Blue Monkey Cafe & Restaurant — Restaurant in San Jose

Came here with my family of 4 for dinner. We had a poor experience that makes me wonder if the reviews are real at all.

We noticed that a check-in on Yelp gave us a free drink, as said on a flyer that was on all the tables. My cousin and I checked in and asked for a drink, and the server said we had to add a photo. There's no way to retroactively add a photo to a check-in on Yelp, and the flyer didn't state we needed to add a photo. We spoke back and forth, and the server walked away.

When he came back to take our order, we mentioned the drink again, and he said we needed to write a review. We did NOT order any food yet, so we told him we can't write anything because we can't write a fake review. He went off and came back with our drinks, and finally took our order.

When we were about to eat, the server came back AGAIN asking to see our reviews. We had just started to grab our utensils, and we were annoyed that our meal got interrupted about this Yelp issue. We told him no, we didn't write anything because we literally NOT eat yet.

Lastly, when it was time for the bill, the server mentioned Yelp AGAIN and said they needed see our reviews. Since we had just finished eating, we didn't have a spare 10 minutes to type out a review on our phones. We flashed him our apps and seemed annoyed enough that he did not pressure us on the matter again.

Here's what we got:

Bun dau mam tom: Basic noodles, shrimp paste sauce, salad, pork belly, and tofu. I don't see many restaurants that serve this so it was a standout. I like how thin the pork belly was. My favorite was the green cha. Besides presentation, however, you can make it at home at any Vietnamese household.

Sun ga chien gion (fried cartilage): Extremely greasy and all the onions were raw. This needs to be cooked at a higher oil temperature. It should not feel like a pool of grease.

Thai green tea with aloe vera: Tasted like perfume, almost like medicine. Did not taste like Thai green tea. Don't order it.

Kumquat iced tea with salted plum: This drink was pretty refreshing. We only drank this one.

Overall this experience was such a headache about the Yelp thing, and the food was not good enough to justify it. I think there needs to be more communication and a better understanding of the offer amongst staff if you're going to offer it. We noticed no other tables were...

Saw this restaurant through Mimi hoàng hậu đít bự (Queen Big Butt) on Instagram and decided to try it while I’m in San Jose.

I’ve been out of the country for almost 3 years in a place where they do not have real Asian food. So I was so excited to eat some real Vietnamese food at Blue Monkey.

My dad and I came here for brunch on a Monday. It was not busy at all. We were instantly seated.

My dad and I each got a Hu Tieu Nam Vang (Dai) Kho. For appetizers we got Banh Bot Loc and grilled oysters.

The Hu Tieu Nam Vang (Dai) Kho was delicious!!! The black sauce they give you with your Hu Tieu was very flavorful and savory. I love clear glass noodles!!!

The Banh Bot Loc really hit the spot. I miss Banh Bot Loc so much!!! I forgot about this wonderful Vietnamese dish until I saw it on the menu!!! So good!!!

The grilled oyster was my favorite!!! I highly recommend this as an appetizer. All the oysters were a good size. You get your moneys worth and it was so delicious!!! Yummy oysters!!!

Overall I had a very fulfilling meal at Blue Monkey and will be back to try other dishes!!!

I might be bias because I haven’t had any real Asian food in almost 3 years..and will probably think most if not all Asian food is good right now. Please...

Came here for tet, and it was lively. The person on the aux cord had this place feeling like a party with music range of hip hop to vpop.

The food was delicious. We had did family style, and I would recommend that as the portions are large here. I like that they had a dish from every region, so it spans across all the different types of Vietnamese food.

The stand out dishes are the banh mi chao and banh canh tom cua. The banh mi chao with the shaken beef was crazy delicious. Paired with a banh mi roll, it is the perfect duo. I would recommend ordering two banh mi rolls. It is very fresh and absorbs the flavors very well.

The banh canh tom cua is a huge bowl. One bowl could feed two people easily. It is packed with a lot of protein and the noodles are uniquely cut. I’ve never seen it like that before and I liked it that way since you can just eat it with a soup spoon.

Bun cha Hanoi was okay. It comes with a lot of food but my only thing about it is that it didn’t come with a lot of the pork patties. I wish they balanced it more with the grilled pork and pork patties.

This place was really popular on tet. I saw a lot of friends and family come to this place the same time...