Silicon Valley

I recently stayed at the Sheraton San Jose hotel in Milipitas. It's located in a commercial/office park near Interstate 880 and Mc Carthy Blvd.

I arrived at San Jose Airport (SJC) at around 11pm and was informed that Sheraton's free airport shuttle doesn't run after 10:30pm. I was pretty annoyed, but I took a cab to the hotel. It was about 10 minutes away and costs $25 in cab fare with tip.

The hotel lobby was quiet, as it was pretty late. The lobby is a pretty good size with nice furniture. The one person on duty greeted me, pulled up my reservation and got me checked into room 408.

My room was rather large. Immediately to the left of the door was the bathroom. Directly ahead was the living room area, and just off to the left of the living room area was the bed. My view was of the swimming pool and garden area.

The bathroom was pretty basic, but clean. The living room included a couch and 2 non-matching chairs, coffee table, and TV with stand. There were a few other seats and a table against wall near the bed. There's a wet bar with fridge and coffeemaker between the living room area and the bed. There was ample lighting in the room. There was some sort of odd track lighting system that looked like a half-thought out upgrade to the room.

My bed was pretty nice, soft and clean. I slept fairly well, as far as one can sleep away from your bed at home. It was very quiet except for the hum of the fridge.

I woke up early, prior to 6am and checked out. (I would be attending events later and going directly to the airport afterwards.) It was pretty interesting as the desk clerk was the same one that checked me in 7 hours ago. The one staff person I encountered was friendly, the hotel was clean and nice. This seems to be a "working" hotel, given the commercial/office park it was situated in. The price was fair, $79 for a Friday night. I would stay at it again if I ever found myself in San Jose.

Applebee's is a nationwide chain of casual dining restaurants. It has recently partnered with celebrity chef Tyler Florence to create some new signature dishes. We went to the Applebee's in San Jose/Milipitas off the I-880 and 237 highway. I went with two co-workers on a Friday night.

We checked in and got out seats within 20 minutes. It was quite busy inside, but traffic was moving quite well. We got our drink orders and browsed the menu. I hadn't been to an Applebee's in awhile, and the menu has really changed. There are sandwiches, steaks, seafood, salads, and a menu insert with the new items from celebrity chef Tyler Florence.

My friends ordered the house sirloin and crab cakes, the bistro steak sandwich (from the special menu insert,) and I ordered the crab covered shrimp and steak combo (also a special menu item.) We decided on a spinach and artichoke dip appetizer.

The spinach and artichoke dip arrived about 8 minutes later. The warm dip went good with the fresh tortilla chips. My only complaint is there aren't enough tortilla chips to begin with. We had to ask our server for more chips. A while later, our entrées arrived. My friend's house sirloin and crab cakes consist of a grilled 7oz. sirloin paired with delicious crab cakes and tangy remoulade sauce. The relatively small size of the 7 oz. sirloin steak does look less than impressive on the large platter. My friend said the sirloin was tasty, and the crab cakes were absolutely delicious. It came with sides of fresh veggies and a piece of toast.

My other friend's bistro steak sandwich was pretty good. He said the sliced steak was tender and juicy. His only complaint was that the ciabatta bread was a bit too much bread for the sandwich.

I had the crab covered shrimp and Sicilian sirloin. The steak also looked a bit puny on the large platter, but surprisingly, it tasted great and was quite tender. The shrimp was very tasty, although the baked crab topping was a bit dry. My entrée also came with almond rice and toast.

We saved room for dessert and we ordered the triple chocolate meltdown and the blue ribbon brownie. The triple chocolate meltdown is fudge-filled chocolate cake topped with dark and white chocolate, plus vanilla ice cream and hot chocolate fudge. The blue ribbon brownie is hunks of dark chocolate and nuts are baked into this massive mountain that is draped in hot fudge and sweetly hugged by two scoops of vanilla ice cream. Both were absolutely scrumptious. I liked the triple chocolate meltdown a little bit better, the warm moist melt-in-your-mouth cake was very rich.

Our total bill was $61.76 including tax. I was impressed with my first trip to Applebee's in a few years. The atmosphere was good, the food is consistently good. The service was a bit slow due to the high volume of customers, but it wasn't inconvenient. I recommend Applebee's.

On The Border Mexican Cantina is a nationwide chain of Tex-Mex restaurants. I went to the San Jose On The Border off the I-880 and highway 237. It was a weekday evening, and we checked in and waited about 15 minutes before being seated.

The atmosphere of this restaurant is that of a Tex-Mex experience. There is a tortilla press at the back of the restaurant making fresh tortillas. The decor attempts to approach that of the interior of an old barn mixed with some Mexican decor.

The server gave us a bowl of freshly made/fried tortilla chips and gave us each our own individual bowl of salsa. The salsa is quite finely diced. Personally, I prefer large chunks of tomatoes and onions in my salsa, but this was still fairly good. My co-worker ordered the Enchilada Suizas and I ordered the Big Bordurrito. We ate chips and salsa and chatted while waiting for our entrees.

Our entrees came out after about 20 minutes. It did seem longer than we had hoped for, but the restaurant was quite busy that night. My co-workers Enchiladas Suiza are three chicken & cheese enchiladas covered with tangy tomatillo cream sauce and melted Jack cheese. It's served with Mexican rice and refried beans. She noticed her food was cold though, while my food was warm. I'm guessing they waited for my entree to bring both out together. She informed our server and he was very apologetic and offered to have a new entree made for her, but she just wanted it reheated. The server brought the enchiladas back in about 5 minutes all warmed up. Aside from the temperature, she really liked her meal.

