Left Bank

Left Bank

377 Santana Row # 1100
San Jose, CA 95128-2058
(408) 984-3500

I've been to Left Bank on multiple occasions. I must admit it is a hit or miss with me on this restaurant. Sometimes I'm blown away and other times, I'm left disappointed.

After a hard days work, my wife and I decided to unwind at Santana Row. After walking among the plethora of restaurants, we decided to go with Left Bank.

The place was packed, but we were seated right away. After skimming over the menu we decided to start with the Ahi Tuna tartar. My wife would have the steak and fries and I had the duck served two ways.

Our server quickly took our order and brought over some bread. They actually brought over two batches. The first batch was room temperature and we quickly devoured it since we were so hungry. The second batch was better, it was still hot, like it just left the oven. The butter was okay, but it was a bit hard, which made for spreading a bit difficult.

Our Ahi Tuna was brought pretty quickly. It appeared nice, but it was quite bland. There was little to no seasoning. We were a bit disappointed. Perhaps they thought the small amount of olive oil would provide the flavoring. The tuna itself was okay, but it lack the fatty buttery taste of a good tuna. The micro salad was okay, it had a bit of a peppery kick to it.

My wife's steak was okay, though it was a bit small. The meat was tender, but once again was a bit bland. The fries was decent. If you ever had McDonald's french fries, this was similar. This is not to knock that the fries were bad. In fact a freshly made McDonald's french fries are some of the best. My wife remarked that I had made better steaks at home. After taking a few bites from her dish, I tended to agree. The side carrots were decent, they were both soft and sweet.

My duck was better. The leg was served confit style, while the breast was roasted. There was a sweet apricot salad in the middle. I often like fresh fruit with the main dish, it makes the whole dish more fresh and appealing. The duck itself tasted okay, but it lack that signature bold flavor that would have put it over the top. The dish felt almost there, but seem to lack that one thing or ingredient.

Service on the whole was good. We were catered upon and had our drinks refilled without asking. Even though the place was busy, we never felt neglected.

Final Thoughts: It was a miss this time.

Food: 3 stars

Service: 4 stars

Price: Above Average

Overall: 3 1/2 stars

Chili's 2 for 20 bucks

This is more of a public service announcement than anything else, we'll do a full review of Chili's another time

Right now Chili is offering a really good deal.

There is a select menu where you can get an appetizer, two entrees, and a dessert for 20 dollars.

That is a pretty good deal. The portions are decent with only a slight cut back from the regular menu, but hardly noticeable.

I suggest you take advantage of it while the deal last.

I already been there twice since they started and still think it's a great deal.

Hong Kong Lounge (Dinner)

Hong Kong Lounge

5322 Geary Boulevard

San Francisco, CA

94121

415-668-8836

I have been to this restaurant many times in the past. It has changed hands many times. Some of you may know this as Hong Kong Flower Lounge or Parc Hong Kong. Now this restaurant has be renovated and under new ownership. It is simply called Hong Kong Lounge. It is experiencing some rejuvenation with the local crowd lately and now as become a favorite of the locals. A pretty neat trick actually when you think of all the good chinese restaurants in San Francisco. I took my family there for my father's birthday, because they were raving about it. It is so popular now, that most days, they require a reservation or else you probably won't get a table. I had my sister to thank that we were able to get a table that night. The interior has be redone and I would say in a more modern chinese style. After looking over their menu, my father elected to pick one of their set dinner menu. This like you'll see in most chinese restaurants, the food is served in courses and family style.

The first course was the cold cut combo. I must say I was impressed with this dish. The jelly fish and octopus had nice flavor. It had that hint of sesame oil that makes it so flagrant. The two types of pork were some of the best I've eaten in this style. The roast pork had a very nice crispy skin while the BBQ pork was nice and tender.

Next came the shark fin soup. For those that don't know, shark fin really has no flavor. The soup's flavor comes the rich soup base. Hong Kong Lounge had a nice flavor and with a hint of chinese brandy. It added another dimension to the flavor.

The crab claws were next. They tasted like most crab claws you get at your typical chinese restaurant. I've never been a big fan of crab claws. You mainly only taste the shrimp paste surrounding the claws. The texture of these are more fluffy than the usual, so I was impressed nevertheless.

