Madame Tam Asian Bistro

Will never be back. My mom, brother, and I chose this place because it was one of the only places open at an awkward hour (around 3pm) before everywhere reopens for dinner. All three of us agreed that our dishes were disgusting, and we left without finishing the food. Wish we had held out til 5pm when other places reopened.

Went there for lunch today with family. Place was empty. Waiter was bored and unfriendly and he tried to seat us at a table that clearly had not been wiped clean! We chose another table and it too was dirty, sticky and food particles were on the floor and seats. Ladies Room was dirty too. Asian chicken salad had old lettuce and chicken smelled bad so didn’t eat it. Very bad experience. Never going again.

We were intrigued to find a Tiki bar not far from the Apple store, so we came back to check in out on a Friday evening. The food, which comes from Madame Tan next door, is adequate but it does not sing. The drinks — a Manhattan and a Singapore sling — contained the proper ingredients, but lacked the balance of a good cocktail, where alcohol, flavors, and the other things (simple syrup, juice, or mixer) all blend seamlessly. This is not Forbidden Island west. Food is served as it comes from the restaurant, when the bartender can spare a minute. Restrooms clean at least. So for University Avenue in Palo Alto, a fail. Perhaps they are waiting for that bar remodelling show to find them and make them over?

I come here for lunch every so often, and always enjoy the Vegetarian Phở I get here. I’ve never had a bad experience or bad meal. Yahoo!

I ordered the salmon spring rolls. I tried them and they tasted funny. Kinda gross. I asked to exchange them for vegetarian spring rolls but the server told me twice that they had made me what I ordered and that was that. He finally talked to his manager and gave me some edible spring rolls.
Weird experience. They also served me hot tea in an ice cream dish. Just weird.

I used to like this restaurant for lunch, but today, I’ve learned I should never come here for dinner.
Roast Duck w/​Sticky Buns (5) came with 4 buns, Spicy Seafood Noodle Soup was not at all spicy, Thai Crab Fried Rice didn’t have any crab, and Hot Green Tea was lukewarm. Everything was so wrong that we couldn’t help but laugh.
No wonder only few customers were there while other nearby restaurants were full around 7pm.

Ok-​ish food, ok-​ish prices, ok-​ish service.
The pad Thai is decent, but the Hawaiian chow mein is kind of weirdly sweet.
It took an hour for my food to arrive, after the 8 others in my group had basically all finished, despite U.S. being the only customers besides 2 others. And I’d asked for my Hawaiian chow mein with chicken instead of shrimp, and my friend had asked for duck with sticky buns, but I got chow mein with shrimp and she got duck with phở.
The server did apologize for the mistakes multiple times, but it was just kind of disappointing.

On the fence whether to go with 2 or 3 stars…
Service: Satisfactory, I didn’t have any problem with the service I was given.
Quality of food: I got a Vietnamese sandwich which was fairly good and is the only thing I get when I’m on a lunch break. Today, I decide to try out their pad Thai which was so disappointing. It felt like I was eating spaghetti. The noodles were mushy and I couldn’t even tell it was pad thai, I didn’t really get the taste… It was so bland.
Nothing here is really that amazing.

On a Saturday afternoon when Madame Tam’s was empty, we decided to give it another shot. Lowered expectations do not improve the experience much.
This time, we ordered the phở ga. It wasn’t bad, but I probably wouldn’t get it another time. My girlfriend said it used to be better!
We also ordered the grilled chicken vermicelli. Like the phở ga it wasn’t bad, although chicken was a bit bland. You get a whole chicken breast, so that’s good if you’re into eating more healthy. The spring roll was also good and particularly flavorful, with the right combination of filling ingredients. I found myself wanting more.
Overall, this bumps up my rating one star. It’s not quite as bad as I had previously stated, but again it’s not anything special either. It may be the only vietnamese place in downtown Palo Alto (short of the overpriced Tamarind), but even then it would take a lot for me to go. Solid, but there are better options.

This is a good happy hour bar. The prices are reasonable. The drink and appetizer menu are yummy! All these bad reviews are related to the restaurant. The bar is a great place. Next Time you are downtime Give the bar a try. You will not be disappointed.

Fantastic Phở!
I’m surprised at how highly underrated this place is. As a phở enthusiast — having personally traveled to Vietnam and enjoyed phở in multiple locations there as well as phở restaurants of all shapes and sizes throughout the Bay Peninsula from PA to MV to Menlo Park to Los Altos to Redwood City — each of the handful of times I have been to Madame Tam’s and gotten phở (beef, chicken, the special — you name it), it has been consistently fresh and delicious, the service consistently timely and diligent, and I have been consistently satisfied.
Having taken other phở-​lovers who cook phở on their own, they have also enjoyed Madame Tam’s phở-​tastic dish.
Having taken folks who had never tried phở previously, by bringing them to Madame Tam’s, I’ve successfully converted them to Phở «Phans.»
Finally, when I was sick last month, I went to Madame Tam’s for some comfort phở — and no joke, I emerged from the place feeling good as new.

Our pitcher of red sangria smelled odd and tasted spoiled. We opted for beer instead but even the pint glass smelled funky. Our server was polite and understanding, but this place gives me bad vibes. The standards for their food/​drink are questionable.
My friend mentioned the men’s room stank and in place of a lock was a chopstick.

