Xyclo

Not impressed. Service was ok. Food was not up to par. This was my first visit here and I was enticed by the great reviews. I just wanted some good garlic noodles without having to cross the bridge. The garlic noodles were overcooked, prawns were better. But definitely not worth the price. I’ve had better for a lesser price. I honestly think you’re just paying for the location and ambiance. It was really nice inside. Nevertheless, I won’t be returning. Maybe, I had a bad cook because the reviews definitely don’t match the product.

Always reliable for a refreshing meal. Nice atmosphere and staff. Because it is one of our neighborhood restaurants, I probably am underselling its charms. Piedmont Avenue is loaded with good restaurants and Xyclo is one of the top in this price range.

Their Buddha roll was quite decent and tasty. That’d be a 4 star. But… Don’t ever order their Vietnamese coffee. I know my Vietnamese food and this ain’t Vietnamese coffee. I don’t know what kind of coffee they served. They just put condensed milk in it and proclaimed ir Vietnamese coffee. I told the server. She was nice enough to take it off the bill. But I need to warn people who are used to drinking Vietnamese coffee to not order it. Also the servers never smiled (this was Before I mentioned about the bad coffee). Not a nice energy place. Wow this is probably one of the very few bad reviews I had written…

My favorite restaurant! Bo Kho hits the spot every single time and the staff is super nice.

Super great atmosphere — quiet but not too quiet, dark but not too dark.
I had the vegetarian phở — very, very good. The broth is vegan, too! It came with bok choy, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, peppers and huge helpings of tofu along with the usual sides of basil, cilantro, sprouts & jalapeño. My boyfriend had the ribs which he really enjoyed.
The drinks are pricy but tasty — the mojitos can border on the sweet side though.
Overall great place for dinner or lunch with your boyfriend or mom!

We’ve been meaning to go here since noticing how many people eat there. We went tonight and it did not disappoint. We shared a Tao roll, a fresh spring roll with lettuce, cilantro, and other wonderful things. It was so fresh and delicious. We also shared an eggplant and tofu dish that was equally tasty. The tofu was crispy, the eggplant melted in my mouth. We each had a Sapporo, and the bill, before tip, was well under $ 40. We had plenty to eat so it’s very good value. The service was fine and the décor quite pleasant. For authentic Vietnamese food (and we’ve been to Vietnam), you can’t do better.

This is a great spot for vegetarians, or for vegetarians to go with their meat-​eating friends so both parties can find something satisfying. Their food is reasonably priced (less expensive than many of the new restaurants in the area), and they have great cocktails! It has a great atmosphere and an upscale-​looking interior, but a more casual, feel. The tables are spaced out enough so you can actually have a conversation.
I has a Mangopolitan made with real mango purée and served with pieces of mango on a toothpick. I also had the Lemongrass Basil Eggplant and Tofu, which was incredibly flavorful and nicely presented. It was a little spicy, but I could taste the lemongrass and basil in every bite, and the eggplant was very tender and cooked perfectly. The tofu was bursting with flavor, and you could tell they knew how to cook it properly. It was served with tender green beans and white rice. There were small pieces of onion and spicy pepper mixed in. My friend had the Wonton Soup and Spicy Steak Salad. Both were good, and the salad was presented beautifully, with the steak on skewers forming a standing pyramid on the plate. However the greens were mostly iceberg lettuce.

I can’t help but give place five stars very good authentic food!
Fresh good veggies Chicken jumbo shrimps!
My boy loved the food if the food impressed him it’s good because he’s a chef!
Cooks at Sheraton palace in sf for 7 years!
I’m coming for more for sure!

Xyclo is probably my favorite modern Vietnamese place around here (maybe because I don’t know that many good places). I ordered the bun (rice noodle) with egg rolls for $ 11 on the lunch special. The egg rolls were really savory — probably one of the better egg rolls I have eaten. The noodle combined with greens (mainly lettuce, cucumber, and bean sprouts) and fish sauce (had a slight sweet kick) made the dish taste very refreshing. The portion is perfect for a little person like me with a big stomach, but I guess it’s a little more pricey. I finished the whole thing and didn’t feel like I ate too much either. There was definitely room for dessert afterwards!.

Now that I have tried a few things here I can say the food is solid. Xyclo serves modern Vietnamese food with a California twist. Ingredients are fresh and yes, being where it is, on Piedmont Avenue, the prices are higher than what you would normally pay for in a Vietnamese joint and the menu is safe, meaning not much of an ethnic adventure.
*Bun ($ 11, $ 2 extra for imperial roll) is the dry Vietnamese vermicelli bowl, with BBQ pork over a bed of bean sprouts. It’s pretty tasty and the presentation exquisite. I feel it’s a bit steep that they charge $ 2 for a tiny little deep fried imperial roll. $ 13 could have bought two orders elsewhere.
*Chicken Curry ($ 14) is a braised chicken dish with sweet potato served in Vietnamese curry with rice. It again hits the spot. Curry is made mild to cater for local palate but nonetheless delicious.
Service was friendly but sporadic. I had to ask for water to be filled. They do have a decent menu and overall good food but not necessarily good value.

