Flames Eatery & Bar

The experience was a great one. We were seated quickly & had our food out fairly quick. The waitress waited all the tables so she was a bit forgetful but was still awesome. I had a ceasar salad and was so pleased. However the prices!!! Omg so expensive. So if you’re looking to save, not here.

I don’t often eat in downtown San Jose, as I don’t care for the hassle and cost of paid parking lots, and it doesn’t often appear to be the safest of areas to walk around. But, I was meeting a friend for lunch/​brunch on a Sunday, and we thought there might be some fun activities going on downtown in prep for the Super bowl coming to town. Many restaurants aren’t open at this time in downtown; and many of the menus of the places that were open didn’t appeal. We thought we’d try Flames, and we were very happy we did!
One big plus for me was that the parking lot next door to the restaurant was fully validated all day by the restaurant.
We were meeting at 12:30, but my friend said she’d arrived 20 minutes early, so by the time I got there at 12:30, our table was ready about 5 minutes later. We did not have a reservation. The restaurant was very busy, with quite a few people waiting for a table, but it’s a large restaurant, so there’s a decent chance of not having to wait overly long. Since I didn’t have to wait, my perspective on that might be tainted.
I had the traditional eggs benedict with fruit, and my friend had the Original Joe’s dish with hash browns. Both were delicious. The eggs benedict had thick slices of Canadian bacon. We also had the unlimited mimosas, which were $ 11 each, which was also a nice touch for a Sunday brunch.
Our waiter was outstanding! Very upbeat, quick, would refill my glass when I hadn’t even sipped out of it, and fun. Actually, one of the better waiters I’ve ever had, and I’ve eaten out frequently.
The only downside was that the place was extremely noisy. When I left, I realized my throat hurt a bit from talking so loudly over the noise. If you want a good conversation over your meal, this isn’t the right place to go. There were several round tables near us with 6 people at them, and they were definitely enjoying their unlimited mimosas, and the noise level escalated accordingly. Since it’s right near San Jose State University, there are likely many college students that come here for the reasonable prices and the unlimited drinking. We were lucky, and were given a booth, vs. the tables in the middle of the room, so that likely buffered some noise, but it was often difficult to hear over the excited yelling and talking at the other tables. But, since a lively day out suited our purposes, this restaurant served good food with excellent service.

I came in this morning for breakfast and had a wonderful experience my food was delicious and recommended my Scotty, my friendly waiter. Today was my first visit at this place and it won’t be my last.

Came on a Monday evening during happy hour for half off appetizers and most importantly, cocktails.
No hostess at the hostess podium and none of the waiters made eye contact with us for about 10 minutes so we decided to go ahead and seat ourselves since it was pretty empty. Eventually we figured that wasn’t a good idea since nobody came to give us menus so we eventually chased down a waitress to request service.
I ordered the lava lamp cocktail since the photos on Unilocal made the drink look captivating. Hm, it comes out just in a regular glass… and tastes good and pretty much like a strawberry smoothie as if I ordered from Orange Julius. Wasn’t what I was expecting, but I mean it tasted at least above average and was only $ 4 so I’m not complaining.
Ordered hot wings and garlic humus dip and pita bread for myself. I know, pretty weird combo but why not! Hot wings were probably the best part, as the drink could’ve been better and the humus and bread could have been MUCH better. The dip was nearly tasteless. The bread was pretty hard and cold.
Convenient location, but can’t say this place would be my first choice to come to. There are a lot of other great places in downtown for both drinks and food.

Awesome spot for some Sunday Funday. If you’re looking for a quite place this may not suit you. Bottomless mimosas on the weekend is always busy, be prepared to wait for a bit to be seated.

This is a good downtown diner option. Our waitress Meredith was so sweet. Unfortunately the food was just OK– limp bacon and the coffee tasted burned. The portions of hash-​browns were generous and the pancakes fluffy and tasty. A good staple but nothing too special.

Was really disappointed in this Flames. I love diners, and love the Flames on Winchester. But this one was really bad.
Club sandwich was ok, but not great. Pretty small for a diner with a thin layer of turkey and bacon.
Veggie sandwich was bland, but a good portion.
Bread pudding french toast was good, but really small. I mean, it’s mostly sliced bread, give a few slices.
The Monte Cristo that my kid ordered was BAD. He ate half complaining it tasted funny. 2^nd half he asked me to take a bite. It had a gallon of oil in it and tasted like I was drinking straight crude. I squeezed it and ended up with a huge puddle on my plate. Never seen or tasted a MC sandwich that bad in my life.
Seems all good reviews are from happy hour, which I should have noticed before. Seems like you need to be drunk to like their food.

