Best Chicken Parm in San Jose, CA

Chicken parm in San Jose, CA: our top picks

Before it was Silicon Valley, this was the Valley of Heart’s Delight. Until the 1960s it was the largest fruit-growing and packing region in the world, with 39 canneries. Italians began arriving toward the end of the nineteenth century to work those orchards, and San Jose’s Little Italy grew up between the River Street area, by today’s SAP Center, and San Pedro Square. After the war, suburbs and redevelopment pushed most of it out. What survives is just under fifteen houses and a few restaurants, and a 31-foot iron-and-steel arch at Julian Street and North Almaden Avenue marks the entrance.

Paesano Ristorante Italiano sits right beside that arch on West Julian, where owner Giuseppe Spatola, known locally as the "mayor of Little Italy," runs an Italian and Sicilian menu. For a more direct line to Sicily, head west to Palermo on Auzerais Avenue, where the back room overlooks Los Gatos Creek. Renato Cusimano was born and raised in Palermo; he and his wife Diane ran earlier Palermos in San Jose and Redwood City. In 2017 Tony Paradiso, closing his family’s deli after 50 years, sold them the space because he wanted it to stay Italian. It did, and both chicken and eggplant parmigiana are on the menu.

The rest of the map spreads across the South Bay. In East San Jose, the DeRose family has run Antipasto’s for more than three decades, a counter-service deli known for ravioli made on the same machine that made the family’s wedding ravioli. Sorelle Italian Bistro, tucked into a strip mall on San Tomas Aquino Road in Campbell, was opened in 2013 by Francesca Rudé; her daughters Deanna and Teresa have kept it going since her death in 2016. On Lincoln Avenue in Willow Glen, Locanda Ischia took over the old Vin Santo space. Owner Enzo Rosano grew up cooking with his mother outside Naples and named the place for the island off its coast.

1. Palermo Italian Restaurant (San Jose) — Parm Score 88. Chicken parm comes up in 2 of the recent Google reviews we sampled, and the tone is positive. It is on the menu, too. 4.5 on Google across 1,596 reviews.
2. Il Fornaio Santa Clara (Santa Clara) — Parm Score 70. Chicken parm comes up in 1 of the recent Google reviews we sampled, and the tone is positive. 4.2 on Google across 2,300 reviews.
3. Sorelle Italian Bistro (Campbell) — Parm Score 70. Chicken parm is on the restaurant’s own menu (checked November 2026). 4.6 on Google across 670 reviews.

We ranked 14 restaurants within 10 miles of San Jose, CA. 7 of them have the parm confirmed, by reviewers or on their own menu, and Parm Scores run from 54 to 88. Confirmed places rank first; the rest are well-reviewed Italian spots where the parm is not yet confirmed, and pizzerias and steakhouses need a mention to appear at all. How Parm Score works.

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