My Big Bordurrito is a large burrito stuffed with fajita steak, Mexican rice, cheese, black beans, caramelized onions and red peppers and sour cream sauce. It's served with Mexican rice and refried beans. It's difficult to eat with your hands like a regular burrito, but it's possible, just messy though. It was pretty good, with nice chunks of the marinated fajita steak.

When we finished, we opted for a dessert. We ordered the Chocolate Turtle Empanadas. An empanada is basically a Mexican/Spanish turnover. They have empanadas filled with chicken or beef as an appetizer as well.

About 8 minutes later, the empanadas were brought out. The empanadas are flaky pastries filled with chocolate, caramel and pecans, rolled in cinnamon sugar. Served warm with vanilla ice cream. I liked the filling, but the flaky crust would be better on the appetizer than the dessert since it wasn't too sweet and didn't seem to match the filling inside the dessert empanada. I don't think I would order this again.

Our total bill came out to $36 before tip. That's for 2 entrees, dessert, and 2 soft drinks. The entrees were good, the dessert was a slight miss, and my co-worker's entree was a bit cold. I've dined at other On The Borders and have received excellent service, so I'll still recommend it.

Red Robin is national family oriented chain of restaurants which features gourmet burgers and includes a bar area for the adults. The Red Robin in San Jose is at the intersection of Saratoga and West Campbell, in the REI shopping center.

I went during a weekday dinner with a co-worker. The restaurant was pretty packed with the families with children, as well as adults in the bar. We were told it would be a 30 minute wait unless we wanted to sit in the bar. We chose the bar and found a small, but comfy booth.

The decor in all Red Robins is pretty eclectic with various paintings and poster prints, as well as odds and ends such as streetlights and street signs. It's very similar to TGI Friday's in decor. There were quite a number of kids dining here. The front counter staff kept the kids entertained with crayons and paper menus to color, as well as inflating balloons out of a helium tank.

I split a chocolate malt with my co-worker. The malt was very good. I haven't had a malt in quite a while, so this tasted even better.

The menu has appetizers, a big variety of burgers, some sandwiches, a few entrées such as fish and chips and such. Most of the items were around the $10 mark. I chose the Royal Red Robin Burger. I substituted the American cheese for cheddar at no additional cost. Burgers and sandwiches come with bottomless steak fries. My co-worker chose a bowl of chili.

About 15 minutes later, our entrées came out. My co-worker's chili had lots of fresh ground beef and kidney beans with a mix of peppers and plenty of seasoning. His chili was topped with cheddar cheese, diced red onion and tortilla strips. I tried a bite and the chili wasn't too hot, but still quite flavorful.

My Royal Red Robin Burger was pretty big. It had a fried egg in the middle as well as three strips of bacon, cheddar cheese, crisp lettuce, tomatoes, and mayo. It was delicious. The ingredients all blended together well, and there's something about that fried egg that makes this burger perfect.

There's nothing like a really good gourmet burger sometimes, and Red Robin really hit the spot. It's a great family restaurant to bring the kids. If you don't prefer the kids, you can go to the bar area, where you can catch a drink and a good game on one of the TVs there.

Our total bill for a shake, chili, and burger was $19.36 before tip.

I highly recommend Red Robin. I've been to other locations and the food and service are consistently good. I'm a visitor to San Jose and I chose Red Robin knowing the food would be as good as dining at a Red Robin in my hometown.

The International House of Pancakes (IHOP) is a nationwide chain of family restaurants specializing in breakfast, especially pancakes. I think there are IHOP locations in every state but Vermont.

I took some clients to a breakfast meeting at the IHOP in San Jose by the intersection of First and George Streets. We checked in and waited for about 10 minutes before we were seated.

The decor in IHOP restaurants are pretty much the same in every location. Nothing flashy, just low key, a few paintings, some wallpaper, but pleasing to the eye. Our waitress was prompt and friendly. She took our drink orders and left you to browse the menu.

IHOP's menu features a lot of breakfast items, with omelets, pancakes (of course), crepes, other breakfast items, and a regular lunch and dinner menu. My clients chose the Garden Crepes and the International Passport breakfasts, while I chose the Rooty Tooty Fresh & Fruity breakfast.

About 15-20 minutes later, our breakfasts arrived. My client's Garden Stuffed Crepes has two crepes stuffed with Swiss cheese, scrambled eggs with spinach, mushrooms, and onions. It's topped with Hollandaise sauce and diced tomatoes. She enjoyed the crepe, but said the Hollandaise sauce was a bit bland, which helped to kill some of the flavors in the crepe.

My other client had the International Passport breakfast, which has two crepes, two bacon, two sausage, and two eggs. He enjoyed everything on his plate. The crepes were topped with orange marmalade, and he especially enjoyed its sweet flavor in the morning.

I had the Rooty Tooty Fresh & Fruity breakfast entrée. It's two eggs, two bacon, and two sausage, and two buttermilk pancakes topped with strawberries and whipped cream. You have a choice of strawberries or fruit compote. I thoroughly enjoyed my entrée. I liked the strawberries, but they certainly weren't fresh, I could tell that they were frozen strawberries, but it was still good anyways.

Our total bill before tip was $32. That includes one soft drink, two coffees, and three breakfast entrées.

The main reason I chose IHOP is because it's widely known to many, and the food is pretty much consistent at every IHOP. As a business traveler entertaining clients, consistent results are more important to me than experimenting with new restaurants I've never been to before.

While there are much better breakfasts out there, you can usually expect an IHOP to serve a good breakfast, pretty much no matter which IHOP you go to. In the morning, most people have a certain expectation of breakfast. A good one can jump start one's day, a bad one can set a bad tone for the rest of the day. IHOP gave me a good start for the day today.