Silicon Valley Girl

August 8, 2009 1:13 PM

San Jose/Silicon valley recommendations for spas *or* veggie restaurants for getting a gift certificate. Please help me!

I am trying to get a gift certificate for a friend leaving the east coast to work in Santa Clara. She's vegetarian and from India, so one idea was to get a gift certificate at an Indian restaurant (don't worry, she won't find it offensive). I'm having trouble figuring out which ones are actually good. And it would have to be one that actually bothers to do gift certificates (by mail, no less).

An alternative is to get her a spa gift certificate. Any recommendations for spas with good service? We want it to be a treat!

Other information: She'll be working in industry research, is generally proud of her nerdiness, is really really looking forward to the good weather but isn't a particularly outdoorsy person.

I would really appreciate any recommendations for Indian restaurants or spas or any other things that you can think of for me! Thanks!

posted by bread-eater to food & drink (5 comments total)

My favorites:
Plum Spa
Bombay Gardens and Amber India. Neither are exclusively vegetarian but offer many veg options. BG has a killer lunch buffet.
posted by jamaro at 1:44 PM on August 8

It's been a few years since we've gone, but Watercouse Way in Palo Alto was a good place to go for a hot soak and a massage.
posted by dws at 3:35 PM on August 8

Also recommending Watercourse Way; a company I used to work at would give gift certificates there for employee awards/incentives. Here are the Yelp reviews.

With regards to Indian restaurants, there are a ton of 'em, and among the Indian population what is preferred is very dependent on what part of India they are from (or what type of cuisine they prefer) and of course the usual personal taste. So recommending one, especially for someone from India, is difficult.

Other ideas for gift cards you can order from afar:
Gift card to Valley Fair Mall in Santa Clara.
Gift card to Santana Row (upscale shopping and restaurants, they also have an Amber India mentioned above).
Gift card to a place like Crate & Barrel or Pottery Barn (both have large stores in the area) since she's moving and may enjoy furnishing her place. Or go for IKEA if you want the more practical option; there's one in East Palo Alto.
posted by girlhacker at 10:00 PM on August 8

Garden Fresh does fake-meat style Chinese and is amazing at some dishes. For Indian (dosas & the like) we have a Saravana Bhavan that I quite like. These are both strict vegetarian places. In general, getting veggie food around here is quite easy.
posted by chairface at 8:24 PM on August 9

Thank you everyone! I'm going to get her the Santana Row gift certificate (very nice selection of services/shops!), but I will pass on the recommendations for her future reference. Cheers.
posted by bread-eater at 4:44 PM on August 10