It’s been an interesting culinary year for The Biz Beat, with fast-food burgers competing with Indian and Mexican food for the top spot on the Best of 2024 list. The top two restaurants, Saapaadu and Campus Burger, opened just this year, but Burger Bar, coming in fourth, has been around since 1953.
All the restaurants are unique in their own way, from El Halal Amigos’ strict adherence to Islamic food traditions, which gives the dishes a fresh and unadulterated taste, to The 10th Street Distillery’s custom-designed stills, which produce world-class whiskeys in a California style.
And the variety of menu items, from Desi’s Gol Gappe to The Last Round Tavern’s Cubano pizza to The Club on Post’s creative cocktails like the Espresso Martini G’s Way, almost guarantees that customers will discover new favorites at each.
Several of these places are customer suggestions, which are always welcome and a great way to support those independent businesses who are braving a difficult industry to provide great service and quality menu items to all.
10. The Last Round Tavern
During my interview with Paleta Planeta’s owners, they recommended the nearby The Last Round Tavern, and I stopped in for lunch. I was immediately impressed by owner Caleb Orozco’s enthusiastic approach to customer service. My order was just as noteworthy: a sandwich made with tender 14-hour braised brisket served on a delectable ciabatta-style bread.
Orozco developed the recipes for the in-house baked bread and his delicately blistered crust for his pizza. He skillfully translates the ingredients for his lunchtime offerings into a creative pizza menu. It might sound improbable, but it works beautifully. The Cubano is a perfect example: The sandwich starts with Black Forest ham, salami and 14-hour braised pulled pork. The pizza version adds garlic sauce, pepperoncini and spinach, making one of the best meat pizzas I’ve ever tasted.
9. El Halal Amigos
It took Chef Hisham Abdelfattah two years to transform El Halal Amigos from a wildly popular food truck into a must-visit lunch and dinner spot. He credits social media for a good part of his success, but being about the only halal-dedicated Mexican restaurant around certainly helped.
Abdelfattah brings vibrant freshness to every dish, even simple dishes like his rice, which is so good, I would be satisfied with just that and some of his house-made salsa. But entrees, like his slow-cooked Barbacoa Costillas, combining brisket and beef ribs, are masterful, and he can even make vegetarian options, like sweet potato and fried kale tacos, a must-try.
8. Desi
Desi is a great example of the trend of high-end restaurants incorporating regional street foods into its menus. You will find the Chicken Tikka Masala that you would expect in an Indian restaurant. But you will also find the delightful Gol Gappe, spheres of puff pastry you poke open, fill with a cubed potato mixture, then spoon in infused waters to add flavor. Co-owner Archana Nagrath calls them “water bombs,” and they are savory and refreshing at the same time.
Desi is Indian down to its cocktails, drawing exotic and hard-to-place flavors from kala khatta (a syrup made from Indian blackberries) and a thick rose jelly called “gulkand” to add an air of cultural diversity. The menu also includes fusion elements, such as “Tikka Chance On Me,” a variation on bruschetta with tikka chicken, bell peppers and mozzarella.
7. Bayon Temple
COVID took me out after an ill-advised trip to the rodeo and Annalise Freimarck filled the Biz Beat gap with her story on Campbell’s Bayon Temple. This Cambodian restaurant in Campbell is co-owned by Vila Pho, a native of the Banteay Meanchey province, who specializes in the traditional dishes she grew up with.
Freimarck said that Pho’s signature dish is Amok, a white fish that she spices with lemongrass, kaffir lime and galangal and fish sauce and then hand-wraps in a banana leaf to be steamed in coconut milk and collard greens. The fish comes still wrapped to the table, making a distinctive presentation. Other favorites are the lemongrass-marinated kebabs, traditionally served on Cambodian New Year, and the sweet, sticky Mango Rice for dessert.
6. The 10th Street Distillery
You can tell you’re in a magical place as you walk into the tasting room at The 10th St Distillery and see a Wonka-like assembly of stainless steel boilers and copper-domed stills through the window. That this contraption also produces some of the best whiskey in the United States is equally magical.
