Silicon Valley’s newest food emporium is soon set to debut at Valley Fair
In January of last year, chef and restaurateur George Chen announced that he’d be opening an “Asian Eataly” at Westfield Valley Fair in Santa Clara – think all sorts of Asian cuisine, multiple bars and a marketplace in one two-story space.
“I want to show that Chinese food…has the diversity and the cooking techniques, and is not just dishes that come out of a white box,” he told me over a phone call.
Last Friday, Chen’s mega-project Asia Live held its grand opening with a packed ribbon-cutting ceremony amid a mostly unfinished interior. While originally announced it would be open to the public June 1, the most recent update anticipates a debut on Tuesday, June 16, with the rooftop terrace slated to open next year.
Curious about what to expect come Tuesday? This week’s feature lays out all the details of what exactly Asia Live is.
Stay tasty,
Adrienne
Take a peek inside Asia Live, a highly anticipated food emporium opening at Westfield Valley Fair
An ambitious project celebrating the diversity of Asian cuisine is opening Tuesday at Westfield Valley Fair in Santa Clara.
A Palo Alto restaurateur debuts a wine bar, a Peking duck restaurant lands in Mountain View and an upcoming Pride drag brunch
- The owner of Palo Alto restaurants Kirk’s Steakburgers, Caffe Riace and Osteria Toscana recently debuted French-Italian bistro and wine bar The Rendezvous in Palo Alto.
- Contemporary Chinese restaurant Bloom & Vine is hosting its grand opening Friday in downtown Mountain View. The owners of Sichuan noodle chain Mian are behind the Peking duck-focused restaurant.
- La Corneta Taqueria, a fast-casual Mexican joint established in San Francisco in 1995, opened its new downtown Palo Alto location on Friday.
- La Comida, a nonprofit that serves meals to seniors, has found a permanent home on Bryant Street in Palo Alto.
- The team behind Kaizen and Coffee debuted Luma Coffee Lounge in the Rise City Church in Redwood City on Friday.
- Maruwu Seicha, a matcha cafe with an existing location in Palo Alto, recently expanded to downtown Campbell.
- SpiceVow, an Indian Filipino fusion home-based restaurant, recently moved from Redwood City to Hayward.
- Cafe 34, a Mediterranean bakery and breakfast spot, recently debuted in Burlingame.
- Saratoga brunch spot Mangia Mornings is permanently closing on Friday.
- Valley Goat in Sunnyvale is hosting a Pride drag brunch Saturday at 11 a.m.
- After eight years in downtown Los Altos, Italian restaurant Tre Monti has permanently closed, according to the Los Altos Town Crier.
- Nature’s Organic Ice Cream, which has an existing location in Sunnyvale, recently opened in Campbell in the former Snake & Butterfly space.
- Central County Fire is hosting its annual pancake breakfast in Burlingame Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon, with proceeds benefiting the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation.
Eggs Benedict and pancakes at The Breakfast Club at Midtown
The Breakfast Club at Midtown has been receiving a lot of buzz recently – it’s rapidly expanding, establishing a San Mateo outpost last year, a Campbell spot in January and a Mountain View location in March. It doesn’t take reservations, so expect to wait for a table on the weekend.
For those like me who love to sample a little of everything, The Breakfast Club is designed particularly well. The menu features the Midtown Trio, a build-your-own pancake/French toast platter, as well as a Midtown Duo, which allows you to mix and match eggs Benedict varieties.
If you love coffee, there’s also a latte flight, which my server warned me is not the flight I was thinking of: It features four 10-ounce coffee drinks and is best to share (and a good deal at $25, when each latte is priced separately at $9).
I opted for The Cookie Monster iced latte, sweetened with cookie butter and brown sugar and topped with cold foam. While the latte tasted fine, for $9, it was not worth it. The menu said the latte was supposed to be topped with Biscoff cookie crumbles, and it wasn’t. The cold foam was very airy and dissipated almost immediately.
For my savory brunch item, I picked the Midtown Duo with the katsu and carnitas Benedicts with a side of hash browns ($27). The katsu eggs Benedict featured a crispy chicken katsu piece instead of traditional Canadian bacon and sharp pickled red onions that cut through the richness. The carnitas was loaded with tender, oven-roasted pork, fresh pico de gallo and jalapeno slices, creamy avocado, rich sour cream and queso fresco for extra decadence. Both of my eggs were poached perfectly, although others at the table had overcooked eggs.
To finish it off with something sweet, the Midtown Trio was calling my name ($21). With 15 pancake and French toast options, it was hard to select which three I wanted to try, but I ultimately chose the blueberry lemon ricotta pancake, banana apricot French toast and tiramisu pancake.
The blueberry lemon ricotta pancake was fluffy and well-balanced, although I would have preferred the blueberries cooked into the pancake rather than scattered on top. The banana apricot French toast was my favorite of the bunch, with caramelized banana, caramel and a side of apricot preserves. The tiramisu pancake featured an espresso-infused pancake topped with mascarpone cream and cocoa powder, but notably no Nutella as the menu stated (and for some reason it was topped with a Biscoff cookie, which was neither listed on the menu nor is an ingredient in tiramisu).
I don’t think The Breakfast Club at Midtown will necessarily be my go-to brunch spot, but I could definitely see it being extremely popular among kids (who will absolutely go to town on the Midtown Trio).
The Breakfast Club at Midtown, 545 San Antonio Road, Suite 32, Mountain View; 650-383-5093, Instagram: @breakfastclubmidtown. Open daily from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Khazana, a modern Indian restaurant from celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor, is coming to downtown Palo Alto
Expect Malabari prawns in sourdough bread bowls, sous vide lamb kabargah and motichoor cheesecake
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