HI

We are looking for a restaurant recommendation for a office group
lunch. Our group won some bet money from the CTO :-) We are thinking of
going to a good place for a lunch, fancier than the daily lunches
people go out to. About 15 people, with about $50 to spend per person.
We are looking for a somewhat fancy ( normally that implies expensive )
place within our budget with good food and comfortable settings.
Preferrably in the San Jose bay area, including Palo Alto, Menlo Park
etc. San Francisco city is a little too far for lunch.

Thanks a lot for your suggestions.

-Dipu

Parcel 104 or Birks.

Both in the same area off of 101 and Great America Parkway in Santa
Clara.

http://www.parcel104.com/PrivateDiningLunchMenu.htm
http://www.birksrestaurant.com/

In article .com,
Peter Lawrence wrote:
wrote:

We are looking for a restaurant recommendation for a office group
lunch. Our group won some bet money from the CTO :-) We are thinking of
going to a good place for a lunch, fancier than the daily lunches
people go out to. About 15 people, with about $50 to spend per person.
We are looking for a somewhat fancy ( normally that implies expensive )
place within our budget with good food and comfortable settings.
Preferrably in the San Jose bay area, including Palo Alto, Menlo Park
etc. San Francisco city is a little too far for lunch.

Alexander's Steakhouse in Cupertino.
http://www.alexanderssteakhouse.com

Seconded. People who don't like weird food can be happy, and people who
like to try exotic food get a few options, too.
--
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"Creation science" isn't bad science ... it's simply not science at all

"Heatmiser" in
oups.com:
Parcel 104 or Birks.

Both in the same area off of 101 and Great America Parkway in Santa Clara.

I think Heatmiser (John?) knows the score. Best check if Parcel 104 is open
for lunch, and by phoning or seeing opentable.com which presumably lists 104
(104's own web site has sometimes been out of date). But these mechanics
aside, 104 has had some very capable people working including the South
Bay's own Master Sommelier since 2005, the encyclopedic but extremely modest
Randal Bertao. (A discreet word with him in advance would furnish
surprising good wines you might not think to order.) That's if you want
wine with lunch, which you might, since senior mgmt is paying off. That'd
be my first choice of the two restaurants -- it was more of a leisurely
sit-down experience -- though both have their points.

Birks's assumed role of lead south-bay casual power-lunch venue from Nolan
Bushnell's much older Lion and Compass in early or middle 1990s (I have seen
truly influential silicon-valley personalities at both). Haven't been there
for years alas. It had a big mesquite grill for fish steaks, grilled
oversized mushrooms, fancy hamburgers, etc.

Both were a little unusual, neither quite fit corporate-concept restaurant
models or common US genres, in my experience.

Kind of like silicon valley itself. (We are at, or near, 35th anniversary
of the coinage "silicon valley" by the late trade journalist Don Hoeffler,
by the way, in his original article series "The Saga of Silicon Valley."
Somebody ought to reprint it, if only to help stifle the misattributions and
wildly wrong dates surfacing regularly on Web searches.)

Heatmiser suggests:

Parcel 104 or Birks.


Never heard of Parcel 104, but I finally tried Birk's last
fall after hearing it was good. It _is_ good, but not as
good as I'd anticipated.

Damned crowded, too. My group was lucky to score a table
in the bar just as another was leaving.

I'd heard that Birk's was big with the Silicon Valley crowd;
how could it not be, given its location? Who it's popular
with, to be precise, is *marketing* people. The bar area
was a sea of buttondown shirts and doubleknit Dockers. We
were obviously the only techies in the joint.

On the positive side, they make a fine and generous martini...



Geoff

--
"The new 'Cindy Crawford Workout Video' is absolutely excellent.
I only purchased it two weeks ago and already my right arm is
the size of Arnold Schwarzenegger's..." -- Karl Greenow

On 17 May 2006 14:00:06 -0700, wrote:

We are looking for a restaurant recommendation for a office group
lunch. Our group won some bet money from the CTO :-) We are thinking of
going to a good place for a lunch, fancier than the daily lunches
people go out to. About 15 people, with about $50 to spend per person.
We are looking for a somewhat fancy ( normally that implies expensive )
place within our budget with good food and comfortable settings.
Preferrably in the San Jose bay area, including Palo Alto, Menlo Park
etc. San Francisco city is a little too far for lunch.

Has anyone here tried Arcadia in San Jose for lunch? Several reviews
say they offer a tasting menu at lunch. Dave Eisen posted a good
review of his dinner there in November 2005.

jc

--

"The nice thing about a mare is you get to ride a lot
of different horses without having to own that many."
~ Eileen Morgan of The Mare's Nest, PA

Inviato da X-Privat.Org - Registrazione gratuita http://www.x-privat.org/join.php

In ba.food JC Dill wrote:

Has anyone here tried Arcadia in San Jose for lunch? Several reviews
say they offer a tasting menu at lunch. Dave Eisen posted a good
review of his dinner there in November 2005.

My last meal there was rather disappointing. Everything felt a little
tired to the point where we inquired as to whether or not the chef had
changed in the interim. Probably need more data points to be sure because
we had several good ones toward the end of 2005.

--
Dave Eisen 650.237.9000

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so
certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell

Heatmiser wrote:
Parcel 104 or Birks.

Both in the same area off of 101 and Great America Parkway in Santa
Clara.

http://www.parcel104.com/PrivateDiningLunchMenu.htm
http://www.birksrestaurant.com/

I was going to suggest Birks as well. I've been to Parcel 104 twice for
company dinners, and both times were a disappointment. I'd avoid it.