Thursday, 1:00 PM.
Quickie:
+ Food quality
* Service
+ Cleanliness
— Slow turnaround
+ Layout
And then???
Xyclo is one of the better Vietnamese restaurants in the area. Time to test out its phở game!
**********
Stuffed my face in:
1. Goi Cuon Roll
— The roll is mundane (surprising because of the apple), relies too much on peanut sauce.
2. Combination Stir Fry
+ Cauliflower is a nice add.
3. XYCLO Chili Ribs
+ Addicting crisp, tasty glaze.
Constructive comments:
*Option to compost
*Source ingredients

Great food but not WOW food. Ordered the lemonbasil chicken, papaya salad and garlic noodles.
The Papaya salad was an unique experience because I’ve never ate it like this before. It looked like waffle chips but tasted like radish slices. There was also carrots, nuts and shrimp went along with the salad.
The lemonbasil chicken was chicken diced up with string beans and rice. The strings beans were flavorful but lightweight dry… chicken was cool… tasted like lemon basil chicken…
Garlic noodles were on point althougth I’ve had better. Check out kickin crab in san jose for a better choice.
Dim lit with an Asian feel to the restaurant. Also i notice that the crowd here is older or maybe it was just a coincidence on that visit. Very attentive waitresses and a cozy vibe to the restaurant. Thumbs up!

I’m going to be honest and say that I’ve avoided this place for the longest time. «Asian fusion» on «Piedmont Ave» to me meant tasteless and try hard Asian food made by a white guy. I found out the best way tonight and that was by my need for something different for dinner. My boyfriend and I walked into a dimly yet beautifully lit warm room. The place is quaint but the décor is modern with pops of color. We were greeted with a «welcome» by a very friendly Asian lady. The menu has a great variety of Asian cuisine with lots of emphasis on spring rolls– very creatively made, they had about 10 choices on the menu. Also, great choices for noodle soup, which was what I was looking for on a chilly night. I was going to try the phở but saw a beef stew option instead that was also recommended by our waitress. All together, we had a daikon spring roll, mojito, brown rice green tea and beef stew.
The mango mojito (or any mojito on this place)! Omfg, exactly how I like my mojitos– nice tall glass with lots of muddled mint, lots of rum and citrus. It was refreshing as ever. This is where that 5^th star came in. The other four star goes to the service and the beef stew. I’ve never had beef stew that was so light but flavorful. The stew had beef tendon, which was a great plus if you’re a tendon fan. Everything was tender! Noodles were included in the stew and ask for hot sauce… Ahhh perfecto!
The waitress (who may have been the owner) came by at the end to ask about our meal. Very sweet place to come by. I will def be sneaking here once in a while when my diet allows for beef.
Check it out. You won’t be disappointed.

My boyfriend took me to dinner here last night, and we had an incredible meal.
Everything was superb, from start to finish.
To begin, we ordered the Nem Nuong Rolls, which are crunchy and delicious. The flavors pop, and the sauce is great.
I had a Thai iced tea, which is served in this tall glass, beautiful to look at. My sweetie had a glass of Gewürztraminer, which also went well with the meal.
For our entrees, we ordered the birds nest (with crunchy noodles — see picture) and the Xyclo Chili Ribs. Both were tasty. I was a little unsure I would like the ribs, as they are encrusted with sesame seeds, but I couldn’t taste the seeds, yet they added a nice crunch.
Sadly, I was quite full, and could only manage half a rib, so we took the rest with us.
Service was good, and prices were moderate. There’s so many tasty things on their menu that I want to go back again, and maybe if I’m not driving, I can try one of their cocktails.

Two of my gal pals and I dropped by Xyclo for dinner on a Saturday night back in March. This is a pretty tiny neighborhood spot, and we were lucky to snag a table near the window at 5:30 pm before the real dinner rush began. Having worked in a restaurant before, I understand the need to avoid «campers» and flip tables, but I don’t think it’s right to hurry along diners who are eating and enjoying their time together. I’m glad to report that the waitstaff at Xyclo didn’t try to rush anybody by not refilling water glasses, giving people the bill, etc.
Looking for a good mix of dishes to accommodate the pescatarian in our group, we settled on the following:
combination stir fry — 13
brown rice — 1.75
shrimp Hanoi — 17
garlic herb noodles — 8
tofu curry — 15
I really enjoyed the garlic herb noodles and the tofu curry the most. Along with the tofu, there were large chunks of potato that soaked up a lot of the curry flavor. Wonder what curry fries would be like… mmm.
$ 17 for shrimp Hanoi is pretty outrageous, but then again, we were the ones who decided to meet up in Piedmont. What can ya do?
While Xyclo probably wouldn’t be one of the top three restaurants to come to mind if I was craving Vietnamese food in/​around Oakland, it’s not an absolutely terrible choice. Plus, I got the opportunity to try out my DSLR camera. Yup, the one that I pretty much treat like a point-​and-​shoot.

