While trying to locate an Indian restaurant in the center of San Jose (California), I accidentally stumbled upon one of the most delicious Soul food joints: Agenda Restaurant.

I arrived in San Jose on Friday morning with one of my favorite coworkers Carolyn who you might have seen in a few recent posts. We were scheduled to work Saturday through Monday, then fly back home on a red eye (note to self, no more red eyes… purely exhausting!)

After our first day of work  we decided to head to highly reviewed Indian restaurant that I found online. Using both GPS and guidance from locals, we still ended up lost and clueless to where this Indian place would be. We agreed to give up and opt for Plan B.  Plan B is always roam and hope to stumble upon something enticing. Plan B worked like a charm!

Carolyn and I ended up on First Street where we noticed a few restaurants and night clubs. An outdoor sign that read “Southern Cuisine” quickly attracted my eyes. I love me some Soul Food, but I wasn’t really in the mood to indulge in calorie-loaded and fried food. As we started to walk away, a cute chubby African American man popped his head out of the door and started his pitch.

He introduced himself as Chef Gator, the chef and owner of the restaurant. He emphasized that everything on the menu was healthy, and perfectly portioned. His healthy menu was inspired by an almost death experience. Chef gator used to weigh around 400 lbs and decided undergo gastric bypass in order to save his life. He altered his diet and lifestyle and down 200 lbs.

Wow! What a great story! I looked at Carolyn and we both had that look in our eyes that we wanted to stick around and taste some of Chef Gator’s food. As he continued to talk, he guided us to the bar where only a few people sat. It was only 4 pm, so the dinner crowd hadn’t arrived yet.

We were intrigued by his story and kept asking a million questions. In short, the Chef loved southern food so much but didn’t want others to end up like him, so he revamped every recipe to make it as healthy as possible.  No frying allowed. His fried chicken was lightly battered and “baked”. Salt shakers on tables are banned. Why? “Because I perfectly season it myself” he explained. “When it comes to portions, I give you just enough and nothing more. You only get one piece of chicken, not two”

Chef Gator reached out to grab us two menus but I refused them. I explained that I wanted him to surprise us with a few of his favorites. The only thing I asked was that he consider that Carolyn was vegetarian with options of seafood and I leaned more towards lean proteins and low carb options.

Let the feeding of the soul begin!

Surprise #1: lightly battered Mississippi Catfish Sliders

The waiter brought out a long dish that had three little cute whole grain rolls stuffed with a mini breaded catfish fillet and a cajun tarter sauce. On the side was a multi-colored pickled sweet pepper salad.

Delish!

Surprise #2 Southern Green Beans & Chipotle Shrimp

As you can see from the picture, we were so excited about this one that we forgot to take a picture before starting. In this dish, we got 4 perfectly warm spiced jumbo shrimp on a bed of cold, crisp green beans and diced tomatoes and onions. So healthy and refreshing!

Surprise # 3

SPECIAL OF THE DAY: STEAMED CHICKEN DUMPLINGS

If you like gumbo, you’ll love this! Made with 100% whole grain wheat, Chef gator created these puffy seasoned steamed dumpling that sat on a thick bed of tender chicken gumbo. The chicken tasted like it was stewed for hours!

Surprise # 4

SPECIAL OF THE DAY:  BROILED HALIBUT ON LOBSTER RISOTTO!

Bring it on!

This spiced fillet of broiled Halibut was topped on somewhat creamy lobster and shrimp risotto. Oh wait! On top of all that yummy madness is a fluffy, battered chunk of crab. 

A few bites of this and that and my belly was reaching full capacity!

“Make room for dessert”

Oh boy…. what is that!!!!!!

FINAL SURPRISE: CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM SANDWICH

Chef gator showcased a plate of chocolate madness as he went into detail about the preparation. The sandwich part are made up of two “healthy” cookies that are filled with oats, dates, agave nectar and other ingredients that I didn’t pay attention to because I was so consumed with his masterpiece. In the sandwich is a pefect portion of homemade chocolate ice cream. Mmmmm…. “why does it taste so creamy yet light?”  (me asking)

“I don’t use cream. I use egg whites”

Ah….. makes sense! Whenever I try to make a fluffier, creamier smoothie, egg whites always do the trick.

As we sat there to digest, a fun crowd started filling the bar. The crowd ranged in ages and personalities. Overall, everyone was so friendly and eager to socialize. Aww… what a fun place!!! I wanna live here forever!!!! 

Chef gator came back to check on us and see how we enjoyed everything, and of course we had nothing but positive things to say. We stayed a little bit longer and he told us more exciting stories about his business ventures and goal of landing a TV Cooking show.

After that food experience, Chef gator can count me as his first TV show fan! I don’t have TIVO yet, but for that show, I will totally have to install it (someone will have to train me on it though)

If you’re in San Jose, please, please, try Agenda’s Restaurant! Tell him I sent you in and you want the special Smallworld Beauty treatment.

If you want to read more on Chef Gator click here

If you want to drool all over his menu, click here

Thank you Chef Gator and staff!

Love,

Ghada