Savory

This is one of my favorite restaurants in Mountain View because the service is great — the waitress always remembers me and saves me the window seat.
I like how it’s a pretty quiet restaurant but lately I’ve been trying to make reservations on Opentable and it says that this restaurant is currently offline — PLEASE DON’T BE CLOSED. I came here on a Monday during lunch and the doors were locked and no one was inside. =/​I called about a month ago and talked to the owner there and she said they needed a vacation so they closed for a few days… but now I don’t even know if they even opened up after that. I sent the restaurant an email to see if they would respond — no response.
I like their chicken in a clay pot and their pork chop with vermicelli.
Well, I really hope this restaurant is still in business bc I liked it! :)

I wanted to have gourmet Vietnamese food for my birthday dinner. Xanh was booked out for a month so I decided on Savory after reading some reviews on Unilocal.
The restaurant is cozy and had modern décor. I really liked the blue color scheme and feel of the restaurant. Some of our friends were running late and we were hungry so my husband ordered some appetizers to tie us over until they arrived.
— 2 Savory Samplers which includes beef papaya salad, fresh rolls, spring rolls and temple rolls.
— 2 orders of the salt & pepper calamari
— 1 bottle of Riesling
The sampler was tasty. Hubby and I really enjoyed the beef papaya salad. The calamari was okay. It was soft and not crunchy. I like crunchy calamari.
When the rest of our party arrived we got down to business and ordered dinner…
— Arnold Palmer
— 2 Shaking Beef
— 3 Jasmine Rice
— 1 Brown Rice
— 1 Large Combination Fire Pot
— 2 Tumeric Chicken
— 1 Small Combination Fire Pot
— 1 Vietnamese Chowmein
— 1 Coconut Rice
I enjoyed the shaking beef. The meat was soft, tender and flavorful. My favorite has got to be the salad that it was served with. I loved the dressing they used. I had a few bites of the fire pot, Vietnamese chowmein, tumeric chicken and coconut rice. All were pretty tasty. Service was good.
I bet you’re wondering why the 2 stars and it’s for over charging us. On the menu the shaking beef is listed for $ 16 but we were charged $ 18. Brown rice is listed for $ 2 but we were charged $ 2.50 and Jasmine rice is listed for $ 1.50 but we were charged $ 2.
My husband paid using his debit card and signed for it but it didn’t clear until a week later. It’s not a big deal cause the money was there but I thought it was odd that it took that long for the money to clear.

i first went here in 2010 and it became my new favorite
FOOD that stood out:
Shaking beef — i knew it was going to be good based on other reviews i read, but holy crap! I vowed to order it for myself next time and not share. seriously.
Beef papaya salad — Yum!
Fish in clay pot — ditto
coconut rice — an excellent compliment to the other dishes
Fried banana — ho yeah…
Tres leches — totally missed the mark for me
SERVICE: very good
they took my husband’s peanut allergy seriously
they turned down the air conditioning when i couldn’t escape the icy blast
they put up with our ruckus at the table
they boxed up our rice with our leftover curry sauce without batting an eye
ATMOSPHERE:
not a huge dining room so they keep it simple, modern and uncluttered
i like it, but i can’t escape the feeling that it needs something more…
no biggie, i’ll be back for sure

This is a smallish, upscale Vietnamese place towards the end of Castro street. We went on a Saturday night and were surprised that there were still lots of empty tables at 7:30 pm.
The quality of the food is solid, but the place is kind of pricey and a lot of the dishes seem to lack that little bit of imagination that separates a fancy restaurant from a run-​of-​the-​mill establishment.
I probably wouldn’t come here again, and if you haven’t been here before, I would advise you to spend your money elsewhere because you wouldn’t be missing anything.
Crisp Spring Rolls — ⁴⁄₅ Stars — These were really good. Almost as good as what you get at the nice Vietnamese places in Hong Kong. Only complaint was that they charge $ 7 for 6 tiny spring rolls. I feel that four bucks would be more appropriate.
Shaking Beef — ³⁄₅ Stars — Most of the items on the menu are about $ 12 so I was expecting this $ 18 dish to be at least 50% better than the other items! It wasn’t. It was ok, and unlike some of the other sparsely garnished dishes, it came with a little pile of raw baby spinach leaves and cherry tomatoes. The beef itself was a decent quality cubed fillet mignon, but overall it didn’t compare against some other renditions of this Vietnamese classic found in South San Jose or San Francisco.
Lemongrass Chicken — ²⁄₅ Stars — Maybe a bit harsh, since the chicken was tender and the flavor was alright, but I felt this dish was completely out of balance. It was literally a heap of boneless chicken meat with no veggies or garnishes or anything else.
Chargrilled Beef/​Chicken — ²⁄₅ Stars — Again, a bit harsh, but the version here is pretty much identical to what you can get at a $ 6 per plate phở restaurant. Except that they charge $ 12. And that they don’t give you any rice, noodles or garnishes.
Basa Fish in Clay Pot — ³⁄₅ Stars — My only complaint was that they went really cheap by using Basa (a.k.a Swai fish. a.k.a the stuff that nobody ever buys at Ranch 99). I felt that even something relatively inexpensive like a catfish would have made this dish a lot better.

