SoFA Market — Restaurant in San Jose

This area of San Jose has once again blossomed into a center for art and culture. There's places to eat, art galleries, clubs, music and dancing venues.

During art walk evenings, many art galleries open to the public and provide entertainment. Most evenings there's DJs but often actual live music for your enjoyment. Parking is not as bad as most downtown areas. There's varying prices on lots, so shop around before parking, or breathe for a moment to find street parking. Although there are panhandlers and unwell street campers, the neighborhood is very safe. It's well lit and well populated!

The BEST thing about this area is the diversity in the patrons and the harmony shared by all. Every walk of life can be seen enjoying themselves together, exemplifying Santa Clara County's real claim to fame... No not technology... But the least racist place on Earth!!!

So if you're into people watching, and well, people, you'll love this area!

Downtown nightlife has experienced many hard years due to ridiculous noise ordinances which shut down all the popular clubs of the 90s.

What local policy makers are oblivious to, is that a full and heavily populated downtown benefits the entire community. The area stays safer and cleaner, as ample foot traffic deters street camping on the sidewalks in front of open businesses.

When the majority of downtown became vacant unmanaged buildings, this harmed all commerce in the area. The safety concerns increased for patrons and the remaining business owners. There's no benefit to having that high of vacancy, in an otherwise thriving area.

There's no local residents who'd prefer homeless encampments covering all sidewalks over the distant sounds of live music. These ordinances were originally pushed through by outside investors, who sought to purchase the entire neighborhood. After they destroyed the local businesses, they backed out of all intended acquisitions; leaving the area a ghost town.

However, the heart and soul of The Valley of the Hearts Delight... empowers nightlife! So once again the SoFA Market district is going through a revival. The passion of artists and musicians have attracted business owners back into this ideally located neighborhood.

It's highly worth attending festivals, events, and checking out all the culture thriving in this area. First Fridays are always fun! Come out and appreciate the ample art and music scene.

Support what...

Somewhat like a food court with a variety of cuisines intermixed - Vietnom, Umi Rolls, a couple bars, a Mexican place, etc. Now the price certainly isn't food court prices and they try to justify it by making the interior all industrial and pseudo swanky. But this is where I think SoFA Market fails to strike the balance.

Food is a bit pricey for the quality and the taste, and the atmosphere does not compensate for it. Obviously being a "food court", there's absolutely no service yet you are continuously pressured to tip via the digital ordering machines.

Whether you select take-out or dine-in, you are continuously struggling with the modicum of napkins, utensils, and cups of water given out, and the dining area, while with industrial look and feel including wood, has not been optimized for any sort of group dining or finding seats in a stable manner.

If it wasn't for the decent cleanliness (which I can see is quickly deteriorating), I would've notched it down. We didn't have a good time here and probably won't...

I'm always a fan of a high quality food court and even more excited when I randomly find one. In this case, I was looking for a decent Banh mi and found a place that offered that and more. SoFA market is not that far from the convention center and was a nice change of pace from the local side down restaurants around. I'm not sure how common it was for it to be pretty quiet and not busy but it really helped make the experience better. There was quite a bit of seating in the back as well as outdoor siting in both the back and the front.

While some of the shops were not open when we went, there was still a decent selection and this place allowed all of us to get something different. This was a bit smaller than some of the food courts I've been to but since it wasn't busy, I actually liked it quite a bit. There was a wide variety of food options and I'll give a shout out to the options at Vietnoms and Habana Cuba. I really wish I could try more but there is always my next...