Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss

Andal�! (3-27-2015)

57 views
Skip to first unread message

sf

unread,
Mar 27, 2015, 11:55:53 AM3/27/15
to
Yesterday was beautiful, so we drove down the coast to Santa Cruz and
then went to Los Gatos with the intention of having an early dinner at
Aldo's Ristorante & Bar. They aren't on Open Table and their voice
mailbox was full, so we couldn't make a reservation. We decided to
walk around the shopping district and hope for the best when we got
there. It was a bad move on their part because they lost our
business. While window shopping, we discovered Andalé and decided to
have dinner there instead.

They keep their prices down because customers ordering at the counter,
you are given a number and someone brings the order to you. So, there
is no wait staff - just food runners and table clearers. To their
credit, Andalé is very nicely decorated inside and has a covered patio
that is worthy of any full service restaurant with a water feature,
greenery and high quality (wood) tables and chairs you'd be proud to
have on your own patio. They have a bar too, so they sell more than
just wine and beer. I would definitely go back. I see they have a
branch in Macy's basement here in SF - but I can only imagine it's a
mere shadow of the one in Los Gatos.

Our food was terrific. Everything tasted like it was made on the
spot, so it's hard to believe it's a chain (however small). Best of
all, prices are reasonable and their portions are generous. My meal
was one of the specials: beef Birria Jalisco (with a flavor profile
that is not for the faint of heart), Mexican rice and the best refried
beans I've ever had. I think they were mashed mayocoba beans. I only
say it because the whole beans that came with my husband's chili verde
were listed as mayocoba on the menu. We shared a very nice flan for
dessert and that (as my grandfather use to say) filled the cracks.
http://oi60.tinypic.com/ornqqr.jpg

--

sf

Peter Lawrence

unread,
Mar 27, 2015, 1:09:46 PM3/27/15
to
I'm sure you made Al very jealous with your mouth-watering review of his
favorite Mexican restaurant that he misses greatly since they closed their
Palo Alto location.

The last time I was at Andalé was at their SFO location when I was flying
out on United. They're definitely a top-tier Mexican restaurant.


- Peter


David Arnstein

unread,
Mar 27, 2015, 1:43:34 PM3/27/15
to
I have been enjoying Andale for years. It is a very good value.

The funny thing is that there is another Andale right across the street.
Similar menu, but much worse atmosphere. It's for the bad luck, overflow
customers, I guess.
--
David Arnstein (00)
arnstei...@pobox.com {{ }}
^^

Al Eisner

unread,
Mar 27, 2015, 4:42:13 PM3/27/15
to
Actually, I said it was my favorite lunch spot of any type in Palo Alto.
While I did have dinner there on a few occasions, I would not have rated
it my favorite Mexican dinner place (for a while, that was Oaxacn Kitchen,
for example). Nonetheless, I do greatly miss it. I've visited their
Los Gatos location perhaps a half dozen times, and make a point of
stopping in if I'm in the vicinity around lunch time. Palo Alto lacked
the outdoors patio garden (I don't much care for outdoor seating along
University Ave.), but the food was pretty much the same.

> The last time I was at Andalé was at their SFO location when I was flying out
> on United. They're definitely a top-tier Mexican restaurant.
--
Al Eisner
San Mateo Co., CA

David Kaye

unread,
Mar 27, 2015, 4:56:24 PM3/27/15
to
"sf" <s...@geemail.com> wrote

> It was a bad move on their part because they lost our
> business.

Considering that you live out of their market area I'm not sure they care.
Even if you did return there it would likely be 6 months or a year later.
Not a big deal for them. Any restaurant's interest is in serving their
local customers. Obviously, if you had trouble getting a table, they're
catering to their local customers just fine, so you're really unimportant to
them. In order to be successful, a restaurant or ANY business has to focus
on who they're going to serve and serve that client base well. Given their
sold-out status it's obvious that they're doing it very well, even without
Open Table and other internet gee-gaws.




