Los Gatos is not known for "affordable dining", but here and there we find hidden gems with good food and very reasonable prices. That's the case with Jasmine Chinese in downtown Los Gatos, a modest restaurant in an upscale part of town. 

Lunch at Jasmine Chinese is a very good deal if you keep to the specials menu. For $7.25, you can enjoy one of the house lunch combination dishes, such as sweet & sour pork,  plus soup, rice and hot tea, of course. If that's too much for for a midday meal, there are smaller lunch specials for $6.25, including a heaping plate of Chinese Chicken Salad, a dish of almond chicken and rice or several other selections. Dinners are more expensive, but still very affordable by downtown Los Gatos standards.

Variety is abundant here, so Jasmine is a great place to bring children, vegetarians, those with special diet constraints, folks preferring mild or spicy food and even picky eaters. I have eaten there dozens of times, mostly at lunch but also for dinner, and have found the staff to be consistently conscientious about "food issues" and special needs. Service is uniformly good and the staff very pleasant.

My own favorite menu items include the eggrolls, the chinese chicken salad, tangerine chicken, hot & sour soup, any of the kung pao dishes and any of the eggplant dishes.

Like many Chinese restaurants, Jasmine will prepare food "to go" as well.

This restaurant can be a little difficult to find for some people, but it's actually in a great, central location. It is in the Lyndon Shopping Center (which is where the old Lyndon Hotel used to stand and where famous people like Charlie Chaplain and John Steinbeck used to drop in for a drink). That building is a bit of a maze, but Jasmine is on the outside, facing Main Street, just in from the corner of Main and Santa Cruz Avenues. There's free valet parking, and also a public lot off Main Street that backs up to Mountain Charlie's and St. Mary's School, so it should always be possible to park. 

Jasmine Chinese Restaurant is open for lunch and dinner weekdays, and open for dinner on Saturday and Sunday. For more information, see their website, http://www.jasminechinese.com/.

Jasmine Chinese
20 South Santa Cruz Ave.
Los Gatos, CA 95030
408-395-2373