Vahl’s Restaurant & Cocktail Lounge

Vahl’s is a hidden gem worth the drive out to Alviso. Hi on a Friday or Saturday night and be treated to an old school piano bar fit for the brat pack.

Vahl’s is an old fashioned Italian Dinner house with a bar that serves ‘stiff’ drinks at a reasonable price. Many locals come in to visit and enjoy the company of people that have lived in the area a long time. If you remember Cheers, this is similar. If you want history of the area, come on down, have a ‘cold one’ and relax.

One of the more unusual restaurants I have been to lately. You walk in the door and it looks and smells like the 70’s. Including disco ball. I had chicken cordon bleu which was pretty good. Mushroom gravy was all over it, salad, baked potato and veggies included. There was a couple in their 70’s tuning up to play an electric piano and electric guitar most of the time we were there. Then they started playing stuff like «let me call you sweetheart» and” camp town races”. It was surreal like I was in the twilight zone. But hey the food was good and they have a full bar. :-)

We took a group from my office there for lunch as a celebration of a major team accomplishment a number of years ago, based on someone’s recommendation. The food was, as other’s have mentioned, worse than any Denny’s, brown salad, mushy boiled veggies and previously frozen and partially thawed meat. The service was memorable — ancient waitresses calling everyone «Hon», throwing silverware on the table, totally unresponsive and rude. How this place has stayed open as long as it has is a complete mystery to me. Must be funded by some CIA black-​ops unit who meet there for secret nefarious project meetings. Only explanation I can come up with.

This is the most homely place I have been in a while! I have felt welcomed ever since I got here! This week was my birthday buddy made me a cheesecake! Best I have ever had:) the bartender Frankie is genuine, pours a mean drink! He has been here for years so make sure you stop by have a drink, get a cheesecake, and get the onion rings!

I walked in the bar area and I felt like I was at «cheers» it is a real throwback. The service was great at the bar. Talk to Frank the bartender he will keep you entertained. Anytime I’m near Alviso I’ll be sure to stop at this bar.

OMG if you love kitch you have to come here. It’s a throwback to… Well, a long time ago. There’s karaōke starting around 5 or so and its a hoot with a very regular crowd of over 70 or so.
The décor is fascinating. The whole dining room is pepto bismol pink with gingham vinyl tablecloths. Awesome.
Have a drink in the bar and have fun. The menu is truly expensive for what you get. Pan fried steak with blanched zucchini and a tiny baked potato for $ 27?
The fried shrimp is actually coconut shrimp and imagine what that tastes like with cocktail sauce on it, just imagine.
Let’s say we didn’t stay for dessert.

Brought back lots of memories of going to Vahl’s back in the 60s with my family when I stepped in the door not too long ago. Basic food menu, not real extensive, but covers the basics of meat, fish, pasta. I ordered the salmon which was good but nothing to rave about. It’s a rather simple place that doesn’t rush things.

It is true that it was a throw back in time, and the service was good.
We went on a Sunday afternoon for dinner. There were a few people at the bar and only 1 other group eating in the dining room. The food was terrible. The chicken cordon blue and salmon were obviously frozen and not worth the $ 50 bill. We wanted to like this place but it is lost in time and surely will not last.

This is a true throwback! This place is stuck in 1950 something… The service was great, the food (prime rib) was super yummy and the atmosphere was charming. This place is tucked away but it is worth going out to Alviso for.
They do have karaōke in the bar — trust me not everyone should be singing but it was not loud which was nice. They do have a strange practice of only tipping the waitress in cash… that is a pain in the butt.
If you have not been here you must go and if you have not been there in years it is time to go back.

What Sarah Jane W. said is true, except for a couple of minor details:
–That’s a sewage treatment plant, not a dump, that you smell
— Alviso is not just the town that time forgot, it’s the town *everything* forgot
During football season the bar is a good place for the 49er fans to hang out.
I used to go here for lunch when I worked at the now-​abandoned Sony building across the freeway, and my impression was there is no age limit for the wait staff. This can be a mixed blessing.
and I still take my camera and sometimes my bicycle out to the nearby marina park.
Parking is limited, except when they decide to unlock the chain in front of the big parking lot.

