No Need to go to San Francisco
With a restaurant like this there is no need to go to the city. Agenda has a new chef from Spago Palo Alto. The food is great and well presented, and the service is fast and friendly. I had the pork chop, it was juicy and the sauce was great. If you have not been there before you need to check it out, if you have been in it's time to come back.    [15 Nov 2002 22:55:36]

Food:    Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 
Recommended Dishes: pork chop

     ­Anonymous   

If You Want Rude Service, Come Here!
We recently moved to the South Bay from San Francisco and were in San Jose for dinner and the theatre. We saw an ad in the newspaper for Agenda, and then followed-up by checking out the review in the Metro. It seemed like a great choice -- fun, nice atmosphere, and good food.

We made reservations for 5:30 so we could enjoy our meal at a leisurely pace since our show didn't start until 8pm. When we arrived, we were the only guests in the restaurant which was not too unusual because of the time of day. My wife ordered a glass of Chardonnay and I ordered a glass of iced-tea. I was the designated driver but do you ever get that feeling that the server is pissed because you didn't order a bottle of over-priced wine? I did, but I digress.

My wife wasn't too thrilled with the limited menu but had decided on a starter. It was listed as a beet salad with goat cheese. My wife loves beets but cannot stand goat cheese. There weren't really any other starter choices that she wanted. Being an experienced ex-restaurant server (at some of the best restaurants in New York and San Francisco, I may add), she asked the server if she could have a substitute for the goat cheese (i.e gorgonzola, bleu, etc.) and if the chef wouldn't be too upset about it (again, she has known many ego-maniac chefs in her day). She made the comment that she thought at the time was funny: she didn't care for goat cheese because it was too -- goaty! She has and will try any dish but just doesn't care for the cheese, okay?

The server left to check with the chef. Here we are in this warehouse, stratosphere building, where we are the two lone guests and we could clearly hear the server and chef making fun of the request. You could clearly hear the chef asking the server if my wife would prefer a slice of American cheese on her salad and rudely said to tell her that the dish has to have goat cheese and it's not too -- goaty! My wife then remarked how they were making fun of her and I decided that it wasn't worth having an ego-maniac chef that may do possible "rude" things to our food as he did with his "rude" comments. I paid for our drinks and we walked out.

We decided to slip into Original Joes down the street. It wasn't the romantic, quiet atmosphere we were hoping for but something has to be said about a place that has a 1/2 hour wait at 5:30. Okay, gourmet it definately wasn't, but you know what -- I'll take the Rib-Eye at Joe's over some pretentious chef-snob any day.

Just for fun after we finished our meal, we drove by Agenda and there was one table occupied on a Saturday night at 7pm. Basically, they drove 50% of their business away from being downright snotty and patronizing. Stay away, unless you enjoy getting insulted.    [18 Jul 2004 12:57:10]

Food: -   Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 
Recommended Dishes: the rib steak at Original Joe's!

     ­Anonymous