I heard that this place was owned by the family who owns Khanh on Winchester Blvd so when my friend found out that they were an Opentable 1000 pts restaurant and also on
…I decided to satisfy my curiosity and try this place out. I’ve been to Xanh before and so I already had a preconception as to what the upscale Vietnamese food should look like.
The décor is nice enough with the room full of muted colors for the classic modern look. The menu was a simple three page deal. We ordered the Savory sampler, the shaking beef, and the garlic noodles. The sampler’s papaya salad was tasty although at first, I had no idea that it was papaya… it looked like cucumber but apparently, my Vietnamese newbie-​ness was showing. The spring rolls were fried nicely with the wrapped lettuce and mint leaves. However, the fresh wrapped unfried rolls tasted a wee bit strange. I experienced a sort of unfresh aftertaste after eating it. I wasn’t sure if it was me or if the food was truly fresh. Moving on, we got the noodles and the shaking beef. The noodles were a bit on the dry side… not so great but the shaking beef with spinach was tasty. I don’t recall them asking me how much I wanted the beef to be cooked… but since the beef was so good, never mind!
I think Savory deserves every chance to succeed and in spite of its differences between Xanh (no bar, loud music, TV’s), the food is actually decent. There’s a high chance that I’ll come back to Savory even without the
certificate. For now, 3.5 stars pending a return visit to try dessert and other dishes.

*Read the fine print on your
certificates. Ended up paying $ 50+ for a meal that was just okay. I would have rather spent $ 80 at Xanh down the street and would have gotten a better meal with better ambiance.
The appetizer sampler was good. I have to admit, I would have come back for that. (would have… but will not). The crab glass noodles were horrible. Bland, dry, minimal crab, and what the heck were the carrots doing in there? Shaking beef was okay as well. I’ve had better and for cheaper.
We were literally the only people in the restaurant on a Wednesday night until another group came in later on. Its just weird to eat at an empty restaurant.
Service was fine, but in a normal situation, not deserving of the full 20% that is required with the certificate. I guess that’s the turn-off…we walked out of this place feeling ripped off.
Sorry I will not be returning.

Decent lunch specials, under $ 11 for a good lunch.
I’ve never had an issue with service but I usually come in when they have like 1 pair of customers. I’ve never seen more in there.
RIce is bullshit expensive, $ 2 for a tiny amount of it? WTF? While I can appreciate curry and other food I got, adding almost 25% of the cost of of the meal in rice is super expensive. Honestly, I don’t understand places that charge more than $ 1 for a white rice (rice really should just come free with the meal since it’s so cheap and it’s considerate). But yeah I’m taking off a star for the rice. Otherwise 4 star place. I just don’t appreciate pricing schemes like that, in order to reduce lunch prices you make the rice more expensive. This is more of a pet peeve than any argument against the restaurant, I highly recommend a visit regardless.

This is more of a fusion type. I normally order soups for Vietnamese cuisine for this restaurant, we ordered something different for a change: Savory Sampler $ 14 (good for 2 but we’re 3 sharing good enough for Asian stomach), Combination Fire Pot $ 14, Shaking Beef $ 16, Lemon Grass Chicken $ 12
Pros:
Ambiance is really nice
Food is great especially the Shaking Beef. It is very tender and has very tasty flavor. The seafood claypot is good but the beef is way to go.
Good Service.
Good Parking Spot. As this is the end of Castro, the parking is way much easier. Not competing with other densely parked spots in the heart of MV downtown.
Cons:
Be patient for the order needs a little time to arrive.
A little pricey but worth it.

