Palo Alto Restaurant Bars

Blue Chalk Café
630 Ramona Street, Palo Alto, California; Tel. 650.325.1020
Blue Chalk Café, Palo Alto's happening billiards bar gets packed nightly with well heeled Stanford kids playing at being a pool shark or just chilling out in Blue Chalk's comfy lounge. During the day this bi-level establishment serves up generous portions of Tex-Mex grub to satiate your hunger, but food really isn't on people's minds when the crowds start rolling in. A word to the wise, however, on some nights the Blue Chalk Café has a drink minimum (usually in the $15 range) but that doesn't seem to bother the locals that frequent this Palo Alto restaurant and bar.

Café Niebaum-Coppola
473 University Ave., Palo Alto, California; Tel. 650.752.0350
The wine list is extensive at this Palo Alto restaurant and lounge with liberal selections from the venerable winery of Niebaum-Coppola as you might have guessed. The café itself serves a variety of Mediterranean styled dishes in their sumptuous dark wooded space and, as an added bonus, all of the wines they have available can also be purchased to go for at home consumption.

Cibo Bar and Grill
3401 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, California; Tel. 650.493.2411, 800.492.7335
Located inside Palo Alto's Creekside Inn, Cibo Bar and Grill does a fantastic menu of Mediterranean and Californian infused cuisine to satisfy your hunger pangs and also has an extensive, well-developed drink list to satisfy, well... your other pangs. At Cibo all of the restaurants cuisine is available in their chic lounge, which is a true blessing from this newer Palo Alto restaurant hotspot.

Empire Grill and Tap Room
651 Emerson St., Palo Alto, California; Tel. 650.321.3030
The Empire Grill and Tap Room restaurant in Palo Alto is continually packed and with good reason. Their beer selection (on tap, of course) is comprised mainly of regional microbrew favorites with some imports thrown in for flavor and, if your tastes don't run toward beer, Empire's bartenders can fix you up one of the best Bloody Marys around or pour you anything else you could possibly desire expertly. But don't think that this is just a swank Palo Alto local bar, the grill offers re-imagined, contemporary pub food and other stylish dishes that the chic clientele downs as fast as the kitchen can pump them out.

Evvia Estiatorio
420 Emerson St., Palo Alto, California; Tel. 650.326.0983
Reminiscent of an outdoor Greek taverna even though the restaurant is indoors, Evvia in Palo Alto serves California inspired Greek cuisine to chic Silicon Valley socialites who dine in the airy confines or lounge in the sophisticated bar. The wine list at Evvia is incredibly well developed as well, sampling a little bit of everything form around California and the Mediterranean that pairs excellently with their cuisine.

Fanny & Alexander Restaurant
412 Emerson St., Palo Alto, California; Tel. 650.326.7183
The local bar hotspot to hang out at in Palo Alto, Fanny & Alexander take care of their teeming masses beautifully with some nights devoted to DJ dancing, while others showcase live music and the heavy drinks are always flowing here. Also, the excellent cuisine is the ever popular Asian-Californian fusion variety and the kitchen stays open late so you can sober up a bit before you hoof it home. Even if there was no outside entertainment hosted at "FnA's" (as the locals and nearly everybody else, except possibly their accountants, call it) it's still a must on the bar crawl list because it seems that for some Stanford coeds black-out inducing drunkenness is a major at the university...or, perhaps that was just our major, probably how we ended up a writer.

Gordon Biersch
640 Emerson St., Palo Alto, California; Tel. 650.323.7723
The Gordon Biersch in Palo Alto is the local bar and brewery that started it all off for the two enterprising, beer loving owners and is still going extremely strong today. You can come in and sit under the reflective gaze of the huge silver beer tanks that tell you the beer is produced on-site and sample one of their classic, German inspired microbrews or seasonal specialty beers which, by the way, is an excellent way to spend an afternoon... er, not that we drink in the middle of the day, we prefer to call it local bar research. Also, the Gordon Biersch kitchen still pumps out really good grub, most of which has beer as an ingredient which scientifically proves that beer is food, and they usually serve their menu up until an hour before closing. If your just rolling through the area, or call the Bay Area your home, you've got to check out this local Palo Alto bar and brewery that made the nation raise a pint and bellow "Prost!"

Hukilau
624 Ramona Street, Palo Alto, California; Tel. 650.329.9533
A Hawaiian island oasis right in downtown Palo Alto, Hukilau shoots to please ex-island dwellers, who unfortunately have to live here on the mainland, or just anyone looking for some liquid escapism from their everyday routine at this tropical local bar. But, it's not just the drinks that transport you to paradise because the kitchen serves up truly authentic Hawaiian food like spam musubi, the loco moco and ahi poke. Hukilau also sports indoor and outdoor seating, a friendly staff and the overall atmosphere would lead you to believe that Don Ho is going to start belting out some classic Hawaiian love songs at any moment... well, Don Ho might not show up, but this Palo Alto restaurant and bar does host some live island sounds on the weekends and whenever there's a special occasion.

La Bodeguita Del Medio
463 California Ave., Palo Alto, California; Tel. 650.326.7762
Probably the only place in the Bay Area where you can sip on aged Cuban rum while puffing away on a cigar is La Bodeguita Del Medio in Palo Alto, a Cuban inspired lounge, restaurant and all around hang out spot as you may have surmised. The main drink list is, of course, derived from the best of what our little socialist island neighbor to the south has to offer and their mojitos are some of the best around, plus any bar that allows you to smoke imported cigars indoors while you sip on your drink makes it straight to the top of our list in smoker unfriendly California.

