Restaurants in Pleasanton

Vo's Restaurant preserves traditional French-Vietnamese cuisine with a menu of nutritious dishes created with fresh vegetables, nuts, and spices. Traditional spring rolls can be dunked in a pool of peanut sauce ($6) before noodle-centric eats, such as pho dotted with beef or chicken ($7) and garlic noodles adorned with parmesan, vegetables, and prawns ($11), present diners with opportunity to slurp in public. Spicy coconut eggplant receives a flavor boost from scallions ($8) and crispy spicy beef willingly sautées itself alongside green beans, mushrooms, and carrots ($10).

Anarkalee Restaurant borrows its name from the doomed heroine Anarkali, a slave girl who fell in love with a prince and was loved by him in return. Their relationship infuriated the prince's father, the Mughal emperor Akbar, who responded by sentencing his own son to death. To save the prince’s life, Anarkali sacrificed herself: she was buried alive between two brick walls (though some say she actually escaped through a secret passageway).

Anarkalee Restaurant translates the fiery spirit of its namesake into the spicy flavors of regional Indian and Pakistani cuisines. Besides North Indian standards such as palak paneer and chicken tikka, chefs craft more exotic fare such as lamb-brain masala or Himalayan goat karahi for their daily specials. Morsels of grass-fed lamb also fill two types of gosht, or Pakistani meat stew. Both vegetarian and non-vegetarian entrées are served in copious helpings, whether as separate dishes, a buffet, or a color-coded map of the Indian subcontinent.

Chef Clive opened Sweet Fingers as an homage to his grandmother, Aunt Lu, who taught him about food, hospitality, and perseverance. He spent his early years in Jamaica learning recipes and life lessons in her kitchen after she took over her husband's fruit-selling business following his death. Building on that robust culinary education and inspired start, Clive moved to New York City at age 18 and went on to graduate from culinary school.

Eventually he worked his way up to the role of supervising chef during a 10-year career at the Marriott hotel. But his career’s turning point came in 2003, when he relocated to California and met the woman who would become his wife. That’s when the pair founded Sweet Fingers, giving locals a bar and eatery that now shines a light on Aunt Lu's recipes and the love she taught Clive to cook with.

By all accounts, Chef Clive has done his grandmother proud. Matthew Stafford of the East Bay Express praised the "juicy" jerk chicken and "creamy" fried plantains, adding that "the escovitch-style snapper, curry goat, brown stew chicken, and braised oxtail are uniformly rich, spiky, and tantalizing." Inside, the yellow and royal blue walls boast Jamaican flags and pictures of the island, and the bar serves a large assortment of cocktailsthat are no less colorful. Patrons also flock to the cozy spot for entertainment that includes live reggae, as well as open-mic nights filled with poetry and music, which often consists of impromptu compositions about intense feelings for the food.

Biryani Bowl's chefs dish out a diverse menu of pan-seared and tandoor-cooked Indian cuisine, each plate rife with aromatic spices and helpings of steaming rice. The restaurant’s eponymous dum biryani dishes arrive to tables flanked by hearty vegetables, chicken, mutton, or shrimp, along with savory curries, tandoori delicacies, and rice dishes to suit varied tastes. Sweet-and-salty lassis complement Indo-Chinese dishes and desi wok noodles, as ice cream dishes and gulab jamon conclude meals more sweetly than a tiny fairy driving you home while humming lullabies.

Sitting at his mother's knee in his home country of Vietnam, Chef Hung (John) Le learned to love the simplicity of fresh, local ingredients prepared with exciting spices, a joy that later would lead him to open the doors of Three Seasons' first location in San Francisco's Marina District in 2000. Whether served in the incandescent glow of the original location’s intimate chandeliers or beneath the stone archways and playful murals of the Palo Alto location, John’s recipes remain based on family recipes modified to fit the organic ingredients at hand. John posts favorite concoctions—such as the tamarind-soaked prawns with pineapple—on the restaurant's website for ambitious cooks to imitate at home or open their own single-dish eateries.

For more than 15 years, Rising Loafer Cafe & Bakery’s kitchen has been churning out fresh breads, sandwiches, and breakfast fare free of preservatives or additives. The bakery wafts aromas of freshly baked garlic-basil and cinnamon-raisin breads as griddles sizzle with french toast, buttermilk pancakes, and belgian waffles. Traditional sandwiches and half-pound burgers perch comfortably atop a variety of breads, each newly emerged from its warm oven and contemplating its existential connection with mayonnaise for the first time. Rising Loafer Cafe & Bakery feeds the stomachs and souls of patrons in the community, giving back by providing food and support to area schools and charity events, such as the Diablo Valley Women's League auction, which raised funds for Helping Children with Cancer.