Le Paradis

Getting there was tricky and parking wasn’t prime.
The restaurant is clean enough and decorated with Paris pictures and such, it’s cute.
We were greeted by the owner and that was fun.
We ordered our food and were given half glass of water. I ordered the this sliced beef soup and it was very tasty. My date ordered the veggie soup and she said it was perfect! We split a BBQ Pork sandwich and that too was delicious. For dessert I got some orange cookies and some yummy almost and butter rolls.
I would have given this place a 5 star but I was thirsty and it was hard to get anyone to give G’s any water. And then after we were done eating we waited about 20 minutes to get our check, I finally just got up to pay.
All and all a great place to eat in Hayward!

Today was my second time here and it was just as great as the first. I don’t write reviews but this place was so great that I was compelled to give it 5 stars!
The broth in the noodle soup is awesome, the papaya salad is amazing, and the tarts are tantalizing (especially the raspberry one covered in almonds!). The staff is also super friendly: D

With all the Unilocal reviews, I really want to try this place. Finally, I was able to convince hubby to go.
Here’s what we ordered:
Egg rolls — pretty good
Beef and meat ball noodle soup — was a little bland
Macaroons — way too sweet. Tastes like nothing but pure sugar.
Meringue — overly sweet. Maybe it was supposed to be like that (?)
Might go back and try other things such as porridge, bun, etc.

Love ordering from here on a cold night or when I’m sick. I get the thai noodle soup. Very flavorful & comforting. Tonight I’m trying veggie pad thai too, which I’m sure will be just as good!

The woman who runs this restaurant is very personable! Whenever I’ve been in here, whether to dine in or take out, she’s always had a smile and a few words to say (even if she’s teasing me). She once told me that I looked very tired and, when I mentioned that I had been up early, teased me incessantly about how she had been at the restaurant since about 5AM.
The prices and portions here are fair! The only issue I would have is their small parking lot. I normally park at one of the parking complexes by B Street and walk over. Also, if you just so happen to drive past it while on Mission, you’ve got to navigate The Loop somehow and find your way back — and hope you don’t miss it again.
The interior is fairly shabby, but I never judge an Asian or Mexican food establishment by how shiny and glossy they are on the inside — it’s the food that matters!
They also serve a bunch of pastries and desserts that they make on site. I highly recommend any of their meringues — cheap, huge and they just melllllt on your tongue.
I know Le Paradis may not look like much (either on the inside or the outside), but trust me! They’re worth a shot!

Ordered phở tai here to go. It was really odd because the menu was only in English. Guess it’s Americanized. The to go box was very clean. They had a separate container with the noodles, vegetables and meat. The meat was in its own bag so the noodles didn’t get all bloody. Noodles were pretty fresh. However the broth was kind of plain compared to, most phở places. They also don’t serve typical Vietnamese drinks here like soda xi muoi. However the phở was still good. Maybe they are more known for their other dishes here.

This is my ONLY place for chicken phở. I’ve tried the others in the immediate area. Nothing compares. Period.
Additionally, the bahn mi, Spicy Thai Seafood, Tom Yom, Pad Thai, spring rolls, egg rolls, short ribs, teriyaki chicken, seafood phở, are all my alternatives if I’m not in the mood for phở.
I’m a regular here and it is always consistent. I even got a delicious pumpkin pie for free this past Thanksgiving because the owner values her customers.
Seriously, give it a shot.

