The Nest Asian Bistro — Restaurant in San Jose

Found this spot when my friend had a craving for chicken wings but we weren't in the mood for Korean nor American wings. I felt like we stumbled upon a small Vietnamese hole-in-the-wall business! It seems like a great place for college students.

The cashier was an auntie who was overly eager to get our order. She had an accent and I could tell it was a bit hard for the people after us to understand her. She was patient with us though although she forgot one of our sides which I had to go in and ask for (it was just white rice but it took her 3 minutes to make; I think it was microwaved).

We got the...

8 wings, 4 lemon pepper and 4 spicy butter: These wings were small and the cashier knew that so she gave us two extra wings to make up for it. I appreciated that! The breading was perfectly crispy and not greasy. I was able to get sambal hot sauce from the bottles by the register to dip the meat in since it was a little dry.

I was surprised about the lemon pepper because I thought it was going to be lemon juice and black pepper, whereas it turned out to be lemon pepper dry seasoning. It was still tasty though.

I'm not sure what the spicy butter seasoning was, but it had a slight kick. My mom thinks there's fish sauce in the seasoning from the smell. All in all I enjoyed the wings and was impressed by how many flavors there were.

2 spicy pork bao "tacos": We got the spicy pork because our original meat preference wasn't available. The spicy pork was actually spicy and flavorful. It went well with the thickness of the bao. The brightness and crunchiness of the vegetables balanced everything out.

Garlic noodles with steak: This was a bit heavy and oily but it was good on flavor. It wasn't overly salty. I think it was a nice carb that went along with our wings. The steak tasted good too. Garlic noodles and wings, a great combo!

I'd want to come back and...

I wouldn't mind roosting at The Nest again. I stopped in around 1pm to grab a bite and it was dead. To be honest, it was dead around the entire area. I walked in and was kindly greeted. She asked me if I wanted the rice which I politely declined. I was here for one thing and that was the spicy pork Bahn Mi.

I waited about 5ish minutes and bam, my full-on sandwich was ready. She even gave me a shooter of ice water and I didn't even ask. I asked if I could sit outside because it was glorious out. She said it was ok but the chained-up seats were telling me otherwise. I opted for a seat next to the fence as it was the least awkward position. However, I was not upset about it at all because the Star Jasmine flowers were in bloom and smelled amazing.

I unwrapped my sandwich to see this very colorful inside staring at me on this beautifully toasted hoagie bun. It was a sight. I was excited to bite into it but made sure to grab a shot. That first bite was fantastic. Full of pork, cilantro, carrots, red pepper, and cucumber. The pork was perfect temperature but could have used a little more heat as it was a spicy pork sammich. The sauce was dripping everywhere. I love me a messy sammie. Bite after bite, I was looking forward to the next one.

Once it was all done, I was a little sad but then felt the beautiful weather and smelled the smells and I was good again. I enjoyed eating here and the smallish vibes in the concrete jungle. I would be interested in trying something else but probably grab the same...

Came in looking for a late lunch. We had a weird experience, which I hope isn’t typical? We walked in and nobody was at the counter. At first we didn’t think much of it, and kept chatting amongst ourselves while we thought about what we wanted to order. We could hear someone in the back and assumed they would be out to take our orders. Kept waiting and nobody was showing up. We called out “hello?” a few times just to let them know we were ready (bell wasn’t out, but noticed one further in the kitchen). Still no response. We decided to leave, but when I glanced back in when we were on the street I noticed someone finally peek out. Ordered our food, pork banh mi and a salted cream oolong. Food came out fairly quickly, but we received the wrong sandwich (a beef bulgogi) and the tea was mostly ice. We had considered trying the beef anyway, so we didn’t ask for it to be changed. For us, the sauce from the bulgogi did not pair well with the rest of the sandwich. And for paying $5 for a drink, we were a little disappointed that it was pretty much just a cup of ice with some tea. Maybe it was an off day, but kinda disappointed with our lunch. I might come by again, but $12 for banh mi and $5 for a drink is too much considering San Jose has a ton of great banh mi places that go for like $5/sandwich and boba bar is...