Zesty Restaurant

Come on guys! You really think this is only a restaurant? Come on down at 10pm. Thats when the real service comes out and give you a full service menu. Ah… Full of zest and zeal…
There’s more than meets the eye my friends.

Zesty is no longer operating its own restaurant on the premises. However, they are leasing their space for new pop-​up restaurants. The only one I know of at this time is Rice Paddy on Thursdays. I just wrote a review for them, so hopefully it’ll be posted soon. In the meantime, you can check out their Facebook page for more info.

Supposed to be open M-​F until 2:30, I went over today (Monday) at 12:30 and they were closed.

This place is under new management now and much better than before. Must try their pork belly over rice and their bun rieu! Now they are open for dinner as well. Their menu is limited but I guess quality surpasses quantity any day.
The décor is lacking but you can tell that they are trying to upgrade as they are in the process of putting up TV’s. One of the waiters also told me that they are going to have a full bar their soon… that’s good as we need more HH places! All-​in-​all good job fellas…

Ok, let’s get real. When I eat Vietnamese food, someone’s mama is usually the cook. IT is some Vietnamese female doing the throw down in the back delivering the delicious broths, stews and fried goods.
When I walked into this joint, hoping that is was at least a 3 Star, it was very dark, and a bunch of young dudes sitting around. Fine, I ordered the beef Phở and the Cho GIa.
The Cho Gia had no meat in them, weak, furthermore they were bad as in spoiled. The young male chef apologized later and took it off my tab, and told me «Yeah that was an old batch, we have fresher if you want to try again?» I said no thanks.
The the Phở came. I was hopeful for a full recovery. No dice. First it was stepped in chicken broth. Next came the sub par slices of beef, that was not appealing. Next came condiments, two slices of lime and jalapenos. HELLO? Where are the bean spouts and the basil. Oh the wide noodle they used was overcooked and it turned to mush. It was not Vietnamese vermicelli.
I will not give this place a second chance, Either get people in there who know good Vietnamese cooking, or just close up.

My wife and I went here for dinner to try out their Phở. My wife got the Phở, but they had a beef special that looked really good with stir fried Filet Mignon and some rice. We also got an order of the Spring Rolls. Everything was very good. They had a nice menu, but it did not have the selection you will find at regular, dedicated Phở place. For instance the only beef Phở option I remember seeing was Phở Tai. The Phở, while quite good was not the best I’ve ever had. My beef dish was very good. The beef was very tender and the sauce it was cooked with was very flavorful. The waiter was very nice and when I asked for a spoon to try some of my wife’s Phở, he brought small bowls of beef and chicken Phở for me to try. He also made sure we had plenty of water and tea our entire time there. I thought it was pretty good and I’ll gladly go back.

CHICKEN NOODLES SOUP IS GREAT!!! Its LARGE !!!
and their service was GREAT! They will give you one ice water and hot tea when you sat down to the table!

I tried the steak rice, which is awesome! The portion was LARGE and I couldnt even finish it

went there on my lunch break on two different occasions, both were very good, very clean place and fast service
first time, i ordered the chicken noodle soup, the broth was very clean and flavorful, you can tell they used actual chicken to make the broth, bowl was a very good portion, i was very satisfied
second time, i ordered the beef noodle soup and the deep fried egg rolls, the beef broth was also very good and flavorful, and the beef were nice cuts, the egg rolls were fried to perfection, we also noticed they grow cilantro, lemongrass, and mint leaves themselves which was different than other restaurants
highly recommend it for a quick lunch break, will be back for sure!

This place has been closed for about a year now, but the good news is that it’s under new management. The food is genuinely more authentic than what the previous owner served. I highly recommend people (especially the people who were disappointed with the previous owner before) giving this place another shot!

I am close to here, and was hoping it could become a regular lunch place for me. Not so much…
While the people were friendly enough, I wasn’t a fan of the food the few times I went. It was edible, but nothing memorable.
I have never been there at night, but I do see people coming and going. They have a room in the back that appears to be active after the restaurant closes.

I stopped in for phở. I was the only one in the restaurant and a server took my order and brought me a bowl of soup with none of the sides you usually get. Ok, no problem. The taste was very boring and bland. The chicken was good.
I decided to ask for the sprouts, lemon, etc to add some flavor. I had to get up and yell back in the kitchen. The server came out and asked the woman sitting down at a table with raw pork in her hands to help me. I watched in horror as this woman DOES NOT WASH HER HANDS and plunged her raw meat hands into the bowl of sprouts!!! Complete shock on my face– I ask her if she was planning on washing her hands… didn’t speak english.
I walked right out of this restaurant. DO NOT EAT HERE!

I thought my prayers were answered when I found a place that served phở close to my work in SOMA. Boy, did that blessing turn out to be curse.
I went here with two other co workers during lunch time. The place is spacious with plenty of seating and you’re waited on by females that don’t speak English very well. I ordered a bbq pork rice plate and the other two both ordered a traditional bowl of phở. My rice plate was actually decent but both my co workers complained that their food was tasteless. I had a taste and could not agree more – it may have been the worse bowl of phở in my life! It was literally flavorless! I kid you not! Luckily, I didn’t order it but I felt my coworkers’ pain. Needless to say, they left the restaurant still hungry, disatified and disgruntled.

