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My Favorite Places in the Bay Area

  • Writer: Amanda Pe
    Amanda Pe
  • Aug 19, 2022
  • 9 min read

Updated: Feb 19



I'm visiting the Bay Area for Labor Day weekend this year (thank goodness for random Southwest flight sales!) and while preparing for my trip, I got super nostalgic while thinking of my time there in my early 20s. I got to live my truly independent life and enjoy it to my heart's content.


So in honor of my early 20's, I wanted to note some of my favorite places in the Bay Area. This list is super random because it is purely based on my personal experience and preferences. It is also very South Bay bias as it is where I lived and spent most of my time. Additionally, I wanted to highlight some small businesses that have a special place in my heart and not many people talk about. Hope you enjoy a small snippet of my previous life.




The San Jose Airport (SJC)

In my early 20s, this airport was my gateway to adventure and weekend getaways. For the first time in my young adult life, I was explore as much as my heart and budget would allow me to. I got to do weekend trips to Seattle, a 24 hour trip to Austin, many weekend flights to LA, and trips to other fun destinations.


This airport is a perfect size too— only two terminals and rarely overly crowded so it was very easy to get in and out of. As someone who was use to LAX being their normal airport, SJC was a breath of fresh air since it was so accessible. I miss living so close to an airport and it was so easy to pick up friends and family from here. Now in LA I live about equal distance from four airports that are each almost 20 miles away. It was nice while it lasted.





The Bandai Namco Entertainment America Santa Clara Office

This office is now a thing of history since the Santa Clara office doesn't exist anymore! The company consolidated and relocated to Irvine. But the old office will always have a special place in my heart as it is the location for my first full-time job after college. I truly felt like I had a great work family there (shout-out to the Creative Services team!) and I have so many fond memories at this office. I loved bringing my friends and family there as well to show them what a fun video game office looked like. Now I have to get my old coworkers to sneak me into the new Irvine office.




Recommended by my good friend who is a San Jose native, I immediately fell in love with this place and tried to stop by whenever I was in the area. It is a used bookstore with cats walking around!! Watching over their domain, making sure we're on our best behavior, sometimes demanding for our attention. I love buying used books it saves me money along with being kinder to the environment. I always walked away with a "new" book or two. It will be hard to top Recycle Bookstore.



I originally tried their Cupertino location and was ecstatic when the Japantown location opened as it was much closer. Authentic Hawaiian style poke restaurant, owned by a native Hawaiian resident (who happens to be friends with one of my former co-workers). Pre-covid, you would be able to try samples of their numerous poke flavors which was one of my favorite things to do. Fresh fish flown in from Hawaii, black rice, and generous portions. I really like Japantown SJ in-general, a cute little area with some shopping and good food. If I could have afforded it, I would have liked to live in Japantown SJ. I heard that Santo Market in Japantown also had great poke but I never got around to trying it. Another great Japantown stop is Roy's Station Coffee and Tea. Along with having great coffee, it was a gas station that got converted into a coffee shop.



Delicious desserts and pastries in the heart of east side San Jose! I've gotten desserts here a few times and everything is always a hit. We regret not getting more goodies every time. Another great thing about this place is that it's owned by a Teochew family (my people!). Love supporting local Teochew businesses especially since there's not as many Teochew people in the Bay Area. Vietnamtown can get crazy busy sometimes but the chaos is so worth it for CA Bakehouse. Love their mochi cakes, egg tarts, and anything pandan flavored.







My favorite cat lounge in San Jose! So many friendly and cute kitties here. Love their mission and how you can interact with cats in an environment that they feel comfortable in. I've definitely fell in love with some cats here but the pet ownership life just wasn't for me quite yet so I had to settle for hanging out at The Dancing Cat every once in a while. If I was still living in the South Bay and I wanted to adopt a cat, I would definitely try to adopt a kitty from The Dancing Cat.






My favorite brunch place in all of the Bay Area. I would take all of my visiting friends here. Their crabcakes are divine and their hollandaise sauce is the best I've ever had. Their breakfast potatoes are also really amazing. Located in cute downtown Los Gatos,


After finishing my meal here, I loved being able to walk to a coffee shop or their farmer's market on Sundays. Family owned, old school, a local favorite, and cash only. Their waiting list can look really long, especially prime brunch time (10am to 1pm) but it always moves faster than expected since they're so efficient. If you really don't want to wait, you can also go to the Uptown location. I've never been there before but I heard that the quality of food is just as good. You just don't get the cute downtown vibes.




A fun food hall, a great place to take people for their first time in San Jose. Plenty of yummy food options, seating everywhere, good vibes in-general. I miss coming here on a Friday night after a long week at work, grabbing a burger, and hanging out with my friends here. I just looked up the current restaurants there and it looks like my favorite burger place isn't there anymore, RIP.


