In June 2022, the immensely popular Italian food hall known as Eataly opened its first Bay Area location, named Eataly Silicon Valley, at Westfield Valley Fair in Santa Clara.
The three-story marketplace boasts two restaurants, a market, and a wine shop, as well as a selection of food service counters offering gelato, pizza, coffee and more. Now that Eataly Silicon Valley has been in business for a over a year, we decided to pay a visit to see exactly how this massive marketplace operates.
The marketplace
Upon entering Eataly, we were blown away by the sheer quantity of items available in both the grab-and-go and retail sections. On the first floor, you can buy mouthwatering pizza and panini that are ready to eat, or cater to your sweet tooth with perfectly delicate pastries. We simply enjoyed walking up and down the long counters to take everything in, but couldn’t tear our eyes away from the tricolore pizza with prosciutto di parma, stracciatella cheese, cherry tomatoes, and arugula.
Most of the second floor is dedicated to Eataly’s massive wine collection with over 1,200 premium Italian wines from all 20 regions of the country. The collection includes rare, old, and specialty wines as well as more affordable staples.
After spending at least 40 minutes browsing the first two floors alone, we were unprepared for how massive the third floor marketplace is. The dry pasta and canned goods give way to a fresh marketplace with quality produce, which then leads into a round salumi e formaggi counter with the biggest selection of cheese we’ve ever seen. Not to mention an artisanal bakery section with fresh breads, a tantalizing selection of sweets and chocolates, and even some appliances and kitchenware from popular Italian brands. Fair warning: if you’re planning to do some shopping here, be ready to do some serious spending.
The third floor is also where you’ll find both of Eataly’s restaurants: La Pizza & La Pasta, which specializes in artisanal pasta and Napoli-style pizza; and Terra, a fine dining rooftop with a wood-burning grill.
A rooftop meal at Terra
We made a reservation at Terra for a delightful sunset meal on the open-air deck. Our group of 4 opted to share everything in order to try as many dishes as possible — here’s a rundown of what we ordered, heavily influenced by recommendations from our fantastic sommelier and server, Graham.
To satisfy our immediate cravings, we had to get the shareable plate of prosciutto crudo, mozzarella e olive with house-made sourdough bread. It paired deliciously with Terra’s popular arrosticini d’agnello, which are grilled lamb skewers typical of Italy’s Abruzzo region with a dusting of Espelette pepper and sea salt. For the white wine lovers in our group, we opened a bottle of Pomino Chardonnay.
The pasta menu admittedly had us stymied, but we settled on chitarra alla nerano, a housemade spaghetti with fried zucchini and basil; and cavatelli al ragù di terra, which has a rich saucy ragù showcasing Terra’s coal-fired beef and pork. Although we shared everything, the portions would have been perfectly-satisfying entrees on their own. Our group generally favored the chitarra over the cavatelli.
Terra’s wood-burning grill turns out some gorgeous juicy meats, and we opted for a showstopper: the fornello pugliese, a sizzling mountain of skewered meats including skirt steak with toasty bread slices, fennel sausage, bombette with mortadella and provolone, chicken thighs, crispy russet potatoes, peppers, and a perfectly complimentary salsa verde.
If you’re dining with a group of meat lovers, the fornello is a no-brainer, but they also have a grilled seafood version which we have our eye on for next time. Alternatively, if your group does not include meat lovers, take a look at the contorni section of the menu for flavorful grilled broccolini, eggplant, or sweet peppers that bring all the smokiness of the wood grill with none of the meat.
We left juuuust enough room for the requisite tiramisù della nonna, served tableside so you can watch the mountain of fresh cream cascade onto the plate. After a hearty toast, we said our goodbyes and cruised around the top floor of Eataly to digest.
The verdict: We were totally impressed with Eataly’s selection, service, and attention to detail. If you’re a home cook who loves to try new authentic Italian ingredients, this is a fully-stocked marketplace with more variety than you can even wrap your head around. We loved our meal at Terra, too, but these are steep prices, a fact which hasn’t escaped many reviewers of the marketplace. If you’re going to bite the bullet, consider doing so on a special occasion.
More about Eataly
Eataly has over 40 locations across the world and 8 in the United States. These massive markets are famous for having an enormous selection of sustainably-sourced ingredients, with everything from olive oil to fresh meats. Visitors can browse the options to take home and use in their own cooking, or sit down for a bite to eat and a glass of spritz in the dining areas. Some locations are also known to host cooking classes and demonstrations.
Eataly first opened in Torino, Italy in 2007 and soon expanded to countries including Japan, Brazil, Turkey, the UAE, and Germany. The first US location opened in 2010 in New York City, with other stores soon arriving in Chicago, Boston, Las Vegas, and Dallas. Eataly’s Los Angeles location was added in 2017.
This newest addition to Westfield Valley Fair in Santa Clara is part of a larger $1.1 billion overhaul of the site. It’s one of over 100 other retailers and restaurants that are in the process of joining the mall.