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canyonwalkerIt's been weeks since I've written about our quasi-New Year resolution to explore more restaurants in the area. My goal was to try one new restaurant, or a restaurant we haven't been to in so long it might as well be new, near home each month. We missed that in May... largely because we weren't home enough. (Though we did try numerous new restaurants in the places we traveled.) Update: we did try a new local restaurant in May. I even wrote about it! And while June is almost over (today's the 30th!) we did get in a visit to a new-old restaurant a few days ago.
Vive Sol is a Mexican restaurant in Mountain View. They've been around for I think about 22 years. I seem to recall seeing them open circa 2001. The store is part of a string of family owned Mexican restaurants in Mountain View, Palo Alto, and other nearby cities. One branch of the family owns this and two other restaurants. Other branches of the family own or have owned other restaurants. You can tell they're all part of the same extended family because they all have "Grandma's Special" on the menu (at some stores it's Great-Grandma's Special) and it's the same thing. The same delicious thing!
If the food's delicious, why has it been so many years since we've visited? Geography! Vive Sol isn't as close to our house as one of its cousin restaurants, La Fiesta. For years we were regulars at La Fiesta. We loved it. Coming out of Covid they made a small change that really miffed us, though. They stopped serving dishes of 3-4 unique salsas with their chips, cutting back to just one. And it's the weakest one. Grandma's Special is worth going for, but so were their salsas. Thus we're now exploring the other restaurants in the family again.
Vive Sol is in a completely anonymous-looking one storey building behind a vacuum cleaner repair shop. Years ago this was the kind of place you had to look for great ethnic restaurants. (Cousin La Fiesta is on a narrow street between two auto body shops.) Today this kind of location seems quaint, though it's a win for us locals because with those location somewhere along El Camino Real you wouldn't notice unless you know exactly where to go, it keeps it from becoming overcrowded with tourists, travelers, and shoppers.
For dinner I ordered enchiladas al sol, a combo of one Grandma's special enchilada and one mole enchilada. I like this combo because it showcases two of the best things on the restaurant's menu. Grandma's special is a sauce made with guajillo chiles in a heavy cream base. It's medium spicy, rich, and savory. It's got a deep orange color as you can see in the photo above. And the mole here is one of the best I've found. Vive Sol's version of it exceeded my expectations, being even better than its cousin restaurants. The mole was so rich with chocolate, cinnamon, and, I think, a dash of nutmeg.
The best way to enjoy these special sauces is to get the enchiladas stuffed with just cheese. Skip the chicken that's usually associated with mole dishes. With plain cheese you'll appreciate the richness of the sauces more.
Oh, and Vive Sol still serves 3 salsas with their complimentary chips. You can see them in the pic above. Do you see that, La Fiesta? Three. Still three. 🤣
I think we'll be making Vive Sol our new regular spot for upscale Mexican dining.
Vive Sol is a Mexican restaurant in Mountain View. They've been around for I think about 22 years. I seem to recall seeing them open circa 2001. The store is part of a string of family owned Mexican restaurants in Mountain View, Palo Alto, and other nearby cities. One branch of the family owns this and two other restaurants. Other branches of the family own or have owned other restaurants. You can tell they're all part of the same extended family because they all have "Grandma's Special" on the menu (at some stores it's Great-Grandma's Special) and it's the same thing. The same delicious thing!
If the food's delicious, why has it been so many years since we've visited? Geography! Vive Sol isn't as close to our house as one of its cousin restaurants, La Fiesta. For years we were regulars at La Fiesta. We loved it. Coming out of Covid they made a small change that really miffed us, though. They stopped serving dishes of 3-4 unique salsas with their chips, cutting back to just one. And it's the weakest one. Grandma's Special is worth going for, but so were their salsas. Thus we're now exploring the other restaurants in the family again.
Vive Sol is in a completely anonymous-looking one storey building behind a vacuum cleaner repair shop. Years ago this was the kind of place you had to look for great ethnic restaurants. (Cousin La Fiesta is on a narrow street between two auto body shops.) Today this kind of location seems quaint, though it's a win for us locals because with those location somewhere along El Camino Real you wouldn't notice unless you know exactly where to go, it keeps it from becoming overcrowded with tourists, travelers, and shoppers.
For dinner I ordered enchiladas al sol, a combo of one Grandma's special enchilada and one mole enchilada. I like this combo because it showcases two of the best things on the restaurant's menu. Grandma's special is a sauce made with guajillo chiles in a heavy cream base. It's medium spicy, rich, and savory. It's got a deep orange color as you can see in the photo above. And the mole here is one of the best I've found. Vive Sol's version of it exceeded my expectations, being even better than its cousin restaurants. The mole was so rich with chocolate, cinnamon, and, I think, a dash of nutmeg.
The best way to enjoy these special sauces is to get the enchiladas stuffed with just cheese. Skip the chicken that's usually associated with mole dishes. With plain cheese you'll appreciate the richness of the sauces more.
Oh, and Vive Sol still serves 3 salsas with their complimentary chips. You can see them in the pic above. Do you see that, La Fiesta? Three. Still three. 🤣
I think we'll be making Vive Sol our new regular spot for upscale Mexican dining.
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Date: 2023-06-30 05:18 pm (UTC)The family quasi-chain always has very good mole poblano. It's dark and rich, more so than you find in most places. I like it, but it can be a bit overwhelming! Most of the time, I prefer the lighter-tasting version that you can get at La Costena. I'm sure that at least part of that is a big nostalgia hit; theirs was the first mole that I ever had and I've been getting it since the late 1980s.
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Date: 2023-06-30 05:31 pm (UTC)The mole sauce at Vive was richer than I remember at Palo Alto. I don't know if that's a difference between the two chefs, a difference over time, or just daily variation. (E.g., some days the Grandma's Special sauce comes out saltier or spicier than other days.)