---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
http://www.avast.com

Mike D.

unread,
Mar 28, 2015, 11:57:09 AM3/28/15
to
On Friday, March 27, 2015 at 1:56:24 PM UTC-7, David Kaye wrote:
> "sf" <s...@geemail.com> wrote
>
> > It was a bad move on their part because they lost our
> > business.
>
> Considering that you live out of their market area I'm not sure they care.
> Even if you did return there it would likely be 6 months or a year later.
> Not a big deal for them. Any restaurant's interest is in serving their
> local customers. Obviously, if you had trouble getting a table, they're
> catering to their local customers just fine, so you're really unimportant to
> them. In order to be successful, a restaurant or ANY business has to focus
> on who they're going to serve and serve that client base well. Given their
> sold-out status it's obvious that they're doing it very well, even without
> Open Table and other internet gee-gaws.
>

Aldo's is one of my wife's favorite restaurants. There is an Aldo, and he is
keenly interested in how well his business takes care of its patrons. Dinner
with wine and an appetizer for two is around $100. The best dining
experience I can afford in the South Bay.

Recently, however, Aldo has opened a cafe on the main drag in LG, with
"pizzas, pastas, and panini." No idea how he splits his time between them.

Peter Lawrence

unread,
Mar 28, 2015, 5:45:00 PM3/28/15
to
Recently? Aldo opened it in 2008. Had a different name back then, Aldo's
Deli. Now it's been rechristened Aldo's Cafe.

Just a note, that these two Aldo's restaurants in Los Gatos ARE NOT related
to the Aldo Los Altos. The Aldo of Los Gatos, Aldo Maresca, is from
Sorrento, while the owner/chef of Aldo Los Altos, Donato De Marchi, is from
Bellagio.


- Peter


Nellie

unread,
Mar 28, 2015, 6:31:19 PM3/28/15
to
Yep, love Andale. There used to be one on Chestnut in the City, but I seem to recall from the last time I was in the area, that it is gone. I might be mistaken. We went to Squat and Gobble, but I'm not sure if that was why.


Nellie

Nellie

unread,
Mar 28, 2015, 6:32:30 PM3/28/15
to
I'm glad you posted this. When I read your description of your dinner on RFC, I was wishing you had said where this was. So, thanks.

Nellie

David Kaye

unread,
Mar 28, 2015, 9:32:59 PM3/28/15
to
"Mike D." <spamtr...@gmail.com> wrote

> Aldo's is one of my wife's favorite restaurants. There is an Aldo, and he
> is
> keenly interested in how well his business takes care of its patrons.
> Dinner
> with wine and an appetizer for two is around $100. The best dining
> experience I can afford in the South Bay.

It's funny how many people today figure that a business MUST have an web
presence to be successful. Heck, I've been doing freelance tech support for
14 years and didn't bother with a website until about 4 years ago, and it
really didn't bring me much business anyhow. I get business by word of
mouth.

I can think of a bunch of food & beverage businesses that have little or no
web presence, but yet they're doing okay. Cafe Deluxe on Haight Street has
pizza, live music, and expensive drinks. (They only got expensive because
the landlord tripled their rent.) They're packed most evenings.

The Atlas Cafe on 20th & Alabama (between Harrison and Bryant, across from
Southern Exposure gallery) has had a website for some years, but no ordering
capability on it. Yet they're so packed during the daytime that they
literally have no additional space to put workers. And much of their
business is to-go. Sure, they could use one of those fancy to-go ordering
sites, but why bother when they can barely handle the huge amount of
business they have?

Todd Michel McComb

unread,
Mar 28, 2015, 10:52:34 PM3/28/15
to
In article <mf7kmm$vt5$1...@dont-email.me>,
David Kaye <sfdavi...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>It's funny how many people today figure that a business MUST have
>an web presence to be successful.

I don't know how anyone could think that of restaurants, since most
restaurant websites are terrible.

David Kaye

unread,
Mar 29, 2015, 6:54:24 AM3/29/15
to
"Todd Michel McComb" <mcc...@medieval.org> wrote

>
> I don't know how anyone could think that of restaurants, since most
> restaurant websites are terrible.

We saw it right here. Someone said he's not going back to some place
because he couldn't use Open Table to get a reservation.

As for myself, I eat out at least once a day, and I think only one or two
places where I eat have websites. None has any kind of reservation or
online ordering system. That's just fine with me. I'd prefer to not to go
to a place that depends on a web presence because chances are it means that
something is wrong with their business -- they shouldn't need a web presence
to generate traffic.

Todd Michel McComb

unread,
Mar 29, 2015, 2:10:59 PM3/29/15
to
In article <mf8ljb$5h5$1...@dont-email.me>,
David Kaye <sfdavi...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>Someone said he's not going back to some place because he couldn't
>use Open Table to get a reservation.

