madera

palo alto, ca

website

madera is now one of our favorite special occasion restaurants in the area, right up there with evvia. it's a favorite restaurant (also hotel/spa) for the venture-capitalist/hedge-fund/dot-com/silicon-valley types. not that derek or i fit into any of those categories, but we know good food when we taste it. we've been here twice already in the last few months - once to introduce m+s to silicon valley (they recently moved from berkeley) and again when derek's parents visited. it's a beautiful location - sit outside for dinner if it's not too chilly and you'll have a gorgeous view of the sun setting behind the mist covering the distant hills.

my favorite dish here is the appropriately titled "rich & salty" - which consists of three split bones with roasted bone marrow topped with osetra caviar. yes. bone marrow topped with caviar. i know! the toast points on the side were underwhelming - bland, thin, and too crunchy. i wish they would serve a proper toast accompaniment - like the crispy bread with garlic, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar at casa mono. but i'm just being picky. the rest of the food at madera was good, but everything paled in comparison to the rich, fatty, salty goodness of this simple yet extravagant appetizer.

sundance the steakhouse

palo alto, ca

website

even though we're in sunny, laid-back palo alto, the interior of this restaurant reminds me of old-school new york steakhouses like wolfgang's, spark's, or smith & wollensky. except in palo alto, you're more likely to run into a venture capitalist than a mob boss. nevertheless, it was an appropriate spot to take the summer interns out for lunch. one note - parking is annoying - a tiny lot with a weird one-way entrance/exit. i ended up parallel parking on el camino which was unpleasant for me (and probably for the drivers around me as well).

but onto the food -- an appetizer of raw oysters was perfect to share: light and refreshing, tasting just a hint of the sea. sundance is apparently known for their prime rib, which most of the guys at the table ordered. it seemed a bit much for lunch, so i ordered the french dip sandwich with au jus. the prime rib meat inside was pretty good - rich and flavorful, but the bread was boring and didn't complement the meat. i was quite jealous of the juicy looking prime rib slabs on everyone else's plates. next time, definitely ordering that instead.

main street burgers

los gatos, ca

website

derek discovered this spot while he was driving back from some firm retreat in the south bay. he saw the advertisement for "invent your own" ice cream sandwiches and knew that he had to take me here. derek ordered a massive burger with bacon and melted cheddar on an egg bun. the burger was pretty good, but nothing amazing. the egg bun is buttery and rich, which might be good on its own, but it ended up making the greasy burger taste even heavier. i enjoyed the mushroom swiss burger (with truffled mayonnaise), but mostly because of the mushrooms and truffle flavor.

for the ice cream sandwich, you can choose either graham cracker cookies or brownie cookies and fill it with any of their excellent ice creams. i went with graham cracker cookies and rocky road ice cream for a s'mores effect. they have a special machine that hard-freezes the ice cream before its placed between the soft, chewy cookies. makes a perfectly frozen and non-drippy ice cream sandwich. amazing. we went again a few weeks later with derek's parents: ordered burgers, walked through downtown los gatos to burn off the burgers, and came back for ice cream sandwiches. delicious and perfect for a hot summer day.