Next course was the scallop and sweet pea. There were appears some clams mixed in as well. The dish was okay. It had nice fresh flavor for the scallop and clams. The peas were sweet, but overall I wasn't too impressed. This dish is often served in every chinese family menu I've had. It just taste so familiar to me, that's all. The addition of yellow chives was a nice touch though.

Next course was the chinese greens with mushroom. Another stable of chinese family dinners. What the restaurant did different for this course was to add dried scallops to the sauce. It made the sauce more rich. Though to be honest, not my favorite dish of the night. I'm not much of a vegetable kinda of guy.

The next course is usually my favorite where ever I go. Peking duck is often found everywhere. I actually tried real Peking Duck in China. I found I like the San Francisco Variant much better. The real Peking Duck is served with thin flour sheets, I prefer the fluffy buns better.

You eat it by sandwiching the crispy duck skin in between the buns and adding scallion and hoisin sauce. Really a tasty dish if done right. Hong Kong Lounge did the wise thing of not changing a good dish. It was prepared well and the skin was thin and crispy.

Our server brought out our fish of the night. I don't remember or could recognized the type of fish. It was a bony white fish, but the sauce was very good. It was a sweetened royal soy sauce. Matched very well with the fresh fish. Some restaurants cannot do the sauce right, but Hong Kong Lounge was very well done.

The lobster dish of the night was pretty good. It was prepared with a lighter sauce than most restaurants. This let really let you taste the fresh lobster. The sauce did not overpower it at all. I thought this was a nice touch by the chef.

Usually at the end of a chinese meal, you'll be served with fried rice. The fried rice that came with our meal was very deeply flavored. This was the type of rice that had chinese bacon in it. It made the rice very rich in flavor. Though it probably wasn't good for my cholesterol.

My father really liked the rice, since it was done in his favorite style.

The service was adequate. Though some times we were left alone for quite sometime as the restaurant filled up. As the restaurant becomes completely pack, expect to see your servers only when the food comes. This is quite typical in chinese restaurants especially the popular ones.

Now all this good food does come with a price. But as they say, you get what you paid for.

Final Thoughts: Nice to see a restaurant turned things around so nicely

Food: 4 stars

Service: 3 stars

Price: High

Overall: 4 stars

Congrats to Rick Bayless on being Top Chef Masters

Top Chef Masters

Hypertaster just want to congratulate Rick Bayless on becoming Top Chef Master. Although we were routing for Anita Lo or Hubert Keller, we have to admit that Rick Bayless was the most consistent of all the contestants. I believe he was always in the number 1 or 2 in all the events. That is truly remarkable considering all the talent that was on the show. We even witness him cooking outside of what he was known for. A couple of times he did not cook Mexican food, yet still came close to winning. Therefore we must tip our hats off to Rick Bayless, you certainly deserved the title.

Sweet Passions Bakery....Cupcakes

Westfield Valleyfair Mall.

San Jose, CA

(in front of Restoration Hardware)

Sweet Passions Bakery do have a home store, but we are talking about their kiosk infront of Restoration Hardware in the Valleyfair Mall. They mainly only sell their cupcakes there. Now we all heard of Sprinkles and other brand name cupcakes, but they mainly fail to impress me. Often their cupcakes are a bit dry and their cream is either too sweet or too creamy.

Sweet Passions cupcakes comes in 4 flavors right now. Red Velvet, Lemon, Carrot and Plain. I tried three of them. Only the Red Velvet eludes me. So far my favorite is the Lemon. All their cupcakes comes with a fruit or jelly filling. I like the fact that their cream is not too sweet. The cupcakes themselves have nice flavor and they all seem to be perfectly moist. We went there a couple of times, one time they even sold out. So their popularity seems to be growing.

They charge 3.50 per cupcake, but there is also a 4 dollar pack that is just 4 really small mini cakes. I say the prices is fair, the cupcakes are fairly large and I do like their moist clean flavors.

