April 11, 2004
Best of San Mateo restaurants
So, now that I'm leaving my home in San Mateo, I thought I'd share a list of my favorite San Mateo restaurants. No one I know that reads this blog lives in San Mateo, but this is good search engine fodder. I'm sure it will be of use to someone.
- Little Sichuan - in downtown San Mateo. The Sichuan-style food here is incredible. Not only spicy, but also so tasty it's hard to stop eating it. The dishes I like to get are Family Style Noodles (Song Sao Mian), Dumplings in Hot Oil (Zhong Shui Zhao), Scallion Lamb, and a spicy tripe (Ma La Niu Du). There are a ton of other good dishes, ranging from the well-executed familiar (Ma Po Tofu) to the more exotic (powdered steamed beef). One piece of advice - stick mainly to the back of the menu where the traditional Sichuan items are, those are the best items. The more un-Sichuan the menu item is, the worse it will be.
- Happy Cafe - a tiny little Shanghai restaurant. This is famous throughout the bay area for it's Dragon Dumplings (Xiao Long Bao). I've eaten at many very good Shanghainese restaurants, but this one has the best dumplings. It's even as good as I got in Hong Kong. Besides the dumplings are a small assortment of other items such as Wonton Soup, Chicken with House Dressing, Radish Cakes, Shanghai Noodles. Generally, these are pretty good. But get enough Dragon Dumplings.
- Santa Ramen - A very popular Ramen joint hidden away slightly south of downtown. The broth can be slightly salty, but it is very tasty. I've had other Ramen in the Bay Area, and this really is much better than any of them. Get here early, and plan to wait as much as an hour.
- Sinbad's - Excellent middle eastern deli. You can get a great Shwarma, some excellent Zaatar Pie, and their daily specials are wonderful. The specials often include eggplant with ground beef, or Persian-style zucchini stuffed with rice and spices.
- Amici's - Billed as East-Coast Style Pizza. While it's not exactly similar to the pizza I had in New York, it's very good. Good thin crust pizza is all about the crust, and this is one is perfect - thin, crusty, chewy, and flexible. On the negative side, it's quite expensive. A large feeds 2 people and costs over $20! It doesn't sell pizza by the slice. This place is all over the Bay Area now.
- Pizza My Heart - Another place that's all over the Bay Area, or at least it's also in downtown Los Gatos. It does have pizza by the slice, and the slices range from $2.25 to $3.00. I wasn't incredibly impressed at first, but I then started getting just the cheese slice, which is really wonderful. This actually tastes more like the pizza I had in New York.
There's much more. I haven't really even gotten into the nicer (more expensive) places. But these are the places I'd go to the most.
Posted by ahyatt at April 11, 2004 01:59 PM
Hi,
yes, I stumbled upon your blog while looking for ramen restaurants in the bay area (east bay specifically). I see that you were living in san mateo. I took a drive there once after picking my japanese friend up from SFO. We LOVED san mateo! What did you think about it, and why did you leave?
On the ramen note, I went to Mitsuwa market in San Jose with a couple of friends, and one of the girls asked if we could eat at the ramen restaurant, right around the side of the market. She said it was well known. It was called dobutsu or something, but i think they recently changed their name to Tonkatsu, since everyone seems to call it that. Anyway, I havent had better ramen than that place. If you're still in the bay area please try it out! It even holds its own against japanese ramen (i tried a bunch recently in japan).
Thanks for the ramen suggestion! I've already left the Bay Area, but if I come back for a visit, I'll try it out.
I'm glad you enjoyed San Mateo. It's a nice little downtown, and it's full of cool shops and restaurants. I left only because I got a better job somewhere else.
In your free time, check the sites about- Tons of interesdting stuff!!!