Here in another installment of the Bay Area Eats series two restaurants are featured:

14486 Big Basin Way, Saratoga, CA 95070

Sipan Peruvian restaurant is upscale in pricing but family style and humbled in service and atmosphere. We ordered ceviche mixto with sweet potatoes. As my mom says Peruvians do ceviche and chicken the best in our opinion. They add variations of corn and red onion to the ceviche with calamari, fish, octopus, shrimp, and muscles.

I also had the corn soup of the day as an appetizer. The corn flavors reminded me of Panama and stirred nostalgic feelings. We ordered seafood paella and aji de gallina (chicken in chili sauce with cheese and pecans). What makes Peruvian interpretations of the Spanish paella different is the softer consistency of the rice. The service is top of the line because I went there to celebrate something and our waitress insisted on dessert on the house and packed us some to go. I will definitely come back to the restaurant and I recommend them.

The sourdough bread bowls from SF Boudin always make for a pleasant meal at the end of a long day. SF Boudin is a well known bakery chain founded in 1849 originating in San Francisco. The breads, and famously the sourdough bread, is made fresh and tastes great warmed with some butter. We ordered the tomato bread bowl, clam chowder, and two pumpkin breads. As a disclaimer, I don’t think the bread bowls from here are unique. However, both the bread and the soup are always made perfectly and to standard.

The soup tastes like slightly more elevated Panera Bread. The combination of hot bread and soup on a cold autumnal day is expectedly satisfying. I first ordered from the Santa Clara location but that one is temporarily closed now so most recently we went to the San Jose location and the food quality tasted equal at both establishments.