This place is in Alviso — a/​k/​a the Happiest Place on Earth. ALVISO!!! Have you been there? Have you even heard of it?
Alviso is the town that time forgot. Mouldering in the geographic crotch of the SF Bay, just north of San Jose, and bathed by a gentle sea breeze tinged with the stench of the nearby Milpitas dump, this old fishing town is now little more than a collection of rusted-​out trawlers, weathered clapboard houses and fabulously decrepit abandoned canneries… all sort of rotting away in the marshland. FABULOUS!
Vahl’s is a relic from the days when Alviso was actually a functioning town — an old-​as-​fuck, creepily old-​timey comfort-​food joint with a real mausoleum-meets-grandma’s-house vibe. Going in here is like going back in time, to an era when everyone was white, ate whitebread, and drove Buicks.
I went here for early dinner on a Sunday afternoon, right in the middle of some kinda awesome Greatest Generation Karaōke thing. Imagine a roomful of old (75+) white people, taking turns warbling Perry Como standards to the accompaniment of a keyboard player — AMAZING!
Food-​wise, it’s just typical gross diner-​type American food from the pre-​foodie era: burgers, weird white-​bread/​gravy sandwiches, icebergy salads, etc. I had an omelette and fries (they were out of breakfast potatoes). It was OK, but you definitely wouldn’t come here for the food.
But you SHOULD come for the awesome ambiance! If you get sick of the corporate bullshit down the road in San Jose, head to Alviso for a refreshing lunch hour in the reeds, among the seagulls, meth-​heads and old people.
And be sure to stop at Vahl’s for a drink!!!

This place is pretty horrible. For a better value and experience visit the Olive Garden. What tasted like canned soup should be reserved for the grocery store, but you’ll find it on the menu. Very disappointing.

It pains me to write this, but Vahl’s food just ain’t good. What *is* good is the bar, which adjoins the restaurant but is really a totally separate room with even a separate entrance. In as sleepy a town as this one, Vahl’s bar seems like an anachronistic anomaly, as it has the air of a place that long ago once had an air of slightly upscale hipness, popularity, and coolness. Now it’s just a quiet old dive bar for elderly locals, though admittedly I haven’t been here on a Friday or Saturday night.
Bartender seems to be the same guy every time, and he’s friendly and nice. Tip him well, because there aren’t many truly Old-​Skool joints like this one around anymore. I’d give it five stars for that alone, but the food really is a pass.

Great place for karaōke and drinks. Went with a group of people and had a blast. I love the earlier start time because I can’t party as hard as I used to. Bartender was very nice and really quick at getting drinks. The food was good. Very lovely place =)

My friend wanted to go have a beer and then go to a park to see stars so I immediately thought of Vahl’s and the nearby Alviso Park Boat Ramp at the south tip of the San Francisco Bay. I often go to the park but had only been to Vahl’s for a work lunch years ago. It was Friday around 7 pm.
We walked into Vahl’s and saw a trio playing on the other side of the bar so we grabbed a booth. The food was nothing special but the trio were for karaōke! A lot of older people started streaming in and in no time the keyboard player with the high hair had them all singing. It was a fun, out-​of-​the-​ordinary night.
(Started writing this last year when I went.)

I’ve always seen this place, but shied away due to the ratings. I finally decided to give it a shot. I had a couple guys in from Japan, staying at the Biltmore, so it was convenient. I also thought it would be fun, not something the Japanese guys would typically get to experience.
The food, as pretty much everyone points out, is really not very good. I decided to try the veal cordon bleu. As neary as I can tell, it was something previously frozen. My guests had a NY steak, which looked OK, and broilded salmon. Veges were boiled broccoli (same as Mom makes at home), salad was bagged, soup was canned. Bread was pretty greasy, anti-​pasta was fine, but how can you screw that up?
So, Denny’s quality food, but prices were pretty high. Three dinners, 1 glass of wine and maybe 5 beers, total with tip was $ 144.
It’s definitely campy, but not worth enduring the bad food and paying way too much.
Eat at Maria Elenas across the street, and then hit the bar at Vahls. That actually looked fun.

