Rok Bistro

Location: Downtown Sunnyvale
Cuisine type: fondue restaurant, hot rock cooking, modern American
Atmosphere: intimate, modern decor
Meal: dinner
Overall score: 8.1

Nina

I picked this place for dinner mainly because it was on my way home from work, and because fondue is always a cool type of meal to share with family and friends (and we had Ben’s sister to entertain, so perfect excuse). Their atmosphere is subdued and intimate, with dim lighting and a mix of booth and chair seating. Unlike other fondue type places I’ve been to, the general layout is quite a bit more crowded, with tables less than a foot apart along the walls (I believe there was a bit more privacy in the full booth seating perpendicular to walls, but the entire dining room was one large room).
The difference between getting an entree with cheese fondue and a full meal was small, so we had to go for it - a full spread of salad, cheese fondue of choice, entree served with a sizzling hot rock to cook it on, and finally chocolate fondue, yum! The salad was fairly simple on the surface - baby spinach topped with avocado, carrots, onions tossed in a balsamic vinaigrette and topped with feta crumbles and almond slices. However, the balance they struck was quite amazing, just the right amount of each ingredient, and the dressing was well balanced as well, I would say it was one of the best salads I’ve ever had.
For cheese fondue, we ordered the Classic Swiss since it is, after all, a classic combination - white wine with kirsch, garlic and seasonings, used to melt a mountain of sharp gruyere and fontina cheese. On the side, we were brought the usual spread - different kinds of bread cubes, cauliflower, carrots, broccoli and most deliciously, apple slices. The waitress was also careful to ask us if we wanted extras of anything as we ran out - and I got more apple slices and cauliflower florets.

The entree came with a spectacular presentation, and one I had never seen or experienced before. My plate had mashed potatoes and steamed veggies one one side and the other of a heavy, ultra hot slab of stone. Separately, I got a slice of buffalo (not sure what cut) completely raw, and from that point on it was up to me to cook it as I wished on the rock in front of me. I went for medium rare, since the meat was extremely tender, and it really went well with the au jus which came on the side. I wasn’t super impressed with the steamed veggies which were a little plain, but the mashed potatoes were creamy and delicious.
Last but not least, we got the Chocolate Truffles fondue for dessert. It was really the perfect finishing touch for the meal - dark molten chocolate, with dark caramel mixed in, and sprinkled with pink Himalayan salt for a nice finish. The spread of dipping bits was delightful - cheesecake bites, marshmallows, rice krispies, bananas, strawberries and shortbread. The only one that was a tad bit disappointing was something described as “brownie bites,” which turned out to be nothing more than marshmallows covered in oreo crumbs. As before, the waitress brought us extras as we ate through the initial batch, because of course we needed to sweep up the last drop of chocolate from the bowl. We left Rok Bistro well fed and quite happy with the experience.

Food	9
Drinks	9
Atmosphere	9
Service	9
Value	7

Ben

Rok Bistro is a fondue restaurant in Sunnyvale. The decor and atmosphere are pretty casual, a large and well lit restaurant with a lot of relatively closely packed tables. It has the feel of a family restaurant, but the prices of what I would expect from a more upscale fondue place. Fondue is fondue; fresh vegetables and melted cheese / wine combinations are a reliably tasty course (though the portion was somewhat small for 3 people). The salad was one of the dishes that stood out as particularly good: a fresh and light baby spinach with avocado, feta, onions ,carrots, with feta and almonds.

My main course of prawns & scallops was simple but solid, in that the scallops were large and fresh .. all cooking was controlled by us as they are served raw on a hot stone. The dessert of dark chocolate truffles was definitely a win. There is a decent wine menu with reasonable prices, we ordered a Napa chardonnay, which was a pretty solid pair for the meal as a whole. The service was a combination of overly polite and then somewhat abrupt... but generally pretty good. Overall, the place has solid - but unremarkable - food, with the real draw seeming to be the hot stones on which they are served. The restaurant is not particularly romantic and even a little crowded, which makes the prices a confusing ... particularly as the ingredients weren’t exotic and cooking efforts from the staff seem relatively marginal for most dishes. I guess the repeat demographics may be families on a special night out, or couples desperate for closeby fondue.

