28 restaurants, 1 building and no seating: A new ghost kitchen opens in Sunnyvale
Boo! As Halloween approaches, I thought it would be fun to do a roundup of supposedly haunted restaurants along the Peninsula, but I couldn’t think of any other than Moss Beach Distillery or Gardenia. So I settled on the next best thing: to shine a light on ghost kitchens.
Ghost kitchens aren’t kitchens that have ghosts; they’re eateries without seating that focus on delivery. This type of business model boomed during the pandemic, but the hype has been slowly dying.
But recently, a new CloudKitchens location opened in Sunnyvale, bringing nearly 30 new restaurants to the area. I decided to talk with four restaurant owners who recently opened in Sunny’s Food Hub to learn what attracted them to opening a restaurant in this capacity.
Stay tasty,
Adrienne
Ghost kitchens are losing hype. Here’s why these 4 restaurateurs set up shop at a new Sunnyvale ghost kitchen
Many ghost kitchens are now, well, ghosts. Once lauded as the future of the restaurant industry, ghost kitchens are beginning to decline in popularity.
Corn-focused eatery opens in Redwood City, sushi coming to State Street Market and a Brazilian steakhouse opens in Palo Alto
- Dreaming of everything elote? There’s a new Redwood City eatery offering all things corn, including elote cups, sticks, bowls, ramen, ribs, tamales, cheesecake and more.
- Some State Street Market news: A new vendor is coming, a new pizza concept has been introduced and baking whiz kids have started a regular pop-up.
- True Ethiopian Cuisine Catering makes a comeback. After announcing last month that the San Carlos-based company would permanently close Sept. 29, it recently announced via mailing list that it will now accept individual orders on Fridays and Saturdays.
- Prepare for the meat sweats: Show de Carnes, a Brazilian steakhouse based in Sausalito, opened its new Palo Alto location on Friday.
- After four years in Westfield Valley Fair, upscale restaurant iChina has closed, The Mercury News confirmed.
- GK Pastry, known for its crepe cakes and jar cakes, announced on Instagram that it’s raising funds to open a new location in Los Altos.
Fiery chicken at Sushirrito
I love Sushirrito. I’m aware that this is somewhat of a polarizing take, and I’ll admit the concept of a sushi burrito does feel a tad wrong, but I think that’s part of Sushirrito’s charm.
For me, Sushirrito is the epitome of nostalgia. As a kid, I was never that thrilled about burritos or sushi. But when my friend introduced me to Sushirrito, which first opened in 2011, I fell head over heels for the new fusion concept, particularly for the fiery chicken sushirrito ($16).
I’ve been eating this gigantic messy rice roll for years, albeit infrequently for health reasons. Previously it was my go-to food court item at Valley Fair Mall, but that location has since closed down. Now, it’s a special treat I let myself indulge in once in a while in downtown Palo Alto.
Stuffed with crispy chicken karaage and packing a spicy punch with jalapenos and Peruvian herb sauce, the fiery chicken sushirrito is a textural marvel: crunchy carrots and cabbage and crisp house chips contrast nicely with the chewy sushi rice. The avocado spread helps counterbalance the spice, and the nori tends to hold the whole thing together pretty well, although it can become a tad messy with sauce running down your hands.
The pitfall of Sushirrito is it’s not always consistent; sometimes they forget the house chips or skimp on the avocado spread, but as a whole, I’ve consistently been impressed with how freshly cooked the rice tastes.
Sushirrito, 448 University Ave., Palo Alto; 650-600-9696, Instagram: @sushirrito. Open daily from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
‘It was the doorway to understanding myself’: How a self-taught home cook in Redwood City channeled her heritage through her debut Thai cookbook memoir
VC Tang’s new book, ‘Come Eat, Grandma!’ weaves together memories of growing up in the Bay Area with recipes for tom yum and bitter melon soup
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