This is a long overdue review! My family and I have been going here for years now since we’ve moved to Hayward and this is our go to restaurant. We love the Phở Tai soup here — everything about the soup is delicious. The broth is never greasy and it has such a unique, flavorful taste that we just can’t go to any other phở place anymore. It is — by far — the BEST phở tai. Our kids usually order the chicken noodle soup with spinach and they eat every last drop of it and always want Vietnamese noodle soup.
We also order the bbq chicken Vietnamese sandwiches. They are so tasty and the owner bakes her own french bread, which is to die for. She gave me a few loaves to take home for New Years and I literally scarfed down one loaf of fresh bread on my own!
Speaking of baked goods, not only is this place a Vietnamese restaurant, but it is also a bakery. I have ordered a half sheet of strawberry shortcake for my daughter’s birthday and it was so yummy — very light sponge cake drenched with ripe strawberries. Everyone loved the cake as it was not overly sweet and asked where I had ordered it from. The owner was even so kind to create custom artwork — my daughter was in love with the Octonauts and they were able to draw the Octopod in chocolate on the cake! Also, I love their lemon tarts. They are so addicting!!!
The owner is such a warm, good hearted person. It’s really like family when you walk into the restaurant. She’s very sweet to my kids and has gotten to know us since we frequent this place quite a bit. The inside is nothing fancy, so don’t expect anything extravagant, but the décor is thoughful and pictures of France, in where she lived and learned to bake and cook before, adorn the place.
So for Phở, Vietnamese sandwiches, and high quality baked items, this place is 5 stars in my book. So happy this place is in Hayward!
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I don’t know why it has taken me so long to try this place; it is definitely one of the better Vietnamese food place that I’ve been to in the Bay Area. The reviews seem mixed… but to me, I find this pretty good, not high quality or anything… but good. I’d say that I’m pretty picky with Vietnamese food since it’s something I ate all the time growing up. I guess this review is mostly for the noodles, phở, banh xeo and spring roll since that’s all I’ve tried here so far.
The place itself and the dishes may not be a looker, but food’s decent here. This place is also one of the few that can make a decent Banh Xeo, listed as a crêpe on the menu though. I can always count on having a decent bowl of phở from here. It’s definitely salty goodness so I wouldn’t say it’s a light meal compared to other places that I’ve had. The menu is a bit confusing, it actually doesn’t quite look like a Vietnamese restaurant… more like a compilation of Asian dishes. Their fresh spring rolls are pretty good too; they’re not stuffed full with veggies (even portions of filling!), could be rolled a little tighter. One thing is that I wish they gave 3 rolls cut in half rather than 2, I’m always left wanted more than 1 roll, but not enough to order another portion.
The parking here sucks like crazy. The lot is super small but people here are very nice about help you back up (even a lady from the restaurant ran up to guide us for parking and told us to park super up). It looks like that this place has its own little herb garden. If I’m correct, the mint they use come from it.
As for the place itself, it’s decorated… but it feels empty at the same time. The décor feels a bit scattered. I don’t care too much for the looks of the place since all I care is if it’s clean or not, and this place is decently clean in my standards. For their bakery, they do have a lot of pastries displayed… but nothing really looks too appetizing since they’re all similar in color. I have yet to try anything, but hopefully next time. The last time I was here, they had some yule log cakes and I overheard some customers raving about it; I’ll keep that in mind to order one to try next year for Christmas :]
Maybe it’s just me but I super love that the lady (who seems to be the owner) cares for a bunch of feral cats in the area. I’ve seen about 4 of them but she said that she has 5? It doesn’t look like they go anywhere in the restaurant and just hang around the lot (and the little shelters that she has for them). They’re very sweet cats, but they are very skittish.
Final Thoughts: I just love how fresh their mint and basil are (not sure if they’re from the garden or bought else where)… it’s just really good. Prices are decent so no complaints there. Parking sucks but I’ll brave it for a good meal; I’ll just avoid peak hours.

This place is just okay. When I came in I was greeted by a woman and she was very nice. I ended up ordering a vermicelli bowl with grilled pork, shrimp, and egg rolls. The food wasn’t amazing, it was just average to me and the grilled pork was a bit too salty. It was about $ 9, but since I was a to go order they charge an additional 25 cents which I thought sucked.
While I was waiting for my food, I decided to take a look at their bakery items. I was pretty turned off that there were old paper bags sitting in there with some of the items, and the whole place itself looks a bit run down and dirty.
Like many other reviewers said, the parking lot does suck. I came on a weekday, so there weren’t many cars in the lot so it was a lucky day. I also read that someone seen a cat come out of the kitchen, and when I left I also saw one creep out. I think it’s because they leave the door to their kitchen open, which is why they come in. Again, I was turned off by that.
I probably won’t be coming back.

