Village Wine & Cheese, A Gourmet Market

I got a chance to eat at this place a few months ago in May. We just ended up at this place by chance as we were walking on Broadway on a late rainy afternoon in this tiny college town of Columbia. It was great to find a restaurant that was open around 3:30 PM in the afternoon. Usually, they're closed for a couple of hours right after lunch time and before dinner time.

This one is quite a large place, one part of the restaurant is a huge bar with lots of wine choices. You can almost call it a wine-lovers' paradise. They have rows and rows of racks filled with wine bottles. And the other part is main restaurant. The ambiance was good and gives the place sort of a romantic yet casual atmosphere. The waiters were very polite and helped answer quite a few of our questions.

They have an extensive menu of sandwiches that you can choose from and more than seven different types of veg sandwiches you can pick from. The ones I got to eat and taste were the following:

The Village Garden sandwich has assorted roasted vegetables, fresh tomatoes and Swiss cheese baked on foccacia bread; finished with herb aioli, scallion cream cheese and alfalfa sprouts.

Their Mary Ellen’s Mozzarella Madness has roasted eggplant, tomato, fresh basil, fresh mozzarella & balsamic vinaigrette served hot on a French baguette.

These have been the best Italian sandwiches that I've ever eaten. The portion was quite large and very filling. I didn't get to try any desserts as the sandwich was heavy.

While we were leaving, we bought some wine for our alcohol drinking friends and asked whether they had another restaurant in California. Unfortunately, they are family owned and this is their only location in the US. I would love to visit this place again at any time!

Dinner is not served daily at this place. Please visit their site for more info.

My rating for Village Wine & Cheese is 4.5/5.


Name: Village Wine & Cheese, A Gourmet Market
Type: Sandwich, Steak, Seafood
Average Price: $10/person (Lunch), $15/person (Dinner)
Address: 929 East Broadway, Columbia, Missouri 65201
Phone: (573) 442-1010
Fax: (573) 815-9703
Email: info@villagewineandcheese.com
Website: http://www.villagewineandcheese.com/


From the outside

The Village Garden sandwich

Mary Ellen’s Mozzarella Madness sandwich

Sakura Sushi

I have visited this place at least three times for lunch. They're located right in Sunnyvale downtown.

Their Veggie Lovers Bento Box is served with miso soup, salad & rice. All the dishes come with the gari (pickled ginger) and the wasabi sauce. Both of which make all the food quite delicious!

As a veg, we have a choice of asparagus rolls, vegetable tempura, agedashi tofu, wakame (seaweed salad), vegetable rolls, inari (kind of a stuffed and fried roll), and kanpyo maki (pickled-gourd rolls).

For lunch, you can choose up to two items from the above list and for dinner you can choose up to three items as part of your bento box.

My most favorite is the wakame and vegetable rolls. Their wakame has nice amount of sesame seeds which give it a real good taste and the rolls are also quite delicious. Their miso soup is also nice.

Their menu says they serve jalapeño poppers as part of all the bento boxes but I've never seen any. Hmm... I should ask that next time I am there.

The place is small but usually isn't too crowded for lunch time. Staff is courteous and polite.

My rating for Sakura is 3/5.


Name: Sakura Sushi
Type: Japanese
Average Price: $10/person (Lunch), $15/person (Dinner)
Address: 173 South Murphy Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94086
Phone: (408) 481-9474
Website: None.

Ni Mo Japanese Cuisine & Sushi Bar

A vegetarian person has good number of choices here. Located right in San Mateo downtown. Ni Mo offers good service and has friendly staff. I've been to the place more than twice just for this reason that they have more veg options.

The server starts you off with some fresh boiled whole soybeans to munch on with green tea until the meal is served.

Their vegetarian bento box has all different kinds of Japanese foods one can eat including veg tempura, veg rolls, veg aged tofu, seaweed salad served with salad, miso soup and steamed rice.

In addition to that, they have more than nine different kinds of veg rolls like sour plum, wild carrot, mushroom, fermented soy bean, deep fried yam, pickled radish, cucumber, avocado, and asparagus.

My rating for Ni Mo is 4/5.


Name: Ni Mo Japanese Cuisine
Type: Japanese
Average Price: $8-14/person (Lunch), $11-16/person (Dinner)
Address: 73 East 3rd Ave, San Mateo, CA 94401
Phone: (650) 342-0288
Website: None.

