Pasta ? - A taste of Italy in Palo Alto

Pasta ? is not a question, its the name of an Italian restaurant in Palo Alto.  We've been in Palo Alto a lot lately and we've come to love University Ave. Its great for walking and the range of restaurants is stellar. Whenever I ask Irina what she wants to eat its alway, Pasta, with an "!", so Pasta, with a "?" has become our go to Italian spot.  Dinners there are not only delicious, but also very reasonably priced. Irina's favorite smoked Salmon pasta is only 11.95 and its the best I ever tasted at any price.
  We go to this restaurant not only for the food, but for the atmosphere and great service. I grew up surrounded by Italians and their hospitality and the people at Pasta?, extend that same feeling. A review that I read of this restaurant said, "we visited Italy recently and we agree that visiting Pasta? is the exact same experience." We agree.
  Well, great, inexpensive food is one thing, but Eating Out Cheap, is about how good of a deal can we get? Today we showed up at Pasta? at around 4:30, being somewhere between lunch and dinner we were kind of stuck. We weren't ready for a huge dinner and the lunch specials looked really well priced, the waiter even said he'd be willing to try to get us those, even though it was pretty late. He then suggested we check out the happy hour menu. Now we're talking!  From 3-6pm and then again from 9pm to closing they have drink specials and an extensive happy hour menu. The selection was great and felt more like an Italian version of tapas.  We decided to try a range of dishes to get a feel for the range of the menu.
 While we mulled over the menu I started with a draft beer, Sierra Nevada for $3. Other drinks were, $3.50 for a glass of wine, $4 well drinks and $5 martinis, nice.

We decided to build the meal around some pasta, of course, and chose a Penne with Alfredo sauce. Nice fresh perfectly al dente penne, came with a light coat of tasty al fredo sauce. It was a nice portion, definitely enough for two.
 As another hearty dish we chose, Scampi al Limone, a beautiful plate with 5 med shrimp laid atop a bed of mixed greens topped with capers. It was accompanied by a warm dressing/dipping sauce, we used it for both and four pieces of garlic toast. I'm not even beginning to do this dish justice, suffice it to say this was a winner, paricularly paired with the pasta.

To round this out we had Caprese, which is sliced tomatos topped with fresh mozzarella cheese and drizzled with olive oil with basil, yummy. And last but not least a Piatto di Salami, which was an assortment of salami, the kind I've only had in Europe.

  This was more than enough for us and the variety of flavors and colors was divine. Funny thing is we barely scratched the surface of the choices on the menu. There were several more pastas, ciopinno, etc, etc. It'll take several visits to get to them all, but we're up to the task.
 The nice thing with this selection is that you can tailor it to your level of hunger. The choices we had today fit our needs perfectly, but if we wanted a more substantial meal, we would have order two pastas and one or two others.
  We enjoyed coming early because there was a light crowd and it was nice and relaxing sitting by the big full length windows.  Around six it really fills up and gets lively, so the timing is perfect for us.