Owners Virag Saksena and Vishal Gauri have taken advantage of California’s climate to produce a portfolio of high-end products that have the same profound depth and finish as the great aged whiskeys of the world—and they do it in a fraction of the time. The proof is there to be tasted, whether it’s their flagship Dragon Triple Cask, rated 94 points by the Beverage Testing Institute, or the lower-end California Coast Blend, citrusy and just as smooth.
5. The Club on Post
Walking by The Club on Post before it opens, you might not notice it at all. But once they bring the picnic tables and umbrellas out onto the closed-off street, the whole area brightens with the promise of good food and fun. Owner George Gonzalez, who opened the restaurant after 24 years in the real estate business, has the time of his life with the simple pleasures of greeting customers and shaking cocktails.
The food can be as formal as miso-glazed Chilean sea bass on a bed of coconut quinoa or as playful as braised pork belly glazed with cardamom-pomegranate sauce and topped with fresh pistachios, mandarin orange sections and golden pears. And where else can you get grits with Cajun shrimp? No matter what is ordered, every dish is creative and vibrant.
4. The Burger Bar
Standing like a well-preserved relic from an earlier age, the Burger Bar is the last of 30 hamburger stands founded by Albert Berger in 1953. Purchased in 2015 by the Barrita family, owners of La Victoria Taqueria, they understood immediately that they now owned a treasured institution and have worked to keep it in line with their customer’s expectations, offering a bag of five burgers for $9.99. The bag is the No. 1 seller, but there is considerably more to the menu worth exploring.
The half-chicken in another great deal—pro tip: call ahead to avoid the 20-minute cooking wait time —but keep the popcorn shrimp, burritos and fish and chips in mind. And definitely try the apple turnovers and the amazing strawberry milkshake, which caps off any meal perfectly. Expect a line at lunchtime, but service is fast and the experience is a lot of retro fun.
3. Jalisco Taqueria
Open until 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, Jalisco Taqueria has carved out a place for itself among those with the late-night munchies. Originally serving just tacos and burritos, about 80% of the business happens through their drive-through window. The food is as traditional as it gets, harkening back to founder Ampelio Meza’s Jalisco roots, and it’s kept that way through rigorous daily taste tests by every cook and manager.
While it’s great to grab your chile verde to go, by all means, take the time to park, get an unrushed view of the menu and eat in the dining room. The food is plated beautifully, and you might be tempted to try some more serious dishes, like the rib-eye steak. But no matter what you order, you’ll enjoy the fresh tortillas and the in-housemade salsas and sauces, like the cadillo used on the chile rellenos.
2. Campus Burger
Sometimes, a story approaches almost viral popularity, making me wonder why that one gets the reads rather than another. This is not the case with Campus Burger, which had a record-breaking number of online reads in its first few days, coinciding with its instant success with nearby San Jose State University students. Nothing beats the lure of an affordable burger.
Owner Jim Angelopoulos began his career at age 10, peeling potatoes at his parents’ 24-hour diner in San Martin. Once on his own, he found success with Scrambl’z and Yolk’d restaurants before selling them and plotting out a way to produce hamburgers that he could sell for $1.99 apiece. The stripped-down menu—with the only choices being cheese or no cheese and the number of patties—makes service fast and efficient. Students plus affordable burgers? Gold mine!
1. Saapaaduu
I reviewed Saapaaduu shortly after its Jan. 27 soft opening, and already a lover of Indian food, I found its menu to be a revelation. Specializing in the cuisine of southern India, the restaurant leans heavily on street foods and many dishes unavailable at typical Indian places.
It’s home to the best dish I have tried over this year’s assignments: roattukadai kalan, which translates as “roadside mushrooms.” The ragu, made from mushrooms, tomatoes and onions, has a thick, almost meaty texture. It’s a thick, almost meaty ragu of chopped mushrooms, tomatoes and onions with a compelling profile of black pepper.
Check the Instagram link in the article—Saapaaduu offers special menus regularly for Western holidays like Mother’s Day and Christmas and Indian festival days like Onam, Tamil New Year and Diwali. They also periodically offer the Banana Leaf Lunch Menu with a selection of more than 30 dishes served, of course, on a huge banana leaf.
Contact Robert Eliason at [email protected].
Editor’s Note: The Biz Beat is a series highlighting local small businesses and restaurants in Silicon Valley. Know a business you’d like to see featured? Let us know at [email protected].
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