Glen establishment serves a wide array of Chinese specialties. $$ CONTINENTAL Alexander’s Steakhouse, 10330 N. Wolfe Road, Cupertino. 408/446-2222. This upscale restaurant has redefined the traditional steakhouse experience by melding American and Japanese influences. $$$ LB Steak, 334 Santana Row, San Jose. 408/244- 1180. Sister restaurant of Left Bank Brasserie puts modern French twist on American steakhouse cuisine. Save room for luscious pastry desserts. $$$ Manresa (temporarily closed), 320 Village Lane, Los Gatos. 408/354-4330. Chef David Kinch amazes diners with his creative, award-winning cuisine. $$$ Mosaic Restaurant and Lounge (Four Points hotel), 211 S. First St., San Jose. 408/282-8888. This stylish bar and restaurant offers an American/ Asian twist on Continental cuisine. $$$ Viognier, 222 Fourth Ave., San Mateo. 650/ 685- 3727. The mesquite grill, rotisserie and brick-oven pizzas reflect a diverse global influences. $ ETHIOPIAN Zeni Ethiopian, 1320 Saratoga Ave., San Jose. 408/615-8282. Inviting spot serves up tantalizing variety of flavorful dishes, many vegetarian, with your choice of spice level. $ FRENCH Baumé, 201 S. California Ave., Palo Alto. 650/ 328-8899. New venture from Michelin starred chef Bruno Chemel. $$$ Chez TJ, 938 Villa St., Mountain View. 650/964- 7466. Fresh and innovative California-French cuisine is exquisitely presented as prix fixe meals by Executive Chef Jarad Gallagher. $$$ La Fondue, 14550 Big Basin Way, Saratoga. 408/ 867-3332. Appealing spot offers more than 50 different fondues ranging from cheese to wild game. TASTE TRIPS The prestigious James Beard Awards, presented each spring to the most exemplary restaurants, chefs and food writers in North America, paid homage to the Bay Area with four awards this year. Adding yet another big prize to a long list of culinary awards, Chef Charles Phan won top honors for The Slanted Door at San Francisco’s Ferry Building. The Beard foundation selected his place as the most “Outstanding Restaurant” in the nation. An upscale, contemporary Vietnamese restaurant, The Slanted Door was one of the first to use organic California ingredients in Vietnamese cuisine. The menu features beautifully plated renditions of classic dishes, merging traditional cooking techniques and flavors with produce and meats from Bay Area farms and ranches. Favorite dishes include grass-fed Estancia shaking beef, featuring cubed filet mignon, Sausalito watercress and lime sauce or organic chicken claypot with caramel sauce, Thai chili and fresh ginger. At another San Francisco eatery, the James Beard Foundation singled out Daniel Patterson as the Best Chef in the western region. Patterson presides over the highly regarded Coi (373 Broadway), a two-star Michelin restaurant. Inventive California cuisine is the theme here, offered on one tasting menu that changes each evening. A recent lineup included eight dishes, beginning with a cherry tomato puree of grilled zucchini and wheatgrass, green olive oil, herbs and flowers. The menu also featured wild king salmon cooked over lemon leaf and steamed potato-porcini dumpling. For the finale: blueberries and violet vanilla cake, topped with whipped fromage blanc. Restaurants in the wine country snagged the Beard foundation’s other two Bay Area awards. Shed (25 North St., Healdsburg), billed as a café, coffee bar and fermentation bar, was awarded “Best Restaurant Design” for entries providing more than 76 tables. The eco-conscious building resembles a stylized metal barn, fully open to the street and awash in natural light. The café has a daily changing menu, offering breakfast, sandwiches, pizza and salads. Diners often stop here before or after wine-tasting to eat, drink and browse specialty groceries and kitchenware in the adjoining shop. Local wines, beers, natural soda and hard ciders are available at the fermentation bar. Long a top-tier dining destination, The Restaurant at Meadowood (900 Meadowood Lane, St. Helena) accepted the James Beard award for “Outstanding Service” this year. As befits the accolade, service here is friendly and impeccably timed with extraordinary attention to detail. Small touches, such as personalized menus and kitchen tours, are generously extended. A nine- or 10-course, prix fixe tasting menu is served each evening and guests may make wine selections from a cellar featuring more than 1,200 labels. The cuisine is modern American with seasonal, locally sourced ingredients often coming from Meadowood’s own garden, greenhouse and chicken coop. — D.K. 200 DINING HOT SPOTS Cascal Casa de Cobre
South Bay Accent - Aug/Sep 2014
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