Fuse Lounge- A Retro tradition brought up to date

We've been trying to find some great dining deals in the Monterey/Carmel area for awhile and were coming up empty handed. That is until an EOC facebook friend, Giule Garland tipped us off to a couple of deals in Carmel. The most interesting involved FREE FOOD! That got our attention fast. We decided a little road trip south was in the cards for us.  Fuse Lounge in the Carmel Mission Inn was our destination.  Many years ago it was the only large hotel in the area and was a Holiday Inn, but its been completely redo while retaining a slightly retro look. The lounge/restaurant has kept the most retro look and feel but is all brand spanking new. Lots of windows give the place an open airy feel. They are plenty of large comfy chairs arranged around large tables, which are great for large groups.  We chose a smaller table near a window overlooking the pool area and garden.  A good thing to do is call ahead and double check when hapy hour starts that day. I was told it was 4-6 and checking online I couldn't find a time on their site. When we arrived at 4:30 we were told it didn't start till 5. Not a big deal, we just soaked up some sun by the pool till opening time. So at this point it seems like happy  hour is 5-7pm. Much more civilized in my opinion.
  Okay here's the ground rules. The buffet is free if you buy a alcoholic drink. If you opt out  of the alcohol you can still get the buffet for 5.00. We went for two Sierra Nevada beers, $4.00 during happy hour, that's a dollar off regular price. Well drinks also get the dollar off discount. With the drink orders in we were given plates to use at the buffet. They're small but as it turned out well designed for loading up at the buffet, not that that's necessary as its all you can eat. 
  The buffet itself was a nice selection of items that allowed you to put together a nicely varied meal. In the cold department were a selection of grilled marinated veggies. This included; asparagus, eggplant, mushrooms, onions and bell peppers. I could've been happy with just this. The eggplant was buttery and the asparagus crunchy but not tough.  Even if veggies aren't your thing, get some onions or peppers as they make a nice garnish for the hot items. 
  On the night we were there the hot items were a rigatoni pasta with a tomato/garlic sauce topped with grated cheese. Then there were mushrooms stuffed with meat, my mom used to make these and her's were the best and these compared very well. Last were my favorite, tasty but difficult to catagorize. In the end I'd say they were mini chicken tostadas. A tiny, about the size of a half dollar, fried corn tortilla topped with chicken, sour cream and a little cilantro. Little bites of heaven. By the second helping of food I was pretty much full. I gamely went back for a third, but I think I was pushing it.
  Okay what was the damage? Two beers $4.00 each, total eight bucks! That's it! Okay, I don't think it gets better than that.  If you need more food they do have a regular dinner menu, but we were just fine with this.
  This deal is available Wed and Thurs. Friday they have another deal that we're going to need to check out. An all you can eat seafood buffet for 11.99. Again the catch is you need to buy a drink. But consider this. Without a drink the buffet is 19.99. So in effect you get the buffet and a drink for less than the cost of the buffet alone. Do the math.  We'll be checking this out in the future, but we're told they have blue point oysters, peel and eat shrimp, cioppino, and several other items.
  So if you're in Carmel during the week this is the place to land after a day of exploring the area.

Fuse Lounge 
3665 Rio Road
Carmel, CA, 93923
831-624-6632

Davenport Roadhouse-A Relaxing Drive up the Coast

  After a crummy rainy day we were happy to see the sun come out in the late afternoon. It seemed like a great time to hop  in the car and head north on Hwy 1 watching the sun dip into the ocean.
 Our destination was the Davenport Roadhouse, a place I hadn't been to in years, but I had recently heard some good things about the place so being as it was Tuesday and we heard they have a Taco Tuesdays, we figured why not?
  The drive was beautiful and from my Westside office only about a fifteen minute drive. Davenport Roadhouse is a combo, restaurant, bar and Inn housed in a beautiful brick and wood building.  We arrived around 8 and Taco Tuesday runs from 6-9, so with it staying light later its a great way to get a great deal without having to adhere to the regular 4-6 happy hour hours of most places.  There was an acoustic group playing when we arrived, The Sherry Austin Band, they were really good and had a nice turnout in the bar.
  We were seated in the restaurant section but we could still see andhear the music. Its nicely laid out where if you want even less music you could sit further back in the restaurant, but we were happy just off to the side.
  Most days the Roadhouse has a 4-6pm happy hour, but on Tuesdays and Thurdays that is extended to 9pm and on Tuesdays Tacos are on special for $3.00 ea. You have a choice of Veggie, Fish or Carnitas. We orders a couple beers, they had Santa Cruz Pale Ale on tap, which is my new favorite, very cold and very clean. For tacos we each had a fish and a carnitas taco. The fish is made with grilled Tilapia and the Carnitas was a delicious slow cooked pork.  The tacos come ala carte but are beautifully presented. A flour tortilla comes with the selected filling topped with red cabbage, really fresh guacamole, actually more like wonderfully ripe mashed avocado and topped with a spicy mayonaise. Its hard to say which was better, each was exquisite in its own way and if I had it all to do again I'd make the same choice.

 The service was very friendly and the whole place had a very homey comfy feeling.  Seemed like there were a lot of locals who knew each other, but it was still very comfortable. As summer comes upon us and the days get longer we'll definitely be making more trips this way and we'll most definitely be stopping by for more of this great food.
  If your planning a trip from out of the area, this would be an ideal place to stop for the night if you're traveling up or down the coast. A nice inn and some great food, it couldn't get much better.


