Le Boulanger: A Breakfast Fav! (Le Boulanger)

Restaurant: Le Boulanger
Address: 1390 El Paseo De Saratoga, San Jose, CA, 95130

This place is awesome for breakfast, lunch or grabbing a mid-day snack! My personal favorite is their breakfast or mid-day snack. I love how they have lots of space to sit so you can really enjoy and chat with people when you are there. I love their breakfast because of the variety of pastries they have. They also brew Peet's coffee. Their midday snack time has a little less pastries but still qutie a few of my favorites.

I had a blueberry muffin (my first from them) and I really enjoyed it. My favorite is the top of the muffin part and it was delicious. The bottom was too. It wasn't too dry and the blueberry taste wasn't too overpowering either. I really loved it and would order it again!

 This scone is the Cranberry Orange scone which doesn't sound too appetizing, at least to me when I first tried it. I love love love the flavor of it and the scone crumbles perfectly. It's not too crumbly yet it's not rock hard. It's crispier on top and the sides but inside, the scone is moist and flavorful. It's amazing and not only a favorite for breakfast but also for tea time!

 This is another must whenever we go. This is an everything bagel with blackberry jam on it. Their bagels are delicious because they're perfectly crispy, a little crispier than other places which I really enjoy. I also love their jams (strawberry and blackberry).

Other things I recommend are:

French Roll

Dutch Crunch Roll

Maple Scone

In Summary:

Taste: 8.5/10

Service: 8/10 (Cashiers are friendly but their service was not wildly amazing, it was definitely decent and not bad at all though!)

If you have a Le Boulanger near you, definitely check it out, especially if you love pastries :)

Second Chances: Sushi Heaven or Hell? (Sushi Heaven)

 Restaurant: Sushi Heaven
Address: 12108 Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road, Saratoga, CA 95070

When this restaurant first opened, my family and I went to try it out and did not enjoy it at all. Nothing tasted good. Only the sushi was *decent*. My family and I decided to give it another chance the other night and I ended up liking it.

I ordered the combination dinner.

The meal started with an appetizer as shown below. Nothing special and I didn't enjoy it too much because of how vinegar-y it tasted.

Next was the salad. The dressing was not bad because usually I shy away from creamy dressings. It had a nice sesame taste and wasn't overly creamy. Not amazing but not bad.

The miso soup came next. Again nothing special, just regular ol' miso soup.

This was what I ordered. The chicken teriyaki and surprisingly it was pretty good. I enjoyed the teriyaki sauce as it wasn't too sweet nor was it too salty. The amount of meat was pretty good too and the chicken wasn't overly cooked. I'd definitely order this next time.

I got the combo with chicken teriyaki and California roll so this picture is of the california rolls. They tasted pretty average but I could tell their ingredients seemed to be pretty fresh which I liked. I just wish the filling and the rice was more consistent because as you can see, some have a lot of crab inside, others have barely any. Some have so much rice around it while others have very minimal rice. I just want more consistency.

We ended our meal with green tea ice cream. I enjoyed it because I love green tea ice cream but this literally was just a bite of ice cream, very little....wish I could have had a larger scoop.

Overall, I MIGHT be back. This isn't a place I would immediately think of going to though. Service was decent but the price was insane. For the quality and quantity of food, I thought it was pretty overpriced, which is a reason I won't likely be back.

In summary:
Taste: 6/10
Service: 6/10
Price: 3.5/10

I'd definitely recommend "Dan" if you're looking for a Japanese restaurant. You can check out my review of Dan here: http://foodlover888.blogspot.com/2013/04/best-japanese-food.html

Deep Dish Pizza: Yay or Nay? (Zachary's Chicago Pizza)

Restaurant: Zachary's Chicago Pizza
Address: 1853 Solano Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707

My friends and I checked out Zachary's the other day as we heard that it's really good. We showed up wanting only to get slices on our own but realized that they only offer slices in the thin crust version, which we didn't want since we were, after all, there to eat the DEEP DISH pizza. Furthermore, their slices were only with the basic toppings like cheese, pepperoni, which we didn't want either.

We ended up choosing to get the BBQ Chicken Deep Dish pizza to share and we got the smallest size, which came with 6 slices. We all ended up paying around $7-$8 for two slices each, which is pretty expensive.

 Nevertheless, the slices DO fill you up because each slice is deep dish so there is a LOT to it. I enjoyed the flavor of the BBQ chicken pizza, especially with a bit of red pepper flakes. I did find it to be a bit salty towards the end and I wish that there could have been more chicken pieces. My favorite part of the pizza would definitely have to be the crust though because it was perfectly crispy.

Doesn't the pizza look like a slice of pie?


As for the service, I found it to be pretty bad. The waiters/waitresses weren't too friendly, but they did help refill our water quite promptly. Nevertheless, it took us 30 minutes or even a bit longer to get our pizza, which is insane...

