Lotus Leaf

Came here for lunch on a Sunday, only about 2 other tables seated when we got there. The ambience is amazing! It’s very clean and they play soothing music.
The servers were extremely attentive, which was expected since we were the only ones in the restaurant at that point. Nonetheless, they were still extremely nice. 5 stars for them!
My boyfriend and I both got the combination phở (filet mignon, beef balls, and some other things I don’t quite remember). He got the large and I got the small. Honestly, we both could’ve gotten a small and been full — the portions are big. The small might be a large at other phở places! The noodles are wide-​ish. I personally prefer the thinner noodles, but it was still okay. The broth was good, but there were too many onions for my liking. There was a lot of meat! The filet mignon was soft (it was really really good). The boyfriend said the phở was just okay.
Four stars for the good service and good food, but it did not stand out that much from other phở places. Go for the filet mignon phở!

Mediocre food, mediocre service, inattention to detail made this a very forgettable venture.
I give it the second star only because of pleasant ambiance.
I was going to try a different neighborhood restaurant but a recent Unilocal reviewer said they were shown to their table by a very nice young woman, and saw a cockroach scuttling across it! Yikes! Cross that place off my list.
Anyway, I ordered spring rolls, grilled lemon grass pork, and a pot of jasmine tea.
The pot was not full and the tea not hot.
The spring rolls were clearly a portion for two. No problem, figured I’d take half home for next day’s lunch. No sooner had I bitten into a spring roll when my entrée arrived! WTF? A first course is eaten first, then entrée brought! I set aside spring rolls so I could eat my hot food hot. Pork had lemon grass flavor in some pieces, not others. A smokiness but no grill marks, and I wonder if the «grill» was imitation smoke flavor? The «special» rice was overcooked and bland. The «stir fried» vegetables looked like frozen vegetables from a bag, lukewarm and soggy, no indication they’d ever been stir fried. When I ate the rolls, finally, the chicken looked like the pressed stuff and there was maybe 2 shrimp among the four rolls.
The napkin was flimsy and insufficient. I would have asked for a second except the server never came by to check if everything was OK.
Then, she began wiping tables with a Lysol spray. First, scented chemical cleaners make me seriously and painfully ill. I had to stop her from spraying the table next to mine by saying I’d have to run out. Second, even for those who are not sensitive. spraying strong chemical scents makes the food taste like them. They need to wipe table, and disinfect later.
I had considered trying their take on fried banana/​ice cream, but the server hustled me out, apparently so she could start spraying tables. I went to the Fenton’s Ice Creamery in Castro Valley for a scoop. Much nicer people.
The restaurant was nearly empty at peak lunch hour. I’m not surprised.

The atmosphere is nice and the service was ok but the food is another matter. The food was flavorless. Adding salt couldn’t even revive it. Too bad this neighborhood joint didn’t work out. How awesome it is to get good food close by.

This place is not your typical Vietnamese restaurant. There food here is very flavorful not over whelming. We started with there spring roll appetizer, delicious. There port chop was good as well. The ambience is so relaxing and inviting. Very clean. Food Presentation was done beautifully. We’d definitely come back again and again. Parking is ok. Price is very affordable

Ordered the lemongrass pork vermicelli. Larger than expected portions. Good flavor, but the pork was a little more on the rare side than I would prefer. Also– minus points for not bringing our food all together. We were party of four and two of us got our meals and were half done before the other entrees came out.
The other orders at the table: spring rolls, beef combo Phở, teriyaki chicken vermicelli, and fried rice with short ribs. Short ribs were a excellent. Spring rolls were also great.
Overall: nice atmosphere, good service, great presentation, a good spot for your Vietnamese fix.

I must say for 2 people to eat dinner for 20 $ it doesnt get much better than this place ! The teriyaki chicken is bomb and you get alot of food, i want to go back to try the phở. I recommend this place to anyone especially in the san leandro area.

This spot is so cozy and cute. Perfect for a little date night or even if you go alone its cute and quiet everytime. My go to is the clay pot or the filet mignon phở is my personal favorite. The pineapple fried rice is bomb and their thai tea is just amazing! They never disappoint customer service is always up to par. If ur SL and want some Phở or some warm good food this place is a must!!!

