Athena Grill Santa Clara

Mmmm mousaka. Thank you to the boy for recommending this dish because I loved it! Beef, eggplant, zucchini, potatoes... Amazing, I tell you! It was heavy, but so good! The fries and salad were also fantastic. I despised that I was already full from brunch when going here for lunch... 2 hours later...

4.25/5
http://www.athenagrill.com/

House of Siam San Jose

House of Siam is really quite good. It's not overly saucy and it actually tastes real. As my friend put it, "you can taste the ingredients." So true. The Tom Yum Gai was what you expected it to taste like - sweet, sour, and salty with chicken and shitake mushrooms. No MSG, no added crap. And yes, I can tell when there is MSG, it gets stuck in my throat. We also shared the Ginger Chicken, Pad Thai, and Angry Beef. All very good and nothing was leftover. It's clean asian food, which is so hard to come by these days. Highly recommended.

4.5/5
No website

Sweet Peas Los Gatos

Unique brunch food?! No way. Yes way! A friend and I went to Sweet Peas in Los Gatos and got ourselves breakfast crepes. These were no sweet crepes, they were savory crepes with poached eggs. I ordered the crepe florentine with two poached eggs, spinach, and hollandaise on a buckwheat crepe. My friend had the crepe benedict on buckwheat as well. Very interesting. Poached eggs in a crepe... The hollandaise was good, not overly powerful, yet still creamy and rich. Would I do it again? I'm not sure, but at least it was something new. O, and their coffee is rather tasty.

4/5
No website

City View San Francisco

On the quest for amazing dim sum and I think I might have found it! (It would take at least one more visit, possibly with the parents, to tell for sure.) The dim sum was fresh and the quality was notable. The perfect example was the shui mai, made up of real pork and mushroom pieces - no ground mush here - with a shrimp on top and thin skin. The skin is a great way to tell the quality of any dumpling. If it is thin and tender and not thick and chewy, you know it is fresh and made there on-site by people that know what they are doing. You could actually taste the ingredients, like the shrimp in the long rice noodles instead of being a soft slurpy mess. San Francisco dim sum finally held up to the esteem I had been holding it to and I can only hope that City View continues to uphold its standards.

4.5/5
No website

Menara San Jose

A group of friends decided to do something different for dinner - they belly-danced and ate with their. Menara, near downtown San Jose, features a unique atmosphere that's great for groups. We ordered the Le Dinner Menara, which included: Moroccan Salad, Boneless Chicken Pastry, Lemon Chicken, Lamb with Honey, Vegetable Couscous, Baklava, and Mint Tea. A lot of food and interesting entertainment. Although I can confidently say that the food lacked authenticity, it was still very good quality. The meat was moist, the couscous fresh, and the baklava tasty without being overly sweet. This is a great place to go for good food and a fun dining experience.

4.25/5
http://www.menara41.com/

Chef Geoff's DC

Was there for Christmas Eve dinner and loved it. Chef Geoff's has been on the list for a very long time and I am so glad I finally tried it. I ordered the mesclun greens, pepitas, butternut, and cranberries salad and the bbq chicken, pineapple, jalapenos, and jack pizza. Once I tried the salad, I could not stop eating it. The dressing was fabulous and the cranberries added a great sweetness to the tart greens. For being a starter, it was rather large and in the end, I had hardly had any room for my pizza. I made sure to try one slice while it was fresh and I was shocked. I didn't know what to think of it at first. It was less spicy than I expected and perhaps more tangy - the pineapple was not very sweet, but together with the jack it made a interesting flavor. The bbq chicken was also subtle, not grilled and cubed, but shredded and sweet. After I took the pizza home and had it the next day, I loved it. It was different, but it worked. I also ordered bacardi peach lemonade, which was fantastic as well as shared the chocolate truffle cake, which was just the right amount of richness and lightness. A good balance. A great meal.

4.5/5
http://www.chefgeoff.com/main/index.cfm?Restaurant=cg&Category=Main&Section=Main

17th Street Cafe DC

Was there for brunch after being intrigued by the website and menu. I ordered the 17th street classic breakfast and it was exactly what the desciption says - egg, cheese, avocado, and tomato on a croissant. The croissant was toasted and flaky, but there was absolutely nothing special about this breakfast sandwich. The hash browns were mediocre as well.

3.5/5
http://www.cafe17.net/

Metro Grille DC

Very rich, heavy food. A lot of it too. I had the beef stroganoff, which was very tasty. The pasta was a bit mooshy, but the beef and mushrooms made up for it. I tried my friend's herb roast chicken, which was well-seasoned and screamed of the mediterranean. Overall, good food and too much of it.

4/5
http://marriottmodules.com/washington_marriott_at_metro_center/metro_grille

Four Sisters Falls Church

Not as impressive as the Tom Sistema review makes it out to be, but still, decent asian at quality prices. The menu is huge. The pork spring rolls were okay. The quail was tasty. The pho needs work. The grilled lemongrass beef lettuce wraps were well flavored, but missed the authentic Vietnamese charm. All this food for around $30.

4/5
http://www.foursistersrestaurant.com/