Final thoughts: A breath of fresh air in the world of cupcakes

Taste: 4 stars

Service: NA

Price: Fair

Overall: 4 stars

Final Thoughts:

Blue Rock BBQ

3001 Meridian Avenue
San Jose, CA 95124
(408) 978-2583

Blue Rock BBQ located in the small shopping outlet on Meridian Avenue, serves some authentic neighborhood BBQ. You can smell the BBQ once you leave your car. Once you walk in the decor is more modern that you were lead to believe. There are menus hanging on the wall. Mainly its BBQ and the many side dishes you can have.

I ordered the BBQ baby back ribs, dry style. You can order it wet with the BBQ sauce, but the sauce is at every dinning table and you can add as much as you want. I also ordered two sides, which were the potato salad and cole slaw.

The ribs itself was a bit of a disappointment. I guess the seasoning or dry rub was not to my liking. I'm more used to a sweet and smokey type of rub. I actually prefer the Memphis Dry Rub from Chili's over this dry rub. I liked the two sides, they both tasted fresh and homemade.

After getting over my disappointment with the ribs, I tried the Tennessee Pulled Pork Sandwich. To my surprise this was really good. The sauce was there only in a thin layer. The meat was well seasoned and had a good depth of flavor. The buns were even toasted which added a crispness to the sandwich.

For dessert, we tried the lemon bar. This was not bad, it was sweet and sour. It had a nice crust on the bottom, but it was a bit hard. Made it hard to cut or break. Though a bit of warning that this lemon bar is not for those on a diet. You can taste the richness and butter throughout.

Service is mainly self service, though they do bring you your order.

Final Thoughts: Go for the Tennessee Pulled Pork Sandwich, you won't be disappointed.

Food: 3 stars

Service: NA

Price: Average

Overall: 3 stars

Ginger Cafe

8657 San Ysidro Ave
Gilroy, CA 95020
(408) 847-2625

The Ginger Cafe is located in the Gilroy shopping outlets. For a while it was the only asian eatery in the area. Now there are other choices such as King Egg Roll and Tung Ke. However this is still probably my go to place when I'm down there looking for bargains. I must warn you ahead of time that the prices are high for asian food, however, I can not fault them for their portions or their flavor.

My wife and I came pretty close to dinner time. The decor is modern asian, and I wish some of my other favorite Chinese restaurants were as clean as them. We were seated promptly, since the place was pretty empty. After skimming over the menu, we selected some favorites and something new. We always order the Fongsa Soft Shell Crab, and XO fried rice. We also decided to try their Twice Cooked Pork Tenderloin.

The first to come out is the XO fried rice. This is a mildly spicy fried rice dish that has a mix of seafood. I like this dish since it has more of a robust flavor compared to other fried rice dishes I tried. It can be best described as a salt spicy seafood fried rice. Though spicy is really only a hint of heat. My wife who hates heat can eat it with no problem. The portion is big and you'll be filled just eating this rice dish. I advise anyone not to order white rice, since this is more than enough.

Next came the Twice Cooked Tenderloin. This was not a bad dish. It was fried with cabbage with a spicy wine sauce. The sauce is strong and provides a nice contrast to the soft pork tenderloin. Once again the portion is big but so was the price. The cabbage was cooked nicely and provided a nice canvas for the pork and sauce to play with.

Lastly was the Fongsa Soft Shell Crab. This is probably one of their signature dishes. My wife likes this dish since she loves crab. She also like the fact that the soft shell provides a no mess and no fuss eating. The dish is make with panco bread crumbs with curry powder. The dish is a dry but the peppers and curry really accent the crab well. The curry is not over powering but provides a good foundation flavor. The panco bread crumbs accents this dish well and provides a bit of sophistication.

The service was adequate. There were plenty of wait staff and the restaurant was not busy at the time. All our needs were met and our waters were never empty.

Final Thoughts: If you can stomach the prices, then you'll enjoy the food.

Food: 3 1/2 Stars

Service: 3 1/2 Stars

Price: High

Overall: 3 1/2 Stars.

A Cut Above

Cuts of Steak

I was enjoying a really good piece of steak the other day. Then I remember the time when my friend ordered a skirt steak and didn't know how to eat it properly. He asked me what generally should he order for a steak that would pretty much guarantee a steak with good flavor and tenderness. This was a bit of a loaded question, since we would have to example the merits and faults of the different cuts of steaks

There are also different grades of steak, but if you're going to a half way decent steak house, it'll most likely be prime, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

For a more comprehensive list of steaks, I suggest you check out wikipedia.