C'era Una Volta

In Italian, "C'era Una Volta" means Once Upon A Time.

If you really want to impress someone (e.g. take someone on a date, take your hiring manager for lunch ;), etc.), this is the place to go. Fine Italian dining is what I call it. The place is nice and cozy and the location is hidden from the main street so not visible if you drive past on the 1300 block from the Park street. Got a chance to dine there when a friend got surprise proposal party there. The restaurant parking is accessible from the parallel street named Park Avenue. Reservation is a must.

The food was quite good and the staff is very friendly and polite. That's what you can expect when you are paying that kind of money to dine at such a fine place.

They do have a selection of veg. dishes. I personally love mushroom so enjoy anything with mushroom in it.

Starting with salads they have two we can pick from. Insalata Dell’Orto is mixed greens topped with seasonal vegetables and olives and Insalata di Spinaci has baby Spinach with walnuts and zesty onion dressed in a warm balsamic vinaigrette and topped with goat cheese.

Cannelloni di Spinaci is rolls of traditional pasta fresca filled with fresh Ricotta and delicate Spinach.

Gnocchi is potato dumpling pasta served with your choice of pesto, gorgonzola or meat sauce. This one you have to request the vegetarian version. It is very creamy and rich so quite filling dish.

And I got to try the Ravioli di Porcini that has porcini mushroom ravioli with mushroom cream sauce. It was quite delicious if I say so myself and not too filling.

Ravioli di Spinaci has ravioli filled with spinach and ricotta. This was quite good as well.

The Melanzane alla Parmigiana has delicate slices of Eggplant layered with Italian Cheeses and a light Pomodoro Sauce. Quite large portion even for dinner.

The place is closed on Mondays and their menu changes with seasons so not all of these items might be available throughout the year. They also host a (paid) monthly meeting of regional culture, food and wine.

My rating: 4.5/5


Name: C'era Una Volta, Caffé Enoteca Ristorante
Type: Italian
Average Price: $15-20/person (Dinner)
Address: 1332 Park Street, Alameda, CA 94501
Phone: (510) 769-4828
Website: http://www.ceraunavolta.us/


Here I'd like to share an interesting piece of information. Here in the US generally speaking it is a norm that when you go to an Italian restaurant, you are served bread and butter/sauce before you get your main course. They usually don't charge the guests for this bread and you can request for more, if you want more. This is true for certain Mediterranean, German and American restaurants as well. But what I found out recently was that in Italy, the guests actually pay for the bread also, along with their meals.

Black Angus Steakhouse

If you're a vegetarian, might as well stay away from this place. This was my first time there, but I know I won't go there again as they don't have any interesting veg. dishes. The service is good, but the ambiance is okay. They were nice enough to say they will replace any meat ingredients in items with vegetables but I ended up choosing an appetizer item that was vegetarian along with a garden salad. Their Crispy Garlic-Pepper Zucchini has freshly cut zucchini, dipped in garlic-pepper batter and breadcrumbs then gently fried to a crispy golden brown, served with cool cucumber dip (this looks and tastes like cucumber raita). This was good but would go as an appetizer only. The garden salad was good also.

Now directly to the dessert. Sky-High Mud Pie is mocha almond ice cream with swirls of fudge layered on a chocolate cookie-crumb crust, topped with rich fudge, almond slices, and chocolate shavings. Quite delicious if I say so. If you are a chocolate/coffee lover, this is a must have! The Crème Brulée is a rich, creamy custard topped with a crisp coating of caramelized sugar. It's also good and quite creamy like they say. Other desserts also looked good but I didn't get to try them.

Over all, as a vegetarian, I give this place a rating of 1.5/5.


Name: Black Angus Steakhouse
Type: American
Average Price: $12-$15/person (Lunch)
Address: 740 E El Camino Real, Sunnyvale, CA 94087
Phone: (408) 245-4501
Website: http://www.blackangus.com/

Taverna Bistro

This place has been my favorite place since past few months. They have quite a collection of vegetarian dishes and most of them taste very delicious.

Since I have been there multiple times and got a chance to try out many veg. items, I am going to list them all here. First and most important, the bread in this place is to die for!!! It is awesome. The kind they serve for lunch is different than the one you get for dinner. Both of them are very good but the lunch one wins hands down. They serve it with oil and balsamic vinaigrette right before the meals.

