My colleagues, boss and I went to Vanessa’s Bistro 2 to celebrate some event earlier last month. After lucking out on parking, we went in and sat down. Some of my colleagues aren’t familiar with Vietnamese food, so asked a few questions. And none of us have been to Vanessa’s before, so we had no idea of their portion size. You would think that the server can handle some questions, but after a few, the server started going off tangent about how tapas are really small and that it’s not like a five-course meal at another restaurant, etc. We just nodded and look at the menu, and he just kept talking..repeating himself again and again about how it’s not like a five-course dinner. Hm, okay.

That totally irritated my colleagues and my boss, but not wanting to make a scene, our party just ordered a lot of tofu dishes (2 Vegetarians in our party) and a few other dishes to try. When the food started coming out, the server informed us that he felt that we ordered wrong and said, “I added an extra order of this and that for you guys.”

I was just so appalled by this because I was the one who wanted to come here after hearing really good things about them, so at that point, all I wanted to do was leave but I couldn’t of course. Unlike the rude woman in the French restaurant I wrote about last week, this server is pretty young. I say about mid or late twenties, so I don’t think he was trying to be rude, but he definitely doesn’t understand that you don’t do things like this. A few of my colleagues thought otherwise and said after the meal, “Oh, I added an extra order of this for you guys like he was the one paying for it. How utterly rude and presumptuous of him.”

Anyway, the food was just okay. A bit on the salty side and really nothing too spectacular. The other server that took over in the later part of our meal was nicer, but by than, we had enough and left soon after the meal was over.

Below are just a few dishes I took pictures of. There were a few that I did not take pictures of because I didn’t want to disrupt service. We tried one of the Vietnamese Style Steak Sandwich that tasted more like a Philly Cheese Steak (I have never had Vietnamese sandwiches that had cheese on it) on a baguette which is really strange because we were hoping for more of a banh mi type sandwich.

Vanessa’s Bistro 2 | 1329 North Main Street | Walnut Creek, CA

These fresh rolls are full of noodles but really nothing else in them...

The tuna and salmon poke was okay, but tasted more of tomato salsa than anything else...

One of our favorite dishes...we ordered several. Crispy Garlic Salt & Pepper Tofu with Sautéed Scallions

Salmon Claypot and the Salt & Pepper Fried Calamari...we didn't like either dish and very little calamari

Fuji Apple & Coconut Egg Roll with Vanilla Ice Cream and Honey

Bananas Fosters Sliced Bananas Sautéed in Vanessa’s Caramel Sauce Shredded Coconut & Vanilla Ice Cream