I really wanted to like Savory as I am a big fan of Vietnamese cuisine. Armed with a
coupon, the bf and I decided to give it a try on a Thursday night for dinner.
We arrived at about 8pm and there was only 2 other tables. They were not busy by any means. This explains why they only had 1 man running the place — he seated us, took our order, and brought our food. Even though the restaurant wasn’t busy, the service was very slow.
Presented with the wine list of 4 different reds, bf chose something that they didn’t have. Then he chose something else and they didn’t have it either. SERIOUSLY? of the 4 wines on their list, they didn’t have 2 of them. WTF.
The food was okay — they were flavorful and the portion sizes were decent. However, nothing stood out to me. we ordered:
–crispy shrimp roll
–combination fire pot
–shaking beef
–crab & garlic glass noodle
The combination fire pot was pretty cool, the pot was brought out on a flame so the soup remained pipping hot until we finished it. The shaking beef was tender and cooked well. However, Xanh and Tamarine also make a good shaking beef.
I don’t see any reasons to hate this restaurant but also no reasons to love it. I’d maybe come back if I got another
certificate and want guarantee seating. However, with the number of other vietnamese restaurants close by, I’d gladly pay more to go to those restaurants to satisfy my palate.

OVERALL:4.0 FOOD:4.5 SERVICE:3.5 AMBIANCE:4 VALUE:4
If you’re seeking trendy, hip, lively Vietnamese, go to Xanh. If a zen, spa-​rejuvenating culinary treatment is more your speed, go to Savory!
This place is like one of those spiffy geode crystals, where the lumpy rock exterior opens onto a treasure trove of pretty sparkles. The building & entrance are shabby at best, but wait til you see the soft paint accents, Oriental-​mod sconces, and tasteful monochrome wall art inside – gorgeous! Food is less flashy than Xanh, but extraordinary AND a few dollars cheaper. Would be nice to have a fuller winelist, but the food’s where it’s really at.
SAVORY SAMPLER ($ 14 — 4 stars):
Beef Papaya Salad + 3 types of rolls (2 ea)…salad was crisp & proportionally dressed in a gingery, sweet, fish sauce base, not the typical lime & topped w/​sliced charsiu-​type jerky. Favorite roll were the light, flaky fried eggrolls… fragrant & super fresh! Great way to try a little of (almost) everything.
SHAKING BEEF ($ 16 — 5 stars):
WOW. I have no idea how they get it so tender, moist, and flavorful. I’ve had bleeding rare meat that wasn’t even close in texture perfection, so this is MAGIC, as far as I’m concerned. Sauce had fabulous balance of sweet-​savory, rounded out by the grilled portobellos. Absolute favorite of the night.
CLAY POT BASA FISH ($ 12 — 3.5 stars):
Nice flavor (mm, pepper!) & temperature, but texture was strangely steaky-​firm AND flaky-​soft — just a bit distracting.
Pleasantly surprised! Definitely best for a quiet, low-​key, intimate meal.

The Ca Phe Sua Da (Vietnamese iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk) is very good: the flavor has strong notes of dark chocolate: it’s $ 4.37 including tax, but better than the other phở places in Mountain View, and better than any coffee drinks at Starbucks across the street.
Because they are way over by El Camino, parking is easy and they are never crowded.

I love the ambiance here. Very Zen-​like, with cool blue tones, stretched-​canvas photographs of rocks and flowers on the wall, and crisp, clean linens. It is like stepping into a spa — a food spa!
I’ve only been here for lunch, so will speak to their lunch menu. The lunch combo is $ 12, and is a decent deal. You get a salad, a starter and an entrée. The portions aren’t huge, but they’re nicely composed.
I’ve had the lemongrass beef (delicious), the grilled chicken (dark meat, very tender), and the prawns (all right, only 4 served with the entrée), as well as the rice and vermicelli noodles. Vermicelli is a much better deal — the portion is quite large, while the rice is delicious, but is served in a small pyramid. The fresh rolls with shrimp, vermicelli, and mint are excellent, and the salad is just fine.
Service is always excellent.
I love the fact that this place is located on Castro, but very close to El Camino. It’s never crowded on this side of the main drag, and parking is a breeze (unlike in the true downtown area). The negative is that it’s a long walk to anything else downtown!
Two thumbs up (or four stars!) for Savory.

Walking in, I felt like I had entered the HOME dept of Macy’s. The décor is blue w/​gray accents and quite modern. We came for lunch last week and I think we were the only people there. Strange for a Tuesday afternoon. Then again, it could’ve been due to the holiday week. We both ordered the lunch special which came with either 1 spring roll or egg roll. I chose the lemongrass tofu which came out on the sweet side. Not being a fan of sweet foods, I didn’t exactly enjoy my dish. My coworker liked her grilled beef & rice. The saving grace? Dessert! Fried bananas with coconut ice cream was delish!
Service was nice but I’d prefer to drive further down Castro St. and dine at Minhs.

