Fat Kid Adventure #88: The Red Crane (Cupertino)

(Originally posted on July 23, 2008)

Nice little place in Cupertino within a strip mall near the intersection of De Anza and Bollinger. At lunch today there was barely anyone there - why? I don't know, because the food was pretty good. True, I did not look at the price since David was treating, but still. This is supposed to be a fusion Japanese restaurant.

I got the lunch special for $12 - miso soup, Red Crane salad (spinach, bacon bits, some fruity vinaigrette, and cucumber strips), and char sui black cod with bok choy. So the portions are tiny - the black cod was literally a triangular piece of cod looking 2" x 2". It rested ever-so-carefreely on several pieces of baby bok choy. To the right were some garlic noodles. I have to say, the presentation was there, but the quantity wasn't. The noodles weren't as gooey-greasy as Castro Point, and was still thick and well-flavored - good job. The cod was incredibly tender - mmmmm! Its color is grilled red, and the red sauce gave it a seafood bbq kind of flavor.

For dessert, I ordered the Panna Cotta sampler, which contained 3 shot glasses, each filled with a lightly sweetened eggless custard, and topped off with mandarin orange, green tea, and red bean paste respectively. Pretty good - surprisingly the green tea one is the sweetest. Again, the presentation was definitely there.

Wesley had the shaved ice and it measured about 10 inches in height - ginormous. In the shaved ice are different flavors of ice cream. Wesley picked vanilla, blackberry, and pomegranite (you can choose from around 15 different flavors). His tasted SO much better than mine. The shaved ice was truly shaved so there isn't anything to chew. It was like eating ice cream flavored ice crumbles - really cool, lightly sweet, and tastes delicious.

I would go there again for the trendy looking desserts, especially the shaved ice. Otherwise, the quantity is too little for me, even though the presentation is nice.

Most people go there for the tenderloin and kobe beef, as you will see if you read the Yelp reviews.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-red-crane-cupertino
http://www.theredcrane.com/