Why did we dine here? – Din Tai Fung is a popular Xiao Long Bao (It means small bamboo steamer bun in Chinese) – Shanghai Steamed Soup dumpling restaurant with locations in Bellevue, Seattle, Southern California, Taiwan, Japan, China, Indonesia, Macau, Singapore, and several other countries. Few Chinese dishes generate so much obsession. Think of it like a quest to find the best burger or pizza. We have been to this location several times.
Why did we dine here? – Gooyi Gooyi is an authentic Korean restaurant in Santa Clara’s Koreatown. We’ve found some of the best Korean joints down here plus our neighbor recommends this restaurant, so we had to give it a try. We got take out from them in 2020 during the Covid 19 Pandemic.
Why did we dine here? – Choi’s Korean Restaurant was recommended to us by a Korean friend, so we had high expectations. This restaurant is located in the Koreatown area of Santa Clara. Clearly this used to be a fast food joint that has been slightly retrofitted.
Why did we dine here? – Orenchi is a very popular Japanese Noodle House that has been on our hit list for a while. They are a sister restuarant to Sumika in Los Gatos. The broth that they use is cooked for a minimum of 18 hours. It is made with organic chicken, Canadian black pork, and filtered water. There is a line much of the time. We had to wait approximately 45 minutes for a Saturday night dinner. They close up when they run out of broth, which happened about 8:30pm on this particular evening.
Why did we dine here? – Kunjip is a top rated Korean restaurant in Santa Clara, situated in a Korean focused strip mall. They focus on soups and noodles, no BBQ unlike most other places.
Why did we dine here? – Tobang is located next door to the Korean restaurant Kunjip in a Santa Clara strip mall full of Korean merchants. We had enough soup and noodles there, and wanted some Korean BBQ.
Why did we dine here? – Hoshi is a small Japanese restaurant next to Lucky’s supermarket in Santa Clara. We were in the area and decided to eat here or Yuki Sushi. This restaurant is fairly informal and is run by a couple.
They have an extensive menu making it a cross between a general Japanese restaurant (IE Chicken Teriyaki) and a Izakaya restaurant. The kitchen is small, so food takes a while to arrive. The waitress also wants you to order everything at one time to prevent long pauses in your meal.
Jang Su Jang is a popular Korean restaurant in Santa Clara, located on El Camino Real, home to many Korean businesses. We decided to give it a try having seen many reviews on the restaurant, in addition to personal recommendations.
Myung Dong Tofu Cabin is a Korean restaurant with two locations, San Mateo near Highway 101, and Santa Clara. We went to the San Mateo location which is in a strip mall next to a Marina supermarket. Our 2010 revisit of the restaurant occurred in April 2010. They had dropped the weekend specials and added half orders.