Dinner in an empty sterile ikea environment with the a/​c audibly whirring at full blast while spa music breathes at you = a bit strange and very uncomfortable. On the upside, service is absolutely fantastic. but really couldn’t combat the frigid atmosphere and unbelievably overpriced food.
++ | Beef Papaya Salad |
It’s GREEN papaya! Crisp and firm like daikon/​jicama. Totally not what I expected at all; what a novelty. I just wish the beef on top was more than just strips of beef jerky.
– Savory Sampler
Takes «pre-​made» to a new level. The rolls taste like they’ve been sitting in the fridge for 2 days: flat, dried-​out, and flavorless.
– Combination Fire Pot
Put bagged seafood in canned chicken soup, heat to a boil, serve.
– Crab & Garlic Glass Noodle
Dried out scrunchy bits of crab dropped on vermicelli noodles w/​sparse bits of julienned carrots/​celery… I don’t get this one.
– Char Grilled Aubergine
The eggplant LOOKS great, but tastes like someone ran it through an ashtray. Leaves a terrible smoky flavor in your mouth.
Might be worth try:
Shaking Beef — meh, boring flavors but stir-​fried to medium rare!
Caramelized Basa Fish — buttery soft & flavored with a sweet soy sauce base
Fried Banana — think banana tempura, quite yummy
Way way waaaaaay too expensive for what it’s worth (quality/​quantity):
Dinner for 5 = $ 149

Savory is very QUAINT compared to the other contemporary Vietnamese restos in the area.
Food is prepared very simply and tasted healthy:
–Shaking Beef, SUPER tender and the flavor was spot on.
–Wonton soup, solid, I would have liked some veggies in the mix.
–Savory Sampler, nice variety of spring rolls, but the BEEF in the papaya salad was just wrong, it was like they opened a bag of beef jerky & shredded it.
–Lemongrass chicken, generous portioning and flavorful.
–Crab glass noodle, light & savory, crab tasted like it was canned or just plain old.
Four glasses of vino, 5 dishes + brown rice totalled a mere $ 98 and a doggie bag for a mini lunch for two the next day.
Sure not perfect, but the food was clean & comforting, service was friendly but not too eager. I really appreciate the small biz owners making a true effort.

It is hard not to compare this place to Xanh.
I like the décor… quiet and homey, comfortable and relaxing.
The staff are extremely friendly, attentive and accommodating and the food comes out lickety split hot!
We had the shaking beef, brown rice, fish in a clay pot and the lemon grass tofu.
All the dishes were very yummie but I wish they were more generous with the rice… come on it’s rice, you buy it in 50 lb bags… be a little more generous.
The shaking beef was very tasty but the cut of the meat is better at Xanh. We had the lone vein running through all the pieces that Xanh didn’t have. Xanh’s dish I think is a little more expensive but also charges you more. I think i prefer Xanh’s dish.
Overall the meal was good and would have no problem coming back but would probably go to Xanh first.

This is a great place for a small gathering of friends and family. The atmosphere is nice enough for some type of celebration. The decorations are very modern and inviting. The restrooms are clean and modern.
We ordered the appetizer sampler, which was absolutely delicious. The presentation of the sampler was eye-​catching in that the rolls were arranged around the plate in 2s with the beef papaya salad in the middle. The only thing I didn’t like on the plate was the papaya salad. I liked the salad portion, but the beef on top tasted like strips of Chinese fruit beef jerky. I guess I didn’t expect that. It was a little too sweet for my taste.
Our main entrees were shaking beef and crab glass noodle. The kitchen was nice enough to accommodate our preference of low sodium diet. The beef wasn’t too salty, but it would’ve been better with brown rice. We didn’t order brown rice, because our starch choice was the noodle. The glass noodle in itself was a little dry in attempts to accommodate our taste of low sodium (probably didn’t add that much soy sauce). We really appreciated this, and I still enjoyed the noodles. I didn’t like the crab on top of it as much, because it tasted a little too close to the imitation crab. The crab on this plate was real crab. Maybe it wasn’t fresh? Not sure.
The shaking beef was excellent. The filet they used was tender and slightly rare in the middle… the way filet should be cooked. It went perfectly with the glass noodles, which needed a little more of the savory taste.
We shared a fried banana with vanilla ice cream along with some decaf premium green tea. The bananas were addicting with the ice cream. They were crunchy pieces of banana and not very greasy. The ice cream was definitely not low fat — meaning, it was creamy and delicious!
Overall, I really liked the restaurant. Only couple of things didn’t suit my taste.