Davenport Roadhouse
Hwy 1
Davenport, CA

A Happy Hour when you Need One

We had business in Palo Alto recently and were returning home to Santa Cruz around 2pm and realized we were famished and wouldn't make it home without some sustenance. We hadn't had lunch and it was still too early for dinner, so we decided to try to find a happy hour that started early.  After some searching around on my iPhone I found a place that got unanimously great reviews and they had a well regarded happy hour that went from 2-7pm! This sounded like our kind of place, It was in Campbell which was right on our way home.

 The place is called Grill 'em and seems to be a popular "cook your own steak" kind of place, but a lot of the reviews single out the happy hour as being worth the visit.  During happy hour beers are $3, well drinks $2.50, margaritsa $4 and appetizers $5.  We checked the menu online and it had a nice range of apps, so we were on our way. Grill 'em in on Bascom Av just south of Dry Creek Road. We'd passed this area many times but have never noticed this place. Nice sign, but the building is kind of dark looking. The posts we'd seen about the place mention this and also say ignore and go right on in, its a friendly place, and this was true, the hostess/waitress was really friendly and started to lead us into the dining room, I mentioned that we were here for happy hour, as a lot of places require that you sit in  the bar to get happy hour deals, but she just said, "Great", and proceeded to seat us in a nice booth in the dining room. Since we came smack dab in the middle of "dead time" at most restaurants, I can't comment on how busy the place usually is, but there was another table of people in the dining room and the bar had was pretty busy.
  The appetizer menu has a nice selection and we had some trouble making up our minds, but we finally settled on the Chicken Potstickers, BBQ short ribs and Chicken Quesadilla. For drinks we had a Sierra Nevada and since it was Thursday we ordered the $3 Mojito.

 Service was quick and our orders arrived fairly quickly. The Potstickers came with both hot and sweet dipping sauces. These are not the large doughy kind of Potstickers, they're more of what I see as Gyozas, that are served in Japanese restaurants. Crunchy but not hard on the outside and the filling was pretty tasty.  Take my word for it the hot dipping sauce if HOT!, but really addicting, the sweet is a nice compliment, both very good. Nice size order, 8 pieces.
  They arrived first and soon after our other two appetizers arrived. The Quesadilla was really nice, filled with cheese, chicken and grilled onion, served with a side of salsa and sour cream. Good size and very tasty. The salsa wasn't too spicy but was a good complement to the quesadilla.
  The hit of the trio was the BBQ short ribs, Korean style. I'm always wary of these because I've had a few too many fatty, tough versions. Here their exquisite. We had contemplated getting some bread to go with them but didn't and a good thing as the order comes with pieces of garlic bread, perfect.  These boneless short ribs were very tender, with enough fat to make them moist and delicious. They had been marinated in a teriyaki based sauce which was not overpowering and imparted a slightly sweet finish to the flavor.

  Drinkwise my Sierra was very cold and fresh tasting, and went perfectly with the meal. The Mojito on the other had seemed on the watery side, it seemed like a correct combination of ingrediants, but like maybe it had been premixed with ice and the ice had melted. I had read some reviews that said the same thing about the Mojitos and others that said they were STRONG. Unfortunately I got the former rather than the latter. If it had been later I would have ordered another cocktail to get a better impression of what the bar can do, but that'll have to wait till another day.
  All in all I'd say we had a nice light meal and we'd definitely return, the food was good and the prices were right and you can't beat the hours for the happy hour.