Lavanda Restaurant & Wine Bar
185 University Ave., Palo Alto, California; 650.321.3514
The upscale older set in Palo Alto wines and dines at Lavanda, a French-Mediterranean bistro style restaurant that boasts over 600 wines (30 of which can be ordered by the glass) for your drinking pleasure and their tapas menu certainly hits the gastronomic mark. This sophisticated Palo Alto restaurant and lounge is a must for any wine aficionado; you caught that little 600 wines tidbit earlier, right?

MacArthur Park
27 University Ave., Palo Alto, California; Tel. 650.321.9990
MacArthur Park has been a Palo Alto bar and restaurant institution for years serving the Bay Area public upscale, insanely generous portions of American cuisine while maintaining its' ever-casual charm. Boasting more than 200 California wines and a decent selection of tap microbrews certainly doesn't hurt MacArthur Park's efforts in winning over drinkers and diners alike. Also adding to this already stellar combination of phenomenal food and wine is one of the finest whiskey and scotch selections we have ever seen inspiring us to become regulars at this excellent Palo Alto bar and restaurant.

Miyake
140 University Ave., Palo Alto, California; Tel. 650.323.9449
Miyake is Palo Alto's partying sushi bar where anyone that enjoys those two activities, like us, goes to dine on some of the freshest offerings around and down sake bombs till they're falling out of their chair. It really is a cool sight to see, especially on Friday nights when slick techno beats are matched with a multicolored light show, when everybody—and we do mean everybody—in a restaurant is seriously having a great night out eating and partying, but anyone whose been here knows that's exactly what Miyake's of Palo Alto is known for.

Nola
535 Ramona Street, Palo Alto, California; Tel. 650.328.2722
A little more refined than the Bourbon Street juke joints that it was inspired by, Nola restaurant in Palo Alto serves the Stanford masses classic New Orleans grub in a funky setting that makes you want to linger for hours in one of their two lounges or on the open air patio and Nola makes it incredibly easy to do just that. We've actually spent entire days at this local Palo Alto restaurant and bar when we're missing The Big Easy or just have an inkling for something different for which Nola's can always deliver with their excellent Creole style grub and completely dangerous Hurricanes.

Pavilion Bar at Spago
265 Lytton Ave., Palo Alto, California; Tel. 650.8333.1000
Wolfgang Puck's venerable Spago restaurant in Palo Alto serves innovative Asian infused American and pan-Mediterranean cuisine in a sophisticated atmosphere to the delight of Bay Area diners. Even though the world-class Pavilion Bar actually occupies an entirely separate area than the main dining room, patrons can, thankfully, still order from the main restaurant's menu or the bar menu which features more snack-like foods. Whether in the main restaurant at Spago or the Pavilion bar, every guest to this Palo Alto restaurant institution is treated to an extensive wine list that boasts interesting choices that pair perfectly with the eclectic cuisine.

Stoa Restaurant and Wine Bar
632 Emerson St., Palo Alto, California; Tel. 650.328.2600
Stoa Restaurant and Wine Bar in Palo Alto can get a little pricey, but this sophisticated eatery is well worth it because the Mediterranean inspired vegetarian dishes never fail to astound and Stoa Restaurant is one of a handful of late night dining options in downtown Palo Alto. Of course Stoa features a full bar, but the real treat here is their vast wine selection which features unique selections from California and Europe. Also, Stoa hosts live jazz music on Tuesdays and Fridays making this Palo Alto restaurant and bar much more than just another local eatery.

Sundance the Steakhouse
1921 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, California; Tel. 650.321.6798
Sundance the Steakhouse's low-key rustic styled bar in Palo Alto is a great place to start or end an evening out, with a friendly, knowledgeable staff who can also pour you up a killer martini that goes perfectly with their American steakhouse fare. The beer selection at this local Palo Alto restaurant and bar is slim, but if your gastronomic inclinations lean more toward the red meat variety, you'll always be better off with some of Sundance's fine wines or liquors to wash down the beefy goodness.

Tamarine
546 University Ave., Palo Alto, California; Tel. 650.325.8500
Tamarine, Palo Alto's premier Vietnamese restaurant, is also home to one of the hippest bar scenes downtown. Maybe it's because of their excellent small plate Vietnamese cuisine that can be ordered in the bar, maybe it's because they're known for their exotic martini menu that infuses unique flavors expertly, or perhaps it's continually packed because the walls of this Palo Alto restaurant and lounge are adorned with a rotating array of fascinating works by hip Vietnamese artists turning Tamarine into a cutting edge gallery. Whatever the reason, you have to check out Tamarine, you and your date will thank us.

Trader Vic's
4269 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, California; Tel. 650.849.9800
Located in Dinah's Garden Hotel in Palo Alto, Trader Vic's drinks and food instantly transport you to some undiscovered Polynesian island where, legend has it, the founder of this worldwide restaurant and bar chain was inspired—probably by too much liquor served in fresh coconut shells—to bring the South Seas to the masses. If you've ever drank and dined at Trader Vic's you're probably eternally grateful for whatever his inspiration was, as are we because traveling to the South Seas on a writer's budget is so implausible as to make any mention of it the height of absurdity—we guess that others feel the same way evidenced by the classy crowds that pack the Palo Alto location of this bar and restaurant chain.

Zibibbo
430 Kipling St., Palo Alto, California; Tel. 650.328.6722
With two bars and some truly inspired, distinguished Mediterranean style cuisine Zibibbo restaurant in Palo Alto has made a name for itself as a chic eatery and bar that has a palpable lively energy about it. The main bar is a dark wood and dramatically lighted showpiece while the outdoor bar is like hanging out on your friend's back porch, but with much better food, drinks and company. Also, happy hour at Zibibbo consists not of your typical bar and restaurant fare and specials, but with appetizer selections specially prepared by the chef and expertly paired with selections from their staggering wine menu.

—Palo Alto Bars and Clubs reviews by Ryan Osterbeck

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