I came here for the bottomless mimosas thinking it was a deal but it wasn’t! It was $ 11.50 for bottomless PLUS one entrée.
That place was super packed and overwhelming. But the waitress handled it really well, she was handling so many tables and was still coming by and filling up our drinks. Also we’re vegetarians and asked for no meat in our burrito but got some on accident. The waitress was so nice, she gave us a discount!
The food was good overall.

My friends and I decided to stop by this location based on a friends recommendation of how good this place was. We were told it’s a great location for food, Tv screens, to watch sports, and for bottomless mimosas on Sunday’s. Well the food was tasty, but the only tv’s were at the bar and not remotely close to view from any other location in the Resturant. Finally and perhaps the most disappointing, was the fact that the service was beyond terrible. As a first impression that place underperformed and the lack of consistency leaves me shocked at how they stay a competitive business in the downtown area.
From the second you walk into the Restuarant you notice how busy they are. Generally that’s a good sign as to their popularity and the high probability that they have some good tasting food. Let’s be honest, at the end of the day who would go to a Restuarant to eat if their food is terrible? So We placed a reservation at 10:30AM for a noon lunch for sixteen people. We arrived at noon to hear that our tables weren’t ready but they would be ready in five, maybe ten minutes max. Ok! no big deal, I thought, after all for bottomless mimosas and football, it’ll be worth the wait. But then 12:15, 12:30 and 12:45 came and no word of when our tables would be ready. We check-​in once again with our host to see what was going on and why it had been thirty minutes plus minutes without any updates about seating. Our host gave us no real answer as to why. He just kept saying it’ll be soon. That’s not a good response if we’ve already made reservations and you’re already way behind. In the end we eventually waited for an hour to be seated. That really SUCKS! especially cause we made reservations an hour and a half before we even arrived. That’s strike 1, of many we would have this afternoon.
Our waitress was friendly and attentive, she did her best to accommodate our large party but the service became Infrequent and at times upsetting because she never received assistance and had four big tables she was taking care of at the same time as ours. I don’t fault her though, that falls on management to be able to provide support for their staff. Because this young lady was stretched so thin, there were numerous mistakes made to our parties orders. Three members of our group never received their meals, while others never saw their drink orders at all. Also what was supposed to be bottomless mimosas for my wife and I turned into one refill during the entire two hour plus time we spent there for our meal, that’s strike 2.
To further throw more fuel onto the fire, most of the people in the Resturant were falling over drunk or being extremely loud and belligerent because they were so drunk from their mimosas. As a staff you gotta keep things like that in check so it doesn’t ruin the experience for other patrons in the place. I could be wrong but What looked like older teenagers, (probably young college students) were cursing and literally stealing pitchers of mimosas from the bar without one bit of anger or discipline from the staff or any member of management. That was Strike 3 in my head and something that completely turned me off to this places. Even my three friends, who are normally very even keel and level headed, were so upset about not receiving their food they actually got up to leave.
It’s such a shame that our first experiences with this place was such a negative one. It has great potential in my eyes. From the open layout, and the food being delicious, for those of us that we’re lucky to eat there. Even I gotta admit the round of mimosas I had tasted strong and refreshing. That’s why it was so disappointing that this place bombed the way it did. To be fair its the only reason they didn’t get a lower review score from me. There were countless other issues, like the man who almost threw-​up in front of all of us cause he was so drunk. Or the fact the ladies bathroom had no toilet paper and was apparently so gross that the woman literally barged into the mens room to use the restroom there. Or even the fact that the staff would argue with each other in front of customers when they were upset with each other. This is truly a poorly run establishment that should have everyone go through proper training and etiquette on how to be professionals. So the next question is Would I go back? I feel every Resturant deserves at least two visits to properly see the staff in action and to taste the food. But I’ll be honest I won’t go outta my way to come back and it won’t be my primary or even secondary option.
Overall good luck figuring things out and hopefully things get better for this place sooner then later.

Decided to stop by with my friends on new year’s day and we got thee worst service. Yes, we did understand that it was super busy but our server seemed to only care about the bigger parties.
While we were ordering she just seemed to be in a rush and didn’t even let us finish our order that she immediately went to a different table. While we were waiting for our food we looked at the other servers and they were very attentive to their tables and checking in. Sadly we just happened to get one that didn’t care about smaller parties and was more focused to her new bigger tables. Not only that when we finally got our food it was cold.

