Lion & Compass Restaurant

I’ve been here a few times and every time was on a date. I’ve had the New York and the sea bass. The sea bass is so good I’ve ordered it more than once. Honestly, this place is pretty overpriced and I’m glad I’ve never had to pay for my meals here lol. If it were my duty to pick up the tab I probably wouldn’t come here. But since it’s not… Try the sea bass!

Wow this place is about 30 years old. The first high end restaurant in Sunnyvale just as Silicon Valley was starting with companies like Atari and apple in the mid 80s good ok American style food without having to go to sf

American (New)?
Could have fooled me!
This place was described as a hole in the wall, but a hole in the wall doesn’t have linen table cloths! A little more fancy than your typical hole in the wall. More accurately, I never would have known this place was here, if not for a work lunch.
Okay, let’s get it straight… no beets? No American (New)! With fruit paintings around the wall, but missing the typical trendy vibe, this place is a bit more old school than one would think.
Menu:
Assorted is right!
«Is that Indian food? I thought it was suppose to be Asian… but there’s naan.»
«Someone in here is using chopsticks, but I’m eating a caesar salad and someone else is having a beef sandwich and another raviolli.»
Catch my drift?
Anyway, whatever you get, the meals are large, the service is attentive and on-​point, not exactly so fancy they dote over you hand and foot, but fancy enough with cloth napkins and ground pepper.
Also, complimentary bread. You can tell the quality is good with fresh, crisp lettuce for the salad and a mention of using Acme bread for the sandwiches.
The only indication of the supposed New (American) was those thin cut slightly brown french fries.

right next to my home, food is about average, nothing special… really

We had a Birthday Party on last Friday, everything was excellent (Chardonnay deserve the 5+star!) and everybody was so nice, i highly recommend this place

I’ll start off the review by saying this: great place to unwind after work to have a couple drinks with coworkers.
However, Im incredibly underwhelmed with this restaurant. I had been on a two-​week work trip and wanted to have date night with my boyfriend, so we picked Lion & Compass based on all their glowing reviews. They offered free valet and the outside of the building made it seems like the kind of place that was going to really impress us.
Our waiter was absolutely amazing. I wish I would’ve gotten his name to give him some credit here.
My boyfriend I both had steak dishes and the potatoes that came with mine were completely raw… My Asparagus was burnt… And my steak was essentially flavorless. For a $ 40 dish, wouldn’t you think the chef would actually care to add some flavor to it? The bread that was on the table was most likely purchased from the local grocery store and was cold along with the butter pad that was probably in the freezer rather than the fridge — cold.
The drinks were very good — I highly recommend the dark and stormy.
Overall really nice staff just terrible food. It could be just what I ordered but I’m not willing to give it another try for $ 140.
This place is not nearly as upscale as they try to make it out to be. Dress casual and comfortable if you decide to give this place a try.

Never again! Had a business dinner for apx 20 people with a 6:30 reservation. Parking lot was full with cars into the street for the valet. Got to the table 6:45. Waiter took orders at 7:15. Salads arrived at 8. Entrees at 8:30. Desert at 9. Waiter disappeared for 30 minutes till we chased him down to get salads started. No apologies or explanation for the delays. I ended up grabbing the bottle of wine off the side table to fill glasses since no staff came but to refill wine or water.
The food. Bread was either refrigerated or day old, but clearly stale and cold. Terrible for such an expensive restaurant. Baby spinach salad had no bacon and dressing tasted like straight lemon juice with pepper. I’ve never had a simple salad so bad. Steak was fine. Desert was pumpkin spice cheesecake. No idea if the menu warned me, but not what I expected. Left most of it and went to the valet to retrieve my car and call it a night 2.5 hours after arriving.
Never going back again. Way too many good restaurants with attentive service to subject coworkers to this experience. I get that the staff can fall behind, but the manager and waiter never came by to explain, see if they could make up for the extensive delay or even just apologize. Seemed like it was business as usual for them. Not how I wanted to end a 12 hour day of meetings with email waiting and a 7am start ahead of me.
Maybe ok for a date if you dong mind lingering and can order off the full menu. But plenty of other places to take a risk on in the Valley for the prices they charge.

great place for a lunch meeting, good food great service and a nice and big place. Near the freeway.

