Restaurants in Santa Clara

The chefs at Bijan Restaurant draw in flavors from the Mediterranean’s coasts and stir them together to produce their eclectic menu. Their core menu focuses on Persian cuisine, including classic charbroiled kebabs and lamb shank, but they expand the borders of their culinary ventures to include greek salads, italian pastas, and pesto-bedecked pizzas.

In the separate bar and lounge, the very air tastes of distant lands, each table topped with an ornate, delicate glass hookah. Staffers fill the vessels with flavorful liquids as guests relax on plush couches or absorb the technicolor rays of flat-screen TVs. Colorfully painted walls provide a backdrop for details of intricate patterns, from polka-dot tile patterns to a portrait of a zebra donning its traditional jailhouse garb.

Shuffle up a deck of carbs stacked with premium meats and veggies on fresh-baked breads from Boudin Bakery in San Francisco. Lettuce Sandwich Shop's menu provides classic cold cuts such as ham or salami served on your choice of sourdough, sliced wheat, marble rye, and more. Likewise, expand your acronymic understanding with a B.L.A.T sandwich, composed of bacon, lettuce, avocado, and tomato on triple-decker toast. Vegetarians can opt for the Haight Ashbury, with cucumbers, avocado, and a choice of cheese. All sandwiches come with a slathering of special garlic sauce, but each creation can be customized to taste. Have a friendly sandwich wizard hold the sauce, or request the less popular—hold the sandwich.

Layang Layang pleases palates with its slate of Malaysian cuisine, peppered with Thai, Indonesian, Chinese, and Indian flavors. Sashay into Layang Layang's menu of more than 100 dishes with starters such as the paper-thin pancakes of roti canai ($2.95) or the skewer-speared satay chicken ($6.95). Entree-wise, Layang Layang offers a wealth of seafood and vegetarian dishes, as well as options for land-meat lovers. Liberate delicacies of the deep from a nest of fried taro with the popular sarang seafood ($12.95), or wine and dine the crowned heads of Europe with the princess tofu ($9.95), featuring house-made fried tofu, shrimp, squid, mushrooms, and vegetables served in a savory oyster sauce. Dessert options include the fried ice cream with banana ($5.95) and the fresh coconut pudding ($7.95), diabolically served in the hollowed shell of its own existence. Wash it all down with a Malaysian iced coffee, mango juice, or jus laici (lychee drink).

Hoagie Steak Out's front windows hypnotize passersby with towering images of diners biting into gargantuan cheesesteak hoagies. Inside, bacon, steak, and veggies are stacked within fresh bread in sandwiches named for popular movies such as Scarface and The Godfather. While waiting on a plate of steaming chili fries to cool, diners can study Hoagie Steak Out's vintage wall posters, which depict Rocky Balboa in his trademark black hat and Shirley Temple demolishing a cinder block with her bare hand.

Firmly anchored by the tranquil waters of Shoreline Lake, Lakeside Café offers refreshing café fare to refuel fatigued beachgoers after a rousing sail or lake-monster search. Breakfast offerings such as three-egg omelettes (starting at $7.75) and eggs benedict ($8.50) are served with roasted new potatoes and toast, while pancakes ($7.75) and bagels ($2.25) keep things classic and classy. For lunch, ravenous aquanauts can fork into crisp bistro salads or hot and cold sandwiches, which are served with potato salad or fries. Leafy plates such as the Mediterranean spinach salad with feta, kalamata olives, red onions, cucumbers, and mint vinaigrette ($7.95) comfortably coexist alsongside sandwiches, like the fresh mozzarella, tomato, and basil on herb focaccia ($7.95), and classic fish and chips ($8.95).

Steaming bowls of soup rest atop the tables at Lunch with Tony, inviting diners to dunk corners of sandwiches into their seasoned depths. It’s a perfect illustration of what the eponymous chef calls "approachable" gourmet food. These made-from-scratch soups teem with tempting ingredients, such as the morsels of corn and chicken in the southwest chowder, or the certified Angus beef and genuine sass in the chili. Bowlfuls find flavorful soulmates in hot and cold sandwiches, laden with Italian meats or pan-fried eggplant pressed between focaccia. The eatery also serves breakfast sandwiches and provides catering, recognizing that hunger can strike in any location at any time.