It’s just my luck that I won a $25 gift certificate to Willow Street Pizza during an Easter Egg Fundraising event. Normally I have to argue that I’m absolutely rubbish when it comes to these things, but my friends would now beg to differ seeing as though I’m going to Korea in a few days after winning an event sponsored by the South Korean government.

Anyways, while I could do the whole “stuff-your-face-until-your-stomach-explodes” route and order $25 worth of food, I decided to opt for the “take-your-friends-out-with-you” option. Having lived in San Jose my entire life, I have never eaten in any restaurants in the Willow Glen area. I know of the area, but it’s not a neighborhood I frequent. 

From first glance, I thought you looked charming

Willow Street Pizza has what I call a rustic American restaurant. The interior is very warm and dimly lit with brick walls. On these walls are antique posters from movies and ads. When you first enter, they have a bar on your left while the tables are on your right. It’s not a big restaurant, but it feels spacious enough and cozy. 

Our server gave us a table right next to the window facing the street and that was well enough to snap a few photos in the fading natural light. Bear in my mind, I’m taking photos from my Samsung Galaxy S2, so the quality isn’t going to be great, but it’s tolerable.

Order’s up! Says the girl who felt ballin’ that night

We ate well that night. And I mean, I was stuffed, but I still had room for the huge regular sized cup of Café LaTTea, but we’ll get to that in another time. 

For our appetizer, we ordered the Cajun Calamari Steaks, which came in an interesting pieces that oddly reminded me of French Fries—but chewy with a kick. It wasn’t what I was expecting after being so used to small bits of fried calamari legs and heads. Flavor wise, it was good and the calamari came out hot and ready for us from the fryer. 

We also ordered a pasta entrée: Linguini with Fresh Manila Clams. Now this was delicious. The clams were huge and the garlic butter sauce was light and refreshing. It accompanied the linguini and clams well. 

Lastly, we ordered the Garlic Chicken pizza. How could we not? They’re called Willow Street Wood-Fried Pizza. It’s like if I went to Baskin Robbins and ordered a cake, but no ice cream. And what did it have on it that I absolutely love? BACON. I was a happy camper. Anything with bacon on it is a thumbs-up with me.

Overall, I think this would a nice place to come with friends, family and/or a date. Willow Street Wood-Fired Pizza is located in a great location surrounded with other restaurants that I would like to try and seems like a fun place to hang around with the upcoming summer nights. I can pretend for a moment that I’m not living in San Jose (where the population is estimated to have hit a million again. A million..) and instead back at Davis where the summer nights always passed by slower and people poured out of their apartments and dorms to seek some relief from the blistering heat in the fading daylight.

Poetic words aside, what are your favorite restaurants in Willow Glen?

Willow Street Wood-Fired Pizza
1072 Willow Street
San Jose, CA 95125