California

San Diego means business when it comes to having fun and celebrating life. It has everything required for a fun getaway – beaches, bays, hills, museums, carnivals, and parks. This…

Pacific Avenue is Santa Cruz’s main street. It’s a fascinating place to go for a walk – there is a lot of street theatre, both deliberate and accidental, and always…

In Mexico, one of the big holidays is the Day of the Dead, or in Spanish, Dia de Muertos. It’s a three-day holiday during which people remember and pray for…

With the Annual San Diego Food Festival taking place in September every year, we have compiled a list of restaurants where you can get into the spirit of the festival…

The largest city within Silicon Valley and the tenth largest in USA, San Jose marries Spanish historical structures with modern high rise buildings. A regular travel spot for business travelers…

The foggy city of San Francisco is the perfect excuse to explore the restaurants and bars that line the streets of the city. Almost all the cities in California have…

The largest and most important city in the fertile Central San Joaquin Valley, Fresno comprises people from 80 different nationalities, who have set up home here. Fresno has an eventful…

‘California begins here’. Sacramento, the capital of California has revamped its efforts on a huge scale to match up with more popular destinations in California like Los Angeles and San…

I have always been kind of uncomfortable with the while concept of obligatory gratitude. All the treacly demands that I practice daily gratitude, that it’s some kind of moral obligation,…

While you hop about in this city in hopes of catching a glimpse of Jennifer Lopez or Johnny Depp, ignoring what the sun is doing to your flawless complexion, you…

As John Donne famously wrote, “No man is an island.” First of all, what other restaurant review have you read, ever, that quotes John Donne? Second, no restaurant, apparently, is…

  It’s important to remember that, at the end of the day, restaurants are businesses. Not everyone can be (or should be) Thomas Keller. Foodies are, for the most part,…

In many, many ways, I am a complete sucker for a pretty face. For obvious reasons, this has gotten me into real trouble on more than one occasion. However, at…

The Stranger: Beer… and a bottle. Lutie Naylor: Ain’t much good, but it’s all there is. [brings drinks] Lutie Naylor: You want anything else? The Stranger: Just a peaceful hour…

This place wasn’t actually bad. I have had bad. I know bad. Sometimes it makes you physically sick, or sometimes it makes the entire act of eating seem sort of…

They always mess up the coffee. Every restaurant I have ever eaten in, that I can remember, always serves mediocre coffee at the end of the meal. It’s either watery,…

I sat and did a little sobering math before writing this review. If you multiply the number of meals per day (3) by the number of years I’ve been eating…

[easy2map id=”25″] (Click on the map icons to know the Address, Contact No. & Rating of a Restaurant.) Santa Cruz has established itself as a beach resort community. It is…

Capitola is a little seaside resort town that’s kind of an extension of Santa Cruz. Downtown Capitola, such as it is, is wedged into a tiny little spit of land…

[easy2map id=27] (Click on the map icons to know the Address, Contact No. & Rating of a Restaurant.) Do you call yourself a gastronome? No matter what your taste be,…

I Love Sushi is fun. There’s really no other way to describe it. When you think of Japanese culture, at least as an American, you think of seriousness. Tea ceremonies.…

For seafood and steaks in an interesting setting, Horatio’s in the San Leandro Marina is a great spot. With great views of the waterfront and a menu that includes signature…

There are steak places in every major American city where the whole point seems to be excess. The steaks are wonderful, but they’re incredibly expensive. The side dishes are all…

I am a huge fan of the remade Ocean’s Eleven series of movies. In the third one, Ocean’s Thirteen, a man goes into a restaurant in a fancy Las Vegas…

  Something that not a lot of people realize (there’s got to be a more elegant way to phrase that) is that California and Mexico have been, for hundreds of…

Mission Coffee (or Fremont Coffee Roasting) is a local hangout, coffee shop, restaurant, and music venue in the Mission district of Fremont. Its cool and cozy vibes attract a hipster…

Gabriella Cafe is a funky, classic little French bistro located in downtown Santa Cruz. The décor is eclectic – the tables don’t all match, the interior is a series of…

I have this personal preference for food that, for want of a better term, tastes like something. I like strong flavors. I like unusual ingredients – sometimes I will go…

Why go to the Melting Pot? Because it’s fon to due! When life calls for a celebration, it’s time to head somewhere a little bit special for a nice evening…

Introduction Whenever I’m in the mood for some hearty and consistent Mexican fare, Celia’s is my go-to spot. Offering all the familiar favorites, Celia’s is a fairly traditional Mexican restaurant,…

Dinner at Shadowbrook, in Capitola, is not an undertaking to be, uh, undertaken lightly. It’s a big deal – expensive, sprawling, and really, really good. It is going to take…

On the hunt for a new Thai restaurant, I came across Green Champa Garden, which categorizes itself as a Thai and Laotian restaurant. Laotian food is new to me, but…

The Red Rabbit is a trendy spot in Midtown Sacramento, popular among twenty- and thirty somethings looking for fun and a fancy drink. This place had been recommended by a…

Not your typical pizzeria, Pizza and Curry offers food inspired by the fusion of Italian and Indian cuisines. My first reaction upon hearing about this pizza joint was bewilderment, a…

