sakura teppanyaki and sushi

redwood city, ca

link to yelp

the lovely stacey was in town and we decided to show her a good time in redwood city. ah yes, september 6, 2012. what a night to remember... okay, so the photographic evidence indicates that we ordered beef. i think the beef was pretty good. but all i can remember of the evening was that the fried rice was ridiculously delicious (being cooked in beef fat might have had something to do with it) and that we had to park really far away from the restaurant because redwood city was hoppin'.

pamplemousse

redwood city, ca

website

never had a canele before, not entirely sure how to pronounce it, but it looked delicious. waiting for derek to get his hair cut, i decided to hang out at a cute little french bakery on broadway. the display case beckoned with beautiful little macarons and lots of pretty cakes. the canele was delicious - caramelized sugar at the bottom, moist cake in the middle. eggy and rich. yum.

the patty shack

redwood city, ca

website

movie night in redwood city again. we were going to go to the spaghetti factory, but there was a ridiculous wait. apparently, spaghetti factory and a movie is a popular option in redwood city. i had remembered driving by redwood city's main street and seeing a burger shop with a funny name - patty shack. we decided to head there to make sure we made it to "mission impossible 4" in time.

patty shack is set up like a burger stand - order at the back, grab a number, find a seat, and wait for someone to bring your food. derek ordered a burger and fries, no surprise. the menu, however, had a few interesting side options - mac & cheese, beet salad, brussel sprouts ... i decided to try a side of broccoli soup with my burger. the soup was good, but a bit much. burger was also good - juicy patty, classic sesame seed bun, good veggies. a solid choice if you're craving a burger in redwood city.

milagros cantina

redwood city, ca

website

california is supposed to have amazing mexican food, right? still haven't found it. i'm sure it's here somewhere. i'll just keep looking. after having just-okay mexican food at margaritas in redwood city a few months ago, i remembered that we walked by another mexican restaurant, milagros, that looked much busier.

before heading to the movies (where we saw new year's eve which i enjoyed and derek not so much), we had dinner at milagros cantina. i ordered the chicken mole enchiladas. chicken was dry, mole sauce was bland. the guacamole was pretty good, but the chips were stale. cocktails, however, were excellent.

margaritas

redwood city, ca

website

trying to broaden our horizons and explore more of the south bay, derek and i decided to venture to redwood city to find restaurants, culture, and whatnot. actually, we were running out of paper towels and redwood city has the closest costco. anyway, we did walk around downtown redwood city. there was a nice farmer's market, a theatre district, and a beautiful old courthouse which now houses the san mateo county history museum.

the restaurants looked very promising too. we decided to try margaritas, which was pretty good mexican food. not the best i've ever had, although derek really enjoyed his pork carnitas. as we walked off our meals, we walked by another mexican restaurant which was much busier - milagros cantina. we'll have to try next time.

main street coffee

redwood city, ca

website

now that derek and i live in california, we've become very familiar with the DMV. there's no DMV in palo alto, where we actually live, so we've made a couple of trips up to redwood city to visit the lovely DMV office there. since we had an early morning appointment, we decided to get some breakfast after the DMV but before heading into the office. derek did some yelp searching and found main street coffee, just off of main street in redwood city.

cute little coffee shop with some surprisingly substantial breakfasts. i had the yellow cornmeal buttermilk pancakes with a side of eggs. delicious. great coffee too. tons of baked goods, bagels, and other breakfast treats but we stuck with the griddled goods. will definitely have to come back to this coffee shop next time we have to go to the DMV.