Mediocre at best with a less than friendly or attentive staff. I got the beef stew with tendons. Beef was tough & chewy and bland.
On mt Dining while Black scale 1 – 5 with 5 being excellent service & experience. This place gets a 2 because they refused to see me asking for service

This is a trendy somewhat upscale Vietnamese restaurant. I didn’t think the menu selections featured many traditional Vietnamese options so perhaps it’s a fusion kitchen.
Sampled the wonton noodle soup, seafood stuffed eggplant, and chicken curry. Everything was good and the curry was much more watery than the typical stuff you find in Thai or Indian restaurants. I thought this was a good thing because it was still very flavorful without being heavy.
The nigiri bottles sake was very nice and smooth as well, I didn’t get a chance to look at the bottle but I think they only offer once type of this.

I went here with my coworkers today expecting great food, and I got it.
We ordered the appetitive combo. I really wish they would’ve told us what was what instead of us having to go and eat it to find out. The dipping sauces included their rendition of the fish sauce and peanut sauce. I liked the crispness of the fried sprint rolls. The spring rolls with taro were okay.
A lot of us got the same Bun bowls with either shrimp or pork. One coworker got bun rieu and waited the longest for hers to come out. We got the garlic noodle sides for everyone to share as well as Vietnamese iced coffee.
Be warned, the Vietnamese ice coffee is huuuge. More on the bitter side and lots of caffeine if you need it :)
I got basically bun thit nhuong, BBQ pork and vermicelli noodles. It has the standard pickled carrots, peanuts, mint and cucumber. The pork was pretty tasty and the presentation was pretty. The garlic noodles were so tasty, but not as garlic-​y as we all had hoped for.
I want to come back for the Vietnamese carpaccio!

THE BEST VIETNAMESE FUSION RESTAURANT I’VE EVER HAD!
I usually don’t like Vietnamese fusion because they somehow manage to fck it up and often overpriced. But this place mastered it. Even thought it was a little expensive, I think it was worth it.
The papaya salad was soooooo goood. I swear, I can still taste the flavors. Tastes like Vietnam… but with a kick. heh. And trust me, I know what Vietnam tastes like. I was born there.
On to the sampler. We decided to get this because we literally wanted everything under the «rolls» section. I’m so glad they had this option or else I would have ordered everything separately. Some rolls are better than other, some were a little bit too «traditional» or «safe» I prefer the more exotic/​different ones. My favorite were the crispy shrimp roll. There were this «sugarcane shrimp roll» that didn’t taste anything like sugarcane though, which was weird because I’m wondering if they forgot to put the sugarcane in there.
**THE SAUCE. THE DIPPING SAUCE. ESPECIALLY THE PEANUT SAUCE. (We had to ask for extra)
Overall, great place. I wish I had tried more stuff on the menu but i got full after the sampler. Bring more people so you can try more food!
Oh, don’t come here if you want the boring traditional vietnamese dishes. they don’t serve those here.

Xylo is a fantastic little Vietnamese fusion restaurant. The interior is modern and classy, and Xylo definitely is going for (and succeeding at) the upmarket feel.
We ordered
1, Xylo Roll Sampler ($ 23) This is a really generous appetizer, in fact to call it an appetizer is a total understatement. It could be the appetizer and entrée for 2 people, comfortably, and you’d probably still have enough to take home. The appetizer consists of 4 gigantic fresh rolls with fillings of egg roll, shrimp, tofu and vegetables. The fresh rolls were amazing — the rice skins were really thin and the fillings were great, I especially loved the fried egg roll filling. It also comes with 3 different kinds of egg rolls, all fried to crispy perfection. I couldn’t tell the difference in fillings, but they were all very good. I really enjoyed this dish and would definitely order it again!
2. Beef Carpaccio ($ 9) — Thinly sliced raw beef marinated with peanuts, garlic and lemon juice. This dish was pretty good, but it wasn’t my favorite of the night. If you have had good carpaccio elsewhere, you probably will not be impressed, nonetheless it is not a bad dish, just a little underwhelming after the amazing sampler plate.
3. Chilli Pork Ribs
The pork ribs were fried to crispy perfection and were not oily at all. I really enjoyed the crunch and texture but the flavorings left me a little underwhelmed. I tend to like my entrees savory, but the pork ribs definitely had more of a sweetish slant to it. Still, they were very yummy, and not at all spicy.
4. Butterfly Shrimp with Garlic Noodles
The shrimp was really amazing, super succulent and cooked to perfection. I also enjoyed the flavoring of the shrimp a lot. The noodles were delicious too, fragrant because of the garlic and a little creamy thanks to the parmesan, but once again the noodles had a sweet-​ish slant and were not my cup of tea, but my friends really loved this dish.
all in all, Xylo is a fantastic little restaurant which serves truly amazing food. I had a great experience there and would not hesitate to come back for the sampler platter and to try any number of delicious things on their menu. they also have a fabulous little drink menu with a ton of yummy sounding drinks. i will definitely be back with all my friends in tow.