Food	8
Drinks	8
Atmosphere	7
Service	8
Value	6

Simply Fondue

Location: Livermore, CA
Website: http://www.simplyfonduelivermore.com
Cuisine type: Fondue, contemporary
Atmosphere: private small tables, dim lighting
Meal: dinner
Overall score: 8.75

Nina

The Livermore valley area is the wine underdog to Napa and Sonoma, even though they do produce some nice varietals. A way in which they encourage consumption and appreciation for local wines is through promotional agreements with local restaurants. Such a restaurant is Simply Fondue in Livermore, which waives corkage fee for Livermore Valley wines - and that’s not only a good deal, but also an incentive to try out the restaurant. I picked a Petit Syrah from Concannon winery and we went to this restaurant on a Monday evening so we could also take advantage of their March Madness offer - you can draw a discount ticket at the end of your meal which can be work 10%, 20% or 40% off your entire bill.
The restaurant was very much reminiscent of The Melting Pot, a national chain which we’ve tried out a couple of times in Indianapolis. The lighting was dim (almost too dim, which prevented me from really documenting this meal like I usually do without annoying other with camera flashes) and the seating was both cozy and romantic. There were two burners for each table of four, which allowed you to select two methods of cooking for the entree part of the meal.
As we’ve always done at fondue restaurants, we ordered the multi-course meal. In this case, since we didn’t go for the all you can eat version, we had to choose whether we wanted cheese fondue or chocolate fondue as our third course (salad and entree were included by default). I made my decision not based on which one I’d rather have (chocolate, of course), but rather which one would be harder to make as successfully at home (cheese, since I make chocolate stuff all the time).
My first course was a simply spinach and strawberry salad with almonds, tossed in a sweet cider vinaigrette. The ingredients were fresh and flavorful, though there was perhaps a little too much dressing for my taste, next time I think I’ll ask to have the dressing on the side.
The second course was a traditional “Swiss Chalet” cheese fondue, and this is where the restaurant started earning its name. The base for this dish was a blend of kirshwasser, garlic and spices (mostly nutmeg) with a generous amount of Chablis wine. To that, the server then added a bowl of freshly grated gruyere and emmental cheese, which melted very smoothly and had a mild flavor, yet enough bite to impart a rich flavor. We had a good amount of things to dip in this, like raw veggies (broccoli, carrots, cauliflower), apple slices and assorted bread pieces.
It was, however, the entree course, when we enjoyed the broadest variety of flavors and were able to really appreciate the pairing of our dry and fragrant wine with the food. In taking advantage of the two burners on our table, we ordered both a skillet and a sangria broth. These came with the usual array of sauces to complement the entree - curry yogurt sauce, spicy honey mustard, horseradish mayonnaise, ginger soy glaze, sweet and sour sauce and peanut sesame dip. We entertained ourselves by trying to guess what each sauce was before the server came over with our meats, and our guesses turned out to be extremely accurate - I guess our practice in appreciating and describing food is worth something after all. The meat selection was quite varied, but to our slight disappointment we realized that the sauce selection had nothing to do with our actual order, it seems like it’s a standard selection that they would serve and it’s entirely up to us if and how we match it with the food. At previous fondue restaurants the choice was more deliberate, and there were suggested pairings of food to sauce. To summarize, we got beef tenderloin, roasted garlic chicken, sea scallops, blackened salmon, ahi sesame tuna and herb crusted pork tenderloin. The last three of these were probably my favorites, because they were rich in flavor and juicy when cooked right. The beef tenderloin was good but rather plain and small, the roasted garlic chicken was tasty but got dry very quickly if you didn’t pay close attention when cooking it, and the sea scallops were disappointingly small - more at the level of bay scallops rather than the larger, juicier variety.
At the end of the meal, we picked out the 10% discount form a hat (not surprising, I am sure there was a much higher chance of picking this than the other discount opportunities), but it’s better than nothing and brings some excitement and playfulness into the payment process. Service was great from beginning to end, the food was delicious and the opportunity to drink wine at a reasonable price was certainly a welcome bonus for a casual weeknight dinner.

Food 9
Drinks 10
Atmosphere 9
Service 10
Value 7

Ben

Strongly resembles the chain of Melting Pot restaurants, a style which I am now taking to define Fondue restaurants. Dimly lit, professional wait staff, good sized menu, choice of a la carte fondues or combinations of cheese / broth / dessert fondues. We liked that they have no corkage fees for Livermore valley wines, so we were able to really enjoy ourselves over a bottle of wine from the store at a fraction of the cost. We went with the "fondue Sampler" including a choice of salad (I had a tasty gorgonzola greens salad) 6 entrees (beef tenderloin, garlic chicken, scallops, blackened salmon, ahi tuna and herb crusted pork tenderloin) and the choice of cheese or dessert fondue (we chose cheese, a classic gruyere). The cheese fondue was my favorite, with a strong white wine flavor and garlicy gruyere/emmentaler cheese. The entrees were all tasty in our sangria broth, though I found the meat portions to be quite small. I have to say I rate the food high because I simply love the style of fondue, but I would say it is a little better than the Melting Pots we've been to in the past. The atmosphere is cozy and provides a decent amount of privacy via table spacing and compartmental rooms. The wine selection seemed pretty large, though we were happy to enjoy what we brought. Overall it is a good fondue place, and can be more affordable if you bring a Livermore valley wine and can take advantage of rotating specials they have on their website.

Food 9
Drinks 9
Atmosphere 8
Service 9
Value 7