Tomato Mozzarella (slices of fresh tomato and Buffalo Mozzarella cheese served with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette) is an appetizer item and very delicious.

Eggplant Salad is flame grilled eggplant mixed with freshly pureed garlic, herbs and parsley. This is going to be the item I eat when I am there next time.

Baba Ghanouj (flamed grilled eggplant lightly mixed with fresh lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, fresh garlic, salt and white pepper) is perfect for lunch with the bread that they serve. Little smaller portion because it’s a starter item but very delicious.

Greek Veggie Salad cauliflower, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, red bell peppers, olives and feta cheese served with homemade Italian dressing (Olives with seeds).

Avocado Orange Salad (seasonal) is toasted sesame seeds mixed with field greens topped with peeled orange and avocado slices tossed with walnuts and homemade Italian dressing. I am yet to try this one but it sounds quite good.

Their Veggie Combo (eggplant salad, hummus, sarma and Greek salad) is delicious and tops on my list of favorites at Taverna.

Falafel Plate is also quite good with freshly made falafel balls served with hummus, eggplant salad, Taverna salad, rice and yogurt sauce.

Veggie Mousakka (baked layers of grilled potatoes, eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, green peppers baked to perfection in béchamel tomato sauce, served with rice) is little larger portion for a lunch but good nevertheless.

Veggie Guvec (casserole, mix of eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, mushroom, bell peppers, onions, garlic and parsley cooked to perfection, served with rice.) is my second favorite item at Taverna.

Imam Bayildi means swooning imam (baked eggplant stuffed with sautéed vegetables, served with rice and plain yoghurt). This was quite good but very filling. I personally found the yoghurt little too sour as I am not used to eat it but my colleagues said it was quite traditional Mediterranean yoghurt and really enjoyed eating it plain.

Veggie Dolmathes (baked bell peppers stuffed with a mix of rice tomatoes, onions, garlic, herbs and spice, served with Taverna salad and plain yoghurt). I am yet to try this so no clue what it tastes like.

The Falafel Wrap (falafel balls with fresh lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and hummus) under the Wrap section is also vegetarian.

And their Baklawas are very delicious (although I admit they were smaller sized). :P

The staff is friendly, and they have outside (front and back patio seating), which is a lot of fun if the weather is good. And the place does get crowded a bit at peak times so reservation is recommended if you're party of more than two. The place is considered fine Mediterranean cuisine so prices are also quite fine.

Note: Always double check before ordering an item to ensure it contains no meat, no fish, no chicken broth.

Taverna gets a rating of 4/5.


Name: Taverna Bistro
Type: Mediterranean
Average Price: $10-$12/person (Lunch), $15-$18/person (Dinner)
Address: 133 South Murphy Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94086
Phone: (408) 735-9971
Website: http://www.tavernabistro.com/

Intro

I had always wanted to share my views about the restaurants where I have eaten before, but never really cared I saw Neha's Bangalore Restaurants Reviewed blog. So then I said to myself, better late then never and so here I begin.

I am a lacto-ovo vegetarian so once in a while I have had a hard time finding edible items at certain restaurants. But here in San Francisco bay area, it's almost never the case that you end up in a restaurant that serves no vegetarian items. That's because the population here originally comes from all over the world and has brought with them their culture and their ethnic foods with them. In fact, finding vegetarian or vegan food in SF bay area is probably the easiest in the entire country as there are many restaurants that serve only vegan/vegetarian foods.

I remember once when I was in Houston, TX for an interview and the hiring manager took me out for lunch. Unfortunately, the person taking the order at the restaurant didn't even know what vegetarian food was. I made an attempt to explain to him and gave up eventually when he called his manager to help explain what I was talking about. So we were forced to leave from first two restaurants we had stepped into and finally ended up eating at Pizza Hut because that was the only place in the area where I knew would be able to eat a cheese pizza. Of course, not the entire city of Houston is such and there are some really good restaurants that serve vegetarian food but here in the bay area, you will almost never end up in that kind of situation where there is no vegetarian food on the menu in a restaurant.

I've been to many good restaurants in the SF bay area as well as outside so I'm not limiting them to this geographical area only. Most of the dishes I'd recommend would be vegetarian only (unless once in a while when I find out what dishes my non-veg colleagues liked). Here I go...

Bon apetite!