Overall,
Taste: 6/10
Service: 5/10
Price: 5/10

If you're ever in the Berkeley area, unless you're a HUGE fan of deep dis pizza, I would just recommend that you head over to Cheeseboard or Sliver. Much tastier and you can get just 1 slice if you want instead of ordering a whole pizza.

An Ol' Favorite: Korean Food (Sigoljip Korean BBQ)

Restaurant: Sigoljip Korean BBQ
Address: 3258 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95051

I've literally grown up with this restaurant. I've been to this restaurant since I was young and seen the changes in ownership; yet, my family and I still stick to this restaurant since we've been so used to coming, plus the food is still pretty good!

At lunch, they have a side dish buffet where you can go and pick out your side dishes, as much/as little as you'd like! That's why I like to go at lunch more than dinner, haha.

I would have to say that personally my favorite side dishes are the Soy Sauce Jello Cubes, the kimchi and the broccoli!

We ordered Kimchi Tofu Stew and it was pretty good. The Kimchi Tofu Soup is something we order quite frequently too but note that "stew" and "soup" are quite different. Stew is like this where it's opaque and tofu is soft so it seems to be mashed into small pieces throughout the stew. The soup is actually an almost clear color, tinted with red because of the kimchi. The tofu used in the soup is firm tofu. I think I would prefer the soup over this just because of personal preference but this wasn't that bad either!

 This soup is something we get EVERY time we go and it's called "Daro Gukbab" and it's basically white radish and bean sprouts in a beef broth. It's a favorite of my sister's and personally, I have to say it's tasty but again not one of my absolute favorites.

We also had Bulgogi that day instead of our usual Kalbi. I find bulgogi to be much easier to eat since Kalbi is short ribs and you have to work out the bone in the short ribs. Nevertheless, I feel like Kalbi is much more flavorful than the bulgogi so if I had to choose between the two, I would still stick to Kalbi.

I guess we tried to go outside of our pattern by trying for ex, bulgogi instead of the usual Kalbi but I still enjoy what we have routinely more.

Other Recommendations:
Dolsot Bibimbab (Hot Stone Pot bibimbab which is rice mixed with veggies and meat; I like the one in the stone pot more than the one in just a regular bowl because not only is your rice hot, you also get that extra crunch/crispiness from the rice getting a bit burnt by the pot)
Kalbi (BBQ Beef Spareribs)
BBQ Pork (Spicy with a hint of sweetness)
Kimchi Ji Gae (Kimchi & Tofu Soup)
Miso & Tofu Stew
Yugaejang (Spicy Beef & Veggie Soup)

In summary:
Taste: 7/10
Service: 8/10 (Not shabby, but not the best either; really varies on the waitress)

Complimentary Boba?! (Happy House)

Restaurant: Happy House
Address: 1072 S. De Anza Blvd. B103, San Jose, CA 95129

This place is an okay place. I've been here quite a few times just because it's conveniently located, pretty cheap and their food is tasty too! I love how flavorful many of their dishes are; they go really well with rice.

Nevertheless, the service isn't that great as the waiters don't really speak much nor do they really seem to care about you. The food has also recently been taking longer and longer to come out, sometimes waiting 20-30 minutes just for our dishes. I think they go table by table so the chef will cook all the orders for one table and then move onto the next, which strategically isn't the best way to go about things. However, this does mean that once your first dish is out, your next few dishes come REALLY fast!

I guess their service is made up for by the complimentary boba milk tea! I love their boba because it's cooked to the perfect chewiness. It's a bit on the harder side but I like my boba a tad hard because that makes them chewier. The milk tea itself is not bad but it's not the best I've had either. It tastes a bit like Fantasia Coffee & Tea's milk tea but less of the tea taste. This is free though so no complaints! :)

This time we tried out some new dishes:

This is their Mushu Pork I think. It was really flavorful and had a bunch of healthy things. There was the pork, some cucumbers, carrots, eggs, bamboo shoots and black woodear! Usually places don't have cucumber in their Mushu but I actually enjoyed it with the cucumber as it gave the dish an extra crunch and texture. It also gave it a more refreshing, fresh taste. Overall, this dish was pretty good and I think I would order it again sometime!

This dish is Soy sauce Pork Kidney. I know it sounds disgusting but I actually do enjoy pork kidneys. When cooked well, they have a really nice texture, a bit chewy but not too chewy. This dish was pretty good because it had really nice flavor. I liked the soy sauce taste with a slight ginger taste. It was pretty delicious and definitely went well with plain rice. The only problem I had was that some of the pork kidneys seemed to be not cooked as well as I'd like them to be. I like my pork kidneys to be cooked well-done, all the way, because this ensures that I won't taste any of that gross "meaty" stank. However, some weren't cooked as thoroughly as I would have liked so I could taste some of that kidney stank in them. Next time I'd still order this but I'd be sure to tell them to cook it for longer!

