San Jose's Downtown Food Hall — Restaurant in San Jose

Pros: my partner's experience with Bento Pro and customer service by Harmony. The place was clean and nice looking inside. Cons: limited vegetarian options, limited food options in general, my order was completely wrong, some business practices seem shady.

We tried this on a whim a little after 1pm yesterday. I was pretty excited but really let down by this experience. I'm vegetarian and had really limited options here. There were maybe 3 or 4 stores open within the food hall, one of them being tea. The pizza place actually closed on the kiosk as we were exploring options so my options got slimmer. We actually almost left up front but I decided there was something I could try that was vegetarian and available.

My partner ordered a pork ramen bowl from Bento Pro and he loved it. Food came out timely (10 minutes) and he said it was delicious, no issues with his order.

I chose to get a green goddess salad with chickpeas from Trendy Salads by Foodieville. I ordered at 1:27pm, and got a confirmation text that my order would be ready between 1:42 and 1:52pm - for a salad!! At one point while I was waiting someone came out from the kitchen to check to see if I was still there (kinda weird). It felt like they were checking to see if they should make my food that I had just ordered. Then at 30 minutes I was told it would be another 5 more minutes. For a salad.

I finally recieved my salad at 2pm and it was nothing like the description. I wish I had taken a picture. The salad I should have recieved is descibed as "In this cucumber, tomato, Swiss cheese and chickpea salad recipe, a healthy green goddess dressing is made from avocado, buttermilk and herbs" and in the picture on their menu it looks like it's on romaine lettuce. What I got was: shredded cabbage, Indian spiced chickpeas, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, yogurt sauce and a thin green sauce, and a random packet of seeds and dried cranberries. Nothing like the description at all after all that wait time.

I immediately asked for a refund and showed Harmony (the staff person on hand in the food hall) the issue. Harmony was great and communicated about the order while we were waiting, and she was very helpful when I requested a refund. Unfortunately I never recieved the refund. Harmony showed me she was putting the refund in and waited with me for a while to see if the refund had come through, as I was supposed to get a text on my phone confirming it. I also checked my bank while we were waiting. I never got the text or the refund so she gave me a handwritten refund reciept.

Harmony said I should call back today to follow up if I still havent gotten the refund, but I think their system is not allowing it to come through so I am disputing the charge instead through my bank. I shouldn't have to contact the place again a day later or wait so long for a refund that should be immediate. Not Harmony's fault, but the POS this place uses and their business practices.

We won't be coming back or ordering...

Ordered two of the Indian dishes. Ten minutes later we’re told that they would not be able to make them fast and it would take up to 30 minutes for the order. The chef apologized and said he’d help us out with freebies and assured us he could make the orders. We were later given sub-par fries

Twenty-five minutes in, the chef comes back out saying he can’t prepare my girflriend’s order because of lack of ingredients and just says he can make her some other dish with cauliflower. Not what we ordered but we’re trying to be nice and agreed despite being in a rush.

When my dish came out, a quinoa buryani one it was the SPICIEST Indian dish I have ever had and was completely inedible and had me running around looking for some snacks I had just to try and get the taste out because my mouth was burning. It also contained tomatoes (I get heartburn) despite the order screen not making that apparent whatsoever. Food was inedible so we told the manager we wanted a full refund and left because we had somewhere else to be.

An hour later, the manager called me and said he would offer a 50% refund despite us being completely unsatisfied with everything and essentially eating neither dish. I demand a full refund which is what normal restaurants do when food is sent back. He then tried to argue we were disrespectful for leaving (lol) and that he had to make up for the cost of doing business. When I reiterated that I wanted a full refund, he demanded I answer him questions related to food. It was the most immature and ridiculous thing I’ve encountered from a restaurant in my life, all because his greed wanted to net another $19 (some of which was a tip they clearly never deserved)....

Came to this location after reading reddit suggestions for its vegetarian/vegan options.

There are far better vegan and vegetarian restaurants in bay area, which are tasty, with good portion size and affordable.

We will not be back.

Cons: Overly expensive for the amount of food or its taste Foods you receive do not match photos Super confusing as where to receive your food since there were only two restaurants that had banner Zero food ingredients or info about sides are listed on the self service menu (good luck if you don’t have your phone with you to have proper research and have allergies), didn’t know where to ask questions Receiving Utensils and cup are up to discretion of the seller, you may not receive one

Pros: Free 90 min parking nearby Nicely designed bathroom and food hall walls Water dispenser if you have your bottle and cup with you

Raymond's Sourdough Bread by Foodieville

Micro Baguettes $9.00

The photo of the item showed few small size sourdough baguettes (plain). The item we received was a larger baguette cut in half crispy on top with oily surface. It was delicious but what we expected was plain sourdough. Again not matching the photo and no item description in self Service machine

merci Mediterranean

Falafel Gyro $11.99 photo had frieds as side, no fries came with the food. Taste was ok, needed some salt pepper which we found in utensils pack.

Tenvis kitchen

Samosa $6.99 crispy and warm outside cold as ice inside. Clearly just someone half way microwaved it, couldn’t eat it

TOFU TIKKA BIRYANI $18.99 Spicy rice with few silken tofu on top, no other veggie in the dish. Came with yogurt and tiny salad with a piece of lemon...