Basically, this place is like an Original Joe’s, but not as good.
We arrived at 5:30 ish on a Saturday, and despite being at times the only table, we had a very «relaxed» service. In fact, we had to wait to be seated as there was no hostess when we arrived.
I will say that you do get a lot of food. Every entrée comes with an hors d’oeurve of chicken liver pâté, a mini-​antipasto (single slice of salami per person with olives, a scallion, pickle slices, a mild pepper and a carrot curl), and a three-​bean salad. We were also served our choice of soup or salad, in this case a clam chowder which had a really strong initial off-​flavor (oregano?) but got better working to the bottom of the cup. The clam chowder had too much roux as it was too thick.
The meals also came with garlic bread, which was fine.
I ordered fillet of sole and wifey had chicken parmigiana. Both dishes came with penne pasta pomodoro. The pasta was overcooked in what I call the «american style» of the 1950s and 60s, and the tomato sauce was meh.
My sole had a noticeably «fishy» odor, which surprised me since we normally get fresh fish in the Bay Area. Wifey’s chicken was «okay.»
The dining room was quiet, but whenever anyone spoke the entire room could hear the conversation.
I had the homemade peach pie, which was actually pretty good, if small, and the waitress capped everything off by spilling much of my coffee into the saucer. I wanted to ask for a dry one, but she didn’t reappear by the time I finished my dessert.
Having wanted to try this place out for about 27 years since I first heard about it, I was really disappointed by the quality of the food. There are some interesting looking items on the menu, like rabbit cacciatore, but there were no vegetarian entrees, which rules out some of our friends.
Another weird quirk: they won’t let you put tips on a credit card.
So, one and a half star food, knocked down to one star for the poor service. The only reason I’d go back is the bar, which actually looked pretty fun with the piano player there.

I like to quote another reviewer here: «Depends on the person you are, you will give this place 1 star or 5 star». Well, I am a younger foodnatic, who comes to a restaurant for 1 reason only: Good Food
PROS:
— LOCATION: The restaurant is a landmark in Alviso, a town of its own in the middle of busy Silicon Valley. Being in Alviso always makes me feel like I am in a totally different world. I’m sure for people who have memory with this old time and old town, being here can be emotional for some. Time is slower in Alviso.
CONS:
— LOCATION: Even though I chose location as PROS, only because it’s different, not necessarily safe. I don’t know this neighborhood well and I wouldn’t walk around here at night.
— FOOD: Mediocre at best. My fillet of sole looks and tastes just like omelet. My coworkers ordered Livers & Onion and Shrimp Louie. They said there were not that good.
— PRICE: OVERPRICED for the quality and quantity of food that we got.
All 3 of us will never go back here, definitely not for the food.

Tucked away in a sleepy town in the Heart of Silicon Valley, is Vahl’s Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge. Much like Alviso, Vahl’s appears just as incongruous among the high tech skyscrapers that loom nearby, as the Alviso Slough and Wildlife Refuge look juxtaposed against the bustling highways. Yet it’s that lack of warp-​speed/​information overload, that make Alviso and Vahl’s so special.
My friends and I moseyed over to Vahl’s for Sunday Karaōke (mosey being the standard speed in Alviso). My friends got there before I did, so I can’t comment on the karaōke, but they really enjoyed it. I think the karaōke runs from 3:00 — 6:00 every Sunday evening, but I would call ahead to make sure.
By the time I arrived, the bar wasn’t at all busy. It was my three friends, two regulars, two girls, and one bartender: Frank. But you really don’t need a crowd when you have good friends, a jukebox, stiff drinks and Frank, who happens to be the classic bartender – he’s attentive, friendly, and entertaining.
Frank kept things lively as he stumped us with his dice games and his magic tricks. More friends arrived and we were having so much fun that we closed the bar down. One regular customer walked in just before closing, sat at the bar, and without even having to make eye contact, Frank slid her favorite drink down the bar. Now that’s service.
So the next time you feel the need to take a break from the rat race and from living behind your screens, mosey over to Vahl’s in Alviso and take a step back in time. A time when things were simpler, and a place where everybody knows your name, or is happy to learn it.