Not that long ago, what is now the Paradox Hotel, in Santa Cruz, was, to put it sort of gently, a dump called the University Inn and Conference Center. Described…

A couple of years ago, through some finagling, I got to take a first-class flight on Singapore Airlines from Singapore to San Francisco. This flight, in this service class, on…

I have to admit, the entire mystique built up around New Orleans leaves me a little cold. I’ve seen The Big Easy, I’ve eaten at some Cajun restaurants, but ultimately…

When San Francisco offers one of its rare clear, sunny, and warm days, you have little choice but to make the most of it. With baseball games and the America’s…

Digger’s Diner is a casual restaurant that serves old-fashioned, classic American food, including classic burgers, as well as some dishes that are hard to find today, like patty melts, reubens,…

I spent the first part of my adult life living in South Philadelphia. South Philly is a somewhat rundown part of the city that once was solidly – like, completely…

Kabuki is a small and inexpensive Japanese restaurant in Fremont, a real Mom and Pop restaurant, run by a Japanese couple. It’s not glamorous or fancy, but it’s clear that…

Red Chili is a Thai and Vietnamese restaurant in Hayward. Though that might suggest a fusion of the two types of food, it was more like a restaurant that served…

Some of the best authentic Mexican food is found in the strangest of places around here. It’s not unheard of to find great home-style Mexican food served in the back…

The Santa Cruz Harbor is home to several hundred boats – everything from stand-up paddleboats to the Chardonnay  to every kind of boat in between. Particularly in the summer, it’s…

One of the fascinating things about review restaurants is that along with being a place to eat, a restaurant is also a business. It has a number of different moving…

This part is easy. As far as I can tell, Soif is the best restaurant in Santa Cruz. I may be wrong – there may be others I haven’t discovered…

It was the name and the logo that got me first. Spanky’s Dog House – the logo of a cartoon hotdog wearing a spiked collar. How could I pass that…

There’s a certain mystique attached to the California beach restaurant. A lot of the myth about California is attached to the beach scene, and places right on the water almost…

There is a lot – I mean, a LOT – of mediocre Middle Eastern food out there. Here’s your hummus, here’s you falafel, here’s your pita, thanks a lot, pal.…

I hardly know where to begin to review the Paradise Beach Grille, in Capitola. To say that it was bad is an understatement. It was bad in a way that’s…

A local establishment that’s been run by the same family for over 20 years, Mission Pizza is a surprising spot, not just for food, but entertainment, too. In all those…

Stagnaro’s is a Santa Cruz classic. It’s been in operation since 1947, and is still run by the original family. It’s right on the Municipal Wharf, and in good weather,…

Akira is not the place to go in Santa Cruz if you are either a) in a hurry; or b) hard of hearing. Otherwise, it’s fine. The restaurant is located…

  If you drive North up Route 9 out of Santa Cruz, one of the first towns you come to is Ben Lomen. Tucked into the redwoods on the southern…

With a historic Pride Festival going on and quite possibly the best weather the city has ever seen in June, what better place to spend this Sunday than San Francisco.…

Le Moose Crepe Cafe offers what sounds like a bizarre blend: Thai food and French crepes. This strange mixture of cuisines may have been why I was hesitant to try…

Soquel Avenue in Santa Cruz is a busy, relatively unglamorous commercial part of town. Tire repair shops. A supermarket. A dance studio. And lots of busy traffic. The Crepe Place…

Jimmy’s Place is your unassuming neighborhood breakfast diner, serving a traditional American breakfast that also caters to Asian tastes. Jimmy’s Place offers a choice between country potatoes and rice as…

  Like its name suggests, the Original Pancake House is an old favorite, known for its wide variety of pancakes. Though the restaurant is a chain with about 100 franchises,…

I increasingly have a real problem with restaurants that are not, at the end of the day, comfortable. When I go out to eat somewhere, I am not interested in…

What exactly happens behind these curtains which makes people stand for, sometimes, over an hour? That food and passion go hand in hand is absolutely true for this place. Orders…

  I knew I was walking towards my first Hawaiian meal and it was a just a few steps away from the office. My first reaction after entering this place…

When I think of the quintessential food of San Diego, California, visions of tacos, rice and beans, or super fresh seafood caught just off the coast instantly come to mind.…

The Bay Area has quite a few Italian restaurants. Actually, each of the 12 odd cities have at least two good Italian places from which to choose. Yesterday, we were…

In a city where chain restaurants dominate the food scene and the people are starved for something new, unique spots like The Vine are a rare find. Its trendy yet…

Death Valley National Park is a place of extremes, as both the hottest and driest place in the country, as well as the largest national park in the contiguous United…

Get ready to be swayed by the moves of the ocean sunfish, as it makes waves behind its majestic tail. Examine the marvels of the yellowfin and bluefin tuna at…

Get ready to confront nature like no other. Get ready to experience your wildest dreams. So you do not want to be tied up behind a cubicle your whole life?…

With roller coasters, water rides, and animal exhibits, SeaWorld is a popular destination for families to spend the day in San Diego, California. Various attractions at SeaWorld makes it one…