Grill 'em
2509 S. Bascom Avenue
Campbell, CA

Ma Maison-Fine French dining in Aptos, CA

  Ma Maison is the type of restaurant that Eating out Cheap lives for. Its a high end place that consistently gets great reviews for its food, and a place that is normally out of our price range and not on our radar. Well, that changed radically tonight! We were tipped off that the restaurant had some coupons on their website and one intrigued us immensily.  It offers any entree on the menu and adds salad and dessert all for 19.95.  Its a time limited offer, the coupon has an expiration date and you need to use it between 5:30pm and 6:30pm. The nice part was you could use it any day except Saturday. We figured what a great deal for a Sunday night out.
  The building the restaurant lives in is back from the road nestled among the redwoods and backed up to a creek, a very cozy setting. Its an old house with a nice warm fireplace for this winter evening. Its comfy, yet elegant, formal but not stuffy, you definitely have the feeling that you've been transported to a French country inn.
  One thing we'll admit is we're not coupon people and its an experience that always makes us a little uncomfortable, but we had nothing to worry about here.  The staff is friendly and gracious, I left the coupon on the edge of the table and when our waiter saw it he immediately made sure we knew that any entree including the daily specials were available to us and was very helpful in explaining various dishes and any discomfort we came in with was soon dissipated.
   Bread and herbed butter arrived quickly along with a very good glass of house Merlot ($6). Making my dinner choice was easy, I wanted steak and tonight they had a NY cut which was Flambéd with brandy and finished with a black peppercorn cream sauce, served with French Fries and asparagus.

 Irina had the Filet du Canard, which is Duck filet, roasted and sliced, with blueberry-aged balsamic vinegar sauce, mashed potatoes and asparagus.
  The salads were a nice mix of greens with a basalmic vinegrette topped with some shredded carrots, a nice way to start off the meal.
  When our main course arrived two things were immediatly apparent, the portions were ample and the presentation was beautiful.
 My steak was a large thick cut piece of meat, cooked to a perfect medium, something a lot of restaurants have trouble doing. I'm not a big fan of sauce on steak and I usually ask to have the meat cooked plain, but tonight I didn't and I was glad I didn't. The black peppercorn cream sauce, was the simply to die for. At first I felt the fries were a little underwhelming until I realized when you used them to sop up the cream sauce they became heavenly and by the time I was done my plate was pretty clean.  The best thing was the steak didn't let the sauce overpower it, it was flavorful and very, very, tender.  The asparagus was firm yet tender all the way down to the bottom of the stalk.

  Irina's duck was a hit too.  She was glad she ordered it and said it basically melted in her mouth. I only got a small bite, she was being very protective of her portion, but I'd agree it was the best duck I've tasted and its sauce added a lot of flavor without overpowering the duck meat. Again her asparagus was excellent and the mashed potatoes were first rate. Irina had arrived craving mashed potatoes and she said they did a great job of satisfying that craving. We were full and happy and we weren't done yet.
  Dessert was two incredibly fresh Tiramisus. Creamy and light and again ample portions. We complimented them with tea and coffee and were ready to roll home, two happy campers.
 Now here's the good part all that came to $50.00 excluding tax and tip. We figured that at full prices the bill should have been around $90.00, actually very reasonable for the quality and size of the meals along with the great atmosphere, but for a 40% savings it was incredible.
 At the end of the meal the chef/owner, Lionel Morvan came around to each table to chat with us and ask how we liked things, very impressive.  Well Ma Maison has two new converts and we will be back, with or without coupons.  In fact this is the great thing about these kind of deals, there are places you might not experiment with because of price, but with this kind of savings its worth taking the chance and if like our experience at Ma Maison you love the place, everyone wins. You have a new place you like and the restaurant has new regulars.  This is one of the main reasons we started eating out cheap and one of the driving forces that keeps us going.

 

Ma Maison
9051 Soquel Drive
Aptos, CA

Gordon Biersch-San Francisco

After a long day at Macworld in San Francisco, we decided we needed to clear our heads with some fresh air, so we cruised down to the Embarcadero to walk along the bay and enjoy the view. Wasn't long before hunger started creeping up on us and being as it was around 5 we figured there must be a happy hour somewhere nearby. Sure enough on the corner of Harrison and The Embarcadero in a picturesque brick building sits Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant. A quick check with the hostess confirmed that happy hour was in progress and the plates passing by were making us hungrier by the minute.
If you like beer, this is your place. They serve five types of Gordon Biersch beer, all brewed onsite. In fact along one wall you can see the big tanks they use in the brewing process. The decor is dark wood and brick and one wall is all glass which gives a nice view of the bay.