Types of Steaks

Generally rule is if the meat is part of the cow where there's a lot of movement, it tends to be more tough. Cuts from the middle section of the cow tends to have less movement and exercise, so they'll be more tender.

I'll just go over the most popular cuts that you'll see in a restaurant, which are: rib eye, T-bone, strip steak, skirt steak and Filet Mignon.

The strip steak is the most common steak you'll see in a restaurant. You'll probably know it has the New York strip. This a decent cut of steak, but most restaurants cut this strip down to a rather thin portion. Which means that the steak tends to be over done and dry out. I do not recommend ordering the strip steak well done, you'll be left of a dry out piece of beef jerky.

The T-bone is another popular cut. You'll also know it by the larger variant called the Porterhouse. These are larger cuts and tend to be the most expensive on the menus of fine steak houses. The T-bone cuts actually have different cuts of meat in them, so that you'll actually get to try out 2 cuts of steaks for the price of one. You'll find the strip steak on one side and tenderloin on the other. They are more forgiving in cooking, so even a mediocre restaurant can cook it. The bone tend to protect the meat from overcooking. I would order this if I'm really really hungry.

The Filet Mignon often gets all the press. I actually don't prefer it at all. Sure it is the most tender cut, since it comes from a muscle that the cow hardly use. But it lacks fat, which we should all know by now fat is flavor. You may have a tender cut of beef, but it certainly is not the most flavorful. That's why you'll find it wrap in bacon in most steak houses. They want to infuse artificial flavor. Price per pound is usually the most expensive. I say stay away from this cut. It's just full of hype but lacks the substance.

Skirt steak is sometimes listed. However be careful when ordering this cut. Why? Well, like my friend who didn't know how the eat it. If you cut the steak the wrong way, it can be quite tough. You have to cut across the grain, and in a diagonal pattern to be edible. This cut actually has quite a bit of flavor, but I recommend reserving this for dishes like fajitas.

The last cut is what Hypertaster recommends if you're not sure what to eat. The rib eye cut has a nice balance of fat to muscle ratio. That means you'll get nice flavor and get enough bang for the buck. It is also tend be a thicker cut, so it's also more forgiving for those inexperience chefs out there. This cut can cook anyway you want. You can order this well done, though for the foodie in me, I tend to never order a steak well done. You can not go wrong with ordering a rib eye.

For a good steak, knowing the cuts is essential. There are other factors, like seasoning, amount of aging, the chef. However, those are usually out of your hands. If you are wondering about steak sauce, well, let me say a well cooked piece of steak does not need steak sauce.

Now that you learn the basic cuts, you'll shouldn't be afraid when you're at a steak house not knowing what to order.

Why FIsh Sauce?

Why Fish Sauce?

Today's topic is something that as perplex me, ever since I met my wife. She's Vietnamese and something that she loves to do as well as everyone else in her culture, is to dump everything into fish sauce. If you have not had fish sauce before, its a briny sweet sauce that may or may not contain hot peppers. It is made from fermented bony fish.

This sauce is often accompanied every dish that is served in a Vietnamese restaurant, whether it is a rice dish or their famous pho noodle soup. Most often I see it served especially with fried foods. Even before tasting the food to sample the inherent flavors, I see my wife and her family at times simply dip the food into the fish sauce automatically. This seems a bit foolish to me, as it compares to those that like to salt all their food before tasting. I often do not dip my food into the fish sauce and in turn get stares from my fellow diners. I like to taste the individual flavors before they get drowned out in the briny sweet liquid.

Perhaps it a cultural thing that I'm missing. Our perhaps everyone else is insane. Either case I just don't get it. I can see why you would put it with some foods. It does provide a bit of background flavor to most things, but somethings it can be a bit overpowering. Vietnamese cuisine is a mixture of French, Chinese and other Asian influences, yet this fish sauce thing is uniquely their own.

Perhaps someone in the audience can enlighten me. Once I figure out this love of fish sauce, perhaps I can turn my attention their their love of mint.