How about Christmas Eve?

M: There are a few that I know are doing Christmas Eve specials: The Village Pub in Woodside, Mayfield Cafe and Bakery at Town & Country, LB Steak and Left Bank in Menlo Park as well as Quattro and MacArthur Park. You can browse restaurants with reservation openings on Christmas Eve on Open Table. It's a helpful way to figure out what's open: Web Link

Good list. It would be awesome if you or the Almanac did a story on the truly dismal eating scene here in Menlo Park. New spots generally go to Burlingame or Palo Alto. I think it is interesting to review WHY. Demand and $ are here, but no supply to speak of. Rents? Something else? Dig in!

Quattro Restaurant and Bar at the Four Seasons Hotel is NOT in Palo Alto. It is in EAST Palo Alto.

whatever: That's my fault; thank you for catching. I've corrected Quattro's location.

Amarin Thai Cuisine, an award-winning Thai restaurant, was open on Christmas Eve until 10:00 p.m. and will be open on Christmas Day from 11:30 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. Very nice atmosphere and delicious food. Not certain if advance reservations are required on holidays. Not sure if it will be easy to find parking on Christmas Day; you may want to allow extra time just in case. Location: 174 Castro Street, Mountain View, zip code 14041 Phone: 650/988-9323

Little India in Redwood City has a message saying they\'re closed Christmas Day but Open Table allowed me to make reservation.

Most of the places on Castro street are open today ( they tend to be Asian eateries). Some had long lines to get in. Had lunch at a pho place on one of the side streets. Parking not a problem.

Went into Starbuck's today on University Ave. Only cafe open. I tried a couple of the new "La Boulange" pastries which are customized for Starbucks. They are totally different and bear no resemblance whatsoever to what you get at a La Boulange itself which is quite good. That is why this is so surprising. The customer needs to understand this. Perhaps they should put a sign on the counter to this effect. These were just awful. They are frozen. They put them in a microwave, then a few minutes later hand them to the customer in a paper bag. Starbucks has completely botched this attempt to bring quality pastries into their stores. They should just bring back the old pastry lineup and leave it at that.

I wouldn't recommend Little India to anyone, they mix their old food. I was sick for days!

What happened to Station 1, in Woodside.

Elena. As you see from these comments, nary a one for Menlo Park. We are, sadly, a restaurant (and shopping, for that matter) wasteland. Save for a few older spots, and the recently opened Refuge, residents have to leave town for a decent meal. I think it would be great to do a piece on why that is. Must be related to rents to some degree.

MenloFood: I was born and raised in Menlo Park, so I definitely know the pitfalls of the Menlo dining scene well. I'll pass along the story idea to Almanac staff. I agree it would be interesting to look into. I'm not sure that rents are any higher on Santa Cruz Avenue than the surrounding places residents leave town to eat - i.e. University Avenue or Castro Street (and a lot of people in the industry bemoan Palo Alto's high rents as prohibitive, especially on University, but they are also pretty equivalent to San Francisco's.)

Thanks. I just think it is an interesting story that might engage your readers. We all too often hear of an interesting opening in downtown Palo Alto and Burlingame for restaurants that should do very well. For some reason, owners look at us but skip by us. Some have said that the issue is rents but it is probably a bit of lack of traffic, poor parking (i.e. no garage.........), etc. The Bradley Ogden spot is a good step but location is not great. One or two great, open family oriented spots (not steak houses or :fancy" food) would be awesome. Maybe 2014 is the year.

Also, sport: Station 1 in Woodside is still operating, as far as I know (though it looks like its website is currently down!).

I just called Bon Vivant in Palo Alto, and they told me they are not open Christmas Day.

Dawna: Just a note, this post was from 2013 and has not been updated.

We've done both a Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinner at Bistro Vida, and it was great. It was Prixe Fixe when we dined. As always very authentic. Roy Thiele-Sardina