Well, what I read is someone saying they didn't go to a place *that
day* because they couldn't make the reservation on Open Table or
by phone, so walked around, and ended up eating somewhere else. I
also saw no statement that the restaurant the OP couldn't contact
was actually full that evening. They had still intended eating
there, until seeing something they thought was more appealing.

David Kaye

unread,
Mar 29, 2015, 11:30:20 PM3/29/15
to
"Todd Michel McComb" <mcc...@medieval.org> wrote

> Well, what I read is someone saying they didn't go to a place *that
> day* because they couldn't make the reservation on Open Table or
> by phone, so walked around, and ended up eating somewhere else.

Well, the quote said, "They aren't on Open Table and their voice
mailbox was full, so we couldn't make a reservation. We decided to
walk around the shopping district and hope for the best when we got
there. It was a bad move on their part because they lost our
business."

To me, "lost our business" sounds permanent.

sf

unread,
Mar 30, 2015, 5:35:33 PM3/30/15
to
On Fri, 27 Mar 2015 13:56:23 -0700, "David Kaye"
<sfdavi...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> "sf" <s...@geemail.com> wrote
>
> > It was a bad move on their part because they lost our
> > business.
>
> Considering that you live out of their market area I'm not sure they care.
> Even if you did return there it would likely be 6 months or a year later.
> Not a big deal for them. Any restaurant's interest is in serving their
> local customers. Obviously, if you had trouble getting a table, they're
> catering to their local customers just fine, so you're really unimportant to
> them. In order to be successful, a restaurant or ANY business has to focus
> on who they're going to serve and serve that client base well. Given their
> sold-out status it's obvious that they're doing it very well, even without
> Open Table and other internet gee-gaws.
>
>
Huh. If their attitude is anything like yours then I hope their
snotty ship sinks.

--

sf

David Kaye

unread,
Mar 30, 2015, 7:55:34 PM3/30/15
to
"sf" <s...@geemail.com> wrote

> Huh. If their attitude is anything like yours then I hope their
> snotty ship sinks.

Get the chip off your shoulder. You have obviously never run a business.
I've run many. The only way to be successful in a business is to target a
specific market and put all your attention toward serving it and don't waste
your money serving people who are not in your target audience. All
successful businesses do this, especially restaurants.

Spenger's targets elderly folks who want conventional seafood fare, so
you're never going to see Spenger's chefs experimenting with new cuisines,
and you're not going to see their ads in "7X7", "San Francisco", or other
chi-chi magazines. You might see their ads in the AAA and the AARP
magazines.

On the other hand, McDonald's is never going to serve a beef brisket unless
they can get kids to eat it, because their market is kids. This is why
you'll see playground equipment at McDonald's and not at Spenger's.

Lazy Bear is a high-end restaurant that doesn't even want to talk to you
unless you have bucks to spend. While they have a web page, they prefer to
market via a mailing list and advance tickets and via "folks in the know".
So, it's likely that unless you are on their list already you're never going
to be able to get in.

mangoboy

unread,
Jun 19, 2015, 7:59:47 PM6/19/15
to
the owners of andalé also own tu mero mole, one at union and woodard
in san jose (next to the infamous nowhere bar and grill), and the
other near old san francisco road in sunnyvale. tu mero mole has been
written up in the merky news and the metro rag. one of the owners,
maría, is a gracious host and truly loves her customers and shows
it. fish tacos, 6 dollar pozole, and a chicken burrito covered in
mole are my favorites.



tu mero mole has been written up
In article <mjtaha5u7scooh7sp...@4ax.com>,
sf <sf.u...@gmail.com> wrote:
>Yesterday was beautiful, so we drove down the coast to Santa Cruz and
>then went to Los Gatos with the intention of having an early dinner at
>Aldo's Ristorante & Bar. They aren't on Open Table and their voice
>mailbox was full, so we couldn't make a reservation. We decided to
>walk around the shopping district and hope for the best when we got
>there. It was a bad move on their part because they lost our
>business. While window shopping, we discovered Andal?and decided to
>have dinner there instead.
>
>They keep their prices down because customers ordering at the counter,
>you are given a number and someone brings the order to you. So, there
>is no wait staff - just food runners and table clearers. To their
>credit, Andal?is very nicely decorated inside and has a covered patio

Tim May

unread,
Jun 19, 2015, 9:12:44 PM6/19/15
to
On 2015-06-19 23:59:47 +0000, mangoboy said:

> the owners of andalé also own tu mero mole, one at union and woodard
> in san jose (next to the infamous nowhere bar and grill), and the
> other near old san francisco road in sunnyvale. tu mero mole has been
> written up in the merky news and the metro rag. one of the owners,
> maría, is a gracious host and truly loves her customers and shows
> it. fish tacos, 6 dollar pozole, and a chicken burrito covered in
> mole are my favorites.