Max Hauser wrote:
"Heatmiser" in
oups.com:
Parcel 104 or Birks.

Both in the same area off of 101 and Great America Parkway in Santa Clara.

I think Heatmiser (John?) knows the score. Best check if Parcel 104 is open
for lunch, and by phoning or seeing opentable.com which presumably lists 104
(104's own web site has sometimes been out of date). But these mechanics
aside, 104 has had some very capable people working including the South
Bay's own Master Sommelier since 2005, the encyclopedic but extremely modest
Randal Bertao. (A discreet word with him in advance would furnish
surprising good wines you might not think to order.) That's if you want
wine with lunch, which you might, since senior mgmt is paying off. That'd
be my first choice of the two restaurants -- it was more of a leisurely
sit-down experience -- though both have their points.

Birks's assumed role of lead south-bay casual power-lunch venue from Nolan
Bushnell's much older Lion and Compass in early or middle 1990s (I have seen
truly influential silicon-valley personalities at both). Haven't been there
for years alas. It had a big mesquite grill for fish steaks, grilled
oversized mushrooms, fancy hamburgers, etc.

One thing about Birk's is that the wait staff is extremely pushy in
terms of trying to up-sell. I sometimes feel like I'm at a car
dealership, in the finance office, where they're trying to sell me stuff
like an extended warranty, fabric guard, or Poly Glycoat.

Thanks a lot to all the people who replied for their suggestions and
recommendations. We ended up going to Le Papillon in San Jose . This is
a relatively upscale French restaurant. We went for a special group
lunch deal that they have. They are open Th/F for lunch. The food was
good. Everybody in the group liked it and are ready to go back if we
can get the upper management to sponsor us :-) We stayed with wines
from the low end of their menu. The wine lovers in the group were
pretty pleased with the wines. They have rooms with large tables to
accomodate groups. Overall we all liked it.

-Dipu

On 30 May 2006 13:37:32 -0700, wrote:


Thanks a lot to all the people who replied for their suggestions and
recommendations. We ended up going to Le Papillon in San Jose . This is
a relatively upscale French restaurant. We went for a special group
lunch deal that they have. They are open Th/F for lunch. The food was
good. Everybody in the group liked it and are ready to go back if we
can get the upper management to sponsor us :-) We stayed with wines
from the low end of their menu. The wine lovers in the group were
pretty pleased with the wines. They have rooms with large tables to
accomodate groups. Overall we all liked it.

In that area, you could also go to Garden City. You can't miss it.
It's the poker place with the huge sign. They have a pretty good
restaurant -- especially if you like steaks. And then you can all go
play a few hands of Texas Hold'em! ;-) There's also a Harry's Hofbrau
right there. But you said upscale, so stick with Le Papillon.

There used to be a Velvet Turtle in that area that I liked a lot, but
it's been gone awhile.

--
For email, use usenet-20060507[at]spamex[dot]com

On Tue, 30 May 2006 17:21:59 -0700, LurfysMa
wrote:
[Kiely and Saratoga restaurants]
There used to be a Velvet Turtle in that area that I liked
a lot, but it's been gone awhile.

Dang! That's been gone over a decade-and-a-half!

It's currently a sucky Black Angus so don't go.

The Ranger
--
"They're all in my kill file, so I don't see the original posts. [..]
I've got enough mental illness..."
Marjorie P, am, 2/21/03

The Ranger wrote:
On Tue, 30 May 2006 17:21:59 -0700, LurfysMa
wrote:
[Kiely and Saratoga restaurants]
There used to be a Velvet Turtle in that area that I liked
a lot, but it's been gone awhile.

Dang! That's been gone over a decade-and-a-half!

It's currently a sucky Black Angus so don't go.

Isn't that supposed to be "Anguish?"

The Ranger
--
"They're all in my kill file, so I don't see the original posts. [..]
I've got enough mental illness..."
Marjorie P, am, 2/21/03

LurfysMa wrote:

[Kiely and Saratoga restaurants]

There used to be a Velvet Turtle in that area that I liked
a lot, but it's been gone awhile.


The Ranger responds:

Dang! That's been gone over a decade-and-a-half!

And more's the pity. I liked the Velvet Turtle. There was
a second one on Fremont and Mary in Sunnyvale (right next to
Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor -- the one without the F-86 in the
dining room), and a third in the Sharon Park shopping center.


It's currently a sucky Black Angus so don't go.

Do you think it's any worse than most Black Angi, or do you
dislike the chain generally?



Geoff

--
"But then again, that would make General Mills the World's
Leading DEATH CAMP as every year Billions and Billions of
Innocent Grain Persons are BRUTALLY and SAVAGELY MURDERED
to provide americans with Cheerio's and Wheaties!!!" -- drieux

"Geoff Miller" wrote in message
...


LurfysMa wrote:

[Kiely and Saratoga restaurants]

There used to be a Velvet Turtle in that area that I liked
a lot, but it's been gone awhile.


The Ranger responds:

Dang! That's been gone over a decade-and-a-half!

And more's the pity. I liked the Velvet Turtle. There was
a second one on Fremont and Mary in Sunnyvale (right next to
Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor -- the one without the F-86 in the
dining room), and a third in the Sharon Park shopping center.
Geoff


The Velvet Turtle, now that's a name I haven't heard for awhile.
Anyone know why they closed out, thought they were doing
pretty well.
-tom