Located just off Highway 101 at the Great America Parkway exit, Pedro’s Restaurant and Cantina is one of the few large, established restaurants at which you are guaranteed to receive authentic Mexican fare in the Bay Area without having to trek 500 miles south to Tijuana.
Hungry? Assuming you don’t fill up on the endless supply of chips and salsa, you’ll want to try the enchiladas. The Enchilada Chipotle (a sautéed chicken enchilada topped with a mild sauce of chipotle chiles, pineapple juice, and brown sugar) and the Enchilada Jalisco (a pork carnitas enchilada smothered in their secret, signature “ranchero sauce”) are both served with Spanish rice and black beans, and are tasty yet relatively inexpensive choices for lunch. If enchiladas are not your thing, the aptly named Chile Colorado with its tender chunks of beef in a creamy sauce of colorado chiles is a popular and favorite alternative, and the hefty combination dishes will satisfy just about any ravenous appetite. However, walk away from the “House Specialty” Chicken Mole, an unappealing blend of incongruent flavors, a far cry from the complex cohesiveness of a traditional molé.
The cantina serves up a variety of beers, wines, and spirits, but is best known for its inexpensive yet generous margaritas, available in classic lime or other more trendy fruit flavors. While the grub served at the bar during Happy Hour (4-7 p.m. weekdays) is not quite up to par with the rest of the menu, there are scarce few places where you can start off the weekend right — get a little blotto on fast-flowing margaritas and fill up on reasonably good (and free!) food, all for about ten bucks.
Seating, thanks to the quite large capacity, is almost always fast, no matter the size of your party. The quality of service can be hit or miss during busy times and, since it is the only reasonably priced restaurant within walking distance of several high-tech, high-rise office buildings, it is often extremely busy.
Pedro’s elegant, Mission-style architecture among its boring, sky-rise neighbors is one of its appeals. The interior features a circular, fully enclosed, courtyard-like setting, complete with a miniature staircase leading up to rooms unknown, and a wooden gazebo overlooking a fountain. Smaller tables for two abound in these charming surroundings, perfect for a romantic evening date, or a relaxed Sunday brunch. Other areas of the restaurant appear much hardier with heavier, wooden, drinking-hall-style tables, ideal for large office lunches, a perfect place to go with the guys to lunch. We even had our wedding rehearsal dinner here in 1998, and all the guests thought it an ideal location with terrific food.
Internet maps might tell you to take a right on Mission College Blvd, followed by another right on Freedom Circle, but locals know that taking the first right at the oft-overlooked Hichborn Drive from Great America cuts out over a half mile of needless driving to get here. There is plenty of free parking at the restaurant and at any of the nearby office building parking lots. You could walk from the VTA Light Rail stop on Tasman Drive (about a mile away), but I’m not too sure I’d want to hoof it back that far after a large meal.
Come to think of it, I’m not too sure I want to get back onto 101 after a pitcher of their excellent margaritas, either…
3935 Freedom Circle, Santa Clara, CA 95054, 1-408-496-6777
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