Vespa Restaurant

I came by after work to unwind, dinner, a drink. TGIF!!! TGIF, WTF.
Less than a week after Orlando FL, this place has reruns of the O.J. Simpson trial, exposé, LAPD playing on their big screen TVs. Complete with repeated «Warning: Graphic content, violence. Mature audiences only.»
I asked why this was on, was told this was an old show they pulled up. Among all the choices, they chose this. 5:00p in the afternoon. Not a 21 and over night club. A restaurant. Violent content.
My review: NO.

Classy, stylish, and modern. Popular among well-​dressed Vietnamese for birthdays and other occasions. Fresh and light Buddha (spring) rolls. Phở which is tastier and has less MSG zing than average.
Heavily influenced by the French: Brussels sprouts accompany the lamb chops; lemongrass chicken full of buttery richness. The waitstaff is attentive, but be cautioned in a very French way: raise your hand and they flutter over, otherwise you’ll be left alone to enjoy the experience of eating.
All in all, a great place to relax and savor something out of the ordinary.

Beautiful restaurant. Big food and cocktail portions. The chicken phở was very good. The chicken was fresh. The noodles tasted homemade. The chicken broth was very good. The cocktails are sweet and not very strong.

Ehhhh just okay.
My coworker has been driving past this place and wanted to try it since they opened. Finally got to try it and I have to say it was just okay compare to all the other places I have eaten at.
Ordered the crispy eggrolls to share. This dish tastes a little fishy to me. Maybe because it has crab in it, but it shouldn’t taste fishy like that.
Ordered the beef filet mignon rice (com bo luc lac) and it was okay only. The beef was a little on the chewy side and this dish was very oily. I had better at other places.
Overall, this place was alright.

Went there for a lunch yesterday. In the beginning we were sceptical since the restaurant was empty on a Saturday late afternoon. But we being the only customers, our food arrived real quick. The egg rolls, chicken phở and lychee martini were good to taste. However the slow cooked chicken gravy over rice had faint flavours and I wished it would have been more flavor full. The ambiance and the service was good. However there was only one server, so I wonder how would they have handled a larger crowd.

Update *****on the review! We went here again because we loved it so much! The eggrolls and the phở. So when we recently went there I ordered roasted chicken. Now keep in mind I did not think this roasted chicken was a LEGIT BONED CHICKEN that looks like bird on your plate (my face had such a puzzled look as the waiter looked at me like I was the one that was crazy) LOL
anyways on top of that i LITERALLY saw a RAT crawling around. It really lost my appetite with the BIRD on my plate. It was such a funny experience but yet kind of horrible.
This place is very good! Their crispy egg rolls are so good! there service and the style of the restaurant is so urban.
We got the beef phở just tasted like Normal phở. The prices are okay not too much.

The cons:
— do not go if you have a time constraint
— do not expect authenticity
— no option for dry or wet for huu tieu
— com bo luc lac does not come w/​tomato rice
— pricey
The pros:
+ clean
+ modern décor
+ service was friendly
+ service is slow so you can talk up a storm
+ bo luc lac was delicious; tender and juicy
A planned unplanned lunch turned out to be a nice find for me. I did not even have this on my bookmarks. It was a bit of a scare when I only had 2 Vietnamese options near my office because my lunch counterpart eats Vietnamese food pretty much daily and actually knows the cuisine well enough to critique it. I came in w/​o much expectations especially after I saw the horrendous prices.
He ordered a vermicelli bowl which came out w/​barely any vermicelli, fatty slices of pork (not even charred), and hella bean sprouts and lettuce. I don’t think I would be full one bit if I ordered that dish. I was a bit disappointed after peeking at his bowl. He tried the bo luc lac and liked it. Perhaps he did order the wrong thing here. The 2 guys that sat next to us ordered bun bo hue and it smelled delicious except that part of his bowl spilled everywhere — that was unpleasant to witness. I would have been pissed but the 2 guys seemed calm throughout the debacle.
Have not seen him in months so it was nice to get out of my gym routine at lunch to catch up. I cannot wait till our next encounter. Thanks for lunch, Anh.

