los altos grill

los altos, ca

website

we were at the at&t store in mountain view, buying derek a new iphone (hey, he's in the valley now - no more blackberry for him). while i waited for his iphone to get set-up, i decided to find a nearby spot for dinner with non-asian food. using one of the sample ipad's yelp app, i searched for "american" food near mountain view, california. nothing. the closest spot was in los altos, so we decided to drive out there and check it out.

turns out it's a hillstone restaurant! derek and i frequently visited houston's, another hillstone restaurant, in manhattan, so it was a little piece of home here in the south bay. very similar menu. with one big difference. their "famous cornbread in a skillet." sounds simple, but it's amazing. moist, crunchy, buttery, and spicy goodness. derek, not normally a cornbread eater, devoured half of the massive skillet of cornbread. delicious. everything else was standard houston's fare - great ribs, burgers, french fries. if only it wasn't all the way in los altos ...

hangen szechuan

mountain view, ca

link to yelp

every little town in silicon valley has a "downtown" area. having recently moved from manhattan, using the term "downtown" with respect to the south bay definitely requires quotes. mountain view's "downtown" is called castro street. one street, several blocks, lined with restaurants, small grocery stores, and random bookstores. there's tons of chinese food on this street. i suspect that derek and i will be familiar with every restaurant very soon.

first stop was hangen szechuan. huge restaurant. empty. which is usually not a good sign, but the food was surprisingly good and the service extremely attentive. we ordered some spicy animal innards, spicy chicken, and not-too-spicy noodles. pictured is the spicy chicken, which only derek could eat because it was too spicy for me. he ate the whole plate - it was that good. we'll definitely be back here.