Le Soleil Stonestown

My friends and I celebrated our birthdays over lunch here, and everything was delicious! The crab & garlic noodles did not disappoint, the tiger prawns were so flavorful, and everything else we ordered was so good! The only letdown was the short ribs, meat was kinda chewy and the sauce wasn’t as flavorful as it could have been. Service was also very friendly and attentive. Highly recommend!

I tried their clam soup which was cold and I wasn’t expecting that. It had good flavor but I think it would taste better warmed up. We tried the aguachile shrimp and it wasn’t what I expected. I expected more lime flavor and for the shrimp to be cooked in more lime or lemon. The shrimp was more raw than regular aguachile. We tried their garlic roasted crab and it was good. The brown butter sauce gave it a more nutty taste. It was a bit too salty but I asked for lemon and it really rounded out the flavors.

Food: We had five dishes: the Blue Prawn Aguachile, the Quail, the Miso Butter Mushrooms, the Pho Risotto, and a Promo Bo Luc Lac which happened to be free due to an ongoing promotion. We found the food alright, a little pricey for the quantity, but were slightly disappointed with certain dishes. The Blue Prawn Aguachile was decent, but the flavor lacked depth and 4 shrimp for $24 is egregious. The quail we found quite pleasant, and the flambé was rather fun, but seemed only to be for show and nothing more. For the Miso Butter Mushrooms and Bo Luc Lac, they were both decent but had a glaring issue—both had a similar and distinct burnt flavor. It ended up overpowering the other flavors in the dish and left us very unfulfilled. Whether it was by choice or by accident, it should be noted that it is a disturbing taste and a reoccurring issue. The Bo Luc Lac was better off as the sweetness and tenderness of the meat offset some of the burnt taste. The mushrooms, on the other hand, are a complete waste of money. They lacked a miso taste and we found a piece of plastic in the mushrooms. The Pho Risotto was actually quite pleasant and the meat that comes with the dish was actually very good. Overall, the food was very lackluster and portions were kind of small, but there was one dish worth trying: the Pho Risotto. Service: The service started off alright, but ended up getting worse throughout our night. Our server was actually very nice, and helped us with deciding on dishes to order and working through the Blackbird promo that was going on. However, we didn’t see her much throughout the night as other servers helped us with other issues, but that’s just how restaurants work and she is faultless. Issues came later. When we found a small piece of plastic in our mushrooms, we reported to another server nearby, and he got it remade for us after asking us if we wanted it remade, of which we said yes to. That was the bare minimum done. While paying, we reported the issue of the plastic in our mushrooms, as one normally does, and our server went to talk to the manager. The manager ended up coming to us and talking about things. At first she offered to comp the mushrooms, but said that she would have to un-comp the Bo Luc Lac that came with the promo as removing the mushrooms would bring the bill below the $60 threshold for the promo. That was weird; usually these issues of plastic in the food and whatnot is on the restaurant to make it up and shouldn’t cost the customer anything and it comping the mushrooms would bring the total to $69, which was above the promo threshold. No big problem right? It was probably just a mistake so we called it out. Suddenly the manager backpedaled and said that since the dish was remade, we shouldn’t get comped. That was weird because earlier she was all for giving us a refund but would remove a promotion. It didn’t sound like she wanted to resolve any issue whatsoever. We found an issue with this because she never even apologized for the plastic in our mushroom. The only server that apologized for the issue was the server that brought us a new dish we reported the issue. We found the situation to be extremely mishandled. Anyways, we didn’t want to fight so we just let it go. Then came the paying. Everything was as normal except for the tip; it was a set 22% for using blackbird to pay and was based on the total after tax and SF mandate. It was weird because we didn’t get to choose a tip and the tip was based on the total after tax and not before. The only reason service is not 1 star is because there was the one apologetic server and our server was nice and helpful. The manager gave us horrible service though. Atmosphere: Slightly hot, nothing special.

1. The lunch set is a great option for those looking to save money, but it’s also important to make sure the food is good and the place is clean. They do have decent food quality, and their private toilets are spotless. 2. Their homemade curry crab is definitely one of the best Vietnamese-style restaurants in San Francisco. You really can’t go wrong with the garlic bread; it’s a fantastic match for the curry. Plus, they have their own toilet, which is a huge plus. You can easily wash your hands whenever you need to.

Delicious garlic noodles! Would come again just for the noodles. Friend also got the squid ink fried rice! Great server with blue hair! I am vegetarian and needed a veggie option for myself so the garlic noodles were a good choice. Happy with my meal and free Thai tea!