Walking in the place looked very modern and upscale. It was full at lunch time but looking around I noticed there were maybe 4 – 5 Vietnamese patrons… including the the one I was having lunch with. That’s usually a warning sign for me. I like authentic VN food. We looked at the menu and noticed the prices were definitely higher than most VN restaurants. I wanted to order the hu tieu and I like it khó meaning dry with the soup on the side but they don’t offer it that way. I’ve never been to a vn restaurant that does not serve hu tieu khó. So I ordered the house special vermicelli noodles bowl. (Bun đc bit Vespa) the grilled pork flavor was ok but too much fat. The bowl was at least 50 percent bean sprouts and lettuce so I was not impressed at all. My companion enjoyed their meal but I’m sure they will write their own review on it. The restaurant does look like a nice place for a business meeting or place to take a client and my guess is, I just made a bad choice with my order. I might try it again and order something different.

I’m surprised how much the food quality has gone down here. I was going to give it 4 stars based on prior visits, but my last visit was very disappointing.
I know restaurants have «off» days, but the way this place changed doesn’t even make sense. My order included the Phở special and pad Thai, which I’ve had there several times. The Phở was ok, not terrible but not amazing, not as good as before. For $ 11 it’s pretty average.
The pad Thai however was terrible. The main problem was that the server brought us a completely different dish, one similar to Phở Ap Chao. No big deal if the kitchen messes up an order, but the server looked at the dish and said it was correct. Um, hello I know what pad Thai looks and tastes like, especially because I’ve had it there several times. I tried explaining that to the server, but she didn’t believe me apparently. I didn’t want to get into an argument, so I tried eating the noodles, but the dish itself was just not good (soggy noodles, overly salty chicken). Server didn’t even offer to bring a different dish, or otherwise make an attempt to save the meal. In fact, she avoided waiting on us for the rest of dinner service.
To be fair, the food runner was very polite and apologetic, but he wasn’t enough to bring this place above 2 stars.
As a general rule I don’t send food back at Asian restaurants (unless it’s an expensive place). I think you all know why.

We rented out Vespa for a family event and were extremely happy with the outcome. The manager helped coordinate a head of time through email with menu choices, pricing and drink options. We settled on 6 items based on preferences/​suggestions from our guests: 3 types of pad thai, Vespa special Phở, Vespa special vermicelli and the shaken filet mignon rice plate. This offered a variety of carbs and protein while still being authentic Vietnamese cuisine.
We had a party of 60, and the staff was very accommodating to everyone’s needs. They got all dishes out in a timely manner (we pre-​ordered per everyone’s requests) and made sure everyone had beverages at all times. Our guests loved their food, and have all vowed to return to Vespa.
Thanks again Mike and staff for helping my son’s party be a great success!

Went there for dinner on a Saturday so it wasn’t busy at all. Despite having 3 people working up front and 4 tables occupied, service still felt a tad slow but the food came out in a timely manner.
Calamari: Very different from what I am used to. The sauce was mixed in rather than being in the side for dipping. The size of the calamari were a bit small so the pieces were slightly hard once fried. I personally like tender calamari with a light crispy batter. It had an interesting flavor and I enjoyed the fried basil that was mixed in it. I thought it was interesting but I wouldn’t order it again. $ 8
Based on the description, I ordered the seafood soup. I had never tried it before and wasn’t sure what to expect. Once again, it was different and had good flavors but the textures were not to my liking. The soup is slightly thick, sort of like the fake shark fin soup at Chinese restaurants. I can eat a small bowl of thick soup but not a full serving of it. The lobster was good (half of a small tail) but the soft shell crab didn’t taste good. It was greasy and soggy after soaking up the soup. It is served with udon noodles which are good if you like udon. I picked out the bits of seafood and left it pretty much untouched. $ 15
The lamb chops were the best dish we ordered. They were cooked medium (they should be cooked medium rare) but were tasty. The garlic noodles were good and the vegetables were fresh and very nice. $ 28.
The Thai Ice Tea had more cream than tea so it was slightly disappointing. $ 3
The regular hot tea was a tea bag served in a nice mug. It was good.
What I described came out to be $ 60 (before tip). I hesitate to return since half the food was underwhelming and the prices were high enough to make me think about it. I rather take my $ 60 and get traditional Vietnamese which tastes much better and will leave me really full.

