Foster City & Nearby Eats

We just moved back to the west coast - this time to the Bay Area. Our corporate housing is for several weeks in Foster City until we find something. What are some good/decent eats in Foster City ?

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Welcome back to CA!

I don’t know of anything right in Foster City, but The Fish Market , a reliable small California chain, has a location very nearby, on Norfolk in San Mateo.

I liked Cooking Papa for home-style Cantonese, but they’re closed.

Lots of good places nearby in San Mateo.

Thanks ! - Wasn’t really planned but pandemics sometimes do unexpected things to economies, organizations etc. and then it’s time to react on it.

Which places do you like in San Mateo (I have a long lists of restaurants compiled on many cities in the Bay Area but that is still in transit with our furniture)

Good places in that middle peninsula area mentioned here.

If you go across 101 to Belmont, Kabul there is good too.

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https://m.yelp.com/biz/himawari-san-mateo-2

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To me, FC is a food desert. Ritha’s is a relatively recent addition to FC that serves excellent Andhra (South Indian) food. I recommend the Ghee Roast dishes in particular.

Here are places that I frequent that are solid in the area …

San Mateo:

Izakaya Ginji - superb grilled meats and other small plates
Sushi Sam’s - excellent sashimi and sushi, great value compared to mid-range in SF
Dash - fusion(y) Japanese tapas, pretty creative with some misses but mostly hits, they also serve Black Sapporo in a can, which I fancy
CFood Crush - they used to have an excellent oyster happy hour but still have great oysters and seafood boil is noteworthy
Refuge - amazing pastrami and belgian beer selection, newly opened at Hillsdale mall
Himawari - Robert mentioned it above and I strongly second the recommendation

San Carlos:

Town - steak, fish and some creative sides and apps, spendy but always solid in terms of food and service in my experience
Refuge - amazing pastrami and belgian beer selection - slightly different menu than San Mateo
Isarn Garden - this is a new-ish place in the old Henry’s Garden location. Superb authentic Northern Thai cuisine espcially from the Isaarn region, that you cannot get in the Peninsula otherwise. I am so happy this place exists and is thriving. Especially during the pandemic it was a boon to me.
Ale Arsenal - super beer temple where you can take your own food. This place featured many beers that are now legendary and hard to find before they were declared “legends”

Redwood City: In recent years, this place has turned into an excellent destination for many cuisines.

Marufuku Ramen - chain from Japan, tan tan ramen, tonkotsu are both super
Kemuri - Japanese bar with excellent small plates, great attention to detail and Hibiki always on hand
Vesta - fantastic Cal-Neo pizzas with top notch ingredients and superb veggies and creative fresh salads
Zareens - local Pakistani mini chain with North Indian/Pakistani standards, serves specials like Nihari (beef stew), Haleem (lentils with pounded meat slow cooked) on weekends

I could write a lot about the Mexican food in Redwood City, but I’ll wait to see if there is interest.

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Welcome to FTC and thanks for the great list

I agree that FC isn’t the greatest culinary place but we just moved now finally to our house in Redwood City which finally gives us also more flexibility to explore more areas.
When we were staying in FC there wasn’t much in FC which was really great but two places which were not bad are Chez Xue and Falafel Tazah (three other places with decent dishes were Kenta Ramen, Ritha and Mirchi). Some other places which weren’t too far too drive during our stay were Rise Woodfired Pizza in San Mateo (good but not great pizza, otherwise good salad, sides), La Lanterna in San Mateo (good pasta dishes and appetizers) and Sweetgreen for a light dinner is actually not that bad.

Now that we are in Redwood City we are slowly exploring options here and so far really like Donato Enoteca for great, freshly made pasta dishes and other excellent dishes. Being originally from Germany we also had to try Gourmet Haus Staudt which has some good sausages, potato salad, sauerkraut but the schnitzel was a bit dry (would be better if they serve it as Jaeger- or Zigeunerschnitzel. Their shop is nice to get some German stuff instead of ordering it online.
We will definitely explore more places, also from your list, and would be quite interested to hear more about Mexican options in RWC (or anywhere on the peninsula - as we tend to travel/drive a lot for food)

10 posts were split to a new topic: German stuff in the Bay Area

Thanks for the pointer on La Lanterna and reminding me about Gourmet Haus Stadt. I had forgotten about the place. It has excellent German beer and German essentials.

@honkman Looks like you grew up reading Asterix too? You have Getafix (Miraculix) as your avatar, mine is Obelix.

@osho I would be curious to hear your thoughts on Mexican food in the RWC - a lot of potential options but any thoughts for great tacos etc would be great

@osho same here
what is there beyond the el grullenses