Saturday, April 25, 2009

Fat Kid Adventure #112: Straits Cafe (San Jose - Santana Row)

This semi-trendy franchise is sprinkled around the country. Trivia: Ludacris co-owns the Atlanta joint. There's one in Palo Alto that I used to go to - pretty good. This one sits in Santana Row and turns into a semi-lounge around 10-11ish. We celebrated Germaine's getting into UCSF - props to the girl doing big things - aaaaaaay. Christy, her cousin, was also there for the occasion. For those who haven't been, Straits sports dons a fusion coat around a pretty Singaporean/Indonesian/Malaysian cuisine.

The waiting service is a bit problematic. We had a res at 7.30pm. We got here 2 minutes late, and the host said "several reservations checked in before you, so it's going to be 15 more minutes." I don't really get how that works - what was the point of getting a reservation then? 15 minutes later, we got "oh there is still another table ahead of you, so maybe another 10-15." Okay now you're just being ridiculous. Almost lost our business, but another host suggested that outdoor seating was available and we could be seated within the next minute. Lucky them.

So we went with 3 appetizers and 2 entrees.

Appetizers: Chicken lollipops, calamari, and roti prata. The breading on the lollipops were thick and crispy, and the sweet sauce complimented the taste of the chicken. Tiny bit rough, but overall pretty tasty. I gotta say - I stay loyal to the lollipops from Sino (also in Santana Row). The calamari gets no complaints from me. I mean I'm always good with calamari - love it love it love - but this one also came sweetly fried! Cool beans. Roti prata is always a nice dish to holla at, especially that peanut sauce for the dipping - just fab.

Entrees: Butter chicken and Chow Kway Teow. Butter chicken was a buttery chicken masala - Indian dish. The butteriness made the tender chicken pieces very nice atop a bed of jasmine white rice. I love chicken and I love this particular Indian dish, so no complaints there. The Chow Kway Teow is saute'd wide and flat noodles (almost like chow fun) with shrimp and Chinese sausage. It's got a nice kick and the shrimps and sausage were skimped on (proportionately, anyway). Just wish overall the portions could be bigger. I remember the Straits in PA gave more food.

Anyway, it was a very nice meal, and the outdoor seating with the heat lamp worked out. We were just the right amount of full and ripe for a round of Pinkberry to follow :)

http://www.yelp.com/biz/straits-restaurant-san-jose
http://www.straitsrestaurants.com/

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