Tag Archives: italian

Bel Bacio Cafe

We’ve been in San Jose now for nearly a month and I decided it’s high time to start checking out the local coffee places. I think about it during my days when I’m running all over the place but I’ve been too busy to slow down and stop at those times. Plus, it’s more fun to explore with David. 

We decided today that we’d try Bel Bacio Cafe at the end-ish of our morning walk.

Bel-Bacio-Cafe

 
Bel Bacio is in a cute little house located in Little Italy. We walk through Little Italy every weekend and have had dinner at Paesano and attended the arch dedication ceremony Friday night so it seemed like a good place to start. 

Bel_Bacio_Cafe

We walked over two miles before getting back to Bel Bacio and going inside. I was warm enough that I wanted to order an iced coffee and sit outside.

Iced_coffee

David got a hot Americano and a Nutella croissant which he pronounced as “really good”. I think he was somehow surprised but it was NUTELLA. How could it be bad? 

Nutella_croissant

When I check in on Yelp! I saw that we got a free coffee with the purchase of two pastries so we went ahead and got these cute little cookies as well.

Italian_cookies

We then sat outside under and umbrella in the beautiful morning before concluding our 3+ mile walk. 

IMG_1847

We really enjoyed Bel Baccio Cafe and I know we will stop by there again really soon. The lady who served us was super friendly, the coffee and food were great, and we loved the atmosphere. 🙂

Review: Ti Amo Ristorante

My bestie was coming to town for business and we planned to have dinner on Wednesday. I know she loves Tex-Mex but I’m not a super big fan. I asked her about Italian. She said she loved it so I made reservations at Ti Amo’s South which is right around the corner from our house.

besties

After we were settled in a comfy booth, our server came to take our drink order and brought us the most amazing bruchetta. I didn’t get a photo of it but it was delish!

I decided on a glass of Chianti. I’d been talking about Chianti with a twitter friend recently and telling her that I’d never had it. I loved it! It tasted a lot like the Malbec we’d been drinking before we left the house. For some reason I was afraid it would be too sweet, but it was nice.

chianti

Then came the lobster bisque. I could have eaten this for my main course. It was wonderful. Spicy and warm. It was a good choice.

My dinner was fettucine alfredo with chicken. I rarely indulge in pasta and the creamy pasta and juicy chicken really hit the spot.

fettuccine alfredo

I had followed Ti Amo’s on twitter and got to choose a free dessert.

We chose the Lemon Berry Marscapone Cake to split since we were mostly FULL!lemon berry marscapone cake. Yum! It was light and sweet, the perfect way to end our meal.

While we were waiting to get our bill, the owner came by our table. He asked if we liked Limoncello. Denise and I said, yes we did. He told us he makes his own Limoncello and brought us each a shot on the house. It was awesome!

Limoncello

We had a really nice visit with Denise and a lovely dinner at Ti Amo’s. I’m sure we’ll visit again!