The diversity in restaurants is unparalleled anywhere else in the Bay Area. American, Californian, Italian, French, Chinese, Mongolian, Vietnamese, Indian, Mexican, Irish, Japanese, you name it, downtown has it. Downtown Shopping Listing of Downtown stores and entertainment. Although restaurants dominate, Downtown does offer a diverse blend of stores to visit. Downtown is centered on Castro Street, the city's main street.
Downtown is a conversion of the diversity that exists in Mountain View.
It is a blend of old and new and of the various cultures and people that have called Mountain View home through the years. In 1864, train tracks were laid a few miles north of the village of Mountain View on El Camino Real. A stop was built, and a new village of Mountain View was laid out with Castro Street perpendicular to the train tracks. Since then Castro Street has been the city's ever-evolving downtown district. Until around the 1950s, Downtown was the only large commercial area in Mountain View.