This was going to be my original post: «Good food, great price, but service is slow when it’s packed. Things to order: Original Banh Mi, phở soups, the wings, and the roasted duck with sticky buns. Delicious.»
Unfortunately I witnessed a scurrying friend on the bar and felt obligated to never order from here again. Bugs especially of this type should not be in a restaurant, ever. It’s too bad because the food tasted great.

Went in for a glass of wine, after finally choosing wine they had in stock, two different glasses, both were god awful, must at have been open for a couple of days at room temperature — half way to vinegar.
Admittedly I should have complained, but I didn’t.
Men’s bathroom was ridiculous too, smelled like an armpit and had no lock on the single men’s bathroom so enjoyed people walking in on me.

The food here is pretty decent. so it gets 2 starts for that. But the –3 stars are for 1) Absolutely the slowest service ever. Never prompt service, food takes a while to come out (and is not any more perfect after the wait), and the even getting drinks can take a while.
But 2) Our team just walked 15 minutes because it’s one of the few vietnamese coffee servers in the area. And I regret this. everyone complained that the coffee tasted bad and not up to par for 4 dollars… 2 people threw it away… 1 girl held onto it because it was cold and helped with the 91 degree heat… I kept drinking it because i was very over heated and it was keeping me cold… I get to the last sip and got only milk /​cream… well, turns out the milk was bad. like expired bad. I could taste it clearly and spit it out. now it’s 20 minutes later and I’m having some serious stomach troubles…
Expired milk a regular thing? I hope not. But I’ve been 3 times. never once impressed, and only dragged here by coworkers. for once i go out of my way and end up with a «fire in the hole» situation…
This place is not worth the trouble, effort, or risk.
Go elsewhere. Lots of better choices in the area.

There was something mysterious and interesting about this attractive restaurant. I was walking around University Avenue and was intrigued by the menu. It wasn’t too crowded and I was very hungry.
I was originally interested in Spring Rolls but the Crispy Orange Chicken caught my eye. The description sounded wonderful and succulent. I asked the server if he recommended it and he asked if I like chicken. I told him that I’m actually not a fan of chicken but he assured me it was wonderful.
It’s not wonderful. It’s not crispy and moist but rather very dry and perhaps not the freshest thing. The cloying sauce was pretty bad. It tastes exactly like frozen condensed orange juice and cornstarch. The dish included a huge mound of dry white rice. After one taste, I knew it was a complete mistake. I had a few bites and left the rest.
The stars are for the nice servers and relaxing (dark) atmosphere. This dish should not be on the menu. Doesn’t anyone taste each dish before they put it on the menu?

This place is just okay the only thing going for it is location. It’s just down the block from the Apple store so there’s lots of foot traffic on University. Stopped by at lunch time and there were a few tables occupied which is a good indication of the place.
Service wise the place was slow, we picked our own table and sat down. Ended up going to the front because there was no one around and picked up menu’s on our own.
Food wise it’s not too bad the bun Saigon is pretty good. It had good flavor and they separate the meat from the noodles. The other dish was the spicy seafood soup noodle. If you’re looking for something spicy this is isn’t it, the soup was pretty mild. It could be catering to the clientele that they receive.
Overall this place is just okay. If there’s no wait, go for the bun Saigon and if you like spicy don’t come here.

Just stopped here for a drink on the way back to the train station. Definitely nothing special. I probably should have read the reviews before stopping, but like I said, we just wanted a quick beverage — this place just happened to be there.
The service could have been better. It definitely wasn’t super quick, and we were sitting right at the bar (and there wasn’t a ton of other people there). Tried paying with an AMEX CC, but I don’t think they accept it. The funny part was that the bartender didn’t know that, and kept trying to swipe the card. Then he entered it in manually and the screen said «invalid credit card number». So he just figured it didn’t work for some reason. It was odd.
The atmosphere is… eh. It’s open to the outside, so that part is nice. Inside wasn’t too spectacular — just looked like a bar.
I didn’t try the food, and got basic beer (Sapporo), but there are so many good places in Palo Alto, so I’d suggest to keep going — unless, of course, you’re like me and just NEEDED a beer QUICKLY before hopping on the train.

I don’t eat this type of food a lot so I don’t have much to base this on other other plain olé personal taste.
We came in here sort of desperate and sat down quickly because the place was virtual empty. I think the most strange part was that they didn’t give us napkins. I understand many Asian restaurants not having regular silverware on the tables, opting for chop sticks, but no napkins? Odd.
Like I said about the food, I don’t have a lot to base my review on. We had the shrimp rolls and they were meh, but I’ve never really liked these anyway. The chicken sate was reaaaaaaallly oily-​ick! I ate 2 but wasn’t impressed.
Because the restaurant want almost empty, we received a good amount of service and the 2 men working were kind. I probably wouldn’t go back because there are so many other awesome places to eat on University ave.

Definitely one of the cheapest places to drink in downtown PA. Happy hour is from 3PM until closing, which is perfect because society says I’m an «adult» now, and adults apparently don’t get belligerent until it gets dark. Fine.
They have $ 3 Coors Light and Killians, $ 4 Stella, Blue Moon, Lagunitas $ 5 Margaritas and Sangrias. They also have happy hour food menu with tacos and spring rolls.
I really liked the butterfly shrimp and tacos the last few times I came here, but decided to try the spring roll this time. I wasn’t too impressed as they were really small and the wrap was a bit too chewy. Next time I’ll stick to the tacos.
It’s attached to and part of the phở place next door, so if you have a need for noodles, you can also eat that on this side.