Refreshing little gem hidden away from the busy lunch hot spots in Santa Clara. I stopped in solo and sat at the bar. Ordered some crab soup and watched CNN. Loved that they have beer on tap. Almost ordered one b/​c the news was just too depressing.
One a high note, the soup is on point and it warmed my soul.
*Note, their take on banh canh was a little different but it worked! Instead of crab paste and meat, they use fried soft shell crab. Very yummy!

We came here in the evening, about fifteen minutes before closing, and the owner was very welcoming and accommodating as always. Didn’t feel rushed at all. We sat down, ordered our drinks and went through recommendations and customer favorites.
We went in on a night apparently that the owner was trying something new in the kitchen. A shrimp curry dish. The flavors were well balanced and the shrimp were a very good size and succulent to say the least, and I love my shrimp. Good presentation and tasted delicious.
My usual go to dish is the shaken filet mignon. I usually customize it with just mushrooms and onions although the way it comes is also delicious. I just love mushrooms: D
Depending on my mood, I either get it with rice or garlic noodles. Yes, they have garlic noodles :)
I have also tried the Lamb chops and for those that aren’t fans of lamb, you should give it a shot. Doesn’t have the gamey taste that it usually has. I would definitely have that again!
The Pan Seared Sea Bass, Pork Chops, Scallops and Lobster, Phở (Chicken, Filet Mignon, and seafood) are all so good! Haven’t been disappointed yet!
This place is a complete turn around from the previous establishments it was before. Completely tore everything down and renovated the whole place. When you step inside, you’ll be amazed especially if you knew what it was.
You should definitely give this spot a shot!

Saw this place and had wanted to try it.
Finally that time came when I decided to drop in an order to go. I asked if they had vegetarian items, and the waiter pointed me there.
There was about 4 – 5 things to choose so I went with the noodles with tofu, vegetables, and vegetable egg rolls.
Was asked to sit at the bar and asked if I wanted a glass of water which I took.
So far so good. Sadly though, the food took about 20 minutes. I also overheard them saying something about vegetarian, and since I can understand a little Vietnamese, I realized they were talking about the egg rolls. I figured they had to roll some for the dish.
The food smelled amazing during the drive back to work, but once I was able to get into the food, I found that it did not have any vegetable eggrolls. It was all tofu and some vegetables.
I will say that the food tasted great, but I really wanted some egg roll crunch too.
At $ 13, it is not cheap. I do want to try other dishes and maybe get this again since it did taste pretty good despite the lack of eggroll. I will have to order it at the restaurant one day though, so I can ask about it being missing in case they do not have it in the dish again the next time.

Well, that was embarrassing…
I took my coworkers here to give them a soft intro into Vietnamese food. I thought this would be a good start since the fusion part can act like a buffer. However, right as you walk in you get hit with the smell of bathroom. Gross. The place is nicely decorated, cute furniture, nice looking bar, big TVs.
After ordering food was where the trouble started. In summary, if you have 40 minutes to kill AFTER the rest of your party receives their food, then order the filet minion salad or the seabass. Luckily, the people waiting for their food insisted everyone to start without them. Otherwise that restaurant would have a table of 8 very pissed off people.
My advice for this restaurant is to either note on the menu that certain items take 30+ minutes to make so their patrons can plan ahead, send that hungry person waiting 40+ minutes for their meal a comped appetizer so that they aren’t hangry, AND/​OR, comp that person’s ridiculously late meal (which they did none of the above).
Too bad. So sad.

