Dining at the Sonoma Chicken Coop

If you are from the Bay Area here in California, I hope you have visited the strip of great dining places in downtown San Jose. They have a wide array of choices of places that everyone could enjoy. There are pizza places, cozy bars for those who want to unwind, and other dining havens for the entire family.

Sonoma Chicken Coop is one place that the whole family would truly enjoy. It has a very relaxed atmosphere. There is no need for grown-ups to hush the little ones when they talk aloud freely or forget that they are in a public eating place. The place is quite huge. The main restaurant is facing Market Street and it is a cozy, dim-lighted venue which has, as they themselves describe as warm wine country interior. An extension is actually a big patio, that could spell great outdoor dining during the spring or summer time. But since it is only February, a few showers still dampen San Jose, so the Coop staff keep people dry and warm with a huge tent-like cover.

The food is just awesome. On top of the list, of course, would be the roasted chicken. Tender and juicy inside, it is just done right without hardening the meat. The skin is not bitter at all. There are three kinds of sauces that you could choose from: the warm lemon vinaigrette, the rooster booster barbeque and the coop au vin, which as the name says has a little wine in it. I prefer the lemon vinaigrette.

The chicken (either half or quarter) also comes with a side dish. Pick your choice from french fries, mashed potatoes, riced pilaf, salads, steamed or grilled veggies, or pasta. I tried the pesto pasta and it was just delicious. And a huge serving as well.

They have wonderful salads and soups, pizza of course, and other seafood cocktail. From the grill, customers can choose from steak to pork chops, to chicken and duck.

We ordered a serving of calamari. They gave us a huge plateful of wonderful squid, without the greasy, too crispy batter that could hide the squid (as others would serve them).

With most of the meals, they serve a special bread called focaccia. You would think it is pizza, but it has a different twist to its taste because of the herbs they use and the loads of flavors you would get in each bite.

As if not satisfied with what we had, we tried their chocolate fondue. The children had a blast dipping their strawberry and banana slices, marshmallows, cookies, nuts and other sweet stuff in the warm dark chocolate, nicely lighted with a small candle underneath the little chocolate bowl.

Dining is fun because of the conversation with family and friends. But it you wish to catch up with news and sport games, you could watch from the several boob tubes on the wall. Listening to the audio might be quite difficult though.

What I liked most about the place is their service. The crew was very accommodating, very quick and friendly. When we went in, it was almost full. Still, we did not have to wait for a long time to get our orders and start satisfying our grumbling stomachs.

I visited their website and I found out that when the weather is friendly, the place becomes more exciting at lunch hours because of live music on the patio. What could be more interesting than that? So, go and visit their website at http://www.sonomachickencoop.com/index.html to learn more about their menu and their location. As their website boasts of, go and enjoy inexpensive excellence at the Sonoma Chicken Coop.