Reply #22: Here's the review for that Mountain View restaurant I mentioned...

[Amerigo Vespucci]

...the two main reviewers are Google employees and when they hit their 1000th review (the Google Cafeteria), they kind of dropped off the face of the Earth.

The name of the Website is "JatBar" (Jason and Terry's Bay Area Review).

What you find out, after reading some of the reviews, is that these guys are really into Mexican food, Indian as well, but when it comes to Italian, they can't get past straight spaghetti and meatballs.

I can't post the photos here because they request that people not do that (steals their bandwidth), but if you go to the link, you can see plenty of them...including the garlic they LEFT ON THEIR PLATE!

The restaurant is Mario's...family owned, a REAL Italian restaurant owned and operated by REAL Italians. It's on a tiny little side street. Once you're inside, it looks more like a converted house than a restaurant (probably is):

http://www.jatbar.com/reviews/Mountain_View/Marios_Pizza_and_Italian.asp

So here's the good part:

chicken marsala - could have been the best Ive had but the dish was overwhelmed with garlic (picture #7 you can see all the leftover garlic). Huge chicken breast was tender and topped with mushrooms, olive oil, garlic, and other wonderful herbs. The menu said it was a sweet wine but couldnt detect it with all the garlic. The pasta was cooked just right with good texture and bite to it. Would I order it again? Heck yeah, as long as the hold off on the 10 cloves of the stinking rose.

They even mention that they went to the Mexican market across the street BEFORE having their meal, stocking up on "good pork tamales, lard, pinto beans, valencia hot sauce, and carne asade seasoning."

:-)