Downtown Sunnyvale's biggest food news this year came from two independent kitchens on the historic block of Murphy Avenue. Zareen's opened at 135 S. Murphy by June 1. Khaar held its grand opening at 193 S. Murphy on Sept. 12. Most of the October calendar, though, is being set two blocks south by Cityline. That one developer is filling Redwood Square with festivals and free fitness classes, and its storefronts with national and regional brands.
West Washington Avenue divides the two. North of it, restaurant owners set the hours. South of it, a property manager publishes the schedule. Knowing which side you're on tells you whether tonight is a reservation or an event.
The line on the map is West Washington Avenue
The city defines the two zones itself. Murphy Avenue between West Washington and West Evelyn avenues is the 100 block. It's closed to cars, and the city is turning it into a permanent pedestrian mall. The block first closed to traffic in June 2020 so restaurants could serve diners in the street. Council adopted the pedestrian-mall ordinance in May 2023, after a citywide survey found more than 90% of respondents in favor.
Cityline is a 36-acre site that the city describes as generally bounded by South Mathilda and Sunnyvale avenues on two sides and by Washington and Iowa avenues on the other two. Its center is Redwood Square, a 1.5-acre park and plaza between South Taaffe and South Murphy, built around a stand of preserved redwoods and a digital water curtain.
So Murphy Avenue keeps its name as it crosses Washington, but the address numbers jump from the 100s into the 200s and the people in charge change. That's why the two halves feel different this fall.
North of Washington, the new openings are single-cuisine kitchens
Both of this year's big openings on the 100 block are owner-led and focused on one region's cooking.
Zareen's is chef Zareen Khan's Pakistani-Indian restaurant. It started in a small Mountain View storefront in 2014 and later added locations on California Avenue in Palo Alto and on Broadway in Redwood City. The Sunnyvale room is the group's fourth and its southernmost. It was first expected in March. Earlier in 2026, Khan was named a James Beard semifinalist for best chef in California. The 2020 Michelin Guide called the chicken Memoni samosas a "must-order." The Sunnyvale location serves dinner only, 5 to 9 p.m. daily.
Khaar goes even more specific. Palo Alto Online describes it as the Bay Area's first Northeast Indian restaurant. Its menu draws on the Seven Sisters states, using black sesame, fermented mustard, mustard oil, and fermented bamboo shoot. Owner Nandana Hazarika was born in Assam and has lived in the Bay Area for almost 18 years. She spent most of her career as a software engineer and data analyst. She then went to culinary school and interned at The Oxford Kitchen & Gastropub. When The Oxford's owner decided to sell his Sunnyvale restaurant, she took over the space.
The restaurant is named for khaar, an alkaline liquid made by filtering water through the ashes of sun-dried banana peels. It's a traditional ingredient in Assamese cooking. Hazarika recommends starting with the Khaar croquette. It's made with Assamese alkaline rice and filled with fish and fermented mushroom, and it costs $18. Her other picks are the Black Sesame Heritage curry with banana leaf-wrapped sticky rice for $29, and an Assam tea crème brûlée for dessert. The dining room seats 135, with more seating outside. Khaar serves lunch and dinner. Its published hours list Sunday and Tuesday through Saturday, with no Monday service.
These two fit a block that was already full of single-cuisine restaurants. Walking south from Evelyn, Palo Alto Online's February 2026 downtown guide places them like this:
- 100 S. Murphy: Coffee & More, inside the historic Del Monte building
- 101 S. Murphy: Thai Basil, which includes northeastern Thai sai krok isan on its menu
- 135 S. Murphy: Zareen's
- 139 S. Murphy: Mayan Kitchen, cooking from the Yucatán
- 151 S. Murphy: Metro City, which serves breakfast all day
- 173 Murphy: Ramen Seas, downtown's only ramen shop
- 176 S. Murphy: Gumba's Italian, open since 1988
- 187 S. Murphy: Meyhouse, styled after a Turkish meyhane
- 190 S. Murphy: Dishdash, serving Middle Eastern food downtown since 2001
- 193 S. Murphy: Khaar
The bars are the block's oldest tenants. Paul & Harvey has been there since 1937, and Fibbar MaGees opened in 1994. So the 100 block didn't change character this year. It added two more kitchens that each specialize in one region.
South of Washington, the landlord sets the calendar
Cityline works differently. One company leases the storefronts and plans the events. Josh Rupert, director of development at Hunter Properties, led the Cityline project. He told the Mercury News in June that the goal was "a mixed-use environment that was dynamic at all hours of the day," with offices supporting retail and retail supporting residential.
The event program is large. Heather Gerlach, founder of MDR Consulting, the marketing firm that works with Cityline, told the Mercury News that Cityline hosted 41 downtown events in 2025, including 13 festivals, with more than 150,000 attendees. That's close to one event every nine days across the year, all planned by one organizer.
The leasing follows the same approach. Shake Shack opened at 275 S. Murphy Ave. on April 1, 2026. It's open 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until midnight on Friday and Saturday. It sits on the ground floor of the Martin, Cityline's apartment building. Senro Sushi now appears in Cityline's directory with regular hours at 279 W. McKinley Ave. Three more tenants are still marked "Coming Soon": Haldiram's, Joe & The Juice, and Sana'a Coffee House. None of them has a public opening date. The Mercury News reported all three as signed Cityline leases in December 2025, more than nine months ago.
October, in order
Put both calendars on one page and October runs like this:
- Thursdays through Oct. 29: Free Rumble Boxing classes at Redwood Square, run by Cityline.
- Sundays through late October: Free YogaSix classes at Redwood Square, also run by Cityline.
- Thursday, Oct. 15, 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.: The Sunnyvale Downtown Association's free annual Tech Expo on the 100 block of South Murphy, with local technology displays and robot and drone demonstrations.
- Saturday, Oct. 24: Cityline's Harvest Festival at Redwood Square, with pumpkin carving, live music, trick-or-treating, and local makers.
- Saturday, Oct. 31, through Sunday, Nov. 1, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.: Cityline's Sunnyvale Autumn Food Festival, with food and craft vendors, live performances, and a pet costume contest.
Four of the five are Cityline programming. The Tech Expo is the only one on the historic block, and a downtown business association runs it, not a landlord.
Where the two calendars meet
Because the two sides keep different hours, an evening downtown can use both.
The Tech Expo runs from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on a Thursday, which overlaps Khaar's lunch service of 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. that day. Both are on the same block. Zareen's opens at 5 p.m., so it doesn't serve lunch during the Expo.
On Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, the Autumn Food Festival at Cityline closes at 5 p.m., the same time Zareen's opens a block and a half north. Both Saturdays on the list, the Harvest Festival and the first day of the food festival, can end with dinner on the 100 block. For later nights, Shake Shack stays open until midnight on Friday and Saturday.
Saturday mornings start on the historic block too. The Mercury News describes the weekly farmers market on Murphy Avenue as the first stop of the day, before a YogaSix class or brunch at Keke's Breakfast Cafe.
Kristina Kawczynski has lived at the Martin since it opened in August 2024. She told the Mercury News what the walk from Murphy to the AMC theater feels like. "You're seeing a transition from an older downtown into a newer downtown," she said, "and just knowing that it's all combined together is really unique in comparison to quite a few other downtowns." That walk crosses Washington Avenue. This October, crossing it means moving from Cityline's festival schedule to the restaurants' dinner hours.
Downtown Sunnyvale's changes from block to block show up in how the market prices homes around it. Rabeet Noor tracks those differences closely, and he works with clients in English, Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu. If you're thinking about what your home near Murphy Avenue or Cityline is worth, book a consultation for a clear, local read.
