I haven’t spent a lot of time in France, but one would imagine that there are (or at least should be) a lot of country bistros like Cuisinett that serve solid comfort food in an intimate and neighborly atmosphere. One doesn’t find a lot of French food in the Bay Area, so it’s pretty special to have one in San Carlos that has become a go-to place for many people (we have two French restaurants if you include Crepe Stop, but that…
Most Americans can’t find Afghanistan on a map, but most San Carlans know they need to head to a strip mall on El Camino to find amazing Afghan cuisine at long-time San Carlos restaurant Kabul. Despite its less-than-ideal location, Kabul has been a pillar of the local restaurant scene for 30 years for its high-quality unique cuisine with ample portions and reasonable prices. We often find ourselves taking home food! It’s a fairly large restaurant, but usually draws a big…
Just as we sometimes venture to our neighbor to the north for food that we can’t find in the City of Good Eating, we also sometimes venture southward to Redwood City. The place that is “Climate Best by Government Test” has gone through a fairly dramatic transformation in the last decade. A town that was not too long ago called “Deadwood City” has morphed into a dynamic place with lots of new housing, businesses, stores, and restaurants. There has been…
Pazzo may mean crazy in Italian, but other than its odd cubist logo, there’s not much too crazy about Pazzo, except that the food is crazy good! It has become a South Laurel favorite over the last few years, perhaps only helped by its appearance on Food Network’s Diners, Drive-In and Dives (like many of the restaurants on that show, Pazzo is none of those three – but it was good publicity nonetheless). It’s a mid-sized place, with about a dozen…
Given the magnitude of eating and drinking places in San Carlos and its wide variety of cuisines, we don’t often have to travel beyond our borders for great food. But it’s worth taking a look at some great food choices in our neighboring cities, particularly places that offer something we don’t get in San Carlos (something beyond what may be equally good Mexican, Italian, or Japanese restaurants, for example). Here are a few of our favorites in our neighbor to the…
San Carlos has six — yes, six — pizza places (not counting the three Italian restaurants where you can also order Neapolitan-style pizza or the many places where there is some sort of “flatbread” on the menu). Among this group, San Carlos is blessed to have two deep-dish pizzerias in Blue Line and Patxi’s, approximately 500 feet away from each other on Laurel Street. They both also serve thin-crust pizza, and we have many friends who go to each specifically…
We’re big fans of tuna, particularly ahi Poke, the marinated raw tuna (or other fish) dish served often with onions and other spices. We have a few favorite tuna dishes in San Carlos that stand out, and interestingly these are all dishes that serve tuna or poke in non-traditional ways. Ahi Tuna Poke Sliders at Blind Tasting – one of our favorite bites in San Carlos. In each order you get two marinated poke sliders with a little cabbage and aioli…
Although the City of Good Eating doesn’t have a lot of nostalgia for restaurants gone by — we’ve generally been excited by all of the new entries on the San Carlos culinary scene. However, there are a few former places that stood out and make us remember fondly. Vic’s – on San Carlos Avenue, closed in 2009 after 33 years in business. The original owners sold the business a year earlier, and the new owner ran into financial difficulty. Vic’s…
About ten years ago, it seemed like San Carlos was the center of the world for eating falafel — I remember once counting seven different places to get the fried chick pea delight. As the restaurant scene has changed, San Carlans have periodically commented on an overabundance of a particular type of cuisine — at time it’s been Italian, Japanese, or Mexican. So, we wanted to take a look at the distribution of cuisines today. MAJOR CAVEAT — it can…
It has certainly felt like there has been an explosion of restaurants, bars, wineries, and breweries in San Carlos over the last decade or so. Is there a way to tell if San Carlos indeed has an oversized share of eating and drinking establishments? Although it is hard to get accurate data (and every place may count certain businesses differently), we can do some general comparisons based on our list of San Carlos eating and drinking spots. According to Statista,…