Been to the Pizza Chicago in Palo Alto (since it's only about 2 miles from my home). It's OK but not real Chicago pizza, IMO. Heavy couponer.

There are branches of Pizzeria Uno in the South Bay -- I seem to recall one on either El Camino or Stevens Creek in Cupertino (now why do I get those streets mixed up? ) which serve a franchise chain version of Chicago stuffed pizza.

I've never found really outstanding stuffed pizza outside of the Chicago area, and that's one of the things I look forward to on every trip to the Chicago area -- a stuffed spinach and pepperoni pizza! mmmmm......

Curious that in all my years of living around here, I've never had an Applewood Pizza.

Too bad about La Fiesta, I haven't eaten there in years. Now I won't have to! And I've only eaten at Manila Grill at lunch, and only gotten the pork adobo or lechon (when they have lechon).

I didn't mention that all four of us who dined at La Fiesta Wednesday experienced incredible stomach pains yesterday. My friend believes the soup he ordered had sat out too long.

A favorite haunt of mine while out west is Hobees. They have several locations around Silicon Valley. Great California fare, with special attention to freshness. In fact, try to get into one on a Sunday morning and you'll find yourself waiting an hour+ for one of their breakfasts. Oh, and no matter if it's for breakfast, lunch or dinner, you really REALLY ought to try their blueberry coffeecake. It's what put them on the map many years ago and is still what gets me coming back. They even sell take-out tins of the coffeecake that serve about a dozen and hold up very well on flights. I brought home a couple of them just last week. (And they freeze well, too.)

Mmmm... now I'm hungry.

I once sat next to Peter Taber (I think that's how it's spelled), the founder of Hobee's, at a political luncheon at another restaurant when we were served rubber chicken. It was funny to hear him comment on that -- he said that the one thing he would never compromise on is the quality of the ingredients used in his restaurants. As far as I can tell, Hobee's restaurants -- all of which are pretty funky looking -- stick to that commitment to this day.

The very first Hobee's is on Central Expressway in a very nondescript strip mall at Rengstorff. Stop by sometime and see how it all began (but totally avoid the Chinese place in the same strip mall no matter how long the line at Hobee's).

who da thunk? personally, i can't stand breakfast food (a combination of hating eggs and not wanting to eat so quickly upon waking), but whenever my friends would corner me into hobee's, i would always suggest the rengstorff/central location because it was quite convenient, but they would always decline based on sanitary concerns.

moving on, does anyone eat "lunch" at hobee's?

What a great post - memory lane for me since I've eaten at many of these restaurants during my 20 years in Sunnyvale. FJL's pizza is truly awesome. My mouth is watering thinking about it.


I am surprised to see nobody mentioned the Sechuan Garden just west of Central on Castro. Awesome food and service. Went there at least once per week for lunch (try the Garden Chicken Fillet) for 20 years. MMM!!!!

This quote made me feel guilty not having tried Applewood after all these years so, with my kids, we set out to "Applewood-2-Go" on El Camino in Sunnyvale (near the Mountain View border). Figured we'd drop in, wait for a pizza, and take it back to the office.

The sign said "OPEN," the hours on the door said it was open, but no one was there. There was a sign with a number to call if the place was locked during business hours.

Didn't sound like a pleasant prospect (How long would it take them to show up AFTER we called? Was the oven even ON?) so we went across the street to Togo's for lunch. When we got back to pick up the car, the place was still signed as OPEN but locked tighter than a drum.

Still haven't tried Applewood, alas....I guess you gotta go to the main store in Menlo Park.