Don’t let the exterior of this establishment fool you — it’s lovely inside with great food!
In a nutshell, they provided excellent service, modern & contemporary décor, and delicious food.
My Vietnamese coworker brought me here & I was pleasantly surprised. We dined on a Tuesday… come by 11:30am to beat the lunch rush! It got fairly crowded quickly.
We ordered spring rolls ($ 7) as an appetizer, the grilled chicken salad ($ 15) and the pad thai with shrimp ($ 12). Every dish had a beautiful presentation & our server was extremely attentive.
They have a few flat screen tvs & an illuminated bar. I’ll definitely be back! :)

I came here only a few weeks ago and I still can’t forget how much spaghetti they offered. Everything was served with of spaghetti! Enough already! I got tired of it quick because we were dining family style so no one wanted to eat their portion of spaghetti. Eventually I think we had a pound of spaghetti piled up from our dishes. Here’s what I had. I didn’t add the filet mignon even though we also ordered it because I can’t remember a thing about it.
1. Sea Bass — Fish was undercooked. I couldn’t cut into the middle because it was still raw so I sent that portion back for them to recook. The mushrooms served with this was so bitter, it was ineditable.
2. Lobster with garlic noodles — I wish it had more Vietnamese flavor. I understand that it’s supposed to be fusion but a little more flavor would go a long way, especially since it’s over a bed of noodles.
3. Lamb Chops — Pretty good. It didn’t have that gamey smell that I don’t like.
4. Fried Calamari — pretty tasty. I liked that it was lightly battered and not too salty.

My new favorite lunch spot! Not to mention it’s very clean and has a great modern feel for a Vietnamese Restaurant. Parking lot is small so get there before noon to get a spot. I’ve been here a couple of time and the food and service has always been on point. Some items I’ve had are:
Pork Spring Roll– it’s plentiful and fresh.
#12– Broken rice with Grilled Pork, pork skin & egg roll. The egg roll is wrapped in a different wrapper but still very delicious. I don’t like pork skin and they were kind enough to substitute that with more grilled pork instead.
#17– Shaking beef– you can tell they use quality meat here as every bite is tender & flavorful. It’s also loaded with generous amount of beef, bell peppers, onions & mushrooms.
All the lunch entrees comes with mixed salad on the plate as well. There’s also a full bar with all the alcohol you can think of… i even saw Dom P. Now if only someone can buy me a glass! =)
Great place for lunch if you’re in the area!

I’m wowed by the décor of this fairly new restaurant. They opened back in September but you wouldn’t know it. The ease in which the food is prepped and delivered to the table is very well rehearsed. Awesome staff!
For a new kid in the block they already have an outstanding dish. The lowly, cheap, much overlooked Eggroll. It is way ahead of other Eggroll. It’s crunchy outer shell and very delicious filling is worth your visit. They use a different wrap and use just the best ingredients to ensure that it is mouth watering and crack-​like! AND I’m not even an Eggroll fan.
I ordered #14. It’s the Grilled pork plate with shredded pork skin and crispy tau Hu ky. Excellent choice. Tasty and good portions. $ 12.
Very stylish décor. The Vespa as you walk in reflects Vietnams mode of transportation favorite– the scooter. The color of the Vespa is reflected on the tables and the bar. A big light structure on the ceiling is very Vegas.
The décor and attention to detail is extended all the way to the bathrooms. You’ll see why. My target areas to visit when I go back would be the bar for their cocktails and the outside seating when summer arrives.
Private parking is a plus!

Was not familiar with this place prior to stopping here for lunch. The décor was more modern which suited my liking. Props to the cooks for the plating & presentation.
Based on the reviews, I likely chose the wrong dish which I did not like at all.
#19 but there was some mystery seafood in there which I had no clue what it was and I’ve had my share of seafood.
The sauce was soupy and tasted a bit off as well. The pork sausage spring rolls was the one lone bright spot among the two items I tried.
I will eventually come back to Vespa and try different items off the menu and my opinion will change.