San Jose's restaurant scene is better than you think—and well worth a visit. 7x7.com

When I fell in love with a man and moved from San Francisco to San Jose, the city’s restaurants were high on the list of the things I was heartbroken to leave behind. But San Jose, it turns out, holds its own in the food department. They just do things a little differently here.

For starters, most restaurants in San Jose are low-key family-owned operations. There are very few show-stoppingly stylish restaurants and, the majority that try, don’t exactly hit the mark. Almost every restaurant, from upscale spots to holes-in-the-wall have televisions, and both downtown and on Santana Row, the spaces are often so massive that they feel perpetually empty. Though this bodes well for reservations—you almost never need one—cavernous emptiness can definitely impact on vibe.

Then there’s the sometimes impenetrable multicultural aspect of San Jose. Unlike in today’s gentrified San Francisco, the capital of Silicon Valley is a mosaic of culinary heritage. The Mexican and Vietnamese scenes, in particular, are so extensive that there are food communities within food communities. It will, quite literally, take a lifetime to visit them all. Even after six years in town, I’ve barely scratched the surface of the carts, food trucks, and pop-ups that are, undoubtedly, just as good as their brick-and-mortar counterparts.

So, for this guide to San Jose’s restaurants, we’ve organized our list by geography, and carved out separate spaces for old-school classics, Vietnamese eateries, and Mexican restaurants that fall outside those popular neighborhoods. From Portuguese tapas purveyor Petiscos to Peter’s Bakery, the original home of burnt almond cake, here are our picks for San Jose’s best.