I was greeted with a nice smile and a nice hello. Looked at the menu and read quite nice yummy food! Great food n great customer service! I ordered the house special with chicken teriyaki it is sooooo good! I love how the place is clean and neat, I work 10 mins away so it’s a nice place to go to for a quick lunch or dinner. Will try other food next time :]

I ordered the small size combination phở which has the filet mignon beefball and brisket.
The broth is just like the broth you would expect from anything phở restaurant.
Noodles are wider than usual?
The meat fix is ok. Filet mignon did not disappoint, juicy, tender, fresh, reminded me of beef from hot pot. Beefballs are good as usual. Briskets are the lean ones; the fatty ones are the good ones bro!
The veggie fix! A lot of bean sprouts and cilantro and basil for my tiny bowl.
No the bowl is not tiny! I feel like it’s a decent small bowl, unlike some other restaurants, small looks like an xsmall.

Nice little place. Quiet and intimate. Food came out promptly. The phở was ok, my son loved the broth. The clay pot rice was delicious. Had veggies chicken and shrimp for nice satisfying meal. Appetizers plate was ok too. Presentation was lovely but hubby wanted more food. He felt plates were a little stingy but my guy is a pretty big eater. Customer service was good, not intrusive but sometimes takes awhile for the check to come.

Ambiance & Cleaniless Appearance = 4 stars
Food Presentation = 4 stars
Taste = 1 star
Service =1 star
Wanted to love this place. Everything looked good, however it wasn’t able to justify for how it taste. We ordered Papaya Salad, Combo Phở and Filet Mignon Phở. Our soup was cold and had to ask for extra soup to slightly cook the meat. Soup base did not taste authentic. The Papaya shred was overly thick, the sauce didnt mingle well with the salad, peanut and wet fruit flavored beef jerky. Staff was unfriendly and slow. Seemed like they were annoyed with us asking them to refill the empty garlic hot sauce that was on the table and they skimpped on the veggies for the phở.
Perfect for those who is exploring Vietnamese food, but not for anyone who have had more than a bowl of phở in their lifetime. Justified 1 star for the good quality meat.

Had lunch here. Presentation was nice, food was tasty, my vegan friend actually likes this place too.
My phở was large, fresh ingrediants, they use fat rice noodles.
Pretty good, not salty, no msg I think.
The cury was good, little watery, but good and tasty.
Nice clean place, fresh ingredients, not over spiced or salted.

I was craving some good phở due to the chilly weather tonight. So I came across Lotus Leaf and according to their review and ratings I decided to give it a try.
the interior is soothing, nice tables and comfortable chairs. The room is spacious and no bad odor. The food itself is mediocre, I ordered the combination phở, the quality of the meat in the soup is up to par but the broth itself lacks a lot of flavor and salt. I was very disappointed because the reviews for their phở was a must try.
The service was not great as well, I needed to ask for everything, chopsticks, spoons, water, etc. and the sever kept forgetting the requests so I had to get up numerous times to get what I needed.
Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be returning due to my experience here tonight. Their spring rolls are excellent though.

A very cute Vietnamese restaurant in San Leandro. We stopped here on a recent trip when we got off at this exit to get gas and hoped on Unilocal hoping to find a good lunch spot, Lotus Leaf didn’t disappoint!
My fiancé and I both ordered the lemongrass pork sandwiches which were huge, especially given that they were only $ 5.50! We also split the chicken egg rolls (listed as a new menu item on a specials sign). They were delicious but a little on the greasy side. And honestly we would have been fine ordering the sandwiches only because everything was so filling. We also split a pot of the green tea which came out piping hot and was perfect for the cold day. All in all lunch was $ 21 for both of us.
There is a small parking lot and lots of nearby street parking.

3.5 stars.
Cute little restaurant in old town San Leandro. Plenty of parking and a bit on the outskirts so without the madness of the Safeway and The Habit parking lots. Nice ambiance /​décor on the inside but I really wish they would smooth out all the sticker wall paper on the walls. That’s all you’ll notice.
The food was decent. We shared a phở and the claypot. I would come back next time I have coworkers I want to take to lunch b/​c the menu is decent, the restaurant clean and service is pretty fast. Only grip is that I didn’t like the vegetables they included in the claypot … more mushrooms, less zucchini.

Glad to see another Vietnamese restaurant took over the space where Vo’s was. Pretty inside. We were promptly greeted and seated. I had the rice vermicelli with lemongrass pork and shrimp. My companion had the same except with salmon and shrimp. Delicious! Service was adequate. I have no complaints. Want to come back and try new things.

