Elyse Restaurant — Restaurant in San Jose

Wow. French-Vietnamese already sets high expectations for me. Not only it is rare to find such in the Bay Area but also you know you're putting together two of the tastiest cuisines. From that regards, we walked into Elyse with high hopes and it absolutely delivered.

As we all know, Vietnam was under the French influence and you have these wonderful concoctions like the Banh Mi. We were curious to see what a French base cuisine with Vietnamese twist could be.

The shrimp skewers were delicious which leaned a bit more Vietnamese spices. They came out a bit cold but the inspiration was felt. The shrimp ceviche on traditional shrimp chips was absolutely genius. The two flavors complement and create magic. The vinegary shrimp ceviche with the fishy thick shrimp chip truly is magical and I had never tasted this combination before but it made so much sense. The Garlic Noodles were top notch. Thick pasta/udon like noodles with soy garlic sauce and plenty of butter. Just delicious. Our wagyu steak was done with perfection, tasty and flavorful and the chef paid attention to all the veggies and potato as well. Every sauce definitely had a French buttery base but spiced with a Vietnamese twists. This is absolutely "fusion" done right.

The desserts finally hit it out of the park. The black sesame panna cotta is simply out of this world. Not too sweet, but bland either. Creme brulee was smooth as well, although not mention-worthy.

The interior gives a high ceiling, modern vibe, clean and chic - perfect for a date night. Decor includes both French and Vietnamese motifs. All around, I cannot believe such a jewel was sitting right in the heart of downtown San Jose.

Elyse is a jewel of San Jose and is worth visiting the city for. It really is that good and has the potential to go up further if the chef perfects a few rough edges. I'm so glad I discovered Elyse and will...

TLDR: A nice restaurant with good food, but really needs to a) lean into the Vietnamese more, and b) provide more vegan options.

Atmosphere: Elyse is a very nice restaurant that is quite unassuming from the exterior. I greatly enjoyed the simple, but fine details.

Service: Generally good, kind, but seemed a bit bored because we were the only table being served.

Food: Due to an unusually long wait time (even though we were literally the only table at the restaurant at 6:00 on a Wednesday), they graciously brought out a free jackfruit salad. This was quite tasty and was a refreshingly good start to the meal. Our table also ordered the crispy brussels which were also very good. I as the vegan was really excited for some vegan Vietnamese food and the menu online noted I multiple options that are no longer available unfortunately. My only entree option was a cassoulet which was good, but nothing mind blowing. Without any form of plant-based protein, it was more a bean stew that really needed a kick of pepper or something to bring it out of averageness. Compared to the apps, it was very boring. The two omni's enjoyed their food as more so. If I was rating this solely on a vegan's perspective, I would probably say the food is around 3-3.5 stars, but with the omni's enjoying their food, I bumped it up to a solid 4: Good, but not great.

Overall, I would definitely try Elyse again next time I am in San Jose, but only if there are some actual Vietnamese options on the menu. While I understand that France colonized Vietnam and the cuisine's are intermixed, this feels more like a French restaurant with a tiny...

Truly deserves five stars! Let me start by saying how amazing the staff was.. they were sweet, friendly and made us feel welcome.

We got seated right away and our server came and told us about when the kitchen closes etc so we could get our order in in time. We got the shrimp ceviche, mushroom Tartlette, the Sea bass with bok choy and couple of cocktails. The strawberry mule and the Mezcal drink (can't remember the name) were amazing! I can tell that the bar tender really knew what he was doing with the right amount of concentration of every ingredient! How amazing!

We didn't order too much food, only because we wanted to save some room for dessert and so glad we did. We got the Belgian Tiramisu.. oh boy! What deliciousness and I loved that it had a nice twist compared to regular Italian tiramisu which also I love deeply. Overall we had a great time here. Food, ambience, drinks and service were top notch!

One of my recommendation for everyone coming here would be please reserve some extra time for parking. There are a few lots near by but it's a small walk so keep some time for that. Highly recommend Yelpers to come...