I came here with a dinner group where someone arranged a Prixe Fixe menu for only $ 20. What a bargain for a six-​course meal!
Vietnamese Chicken Salad — Shredded green cabbage, carrots, mint, roasted peanuts with chicken and sweet chili vinaigrette. The salad was okay and similar to a Chinese Chicken salad.
Special Rice Clay Pot — Rice cooked in a claypot with mushrooms. I would say that this was their version of fried rice.
Shaking Beef — Cubed filet mignon steak seared with garlic, onion, and black pepper along with baby spinach and cherry tomatoes. OH MY GOD! I should say this is the best dish of the night. The steak was so tender that I could cut it with my fork and it was delicious.
Lemon Grass Chicken — Chicken simmered in a clay pot with lemon grass and caramelized sauce. I didn’t really pay attention to this dish. It was good, but the Shaking Beef was better.
Combination Firepot — Soup with shrimp, lobster meatballs, and mixed vegetables. They also served it with noodles. I really enjoyed the soup especially the lobster.
Grilled Eggplant — Grilled with onion oil, scallions with soy sauce. This was easily the second best dish of the night. I’m not the biggest fan of eggplant but this was good.
Overall, my first experience with contemporary Vietnamese cuisine was good at Savory. When I first came here, I didn’t know that there were restaurants on this side of Castro Street and parkng is less of a hassle over here.
I’m definitely going to come back here to try the dessert and have that Shaking Beef again! So come here for dinner and then head to the bars down the street.

My partner and I are already big fans of Xanh, the Vietnamese fusion powerhouse at the other end of Castro. (Review available.) Savory, however, is a welcome alternative: closer to home, quieter and a fair amount less expensive.
For our first outing tonight, we had the Wonton Soup (Hoanh Thanh), the Spring Rolls (Cha Gio), the Wok Phở Noodle (Phở Xao Bo) and the Shaking Beef (Bo Luc Lac). Each dish was nicely presented, arrived piping hot and met or surpassed expectations.
At $ 5, the cup of wonton soup, served in a covered dish, consisted of a flavorful chicken broth, seasoned with chopped green onions, and brimming with five or six plump, tasty wontons stuffed with pork and shrimp. A yummy warm start to dinner on a chilly damp night.
The spring rolls were $ 6 and the plate held three deep fried rolls (stuffed with pork, mushrooms and glass noodles), nuoc cham dipping sauce, and lettuce and mint leaves for wrapping the rolls.
For $ 8, the wok phở noodle was a dish piled high with beef and wide rice noodle, wok tossed with egg, garlic and vegetables. Of particular note tonight were the fresh and tasty slices of asparagus tossed in with the dish. My partner couldn’t get over how good and how flavorful that addition was.
At $ 15 the shaking beef is a bargain! Served with a mound of watercress and cherry tomatoes, the beef itself is almost melt-​in-​your mouth tender cubes, seasoned with black pepper and garlic, with chunks of onions that were mellow, but with a bit of a bite, and mushrooms. Very, very good and I’ll be back for more!
WIne and beer are available, and the dessert menu looked good, but we didn’t sample any tonight. Next time, though, as we look forward to another visit soon.
SECOND VISIT 12÷11÷08: Another fine experience. Tried the ginger chicken and the crispy shrimp rolls. Also tried dessert, the banana temptation. Posted photos.

New Vietnamese place taking over the cursed space that has housed many a restaurant. Billing itself as contemporary, the space has been overhauled and looks very elegant. Upon looking at the menu however, we didn’t see anything that looked to out of the ordinary as Vietnamese food goes, so we went with:
–Grilled short ribss
–Seafood soup pot
–Lemongrass chicken
The ribs and chicken were pretty tasty, but again, not out of the ordinary. They were solid choices. The seafood pot was only of and I think for the money it wasn’t worth getting. I think for the price, there are definitely tons of places in SJ that you could score better, but since this is MV there aren’t that many choices, and it’s good to have a new decent place.
Since they’re on the El Camino side of Castro st, there’s not a lot of foot traffic so the opening only had a third of the place full. Hopefully the menu gets extended a bit as there weren’t a ton of choices. We’ll see what happens in the months to come. 3.75 stars.