Valley Goat — Restaurant in Sunnyvale

New Top Chef Stephanie Izard restaurant in a newly opened boutique hotel with a fun yet more upscale adults go to summer camp feel: goes with the sharing is caring small plates fare.

Food: 4 Service: 3.5 Atmosphere: 5 Opentableable: no but sevenrooms Cost to worth it rating: 3 (lunch small plates around ~$20 each and they recco at least 2 per person) Return worthiness: yes--I'd come back for drinks, dinner, or to hang out on the patio Eve award: best vibes in Sunnyvale

Highlights Vibes: the minute you walk in you see this large open space that feels calming and fun at the same time. My favorite part of our experience. Disco fries: one of our faves of the lunch. Fries were fresh and cooked well and the pizza like irregular bumpy sausage chunks were great. Also had a bit of a lime tang I enjoyed and only light saltiness from the cojita cheese. 4.25 stars Pork belly noodles: fantastic Vietnamese pork flavor in the slices of pork and unexpectedly with glass noodles. The chili crunch was cool to flavor the delicate noodles and not too strong, but did make them pretty oily. Didn't taste much of the wood fired pineapple but saw the firm cubes of what must have been them. 4 stars Biscuits: 4 small ones that looked like they may be dense but were fluffy and buttery tender inside. 4 stars Chocolate mint mousse: a salad like bowl with a bunch of fresh mint on top of the dark mousse and a lighter whip cream on the top. Didn't taste too much mint in the whip, but enjoyed the crunchy mint chocolate rectangles mixed in and the surprise kumquat to break up the richness. 3.5 stars Cocktails: unique menu with different ingredients like kosho, red Thai chili, and even fish sauce. Not sure if they have a HH but this would be good for one. -- Goat fashion: bourbon with banana and cacao my hub enjoyed. 4 stars -- Kosho jacuzzi: vodka and yuzu with some carbonation was refreshing but not as special. 3 stars Seating: some smaller tables on the edges, some cool semi circle booths with chairs across, a long bar, and an open patio. Beer garden: adjacent to the restaurant, there is a larger patio area of the hotel that has picnic tables and lanterns and live music some nights. They have some games like jenga, giant beer pong, etc to create a fun hang out spot.

Midlights: Trying for the VIP professional approach, but can tell it's a new spot so they need to iron out a few kinks. When I asked about the menu I didn't get an accurate answer and staff seemed a bit nervous. Shrimp salad: enjoyed the crunchy quinoa mixed with the creamy avocado, bright mandarin orange segments, and the perfectly cooked shrimp. Rest was a standard salad and even with dressing on the side, shrimp had some sort of creamy marinade 3 stars Three sauce chicken: ground chicken with Asian spices to wrap in lettuce was fine, but not my fave of the dishes. Liked the crunchies that came with them top wtih. 3 stars

Lowlights: Almost every item we ordered had cilantro and mayo: personally not my faves though know lots of people like them. Mounds of cilantro on top. We were able to get the mayos on the side so that was good.

Enjoyed our lunch here and would like to come back...

TL;DR: Omg, everything we had was delicious!

We were so excited to try Valley Goat because we loved the Girl & the Goat in Chicago. We made reservations to celebrate our 8 year wedding anniversary once we heard this was opening. Multiple staff members wished us happy anniversary, which was greatly appreciated to celebrate our special occasion.

There is a large parking lot and we didn't have any issues finding parking on a Tuesday night for a 6pm dinner.

You're immediately greeted with a warm welcome by the staff. The interior is so pretty with all the live plants on the walls and ceilings. We didn't get to check out the bar or have any drinks since we gave up alcohol for Lent. But best believe, we're coming back to try the drinks after Easter! You can see everything that's happening in the kitchen, just like the Girl & the Goat.

Now for food, I don't even like goat but the goat empanadas are a must! The pastry is flaky and so freaking good. The goat stuffing didn’t have any of that gamey flavor. The dip was perfect for the empanadas. If I had more room in my stomach, I would've ate more goat empanadas!

The roasted oysters had such good flavor and it was great on the biscuit crackers. I recommend this if you love oysters. We had the spiced fries, as although it was good, it was a filler and I ate too much of it before the main course.

My husband and I got the skirt steak and wood fired branzino to share. There was an explosive combination of flavors with each bite of the steak and fish. I loved that the branzino was deboned so it was easy to eat.

Now, the grilled corn is something to try as well. It reminded me of the Cambodian BBQ corn I used to eat as a kid at family gatherings. This was so flavorful and nostalgic for me. Because of the sweetness, it was more like a dessert for me. And because of that, I thought I didn't have room for dessert but there's always space for it!

We had the sticky toffee plantain cake for dessert. Now remember, I usually don't like goat. The banana goat milk ice cream had a hint of goat flavor that quickly disappeared. The cake was soooooo freaking good. Everything in here was delicious and had a nice crunch with the chocolate plantain chips. This is also a must have for dessert!

Did I already say everything we had was delicious? We can't wait to go back and try more food! Angel was our serve, who would check in. The staff were all amazing and attentive. Our glasses were constantly getting refilled by different servera and they even boxed up the branzino for us. So many of the staff acknowledged us as we passed through the restaurant, which was really nice. Our experience here was amazing and truly memorable for wedding anniversary. Thank you,...

It's difficult to separate my experience of Valley Goat from the nightmarish logistics of parking my car at the Treehouse Hotel in Sunnyvale near Moffett Airfield, which is where the restaurant is located. Unfortunately, the hotel is on the other end of a huge parking lot from a Google campus. Nearly the entire parking lot was full and off-limits to hotel and restaurant guests. So there were five cars lined up, extending out to the entrance ramp. Some people were zipping around the corner off to the hotel parking lot, which is also jam packed with valet double parking in front of the regular spots. I didn't have my pass card so I couldn't valet my Tesla.

I circled the hotel for 20 minutes before realizing it was hopeless. So I circled a bit wider, eventually finding a spot inside a Google parking garage. I was a bit nervous but since my sister, nieces and mom were waiting in front of the restaurant and our reservation time was almost past 15 minutes, I had no choice. Perhaps parking is easier on the weekend when Google employees are off, but I doubt they allow hotel guests to park in company spots even when they aren’t being used.

I assumed my mom was already seated but they only seat diners when the entire party is present. I rushed past the patio that was packed outside for a private event. We were guided by the hostess down a long corridor, past a vinyl DJ booth to a wide booth in the very back next to a private dining room.

We ordered the Avocado Dip with plantains and a Shrimp Salad and Spicy Fish Tostada. My nieces received a Kids Menu which was nice. They ordered some plain noodles and corn. Could not try a cocktail on account of it being lunch time on a work day with family.

The Avocado Dip had an intense citrus flavor right off the bat. The texture was very smooth but the chile lime part of it was sour. The plantain chips were cut nearly the length of the plantain and were sturdy enough to scoop up the dip without breaking.

The Shrimp Salad also had an overpowering sourness to it between the pickled veggies and lime herb dressing. Then my Spicy Fish Tostadas were also doused in lime juice. Nearly every dish we ordered seemed to incorporate lime juice as its central component.

They brought out a nice Blueberry ice cream topped with cornflakes and a candle for my sister's birthday. The dessert was probably the most enjoyable dish of all the ones that we tried. The servers waiting on our table were all very nice and attentive. But with the nightmarish parking situation, overly loud indoor dining area, expensive & small portions and lime juice invasion of seemingly every dish, I wouldn't be...