Now this dish isn't new, nor is it easy to mess up on. This dish is something I order at almost every Chinese restaurant because I love love loveeeeeee this vegetable. This veggies is called "Chinese broccoli" and it tastes phenomenal. This dish was chinese broccoli sauteed with garlic and it was magnificent. A bit oily, but nevertheless, scrumptious! Highly recommend trying out chinese broccoli if you haven't before. To be honest, it really doesn't taste like American broccoli so I'm not quite sure how this vegetable got it's name but it's sooooo good!

Some other dishes I recommend are:
Mongolian Beef (delish! super flavorful and generous amounts of beef!)
Sauteed pork belly and veggies (good amount of pork belly and good amount of flavor!)
Hot and Sour Soup (definitely HOT and SOUR. not for the weak, but I love it because it's so flavorful. Definitely a lot of spice and sourness going on there though)
Sauteed pea sprouts (again, another really delish veggie, sauteed really well)
Salt & Pepper Tofu (fried well, it could use a bit more salt & pepper but that might just be my own taste buds)

Overall this place is pretty good and pretty cheap. My meal came out to be around $30, not too bad right? Also, this place is open from 11AM-3AM so if you're ever on a late night run, stop by this place!

In summary:
Taste: 8/10
Service: 5/10
Price: 8.5/10

If you're ever in the area especially around the nighttime, drop by this place and give it a go! It's def worth trying and I will for sure be back.

Newly Opened Cantonese Restaurant in the Bay Area (Twins Royal Cuisine)

Restaurant: Twins Royal Cuisine 潮粵軒
Address: 61 Serra Way Ste.120, Milpitas, CA 95035

Over the weekend, my family and I decided to check out this new Cantonese restaurant since we absolutely love Cantonese food! Usually our typical Cantonese go-to restaurant would be Joy Luck Palace, which I did a review for for their lunch but we decided to go out of our comfort zone and try out this new place. Thought I'd bring you all along with me!

So we started off with soup. The soup has been boiled with fish and all the fish bones for a while so supposedly the soup has a lot of nutrients since it has been cooked for so long. That is also what gives the soup an opaque, whiteish color. The soup was okay. Nothing too special about it and there really wasn't much inside. You could definitely tell it was cooked with fish but I didn't find it to be overly fishy. However, my mom and my sister thought it was pretty fishy. It wasn't the best soup I had but it wasn't the worst either. I ended up drinking a few bowls of it but towards the end, the flavor became a bit too bland so I had to add some white pepper to it. 

So the fish meal was a "one fish, two ways" sort of deal. I had the fish soup and below are the fish bones and remnants of the meat along with some steamed mushrooms, tofu and veggies. I absolutely LOVED the veggies and the mushrooms, but I feel like I'm just biased because I love vegetables anyway. The sauce this dish came with was just typical, out of the bottle Hoisin Sauce. Nothing too special about it. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this dish because of the vegetables and tofu. The fish though I found to be pretty fishy....

Moving on is the STAR of the night, haha. This is where all the fish meat really is at! Notice how they layered broccoli, some celery and carrots and then the fish on top. So this was all stir fried and it tasted absolutely DIVINE. I loved how the broccoli florets really soaked up the sauce and I love vegetables like I mentioned before so I really enjoyed this dish. I also really liked the fish meat. It was tender and seemed pretty fresh. Overall, this was my favorite dish because I enjoyed everything in it: fish & veggies.

While waiting for the above platter, we got our cold platter of assorted meats. I'm not even quite sure what meats are in here but I know there's pig ear, pork belly, tofu and a bunch of other stuff. I wasn't much of a fan of this dish just because it wasn't as flavorful as I would have liked it to be and I've definitely tasted better elsewhere. This also had a really meaty taste...makes me wonder how fresh this is as well as the quality of their meat.

This was our next dish which was just string beans and chicken. It was yummy but there really was nothing too special about it. I felt like I could get a similar dish anywhere. There was also very few pieces of chicken, I felt like. My mom really enjoyed it though! It was a little bit on the salty side so it went well with rice!

This last dish was the dessert and it was complimentary! It's basically sweet tofu with some ginger soup. This was another one of my favorites just because I have a pretty big sweet tooth and this satisfied my long craving for sweet tofu. I haven't had this in ages. Basically the tofu itself isn't sweet but what flavors it is the "soup" with ginger infused in it. Ginger matches really well with tofu and it overall just makes for such a yummy desert!

As for customer service, some of the waiters were pretty accomodating while others didn't look too nice. Nothing special but nothing bad on them either. The price came out to be about $60, a tad expensive given that I didn't really enjoy the food too much.

In summary:
Taste: 6/10
Service: 7/10
Price: 6/10

I most likely won't be back as I'll be sticking to Joy Luck Palace (review for their dinner coming soon!).