Pepper Lunch

And thus, this post marks the beginning of the blogging that is to come of all the meals I enjoyed and want to share with you all in San Francisco and its neighbouring cities ^_^.


We arrived at San Jose Airport right at lunch time. Our first itinerary activity was to go outlet shopping at the Gilroy Premium Outlet, so I made sure to plan a quick lunch somewhere near the airport to save time, and also to prevent us from wasting a good meal opportunity (since it is a known fact that the food court at Premium Outlets are never good).

Pepper Lunch is a known Japanese fast food restaurant that is found vastly throughout Asia. I've heard about it many times but never had the chance to try it out, so I knew I had to check this place out with such a perfect opportunity!

Some of the things that I love to have knowledge on in regards to the restaurants that I plan to visit when I'm on vacation is the exterior appearance of the restaurant and its surrounding vicinity. This helps make finding it so much easier, especially when you're in a foreign place to begin with. For our first meal, Pepper Lunch is found in a large strip mall with mainly Asian restaurants, stores and services

Pagolac Restaurant

To be honest, this wasn't going to be a place that I was going to blog about; it was just going to be a quick bite prior to the Usher concert that was picked due to its convenient location (hence the missing venue pictures). When we arrived at the restaurant, it looked rather sketchy and slightly out of place, being the only opened restaurant in a quiet industrial area. Regardless, we walked in, and the interior decoration confirmed that this place was rather old - it reminded me of my grandparents' house back in the 1970's.

But you know what they say about sketchy Vietnamese restaurants - the sketchier they look, the more delicious their food is. And Pagolac proved this statement to be true! As a result, here I am writing about this place because I want to share this hidden gem with other fellow food lovers :)

Shiki Menya

What better way to acknowledge the arrival of winter than by getting a fresh bowl of hot ramen. That was exactly what I did today on my day off. I was a little unsure if the cold weather would bring about a line full of ramen fanatics or if it would've helped ward off the crowd. Luckily, it wasn't crazy busy - we only waited outside for 5 minutes before we were seated (sorry, but unfortunately you cannot stand inside the little box found between Shiki Menya and Black Pig Bistro - fire hazard rules).

It is a small and modern looking ramen shop inside. This place gives off a hipster vibe and makes me feel like I'm in a hidden ramen shop found in New York.

White Elephant Thai Cuisine

I've been hearing the latest rave about this authentic Thai restaurant lately so when my brother and I were debating on a place to dine late Friday night, I suddenly remembered this restaurant.

For some reason, I was under the impression that White Elephant was found in close proximity to North Hill Mall. I was proven wrong as we continued to drive along 16th avenue into the NE side of town. We didn't find the restaurant initially and had to stop the car to take a look around us. There were no apparent signs advertising the restaurant's existence but I knew it had to be right in front of us because Google map told me so! It was then that I spotted an elephant on the side of a run down hotel, Point Inn. We drove over and sure enough we had found our White Elephant. Not going to lie, we did not expect such a setting but we entered the Inn as skeptical as we were (Urbanspoon ratings were a huge influential factor in this).

We were quickly seated as most tables were leaving since it was 9pm by this time. The restaurant looked old and run down, but in a god way - like one of those long standing restaurants where the grungier they appeared meant the better tasting they were. As an Asian myself, I'm aware to not judge a book by its covers when it comes to restaurants because past experiences have taught me that the more sketchy a restaurant looks, the better tasting the food is.