EXPERIENCE
Had dinner there tonight and was more then impressed. My group enjoyed and shared 3 dishes each was a fair price and a lovely presentation. As to flavor, top quality!
THE FOOD
The ginger glazed salmon with pineapple fried rice and vegetables for 10 $ was perfectly cooked had a delightfully seared crust and yet was flaky and moist.
The grilled lemongrass pork with Jasmine steamed rice and vegetables was tender and very flavourful. Perhaps the best of the three dishes we had. And a great value for only $ 9.
The chicken yellow curry was sweet creamy and comforting well balanced neither too spicy or bland and a welcome budget saver at $ 9.
BEST
The thai tea OMG!!! I am a huge fan of Thai tea and have had the Thai tea at almost every location within a mile of this establishment and none were as delicious as the Thai tea here was! Hands down the best in the area!
ATMOSPHERE
The atmosphere was quiet and comfortable and while the décor was on the finer end of things you could feel comfortable in jeans and a t-​shirt without feeling like you needed to have dressed up.
SERVICE
The service was polite albeit a bit slow. The food came out promptly. And the wait staff gave you plenty of privacy for you to enjoy your meal without feeling like the server was helicoptering over your table. though it did take a moment to flag down a waiter to get the bill… if they were on the spot with refilling water and asking if you needed anything the moment you looked up or raise the hand to flag them. Top marks for service in the category of well mannered and attentive.

Filet mignon phở was good. Meat tender, and in little chunks. Different than most phở I’ve had, but I appreciated the broth: not too oily, fairly bland and not overly salted and MSG’d with bouillon like most places. Flavorful in a light way, and the noodles are flat rice noodles. Also not the regular phở fare, but I liked it.
Grilled salmon vermicelli was tasty.
The spring rolls – salmon and shrimp – were a great way to start the meal.
I was surprised by the décor inside. Most phở places are plain, nearly boring. But it was serene inside, almost quiet and pleasant to eat and talk without fighting the normal din at Vietnamese places. A lot of care went into the place. It’s got a warm and welcoming feel to it, the tables are solid and not wiggly, the chairs comfortable, the place clean. Service is a bit slow, but given the food and ambience, I was okay rolling with that.

Very nice modern ambiance. Went on a Sunday and it’s relaxing with the acoustic music in the background. I read a lot of mixed reviews on here about the service and food but I feel otherwise.
Sure it’s not your typical phở joint but don’t be fooled by that because it is as authentic as it gets. Got the combination phở and it is amazing. Broth is beefy just how I prefer it and the fresh homemade noodles is a nice change from the usual. I really like!!! The filet mignon is tender and sliced beautifully and not thin like other places do. I also love that they give a good amount of green onions because I feel that most places overlook this and skimp on it.
We also ordered the Lotus Leaf 1 and it was just ok. Generous portions but not as tasty to my buds. The papaya salad looked better than it tasted. I expected it more to be like the papaya salad with the anchovies or what not. I mean, it was still good but way too sweet to my liking. The nem nuong rolls were ok but the ratio between too much lettuce and noodles to the tiny piece of fried eggroll wrapper and skinny piece of nem nuong meat is way off obviously. Again, tasty but could be tweaked to reach its potential. On the other hand, the eggrolls were really really good! You can just tell it came off the fryer and cooled off just enough to not burn your tongue. I would totally get that again.
The viet coffee was soooo good we ended up ordering a second one to share. Most places serves you coffee with your ice but not here. The drip was truly enjoyable :)
Ok so overall, I absolutely liked this place. The bathroom cleanliness won me over too. I only knocked off a star because of the minor things I mentioned above but I would easily give this place 5 stars… Maybe next time…

We came here with another couple who come here regularly and one of our friends is a native of Vietnam and regularly enjoys the food here as they use thick noodles in their phở which is uncommon in most Vietnamese restaurants. So we were open to trying a new place. We ordered the salmon rolls, filet mignon phở, chicken claypot, lemongrass pork and L5 ginger salmon with pineapple fried rice.
All were delicious, filet mignon tender, claypot tasty, lemongrass pork was deliciously tender and flavorful and salmon was cooked just right. The salmon rolls were also good but the service was a bit discombobulated as when we had arrived, the place was a bit busy. The waitress seemed a bit overwhelmed and there was only one other server. Needless to say, the waitress forgot about our salmon rolls and we had already received our entrees. Other than that, the food was good and we had an enjoyable meal.