Came here just hoping that things have changed… nope.
My Vietnamese friends said YEARS ago, don’t waste my time or $$ and yet, here we are…
I don’t know understand what other Unilocalers found that was good, the most basic things sucked, even my daughter asked if there was a rating system to give them ½ a star.
Okay, so the fresh pork and shrimp rolls were decent, but the rice paper was loose so it was kind of gummy, lacking flavor.
The menu is convoluted and confusing, it’s not focused, there’s Thai, Korean, Chinese… some Vietnamese.
Had the combo phở and everything about it was off, the broth was thin with flavor, the limited amount of meat tasted stale, old and dry (how is that possible with meat in broth?). There were meatballs that really tasted… yucky (best description other than putrid).
My daughter opted for rice plate with grilled beef — never have I ever seen grilled beef wrapped around onions in any Vietnamese restaurant, wait… there was BBQ sauce on top! WTF! She insisted I taste it — it was like I’ve ever tasted before, not Asian.
We did not finish our meals, we just had to get out of there, it was that bad.
I knew it was going to be challenging when majority of the customers were all over 55 and Caucasian, we were the ones of any type of Asian decent.

There is an awesome lady that is the face (and soul) of this place, I think her name is Alice, and she makes you feel at home the second you walk in. She is the reason for the 4 stars.
I have ordered take-​out from here many a sick night and the noodle soups are healing. Particularly, the boneless chicken noodle (with extra ginger tossed into the broth). The seafood noodle soup is the other go-​to.
Parking here on a busy night is tough. They have a teeny tiny lot that can only be entered from D street. Prepare to Austin Powers your way into the really tight spaces.

Found a Vietnamese place to go… Getting here is hard as Hayward downtown area has changed and there are so many one-​way streets. I recommend to go come from D street to enter in their private parking. Fair warning! If you don’t want a ding in your nice car, don’t bring it to this parking lot. The parking space is tight as hell! Good thing we have back cameras… lol! One side of the parking is angled while the other is parallel but it doesn’t give you enough room to turn. There is restaurant entrance from the parking lot. You can actually see their kitchen on the way to the front.
Place is pretty clean. The set up of the restaurant is kinda weird to me. I would never think this was a Vietnamese place but a French place as their are so many pictures of Paris on the walls. They have a huge pastry stand by the back wall. Not meaning a lot of pastry choices but the container that holds them. It’s very old and needs an upgrade. Definitely not a fancy place.
The place gets really packed here and a lot of to-​go orders! Good thing they have a two couches in the front to wait for it! its old couches but they put blankets to cover it.
The lady taking our order was funny but helpful. She was all over the place too. We ordered their Calamari which was cooked right and not chewy. We ordered the green papaya salad. This was good but they put way to much basil. My kids and hubby ordered the Thin Sliced Beef meat for their Phở soup while I ordered the Egg Noodle pork wonton soup. The broth was very good but I would have preferred the phở white noodles than egg noodles. Egg thin noodles are not my favorite. The pork meat was good and flavorful in the won ton wrapper but the meat seemed kinda tough. It might just be me but I have had softer. I also ordered avocado shake. It was a little pricey than I expected but when I tasted it, it had real avocados in it. Pretty good and not too sweet.
I will have to try their other soups, sandwiches, vermicelli or rice plates as I see many ordering those but it was a cold day and I wanted soup. Still an ok place to go for good service so I am sure we will be back…

I’ve always driven by this place and my boyfriend happened to find it on Unilocal while we were looking for a new Phở restaurant to try.
I loved the theme and decorations outside. Plants are my fave. You can even see they grow their own basil and mint leaves! The phở was great! Much healthier than the usual bowl. Barely saw any oil but the rich flavor of the broth was still up to par!
The desserts looked delicious! I hope to come back and try some soon!

