The Palm Cafe

This little hidden gem is my go-​to for viet food near the SAP center. I haven’t tried anything here except for the Rice Vermicelli Bowl Special (aka Bun Thit Nuong) and the Banh Mi (aka Vietnamese sandwich), and both are to die for. Those two items alone are enough to keep me coming back to the place. It’s located in the first floor of some office building. The interior just looks like a normal café, but the outside seating area is awesome. They have a variety of sandwiches and whatnot on the menu, but I can’t provide any feedback on those. The only setback is that they only serve the Bun Thit Nuong on Fridays, but they do serve banh mi every day. They have a special item on the menu basically every day. The owner and works are all very polite and generous with portions.

4 stars for the phở – which isn’t even on the menu.
This café, with a nice patio, sits within a business park on The Alameda and behind a bank. It has the look and feel of the typical «stop and grab» deli where people who work nearby grab a yogurt or a cup of coffee before they head to their office. But, the lure here is the phở. The phở is served in bowls of varying size and design because I think serving phở is a bit of an afterthought of the Viet owners. I’ve had phở all over the place and this broth had the most homemade taste.
So, it you’re an aphocianado, check this place out.

Whenever I am around the corner for work I come here on my lunch break for some delicious chicken phở. They also look like they have yummy sandwiches, salads, smoothies, etc. Great food, great service! Perfect for your lunch break!

I work across the street from Mr. Minh’s restaurant and we have their sandwiches and phở fairly regularly. Their veggie phở is really good, and they’re really nice.

Had lunch here today the first time here today. I ordered the phở. Although they only had a beef/​chicken broth, I ordered it with all veggies and no meat. It was outstanding! It had fresh ingredients and great flavor.
The outdoor atmosphere here is one of the most peaceful spots on The Alameda. It’s truly a hidden gem on this busy street. It’s tucked away inside an office park, so you can’t see it from the road. But I assure you it’s worth looking for. There’s a nice fountain in a courtyard area. It’s a great place to have a peaceful lunch.
The water tested at 276 ppm, with 50 and lower being safer to drink. It’s probably straight out of the tap. I didn’t drink it. Unfortunately, however, they’re probably making the soup with tap water too.
My Sound Meter app shows that it’s about 70 db near the fountain. That’s fairly quiet relative to other restaurants, especially when most of the noise is the pleasing sound of the water feature.
I’ll definitely be back!
Tip: Although they said they didn’t have wifi, I was able to pickup free wifi from a nearby hotspot.

Tried this place out today and was pretty disappointed. My roast beef sandwich was very dry and the produced seemed to have just thawed. I’m willing to give this place another chance but I am definitely less than impressed at this point. Staff seemed to be the owners. They were pleasant and genuine which is why I gave an extra star. Price was $ 6 for a sandwich.

Now this is a cool little hidden gem in an office park. A friend and I decided to get lunch there one when we both ended up in SJ at the same time. I must say I was pleasantly surprised.
Most of the menu seemed Asian theme, I had a hard time trying to make up my mind on what I wanted. While we were trying to decide we did notice the seating was a bit tight but the outdoor seating MORE than made up for that. On a really nice, wow, you could just get lost in the time passing. All the tables have shade umbrellas so you don’t have to worry about the sun beating you down. There’s a nice little man-​made creek with fish running right by it so you just listen to the calming bubbling water as it passes.
I ended up getting a barbecue beef sandwich that was freshly made and very tasty and my friend ended up getting the soup of the day that also looked delicious. I’m sure this place does good business because it captures the foot traffic of the people that can’t get away from the business park for lunch, but I thought it was a bit pricey for a business park café but definitely a place I would keep in my arsenal.

Still love the Phở, and now I can love it on ALL the days. The Palms now offers Phở Monday through Friday, thank goodness.

This review is based on their chicken phở ONLY. Not bad, I see what others have mentioned about the grilled chicken, but to be honest the first thought I had was that they were using leftover grilled chicken in their soup to avoid wasting. If I’m wrong, my bad. Anyway, the broth was good and the other ingredients like basil and sprouts were fresh, no brown spots like other cheaper places. I’d order from there again, but I wouldn’t seek it out. I have not tried their sandwiches and would do that in future. The male owner was very gracious but I pissed the lady off when I ordered one phở to go and she thought I said two. She was none too happy to put the other one in the kitchen. :-\

The location is a bit hard to see, but I’ve had a variety of things here from the California sandwich, the Vietnamese shredded chicken, and the phở! They also accept card here, and the staff are really friendly and welcoming. I’m definitely coming back here more often!

