Category Archives: Restaurants

Palo Alto’s Demi Excels in Japanese Comfort Food

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The omurice at Demi.
The omurice at Demi.

As my knife and fork slid into the lofty, fluffy omelet to reveal a mountain of fried rice inside, I immediately felt like I was back in Japan.

Omurice or omelet rice is one of the many delicious mainstay dishes that I fell in love with while traveling through that country. So, when I read that there was a new place in downtown Palo Alto serving it, I was all over it.

Demi is the recently opened namesake restaurant of Chef Demi Ebara, who hails from Kyoto. She is also the owner of Demiya, which has five locations in the Bay Area.

Both concepts specialize in yoshoku food or Japanese-style versions of Western dishes that are homey and comforting. It’s the type of food that you can find served in Japan not only in mom-and-pop places but on upscale tasting menus, too.

The snug, light-filled dining room.
The snug, light-filled dining room.
A few seats at the counter also are available.
A few seats at the counter also are available.

Demiya is more of a fast-casual restaurant with an emphasis on Japanese curry dishes, while Demi is a kicked-up, sit-down restaurant.

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Pizza Antica Frozen Pizzas Worth Your Freezer Space

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Pizza Antica's Margherita pizza -- the frozen variety.
Pizza Antica’s Margherita pizza — the frozen variety.

The original Pizza Antica in San Jose’s Santana Row has been churning out impeccable, freshly-baked Neapolitan- style pizzas since it opened in 2003.

But it took a global pandemic for the company to try its hand at the frozen pizza game. It has now gone all in with a commissary kitchen in San Francisco that churns them out.

Roberts Market in Woodside was once the only market that stocked the Pizza Antica frozen pizzas. Nowadays, its reach has been extended to the freezer cases at Bay Area Draeger’s, Mollie Stone’s, Zanotto’s, Nugget, Diablo Foods, Bi-Rite, Lundardi’s, Andronico’s, Piazza’s, Target, Cal-Mart, Marvel Foods, Berkeley Bowl, Piedmont Grocery, Oliver’s, Bianchini’s, and Woodlands.

A couple weeks ago when in Woodside, I stopped in at Roberts specifically to grab a couple of the Pizza Antica frozen pizzas. Having sat down to the ones at Pizza Antica many times, I was curious as to how the frozen ones stacked up.

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A Big Appetite for Okonomiyaki

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Negi pork okonomiyaki modanyaki-style at Fugetsu.
Negi pork okonomiyaki modanyaki-style at Fugetsu.

Okonomiyaki is like the Everything Pancake.

It boasts tender meat or seafood, a heap of shredded cabbage, a sunny side-up egg, and plenty of saucy sauce all over the top.

Tall and impressive, it is a whopper of a meal.

It is guaranteed to fill you up — and then some.

Inexpensive, it is a popular, casual, after-work meal best enjoyed with beer in Japan, which is where I fell hard for it while traveling there.

Unfortunately, you’ll have to look long and hard to find it at Japanese restaurants in the Bay Area.

Two restaurants melded into one.
Two restaurants melded into one.

So when I read about okonomiyaki-centered Fugetsu in downtown Sunnyvale, I knew I had to visit. While there are Fugetsu locations in San Jose and Santa Clara, they are more like takeout markets.

In contrast, the Sunnyvale Fugetsu is a sit-down restaurant. Actually, it’s really like two restaurants in one. Apparently, when Fugetsu’s lease in Santa Clara ended in 2021, the decision was made to move it to Rokko Japanese Restaurant, which is operated by the same owner.

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RT Bistro Completes A Trifecta

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Porcini doughnuts with caviar at RT Bistro.
Porcini doughnuts with caviar at RT Bistro.

When it comes to their brand of cooking, husband and wife chefs Evan and Sarah Rich have a knack for throwing you for a loop — in the best of ways.

Think you’re getting potato chips at their flagship, 14-year-old Rich Table in San Francisco? You are — but ones uncannily threaded with whole sardines.

Expecting a whole roasted cauliflower at their two RT Rotisserie locations in San Francisco? You might want to don sunglasses when it arrives blanketed in technicolor fuchsia from a dazzling red beet tahini sauce.

Hankering for shrimp Louie at their newest restaurant, RT Bistro, which just opened in January? The chilled shrimp in a creamy sauce will arrive not on a mound of lettuce, but on disks of fried eggplant that are crisp on the outside and creamy within.

The Riches call their food “New American.” In truth, it’s what Sarah and Evan most like to eat — familiar sounding dishes with deepened flavors that get playfully and imaginatively tweaked without losing any focus.

It’s proved to be a winning formula for them and General Manager-Partner Jonny Gilbert.

RT Bistro's entrance is around the corner from Rich Table's.
RT Bistro’s entrance is around the corner from Rich Table’s.

Last week, I finally had a chance to check out RT Bistro, which is actually located in the same building that houses Rich Table, with its entrance just around the corner from it.

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Get to Know Asia Live — Billed As the Asian Counterpart to Eataly

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Pad Thai meets banh xeo at the new Asia Live.
Pad Thai meets banh xeo at the new Asia Live.

Last month, a massive new Asian venue opened to great fanfare at Westfield Valley Fair in San Jose, replacing what had been another enormous Chinese restaurant that had debuted with equal excitement.

Asia Live, sister restaurant to San Francisco’s China Live, opened its doors last month, replacing the opulent iChina that operated from 2021 to 2024.

A year and a half in the making, the two-story, 15,000-square-foot Asia Live is an ambitious undertaking not merely for its sheer size, but also because it is located in an upscale shopping mall that already boasts a lot of competition in the Asian cuisine category with such popular restaurants as Marugame Udon, Ramen Nagi, Baekjong Korean BBQ, and Northern California’s only outpost of Din Tai Fung.

But if anyone is up to the challenge, it’s restaurateurs, owners, and husband and wife, George Chen and Cindy Wong-Chen. This is the 17th restaurant that Chen has opened. And it’s not even his largest. That honor goes to China Live at 30,000 square feet, which just celebrated its 9th anniversary.

The second-floor entrance from inside Westfield Valley Fair.
The second-floor entrance from inside Westfield Valley Fair.
The main dining room on the second floor.
The main dining room on the second floor.
Century-old vintage Chinese posters.
Century-old vintage Chinese posters.

Last week, I was invited in as a guest of the restaurant, where Chen was on hand to show me around — and there is a lot to see.

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