Dishdash -  Sunnyvale

Middle Eastern food with reasonable prices and large portions.  Great for groups.  I had the Mansaf, a mound of shredded lamb and rice sprinkled with almonds and floating in a sea of sauce.  The dish was salty, strong, and deliciously rich.  I think I prefer the Beriani however, which is a similar beef dish but with the sweetness of raisins to alleviate the heavy sauce.   Alex had the M'Tabaq, a sort of salmon, eggplant and rice timbale with a sea of tomato, sumac sauce. For dessert we had the Kenafeh, hot melty cheese wrapped in crispy shredded filo and topped with a pretty confetti of green pistachio.

Jang su Jang - Santa Clara

A relatively upscale Korean BBQ place where the servers wear spotless traditional Korean garb and talk like secret serviceman into little black earpieces. The wait is long, so make reservations in your best pretend Korean or prepare to wait with your vibrating pager.  Pan chan was fresh, including the kimchee, which was a little young for the taste of those present.  The pink and grey jello was my favorite, as well as the unusually thick seafood pancake.  Being overstuffed with goodies, the Pa Jun wasn't particularly crispy, so the purists didn't think it was that great, but I enjoyed it nonetheless as a sort of Okonomiyaki.   For meat, we had sizzling plate marinated pork that was very tender, table fired Kalbi on the bone, and thick griddled bacon (sometimes a bit gristly.)  The Korean grandmother at the table was unimpressed with the soy bean pan chan, and got up during the meal to provide grill service because the waitresses were lagging.  I missed having Shikye at the end of the meal.  Instead, the restaurant served us little bottles of yogurt drink, which I'm not a big fan of anyway.   Not sure I will go back on my own but not bad for a nice get together.