We knew the food would be good & fresh but we didn’t know it would be THIS good and fresh! We ate here twice on different days and both times the food, atmosphere, attentiveness and kindness of waiters, quality of drinks, & more was just beyond perfect!

If you want a really good, super fresh meal full of vegetables & herbs and wonderful service that is healthy, delicious, & cooked perfectly with a Vietnamese bent, this is your place! We loved coming here in between days of eating traditional Costa Rican fare….best of both experiences! But guys—-to all these not-so-great reviews complaining about this not being an authentic Vietnamese place…..CORRECT! It’s NOT an authentic Vietnamese place and never did they try to seem that way! This is “fusion” baby! And done wonderfully (hard to do!).

First off, if you don’t get their coconut milk-marinated lightly smoked local trout (PS—it’s a very generous portion too!!), what are you even doing?! Even the staff will tell you: it’s the BEST. I’m a chef who lives in trout country of upstate NY and this is maybe the BEST trout I’ve ever had in my life….and my husband, an avid angler, passionately agreed. Just perfectly cooked meat with an incredible fresh coconut flavor, the smallest bite of heat & lime, and crispy skin that I devoured from both our plates! I ate the trout over the herbed salad with mint and cilantro, radish and lettuce and carrots and cucumber twice and still wish I could have been back to have it again!

The salad is an amazing price for a fabulous portion of fresh, perfectly made fare. We felt so en energized after and almost couldn’t finish it all! We were full for hours so we could spend 4 hours at the wonderfully cured Jade museum after lunch and not worry about becoming starving halfway through.

My husband also had the Chicken Bahn Mi and it was divine! Authentic? No. Absolutely incredible fusion food that made your mouth salivate just thinking about it? Yes! Also the bread was SPECTACULAR. Whoever bakes this is seriously knowledgeable in the French method and is on top of their craft! So good we would have happily eaten bread alone! And, the chicken was juicy, flavored sooo well, and cooked perfectly….like all their food seems to be!

Their spring rolls are so fresh & fun and we loved them with shiitake!

Their homemade Nuoc Mam sauce mix (shake it first!) was soo good and I loved that we could season everything ourselves. I doused my salad in this lemony-lightly fish sauce mix and it was glorious! Dotted with sriracha for heat & tiny dollops of their high quality hoisin, then mixed, the salad was perfect and I loved that I could add flavor to spots I missed while eating or make a bite of trout hotter or a cucumber bite more acidic or sweeter. Don’t fear saucing yourself— the waiters are so kind & passionate and happy to explain to someone unfamiliar with the ingredients just what ingredient is and their suggestions for each dish.

Menu is small but delightful, fresh, perfect. I loved their fresh juice drinks too like sour guava (Cas). All drinks are served with metal straws (yesss!!!!) and you can sweeten yourself (or not at all!) with a Housemade brown sugar syrup, which we LOVED because we love the fruit drinks as refreshingly tart without sugar. It was a thoughtful touch.

Oh and their desserts are wonderfully made too (who could expect less?). The passion fruit (maracuyá) tart was fabulous with fresh passion fruit & it’s crunchy yummy seeds on top and a brown butter pastry crust that was not too sweet or rich——it was wonderful and almost earthy as if it had freshly-ground whole grain wheat or something similar…..but not in a “crunchy” vegan mom way. More like in an earthy, nutty, perfect balance to passion fruit way. Darn good.

Great food, wonderful staff, and we loved the atmosphere & service. For visitors who don’t speak Spanish, worry not, most servers here are fluent in English too and are so hospitable.

Can’t wait to come back again next time in SJ!