Sidecar Modern Tavern — Restaurant in Los Gatos

As a lifelong Los Gatos native and business owner who's been through both the good and bad (2008-2010) times... I wanted to call attention to two of our favorite restaurants in town.

My wife and I have been going to Sidecar since before the pandemic. We've never had anything but an amazing time... great atmosphere, awesome food and ridiculously good drinks! In addition, their Sunday brunch is one of our absolute favorites in town. We even went so far as to have our post wedding party after Testarossa there and it was the highlight of the night!

More recently, we've started doing dinners at their sister restaurant Epernay about once a week. Closest thing to the menu at Nick's (which we sadly lost during the pandemic). They have, arguably, the best filet in town and I'm pretty sure it's under $50. Not to mention, the best steamed mussels and French onion soup on earth and a killer selection of wine. We tried their brunch last Sunday and the omelette was epic, as were the four pear Bellinis ;)

I mention these two spots purely because I remember how few places there were in town to enjoy when Los Gatos struggled through that 2008-2010 period and also during Covid. I mentioned Nick's earlier because frankly, it was a punch to the gut to see them go. While I certainly have no crystal ball, we both live in town and seeing a lot of places not as busy as usual, I wanted to throw out a gentle reminder to support those few places we rely on to enjoy our time out with family and friends. These two just happen to be our favorite and wanted to share that with the rest of you who may, or may not yet had the...

The menu looks fantastic on paper. But the dishes were all on the bland side. The chicharrones were good but the spice had little character. The charcuterie was good but, other than the mustard, was unremarkable. The octopus was on top of something (avocado?) and underneath something else but neither the octopus nor what is paired with shone. The crispy fried cauliflower was not fried crispy but was just cauliflower crispy and, while it tasted like cauliflower, wasn't something I wanted again. The shrimp were quite interesting and, if you like the garlic and shells (I do), were delicious. The potatoes were also quite good. And I did love the bone marrow, served with stir fried bean sprouts - it might have been the best dish. The lamb sliders were not sliced of lamb but were more like chopped beef and were on the mushy side.

The Santa Cruz mountain tempranillo was an excellent drinking wine.

While the service was charming and personable, we should have been warned about the portions. Small plates were not small and we...

We got some drinks and a brownie. The brownie came totally raw. It was literally a puddle. We asked a server if that was normal and he said that it was, so we shrugged and assumed it was just their take on it.

The table next to us also got a brownie and theirs came out cooked. It had corners and height. It was an actual square, unlike the puddle of liquid that we got.

We let someone know, and they were gracious enough to take it off the bill, which we appreciated. However, he then tried to convince us that it was so liquidy because it was overcooked. That's.... Not how baking works.

Mistakes happen. That's totally acceptable. But multiple employees blatantly lying about it is a problem.

The drinks were good, and the raw brownie batter actually tasted fine. I just can't stand...