I was curious about this place from the outside, so on the spur of the moment I jumped in and ended up using it as a workstation for 2 hours.
I ordered the house soup, a vermicelli dish, and a ginger cookie to top it off. I loved the soup, no MSG, no MSG, no MSG. :) That is my style, a la natural. :) The vermicelli dish was good but I took it to go. There is something to eating dishes inside or at home. Due to a busy life, I still take items to go because of time/​etc. But the vermicelli was good, but I imagine not as good as if I was eating on their plate in the restaurant. The ginger cookie was tasty as well. I like that its low key there, right near a major intersection. They seem to overcome the traffic outside with their casual environment and no rush policy. Oh, and there are plenty of plugs there so you could camp out there and work online if need be. :)
Really, there are not too many great places that are like this place in this area, so I would come back due to the lack of competition and that their food quality stands on its own, which is good.
What would I order coming a second time? I would go for their soup again. I would try a different rice dish to see what comes of it. I might order the ginger cookie again or try another dessert. Enjoy! ;)

Le Paradis is a decent Vietnamese restaurant with good vegetarian options. The restaurant itself doesn’t look like a Vietnamese restaurant on the inside: the decorations are intended to be French or something European.
The food was okay, and the place felt very empty for Saturday around lunch time. I ordered the tofu spring rolls and the vegetarian phở. The tofu spring rolls were good. It didn’t taste as fresh as I hoped, but the peanut sauce was of great consistency. The vegetarian phở had a solid broth, but there were odd vegetables inside that detracted from the dish. There were green beans and some thick white parts of cabbage XYZ, which didn’t taste good. Le Paradis added crispy onion bits to the phở, which was a fun addition.
I ended up giving a third of my phở to my friend, whom ordered a tofu banh mi sandwich that turned out to be not so good.
I found Le Paradis through Unilocal,and think that’s the only reason I’d come back: I’m craving Vietnamese food, driving to Yosemite or San Francisco or somewhere in Northern California, and looking for a place along the way.

A friend and I shared their grilled chicken spring rolls, combination beef phở, and bbq pork and shrimp vermicelli with egg rolls. The meat seemed a little overcooked, but overall I really liked the flavoring of the broth and noodles. Their peanut sauce was also very good.
I wouldn’t recommend buying anything from their bakery. We had a chocolate meringue, which tasted strange and not fresh at all, like it had been left out in the bakery section for too long.

Rarely do I give lower than 3 stars. However, rarely do I eat at a Vietnamese restaurant that ruins a Shaking Beef (please see photo).
So I called and ordered to-​go because I was late for work and super starving. 1) I should have known not to order to-​go at a restaurant I’ve never ate at before. 2) And I also should have checked my bag before happily leaving.
The shaking beef was chewy, soy sauce tasting, and had fries. Really, fries? Eek…
I was really disappointed, as I’ve always wanted to try it based on other people’s reviews. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be coming back anytime soon. :-(

3 stars for the food.
I would pass on the desserts.
Walking into this place is like walking into someone’s home… plants in the patio area, a resident tabby outside, and worn couches when you first walk in… a very relaxed atmosphere.
I’ve been here to eat and take out of the beef stew with egg noodles which are both yummy. What you get when dining in is what you get when you take it to go. They pack it nicely in separate containers (noodles and accompaniments in one container, hot broth in another). This place is on the pricier side but then again im comparing it to the prices in downtown Oakland which probably isn’t fair.
Dessert is ‘okay’. I’ve tried the palmier and the apple tart and both were eh.
Overall, food delicious and am a regular for some phở or fried veggie rolls.

A homey, casual Asian restaurant in downtown Hayward. The kind of place where you can bring the whole family and hang out for several hours without getting kicked out.
The papaya salad was a generous portion with fresh shrimp. For my entrée, I had the deep fried fish (yay! No bones!) with steamed veggies and rice. Add some fish sauce if you need more seasoning. Their food tastes authentic and dishes are all under $ 10! We also shared a slice of the Black Forest cake and while the flavors are spot on, the cake was very dry. Must not be one of their more popular cake but I hear the mocha cake is very good.
About a 10 minute walk from Hayward BART, but they have plenty of parking space in the back lot.