Dine Burlingame: Best Values

Dedicated to Empowering and Informing the Burlingame Community

February 5, 2026

B’game isn’t known as a high-end Peninsula dining town a la Palo Alto or, lately, Menlo Park as noted here. But we are apparently a mecca for “value dining” as determined by Opentable. The list is loaded with Italian restaurants as determined thusly:

Looking for the best value restaurants in Peninsula? You’re in the right place. Each month, OpenTable analyzes nearly 2 million global diner reviews from the past four months. We sort the results by location and category to help you discover new favorite restaurants.

The latest listing has B’game winning three of the ten spots on the Peninsula. Two are well-known, long-time stalwarts in town: Cafe Figaro and Rocca–both on the “value” commercial street- Broadway. The third one is new (at least to me) and also on B’way at Paloma. Nepalese restaurant:

Himali Bistro is a culinary delight that blends the vibrant spices and traditional cooking techniques of Nepali and Indian cuisine to transport your taste buds on a flavorful journey inspired by the majestic Himalayan region. At this modern restaurant, each dish is crafted with care and expertise to evoke the essence of the mountains, offering a fusion of unique flavors that pay homage to the diverse culinary heritage of the region.

The newest entrant to the B’way dining scene is also on the “value” end of the spectrum. Patty’s Diner is going for the ’50s vibe and has a $9.50 smashburger that you can upgrade to Wagyu for an additional 4 bucks. I’ll be in soon to check out the Philly Cheesesteak using ribeye for $16.

The last new entrant hasn’t opened yet, but that didn’t stop the SF Comicle from running a full-page “review” in the Sunday edition! Taking over the Flights space (or Left at Albuquerque or Nathan’s depending on how far back in time you want to go) is Amado. The Comicle calls it an “elegant new Mexican restaurant) here. Sounds good. Our scene doesn’t get much love from Comicle reviewers, so Amado must have something going for it.

Posted in Broadway, Dine Burlingame

One response to “Dine Burlingame: Best Values”

Jennifer

February 5, 2026

This may be the other end of the budget, Joe, but as one of perhaps hundreds who got a very generous coupon from Sweet Greens, we recently decided to try it– mid-weeknight. It was maybe 1/3 full, most orders seem to be takeout, at least when we were there. The food looks very good from the imagery, and I know people who dine here on a fairly regular basis.

We ordered two entrees, both that normally come with wild rice. We were told the rice was all gone (it was probably 6pm), so we could have white rice or lettuce, as substitute. Opted for the lettuce…It not inexpensive (well, maybe by Burlingame standards it is), perhaps a bit less than Crepe Vine, but I would argue the latter is a nicer dining experience on real plates with servers.

The first oops was that they gave us two of the same dish by mistake, which I guess can happen, so it took awhile to get the replacement dish. One of the dishes was quite good–squash with marinated chicken. The other was not very good. Plain, dry chicken that had little taste, and the dressing just couldn’t make up for that.

One of the drinks they made there, ginger drink – mossy colored green, was delicious, perhaps the best part of the meal. It tasted very fresh.

Cleanliness category: Nobody had bothered to wipe down the tables and benches, at least not very well, so the place didn’t look very clean, even though it was not very busy.

By far the most disappointing part of dinner was that the large paper bowls are so poorly designed. One seriously needs both hands to keep holding the sides down so the bowl doesn’t tip over. If someone has use of only one arm/hand, good luck with that. We tried all kinds of experiments, including cobbling together the plastic top, under the dish, thinking maybe it could work as a stabilizer…alas, ‘still didn’t help. This seemed to be their main serving dish for in-house and to go.

It was very nice of this company to send out coupons to introduce themselves. We were not familiar with them at all and I’m sure that they have a number of very good salads. But I didn’t get the impression they are quite ready for prime time, at least not at this location. Maybe we’ll try again in a few months.

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