Went here last week after having walked past it most week days for the past 6 years. I had read the reviews on Unilocal and since they were so good, I decided to give it a try. I was very disappointed. Got back to my office and my pepper jack cheese was actually cheddar, the bread was dry and hard around the edges, and the whole sandwich was just a disappointment. Maybe I just chose the wrong thing to try, but since I didn’t get exactly what I ordered, I’ll never know!
I thought this was going to be my new go-​to lunch spot since it’s on my walking route, but I’m not sure if I’ll ever bother going back. I’d rather drive to Which Wich.

A quick n easy stop after running an errand in the area. A nice setting. The Tuscan sandwich uses fresh chicken breast with a unique style of bread. It was pretty honkin’ big! I’ll eat the rest for breakfast this morning.

Quick and good service! Great location with a lot of outdoor seating in the middle of an office plaza that includes a pond, redwood trees, and a duck couple.
Good variety of food ranging from regular sandwiches to vietnamese beef noodle soup!

This is a neighborhood café where many people are greeted by name. I’ve only eaten their Phở and it is the most savory broth I’ve found in the South Bay. My friends have dined on their samdwhiches and are pretty happy. Now they are offering Phở Wed-​Fri and they’ve added Vietnamese vermicelli rice noodle plates on Fridays. Can’t wait to try that!

After going to a doctor’s appointment, I was looking to grab a quick bite in the area. Looked up my iphone Unilocal app and found the Palms Café. What I found was a small place tucked into the side of a building behind bank of america.
I ordered the half sandwich and soup– turkey and chicken gumbo soup. Both were delicious. The sandwich had fresh ingredients and everything I love in a sandwich including pepperoncinis. The gumbo hit the right spot and wasnt too oily or thick, just the way I like it!
The lady that works there is super nice. She suggested I come back to try their phở (…in a sandwich café??), but because it was so good, I just might :)

Palm Café is a very nice little business park café. It has an inviting interior with small tables, a sofa and a counter where you can view the TV.
We visited for the phở. It was decent. The broth had a good flavor but was a bit light (some of the east San Jose restaurants will reduce their broth a little more to bring out more flavor and richness). The garnishes were fresh but my phở had very few onions in it and I prefer more. The meat options are chicken or sliced beef only. For a business park café, this is a fine basic phở. No line when we went, so service was very fast.
I also appreciated that they didn’t gouge on soda price. A can is $ 1, which is fine for a restaurant.

Great Service, Excellent Food. The owner BBQ’s his meat daily. And you musy try their Curry Kitchen with rice on Thursdays. They chicken is so tender and I love that they use Sweet Potato instead of regular Potato. The only thing I’d have to complain about is the price is kinda high for a delli.

When I worked in the office park that this little joint is located in, I came here at least two or three times a week. Sure, it was convenient, but it was also pretty tasty too.
They have daily specials, namely the Tuesday Chicken Teriyaki special and the Wednesday/​Thursday Vietnamese Noodle soup (phở) special. Since they are a small café, they make their phở from scratch. Without question, they have the best phở I have ever tasted, outside of my friend’s mom’s phở back in high school.
They use grilled chicken in their phở. This is also the chicken they use in their sandwiches. I also suggest the Tuscan Chicken sandwich.
Anyway, I no longer work in the office park, but I still visit this café at least once a week. That’s how good it is. Try the Tuscan Chicken sandwich or the phở special. You’ll be back again and again.

Just like Lela, I too love this place! I discovered this place as I saw the sign out on the sidewalk and was about to park in the Bank of America parking lot. I immediately went to this place right after going to the bank. This place has a pretty large menu, which is unusual for a 15 seat café/​restaurant. I ordered a salami sandwich. Awesome! It must have been extremely awesome as I have not had salami in a very long time. No matter. It was still very good.
Also noticed that there were a couple of other people eating Phở, which looked very good and smelled good. Obviously, it must been very good, if there are a couple of people who are willing to order Phở instead of their many sandwiches and/​or salads. I will definitely come back and try this place on my return visit.

This place is yummy. My boyfriend works very close and we will walk over and get lunch.
They have the basic sandwiches with chips and soda, but the great thing about this place are the daily specials. I am in LOVE with the Vietnamese noodle soup. It’s very authentic and yummy. They also cook up stir frys and other hot meals everyday.
The owner, Minh, is so nice and polite. He remembers your name and is so gracious. He obviously loves what he does, and he does it well.