The Best Places to Eat in Mountain View, by the Record

Almost everything lands on a banana leaf, and most people eat with their hands. This Chettinad Indian restaurant in Mountain View specializes in the cooking of Tamil Nadu, which means bold spice, rice noodle cakes soaking up mutton curry, and chicken 65 in a shade of red that means business. The kitchen opens for breakfast daily and runs unlimited thalis on weekends, when the room fills fast with people who already know exactly what they're ordering.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Indian, Pakistani, and South Asian restaurants in the Bay Area
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Free jazz plays while you eat aged fish at an eight-seat bar, which tells you everything about the vibe before the first course lands. This is an Edomae-style omakase counter in Mountain View where the chef, a veteran named in the restaurant's own title, treats restraint as a philosophy: a piece of ikura arrives with zero seasoning, letting the ocean do the talking. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the Bay Area's best sushi restaurants.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Sushi Restaurants in San Francisco Bay Area

A bakery in Mountain View that bakes sesame rolls and Dutch crunch bread exclusively for the Rōzmary Kitchen popup, which sets up here on Fridays. The sandwiches are the draw: the Southern Peach pairs turkey and pimento cheese against sweet pickled peaches, and the Italian cured meat options are just as good. The San Francisco Chronicle named it one of the Bay Area's best sandwich spots, which tracks.

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