At happy hour all GB beers are $1.00 off, wine is $2.00 off and they have $5.00 Martinis, Margaritas and Mojitos. On the food side they have a selection of appetizers all for $4.95 each. These include: Tapas, glazed chicken wings, deep fried artichokes, garlic fries, southwest egg rolls, house made chips and mini pizzas.
There were seven of us so we basically tried the whole appetizer menu, with the exception of the house made chips. This was a mountain of food. Not was everything beautfully presented, but the portions were ample enough for us to have some leftovers. We tried a variety of beers and they were all very well received. I was especially impressed with the freshness of the flavors, very bright and distinct, makes the bottled beer I usually drink pale by comparison.
Where to start with the food? The chicken wings were awesome, honey glazed, the way I like them and meaty, so tasty. Their garlic fries are world famous, and for good reason, I could have eaten a whole portion by myself. Tapas are really cool. They take their pizza dough and bathe it in an olive oil marinade and cook it in the wood fired oven and then serve it with a variety of toppings on the side.

These include, hummus, garlic, olive tapenade and fresh salsa. Yum! We all loved the deep fried artichokes which had a parmesan coating. Light, tender and tasty. Gordon Biersch prides themselves on making everything from scratch and it certainly shows in the quality of everything we tried. BTW, the staff is extremely friendly and helpful, they helped make the experience memorable.

Gordon Biersch
2 Harrison St
San Francisco, CA

Shadowbrook-HIgh End Happy Hour

The Shadowbrook in Capitola by the Sea, is one of our favorite restaurants, we love it for special occasions and when we want to impress family or friends. Its also one of the pricier restaurants we go to, so we can't usually afford it as much as we'd to. Not only is the food top notch, but the grounds are among the most beautiful of any restaurant we know of and people come from afar just to enjoy it. The restaurant itself is nestled at the bottom of a hill among lush gardens and is reached by a rail tram. All these elements have made it one of the premier places for marriage proposals, amazing.
Well the Shadowbrook is also the grandaddy of establishments in the Eating out Cheap Hall of Fame. While they work hard to cater to a clientle that will drop some serious cash, they also have some awesome deals that allow people on more modest budgets to enjoy the food and surroundings on a regualr basis. Its obviously a win win situation since the place is full on any night of the week and any time of the year, that's a real feat in a town that usually survives on the tourist trade.
They do this two ways, one by having daily specials in the dining room, see their website for the latest specials and the second is by their happy hour. We been here a couple of times and what I've noticed is a lot of people are basically having an inexpensive dinner and drinks during this time. This is not an everyday happy hour, it only occurs on Tues. and Friday. Friday is half off happy hour and Tuesday is "two for one" happy hour. We went on Tuesday, when the happy hour runs from 3:30-6:00. Beer, wine and well drinks are $3.50 ea and appetizers including the pizzas are two for one, which means you pay for the most expensive one of the two.
We started with two vodka/cranberry drinks ($3.50 ea) and then ordered a Pizza Margherita and Memela's Oaxacan "pizza". The pizza consisted of fresh mozarella cheese, vine ripened tomatoes and fresh basil. Wow! The toppings were extremely flavorful and were nicely complimented by the thin crust which was lightly toasted on the bottom and edges. Turns out they're cooked in a woodfired brick oven, and it really makes a difference.
The Oaxcacan "pizza" is something out of this world. Its definitely not a pizza, its also not Nachos and its not a tostada. What it is a melange of incredible flavors sittin on top of two "corn tortillas" and I put the "" there because these are more than tortilla, they're a little thicker and have been lightly fried, crisp but not "chips" crunchy. The topping is a mix of 18 hour smoked pork, black beans, queso fresco, fire roasted tomato salsa and what appeared to be a whole sliced fresh avocado. Its the sum of the ingrediants that makes this the most heavenly concotion I've every had. This was a lot of food too. We had about half the pizza left and were about to pack it up and go home, but we couldn't resist nibbling and managed to finish it all. The best part is that in the end our bill was around $18.00 for two people!
We'll be coming back so for happy hour, but we're also going to try a dinner special. Thursdays all seafood items on the menu are $15.99.
Four thumbs up on this place.


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The Shadowbrook
Capitola and Wharf Roads
Capitola by the Sea, CA