Elyse - San Jose

With three small kids we don’t go out that often. Today we bit the bullet and went for dinner. It was fantastic! The ambience the friendly staff, the outstanding food (try the shrimp and chicken starters). The tuna salad was great and I could go on and on!!

It has very tasty foods. I like the main dishes with beef ribs. I tried a tiramisu as a dessert which was very interesting. It has bar and it's drink was made professionally. Great place for special occasions.

Some ok, some nok things. Good; Salmon Ok; short ribs stew, quite nice. A bit too much red beet Creme brulee; sugar layer was to thin, creme was good Nok; french press coffee, you dont want to make your own coffee in a restaurant. Mine came out like coffee-water. Service; bit dissapointed, partly my fault. Communicated my order not well enough so we got half an order. However, waiter didnt repeat the order to ensure 2 people where only ordering 1 dish. Also, staff is young and not engaging the tables. They look afraid of waiting tables instead of enjoying it, something the management should improve on. So.. ok restaurant but not living up to the image. Also, for maketing. When you have the blinds closed you cannot see anyone in the restaurant when walking past. We almost assumed it was closed.

After a long search for a place to eat, i was able to convince my gf to give this place a second chance. We ordered wine and an appetizer to start. The appetizer came out on time and was delicious. When we ordered our dinner they did not tell us of the long wait. We waited close to an hour for our food to arrive. Dinner was absolutely disgusting. My gf ordered the filet mignon but instead got some cubed steak cuts with a lot of fat and tendons. It was definitely NOT filet mignon. I ordered the rib eye steak and instead received a burnt coal skirt steak. Overall impression is that elyse masquerades as an upscale bistro but serves low quality vietnamese cuisine. I should've listen to my gf when she said the food quality is not that great but I insisted on going there. Never again. Rather go to the many other Vietnamese spots and spend way less.

Good restaurant for a date night decoration is very nice and has some romantic lighting. Salad Nikoise was a large part and super tasty. The braided short ribs were so delicate that they fell from the bone and reminded us of the Vietnamese beef stew. 100% recommend this place!