Can you run this through a translator into English, or at least a
translator into coherency?

Or at least use some capital letters? Few of us are e.e. cummings, or
even eecummings, or cmmngs, who eschewed punctuation AND vowels (and
also owls, or wls). Zis sn was named " ", and he eschewed all of the
previous. The artist fomerly know as squiggle-squaggle was a devoted
follower, at least back in "1999," before squiggle-squaggle abandoned
odd numbers.

--
Tim May

sf

unread,
Jun 20, 2015, 1:29:51 PM6/20/15
to
On Fri, 19 Jun 2015 23:59:47 +0000 (UTC), mang...@69.usenet.us.com
(mangoboy) wrote:

> the owners of andalé also own tu mero mole, one at union and woodard
> in san jose (next to the infamous nowhere bar and grill), and the
> other near old san francisco road in sunnyvale. tu mero mole has been
> written up in the merky news and the metro rag. one of the owners,
> maría, is a gracious host and truly loves her customers and shows
> it. fish tacos, 6 dollar pozole, and a chicken burrito covered in
> mole are my favorites.

Thanks, I'll save this for future reference!

--

sf

sf

unread,
Jun 20, 2015, 1:32:21 PM6/20/15
to
On Fri, 19 Jun 2015 18:12:42 -0700, Tim May <tc...@att.net> wrote:

> On 2015-06-19 23:59:47 +0000, mangoboy said:
>
> > the owners of andalĂŠ also own tu mero mole, one at union and woodard
> > in san jose (next to the infamous nowhere bar and grill), and the
> > other near old san francisco road in sunnyvale. tu mero mole has been
> > written up in the merky news and the metro rag. one of the owners,
> > marĂ­a, is a gracious host and truly loves her customers and shows
> > it. fish tacos, 6 dollar pozole, and a chicken burrito covered in
> > mole are my favorites.
>
> Can you run this through a translator into English, or at least a
> translator into coherency?
>
> Or at least use some capital letters? Few of us are e.e. cummings, or
> even eecummings, or cmmngs, who eschewed punctuation AND vowels (and
> also owls, or wls). Zis sn was named " ", and he eschewed all of the
> previous. The artist fomerly know as squiggle-squaggle was a devoted
> follower, at least back in "1999," before squiggle-squaggle abandoned
> odd numbers.

andalĂŠ = Andalé

--

sf

Mike D.

unread,
Jun 22, 2015, 11:23:47 AM6/22/15
to
On Friday, June 19, 2015 at 4:59:47 PM UTC-7, mangoboy wrote:

> the owners of andalé also own tu mero mole, one at union and woodard
> in san jose (next to the infamous nowhere bar and grill), and the
> other near old san francisco road in sunnyvale. tu mero mole has been
> written up in the merky news and the metro rag. one of the owners,
> maría, is a gracious host and truly loves her customers and shows
> it. fish tacos, 6 dollar pozole, and a chicken burrito covered in
> mole are my favorites.

We ate at TMM once. It is better than the nearby Burrito Factory, but
we prefer Adelita's on Curtner to both.

The Metro reviewer, Stett Holbrook, who liked TMM, moved on to the Make
magazine empire, but I see now he's back working for the Metro empire,
as an editor for the Bohemian.

http://makezine.com/author/stett-holbrook/

The Nowhere Bar also serves food. Its notoriety, if any, came from
overserving the underaged, resulting in drunk driving, death, and the
suspension of the bar's liquor license. This incident occurred
several years ago, now.

Parenthetically, I note with regret that Metro has taken Santa Cruz's
Good Times weekly and Metrofied it, filling it with features shared with
every metro. The only constants are the man-on-the-street profile and the
occasional backpage Shoppers Corner ads.
0 new messages