City Sports Club (Sunnyvale)

Kind of random, but this gym is where I would go to almost every Tuesday and Thursday for my kick-box cardio and Zumba classes. It was my place to work on myself, get my fitness in, and destress from the work day. There was some pretty good instructors here too with fun playlists, I have missed them since I've stopped going to group fitness classes during the pandemic. I just have lots of pleasant feelings associated with this gym since it is where I would get a fix of dopamine from the exercising.



I discovered this place towards the end of my Bay Area residency because my friend recommended for me to join some classes to help motivate her to use her pre-paid classes. Additionally we would have an excuse to see each other more. I came for my friend but I stayed because of the encouraging and warm vibes I felt from this small gym. The trainers were always helpful and approachable so I didn't feel intimidated during my work-outs. Along with that, I was always DEAD after each classes so I definitely was getting my fitness in. Really recommend this gym if you like doing group classes but need more weight focused exercises and need some gentle guidance as the trainers, who will have routines prepared for you and will help correct your form throughout the class. I think I also enjoyed coming here so much because my friend and I would always get poke after class and we would have really great conversations that would last until the gym closed (sometimes the instructors would find us talking in the parking lot as they close the gym at like 9:30pm).



Probably my favorite restaurant when I was living in Milpitas. Quick service, the fish was always fresh, generous portions, low-key, and decent pricing considering the efficiency and portion size! At most sushi places, I would need at least a roll and a half to feel satisfied but here one roll and an appetizer would be more than enough. My usual would be a cherry blossom roll and agadashi tofu to share.


I had a friend tell me that although the food was great, her parents was not the biggest fans of the restaurant because the service was so efficient that it felt like they were trying to rush them out. Pretty valid comment, so if you want a place to lounge and relax, this restaurant is not it.


Sen Dai Sushi the last meal I had in the Bay Area before I moved back home. I miss their cherry blossom roll so much.




Century 20 Great Mall Movie Theater (Milpitas)

I loved this movie theater— reclining seats, clean, pretty easy to get tickets, easy parking, good membership/subscription deal, and geographically close to my residence of almost 3 years. This is the movie theater where I had my short stint of using MoviePass and where I grew to feel comfortable enough to go to the theaters by myself. It was so easy to stop by after work since it was on my way home. Since it was connected to the mall, I loved going to the Coldstone right next to it and bringing in my ice cream to eat while watching the movie previews.






Shoreline Amphitheatre (Mountain View)

I've probably seen a handful of concerts at this venue and it's always a good time. It's in a pretty central location for most of the Bay Area and lots of great artists use this venue as their norcal stop on their tour as well as it's a popular venue for music festivals. Another thing that's cool about this venue is that you can opt for lawn seating so it's cheaper and you can choose your spot on the grass. The only thing that sucks about this venue is getting out when the concert ends. I think the last few times it took us almost 2 hours to get out of the parking lot. So if you don't want to get stuck in major parking lot traffic, maybe leave during the final song of the concert.



I think my favorite hike that I've done in the Bay Area. We did the Montara Mountain trail and the trailhead/parking lot is right off the 1 highway. Really gorgeous coastal views (reminds me of the central coast) and dog friendly trail. I would say this trail is an intermediate hiking level so it's not a walk in the park but if you're generally active you shouldn't die so a good work-out. I wish that I did this hike more than once since it's so pretty and not that hard to get to.



San Francisco

Oh man I have so many good memories in San Francisco, it's hard for me to narrow things down. The places are also super random and I wouldn't have too much to write about each individual place so I might just list them and provide links. I miss driving up to the Sunset District and meeting up with my friend who acted like our SF tour guide and would take us on SF adventures. I miss walking around the city with my friends and showing around my friends that would come to visit me. This city isn't for everyone and I am not sure if I could even live in SF, but I think there's a lot of great things about this city and I definitely had a lot of fun here.

And of course there's lots of cool little spots in SF but these are just what came top of mind. These are places that gives me a strong positive association and that I would love to visit again and again.




That is pretty much my list but I also realized that I didn't list any East Bay places! I honestly didn't visit the East Bay very often unless it was for a very specific reason and/or to go to my therapy appointments in Fremont. But I will mention Nyum Bai, a really great Cambodian restaurant that was based in Oakland, but it looks like they're relocating! We shall see if it remains in the East Bay.


The Bay Area is honestly so big that it's hard to get a thorough exploration unless you actively seek to do so. But you know with work and life, it gets a little difficult. I do plan on doing an annual or biannual Bay Area trip through so I can hopefully get more of my bucket list done and see what's new and trendy.


The Bay Area will always have a special place in my heart and I am so grateful that I got to spend almost 4 years of my young adult life there.


Until next time my friend-

Amanda ^_^

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