Pho Nam Sunnyvale

Pho Nam is in our opinion the best pho place in the Mountain View/Sunnyvale/Santa Clara/Milpitas area.  Luckily they have three locations - two in Sunnyvale and one in Milpitas so we can have great pho whenever we are craving it.  We've been coming to Pho Nam for many years and they have delivered great pho over 95% of the time.  There's been some times when the broth was too watered down or too salty but that's pretty rare.  What makes their pho the best is the perfect combination of a tasty broth and chewy noodles.  A typical meal here would be:

Rare steak and lean brisket pho

Deep fried egg rolls

Iced coffee - always in a to go cup as we like to take it with us

On some occasions we'll order the bun (the dry noodles with veggies that you pour fish sauce over) and it's also very good.  However 90% of the time, we stick with the pho even on hot days.  We'll probably be sweating while eating it but it's worth it.  One complaint is their fresh rolls - they don't taste very fresh.  Once you put in the order, they'll have it at your table in a minute.  They probably make it in advance and keep it in the refrigerator.  I would stay away from this dish as you can find better elsewhere.

Overall if you stick with pho, fried egg rolls and Vietnamese iced coffee you'll be having a really good meal for cheap at Pho Nam.

Sancho's Taqueria Palo Alto

It's not easy driving up to Palo Alto after work on a Friday evening but we did yesterday to try the fish tacos at Sancho's Taqueria.  Bottom line - it was worth the 45 minute drive to get these delicious fish tacos.  The fish tacos comes grilled or lightly battered so we decided to try one of each but unfortunately our order was mixed up and we got two lightly battered.  Although the meal got off to a bad start with the order mix up, we weren't disappointed as the lightly battered fish tacos from Sancho's Taqueria are the best!  I hope this picture does it some justice because we're already planning our next trip there just to eat these fish tacos.

We also ordered carnitas tacos as we love carnitas however we've had better at La Bamba in Mountain View.  A quick tip is if you're coming to Sancho's Taqueria, just stick with the seafood itesm such as the fish tacos.  We also tried the white fish ceviche and shrimp ceviche - the white fish ceviche is cheaper and much better tasting.  So another quick tip is to stick with the white fish ceviche and use the $2 saved towards a beer :-)

Cajun Crab at Boiling Crab in San Jose

We were so glad to hear that San Jose now has two Boiling Crabs.  The original location on Capitol Expressway was always packed - usually a 2 to 3 hour wait on the weekends starting at 4pm.  The new location is at the Plant Shopping Center in San Jose where the wait times have been reduced to about an hour.  The best part is you can spend your hour shopping at stores such as Target, Best Buy, Babies R Us, etc.

On this occasion, we came to Boiling Crab with a friend who has never been before.  We had to educate him on how Boiling Crab works so for those of you who haven't been, here's how it works.  There are basically no eating utensils at Boiling Crab unless you order a gumbo.  The shrimp, crab or crawfish comes in a plastic bag full of sauce.  You just put on your bib (yes they have bibs here as it can get really messy), and then dig in.  When we eat here we usually go with short sleeve shirts, take our rings and watches off and wear clothing that we don't mind getting messy.   

On this occasion at Boiling Crab, this is what we ordered:


1) One pound of shrimp in The Whole Sha-Bang which is a combination of the following seasonings:

- Rajun Cajun
- Lemon Pepper
- Garlic Butter

We requested this one to be mild and had them throw in a few corn on the cobs.  This was good as always, we like shrimp because it's easy to peel and eat.  When eating anything here, be sure to get a few more of their dipping cups so you can scoop the sauce out of the bag.  Not the best picture but there's some shrimp and corn in that bag

2) One crab in The Whole Sha-Bang but this time it was medium.

We didn't find any difference between mild and medium sauce.  Who knows, maybe our tongue was already numbed from the spices so it was hard to tell ;-)   Crab is a bit tougher and messier to eat as you have to crack it open and dig for the meat and also a bit more expensive than eating shrimp but since we're at a restaurant called The Boiling Crab, we have to get one.

3) Sweet potato fries - they also have regular fries which we got with the fried shrimp basket so we decided to get this.  Wish we had a better sauce to dip it in though instead of just ketchup.  Not sure what exactly but somehow I think ketchup isn't the right thing for this.  Also managed to take a picture of this before my hands got really dirty:

4) Fried shrimp basket - this came with cajun fries and we were hoping the fried shrimp would taste good dipped in the Whole Sha-Bang sauce but it was just OK.  Would have been better off getting another pound of the regular shrimp.

Banh Mi Dakao Milpitas

Banh Mi is a Vietnamese sandwich on a baguette with your choice of meat and the usual fillers - carrots, daikon, cucumbers, chili peppers and mayonnaise.  Dakao in Milpitas in our opinion, makes the best Banh Mi in the north San Jose/Santa Clara/Sunnyvale/Milpitas area.  Outside of going to south San Jose and the Vietnamese part of town, Milpitas has a lot of choices for Vietnamese food.

Occasionally for Saturday lunch, we like to pick up a couple of sandwiches as it's our version of a light lunch.  Sandwiches that we usually get are the combination, grilled pork and grilled beef.  Other tasty items that you can buy here are the fried egg rolls and the Vietnamese iced coffee.  Believe it or not - a lunch with two sandwiches, a few egg rolls and a coffee is under $10!  Can't beat that if you're on a budget.