Stopped by here for Sunday brunch at 11:30am. They said the wait was about 20 mins, but they were able to sit me within 10, so that was nice. I ordered a green tea as I sat down, and later ordered their potato benedict with avocado, spinach, and tomatoes (extra $ 1 each!) with a side of fruit.
My tea never arrived, which, in a way, was good because by the time my food arrived, I didn’t want tea anymore and didn’t want to deal with having to send it back. The potato skins that the eggs are placed upon were extremely tough and dry. Seriously, I can only assume they weren’t fresh? Maybe pre-​made and frozen or something? I don’t know. It was so bad. And they were grey, which was very weird. The rest of the food was as expected. The eggs were cooked well I think, with a runny yolk. Still, not worth like $ 16, and my search for a fancy eggs benedict in SJ continues…
When the bill arrived, there was no mention of my tea. So either they completely forgot about even writing my order down, or they realized it too late and removed it.

Decided to drop by here after the comedy show at SJ Improv, since it was one of the few non-​bar sit down places open rather late on a weekday.
Service is friendly, but seemed a little infrequent. The menu is extensive and decently priced. Portions are huge!
My boyfriend and I shared the bread pudding, which was around $ 7 – 8. It was delicious, but way too much for the two of us to finish.
I’d love to come back here when I’m hungry for more than just dessert. Or maybe to just grab some drinks on another late night.

While Flames has been around for quite a while, I’m glad to see it’s still going strong. The food here is several steps above typical pub grub and merits 3.5 stars at least, but what really seals the deal is the amazing happy hour pricing. Grab a few plates to share and it’ll be a merry smörgåsbord of a meal all around. The fabulous prices extend to the drinks too. What’s more, the service is friendly and attentive, and the crowd is casual and unpretentious.
Even though Flames is slightly to the east of most things in downtown San Jose, it’s nevertheless worth a try, happy hour or not.

Came here at 7pm on a Sunday with 7 other people. It was not at all busy.
A few of us had ordered a couple dishes while waiting for the rest of our party to arrive. Our friends finished and paid for their portion.
Once everyone at our party arrived at around 745, we were all ready to order.
We were served water right away and a pitcher by a man who we thought was our server, but it turns out he was just a busser and says he’ll let our server know.
20 minutes passed and it is now 805 and still no sign of a server. *I am a server myself and am patient and can understand when they are busy or understaffed and other hiccups that occur in any restaurant. But they were not busy at all.
I looked around and it seemed like there were only 2 female servers. We waited another 15 minutes. Still no sign of our server. It is now 820 and one of my friends decides to go flag one down.
Our female server came by and apologized and says she thought the other server was serving our table because some of my friends had already paid, and she assumed that all of us were done eating. Since our friends paid for their bill. But it doesn’t mean we should be ignored for over 30 minutes.
Anyways we order our drinks, and food. I was the first one to order. I ordered calamari and a strawberry lava colada and so did my friend. Everyone else ordered beers and cocktails, and some small dishes.
850, and all our drinks start to come out. Everyone got their drinks andThen all our food came out all at once which is good. But my friend who ordered the same exact thing I did, did not receive her drink or calamari. She was the second person to order as well… And we ordered the same thing.
We told our server and we told her to come back when it’s happy hour so we all could order more drinks.
It is now 930, 40 minutes later and my friend finally gets her drink, but no sign of calamari. By this time my friend just said forget it.
After that, we were never checked up again. No water refills.
Ugh. Horrible service. I would understand if it was busy and they were understaffed but it wasn’t busy at all. It was like we were invisible. They should hire more servers.
The calamari and drinks were good though. I heard their other appetizers are good as well. Happy hour is from 9pm-​12am. But I wouldn’t waste my time going here. You have a better chance ordering your drinks from the bar and getting them faster than through a server.
They do validate parking though so that’s always a plus.
Won’t be coming back… this place SUCKS!

Service — 5 stars easy. I can barely finish one mimosa, so although the bottomless mimosas for $ 11 is an incredible deal — I just can’t swing it. The huge pomegranate champagne cocktail for $ 6 is an amazing deal in itself and very tasty too!
Our food was served like warm to cold. My buddy sent his back and was served a piping hot plate within a few minutes. My Maserati (sausage, mushrooms, marinara) omelette was just ok. I was a bit underwhelmed by the flavor. It claimed to be topped with Parmesan cheese in the menu and definitely seemed to be lacking that. The hash browns could have spent a bit more time on the flat top. The Belgian waffle was served hot and had good flavor.
I would like to stress that our waitress was incredibly attentive and hustled the entire time we were there. We always had fresh water and coffee.
If they could fine tune their cook time to table and edit down their menu to what they do really well, it definitely could be a 5 star spot.