I’ve eaten here 4 times now. 3 of the 4 times, the place was nearly empty. 1 time, it was jammed with people. Each time was during lunch on an otherwise mundane workday, so I’m not sure why the difference in crowd conditions.
I’ve had the pan-​friend noodles, and several of the soups on the menu. While certainly edible and flavorful (with proper sauces added), it’s not true Vietnamese fare. It’s the Americanized version of it. I can’t blame the place for this, of course; it only makes sense given their location. But if you want true Vietnamese food, there are some places in the Richmond district and the South Bay that would be more to your liking.
The other (sort of odd) thing about this place: the last couple of times I’ve been there, the place has been cold. I mean COLD. As in, leave-​your-​jacket-​and-​scarf-​on cold. Yes, the weather of late has been somewhat brisk, but damn… have you people no heating system at all?
If you must leave the place so cold, can I at least store my perishable food there? It’ll cut down on my power bill. Ok, maybe not, but you get the idea. :P

It’s funny reading past reviews, it’s either you like this place or not. The décor was strange: warehouse like, dinning room in front with two server counters, kitchen center, and a half finished entertainment room in the back.
I ordered the vermicelli cold noodles w/​bbq chicken & imperial rolls. The menu was Vietnamese & Chinese food. The food was decent portions fair for $ 6.95. Lots of street (meter) parking. Next time I’m in the area I’m gonna try their curry, it looked interesting.

A couple of friends and I were headed to Phở Ha Tien 2 on Howard around 7:45pm and we found out that it was closed. My friend from Pittsburgh was really craving phở so we decided to take a detour to Zesty. Wow, this place was not good. The waitress wore a wet plastic apron (like the type you see in soup kitchens) and she had a really hard time speaking English.
We ordered some random phở on the menu and it came out about 10 minutes later. The restaurant was completely empty while we were there. I don’t think any of us actually finished our soups — it just didn’t taste right. Anyway, no matter how desperate I am in the future, I will never go to Zesty again.

OMG — watch out. I was driving home one night in SOMA, and of course as luck would have it, I was starving and lost. So I pulled over and walked to the closest restaurant, which happened to be Zesty. It was only around 7 on a Wednesday night, yet the whole entire restaurant was completely dead — hmm. should have been a redflag right there.
Anyhoo, I walked in and had to holler a couple times, because apparently they don’t expect to have customers around dinner time or somethin’ so service was non-​existent… strike 1. I tried to order in Vietnamese, but the 2 people just gave me blank stares, so I ordered it in English.. Huh. go figure, a Vietnamese restaurant that doesn’t have anyone that speaks Vietnamese… strike 2. I ordered the grilled shorts ribs over rice dinner plate ($ 6.50 before tax). I was pleasantly surprised and delighted that it actually tasted pretty good and filled me up. BUT… the next morning, it felt like Montazuma’s Revenge hit me, and I was hurtin’ and runnin’ in and out of the bathroom at least 5x that day… strike 3. not a fun experience. So, if you ever do decide to go here to dine, be prepared… it might taste good going in, but comin’ out, it definitely packs a punch and hurts.

This review is purely based on a take-​out order and an attempt to order for delivery.
I called this place one weeknight evening to surprise the roomies with Vietnamese food. Being a Vietnamese gal — I figured I didn’t need to have the menu on me and would just order staple items. My call was received by a very young girl (meaning 9 – 11 years old). She was rude and requested I order by menu number. After explaining I didn’t have a menu, I asked if she understood Vietnamese and I could tell her that way what I wanted. She told me she does not speak Vietnamese. Ok, second attempt to order food — I told her I would like 3 orders of chicken vermicelli bowls. (Please keep in mind, it’s already been 10 painful minutes on the phone with this kid.) After she takes my order, she tells me, «Could you come pick it up? We’re too busy right now to deliver.» Furious about at the fact that it has taken me this long to just place an order, I requested to cancel it all.
Now, being a fair Unilocaler — I decided I should at least try the place out before putting on a nasty review. I went there after work a few weeks later for take out and the service was fine. The food came out quite quickly and tasted all right when I brought it home. With the take out experience, this place earned 2 stars. Nothing special, just decent.

Such a strange little spot… This Vietnamese restaurant is open pretty late — I think around 2 a.m. even on weeknights — so it’s a convenient place if you’re looking for late night eats in the neighborhood.
When we arrived on a Wednesday night at around midnight, there was nobody else in the restaurant (though there was a lot of activity in the back bar area). It didn’t look like they were ready for any more customers that night, but they made our large party food relatively quickly.
I got the grilled pork bun which was pretty standard and cheap. Not too shabby…

I’m just going to tell you right now, if you have special requests on your order. Be prepared cause there could be a language barrier if you don’t speak cantonese or vietnamese with the wait staff. Luckily that wasn’t an issue for me BUT with that said, I had some picky co-​workers and I’m sure they were glad I was there to communicate their preferences. Except I almost fell out of my chair when one co-​worker asked for ice in his soup! WTF?
They don’t have an extensive menu for phở. Which I could understand since were in SoMa. Started with imperial rolls were just like the other reviews said weren’t really greasy and very good. The broth lacked flavor. But they were not stingy with the meat and there was plenty of noodles.
If you live and work in SoMa. This is your only option other than Tu Lan. The difference is this place will deliver if your order is over $ 20. I think I will do that next time!