This review is solely on their happy hour cause, well, I’ve only been here for happy hour. (Not an alchy, I promise!)
Happy hour is from 9pm-​12am aka so perfect for a Friday night! Steph S., Kat T., and I headed straight to Flames as our first stop for our downtown San Jose bar hop. Although the bar was completely full, there were plenty of tables open so we didn’t have to wait.
Happy Hour Deals:
— ½ off appetizers
— $ 6 Moscow Mules
— $ 3 Jim Bean Apple Shots
— $ 3 Jim Bean Fire Shots
— $ 3 Cucumber/​Cranberry Vodka Shots
— $ 8 Buchanan’s (blended scotch whiskey)
— $ 2 Celebration IPA Beer
Pre-​gaming here is great because you won’t break your bank. So keep those shots coming… Cheers!

This restaurant was not good. I would not recommend it to anyone. The service is horrible, I asked for a water refill two times, never got it. One of our orders took so long that we were all finished by the time it arrived to our table.
When one of our plates arrived, it had a hair. Another plate also had hot beer and cold French fries. My barbecue ranch salad, I got the half size, which was more like a mini size, although it was good, should have been bigger than an appetizer salad.
As we walked in, the sun was hitting us in a way where we were blinded by the sunlight. When we asked one of the passing waitresses someone could lower the blinds, she told us to ask the hostess. Do not attempt this restaurant, especially if you are hungry, which we were, no wait, I’m still hungry!

Apparently I’ve been here 8 times?
Not surprising since I went to SJSU.
So the only time I come here is when they have happy hour and only one time for brunch.
This review will be based off of my happy hour visits.
During happy hour, all appetizers are half off. Sounds great right? Not so much.
The buffalo wings that are normally $ 10? $ 5 now! Sounds great right? Okay, here’s your 5 wings. REALLY??? Who would pay normal price for this?
How about the flat bread pizzas? You mean bread with some cheese a chicken pieces on top?
The cheese and apple quesadilla? Ok, that’s actually good, big portion too.
I would say to stay away from their appetizers in general as they are either cutting the size of their appetizers during happy hour or they’re just overpriced normally.
But do come here for cake, they are big, and also not a lie.

I went to Flames for a coffee and ordered fries and pizza. I had the worst experience in a while and it was the sever. Violeta didn’t just lack courtesy but was rude and is in the wrong industry, not just wrong job. She lacks the basic skills you expect from the restaurant:
1. Exactly after 2 minutes after we got the menu, she came asking for our orders. We hadn’t even flipped 2 pages on the menu. She made us feel we were slow and put pressure on us to order.
2. When we said come after couple minutes please, she actually didn’t show up for another 10.
3. The tea was served with just the hot water and sugar and kettle. No tea bags !!! We had to wait for her to comeback to ask her to to bring the tea assortments. By then the water had gone lukewarm.
4. She didn’t bring us garlic fries but had some other dressing on top. When we complained she came after 5 minutes with some garlic dressing and asked us to pour ourselves.
5. We had ordered coffee also. when I asked for an extra shot, she told it was $ 2 extra (which is fine), but her expression was as if we couldn’t afford the $ 2.
6. When the pizza came, we asked for extra plates. She didn’t acknowledge if she heard. We said again can you get some plates. Nothing. After waiting 10 minutes I myself walked up to the serving area and asked for plates. The manager there asked me to wait for Violet to bring the plates to the table. I said we asked three times but she hasn’t brought up. Just at that moment she came out of the kitchen carrying someone else’s order and no plates. I at least got the plates for myself from the manager.
7. When she came again at the table asking for water etc. not even once did she apologize that I had to get the plates myself.
8. When she brought the check, there was no words exchanged. Not even a: Hope you enjoyed the food and my service. She just almost dropped the bill at our table.
9. Stupid me. As per my friend. That I still left her a tip, however low.
10. She should be fired. No person deserves such service. And no restaurant deserves such a hire.

I really like this place. I’ve only heard so-​so things about it, but I think people are crazy. Haha
They have such a wide selection. Anyone who comes will definitely find something they like on the menu.
I love their battered asparagus appetizer. This last time, they brought it out at the same time as my entrée which kinda stunk. Would’ve been nice to get it early.
I’ve tried quite a few things and have enjoyed them all: burger, buffalo chicken wrap, breakfast skillet, etc. The buffalo chicken, though, was REALLY good.
The prices here (especially for drinks) can be a little steep. We ordered shots at the table, and on our way out, decided to stop at their bar real quick to grab one to go. I was annoyed to find that the shots from the bar cost two dollars each more. What the heck? That was a little obnoxious, but what’re you going to do?
I think this place is better for eating. Drink somewhere… anywhere else for much cheaper.