This is really a good place for a professional or family lunch/​dinner. My Arnold Palmer was the best I have had, and I have had a lot.
The food is delicious, plentiful and service is nice and meticulous. The décor is nice and very clean. There is an outside sitting area.
I always take the bathroom as a barometer for how a place is taken care off; excellent.
Will definitely go back.

This restaurant is exceptional. The environment is relaxing and the décor in the main dining area has a very French cottage feel. The lighting was dimmed the perfect amount. The wait staff were genuinely courteous and paid attention to every detail. The food was fantastic.
We had:
— garlic, white wine, chili, ginger clams
— ahi sashimi
— macadamia-​crusted seabass
— new york strip steak rare
— two scoops of ice cream and cookie
It was perfect. I wish I would have found this place a decade ago.

Waaaaay overpriced! Lunch entrees are at minimum $ 18 … and while the food is not bad, it was not worth the price.
The menu is wannabe Asian-​fusion, with items like stir-​fry and sashimi salads. No complaints about that, but it’s just odd because nothing else about the restaurant screams «Asian». Plus, the way to cook and present the food is more Americanized than anything.
The food itself is okay, though nothing really spectacular. I had the Scallops Salad; the scallops were actually quite delicious and nicely cooked (not rubbery!), but the salad itself was kinda small. Definitely not worth $ 21.
The restaurant tries too hard to be «upscale» with a «fancy» fusion menu, but unfortunately, the décor just kills the vibe. It resembles an outdated resort restaurant, with palm trees and tropical accents. Everything seems clean, but the restaurant could use a bit of a makeover.
Luckily there is usually no wait during lunchtime and I’m pretty sure most patrons are here for business meetings and thus enjoying lunch on their companies’ budgets ;)

I think the restaurant earnes 3 full stars. Food was good, but I agree with others, it needs renovation. The place looks like it hasn’t been upgraded in years and paying $ 20 for a lunch entrée is not going to atract more people.
Overall, staff was fast and friendly.
I ordered the thai chicken with crispy capellini and I liked it.

This restaurant is in a hidden corner of Fairoaks in Sunnyvale, so it’s easy to miss it if you don’t know the directions. It unpretentious and has good ambience for a quiet relaxing lunch, unlike the equally popular Birk’s, which has been slipping in both the food quality and noise level. Service is top notch and attentive, without being annoying. I love their skirt steak and I have no hesitation in saying that my loyalty shifts from Birk’s to L&C. Check it out, you will not regret it.
Bön Apetit!

I love going to this restaurant besides its near by, food and cocktail are awesome. Great service and adequate space with other guest.

Just another restaurant with the case of the 90s blues. The décor is drab, the service is slow, and it’s in dire need of some TLC inside. It’s like some anemic wedding/​corporate venue.
Tried a manhattan cocktail, it was watery and way too sweet. Drink wasn’t mixed well, a bunch of syrup stuck to the bottom of my glass. Fortunately they sell wine!
The caesar salad was pathetically dressed. Half of the salad had no dressing on it. The croutons were bland and stale. Didn’t even taste like real parmesan cheese, just processed shredded stuff you’d get at Safeway.
The prosciutto and melon salad was just sad. Prepackaged sliced prosciutto on a plate way too small with balls of melon. The arugula had no dressing or seasoning at all. The balsamic was way too sweet.
The filet was cooked to temperature for me, not so for my friend. They ordered it medium, it was nearly well done. The entire dish had no salt at all. The mushrooms had no flavor, the potatoes were undercooked and cold, and the asparagus was overcooked and, yup, you guessed it, no seasoning! The jus on the plate tasted of nothing.
$ 150 check for a bunch of food that feels like it came out of plastic containers and bags. There is nothing about this restaurant I would come back for.

We came here on a Friday night and were surprised the restaurant was not more full, especially given the quality of food. The atmosphere was simple, yet inviting. I had the seafood linguine, and it was incredible. The scallops were plump and tender, and white wine sauce was so good I wanted to keep dipping my bread in it. My husband had a dish that I see is no longer on their menu (I am writing this review about two months after our evening there), so I don’t remember the name. It was also a seafood stew, but in a curry based sauce. It was Asian Fusion at its best!
I know this restaurant has been around. It’s not in a very busy part of town (not downtown Sunnyvale), but I hope it sticks around for many years to come!

Ambience: I had dinner with some co-​workers on a Monday night. It was pretty quiet and the service was quick. We were dining in a cozy private space at the corner of the restaurant — comfortable for 8 pax. Ambience is more of a date night evening feel.
Appetizers: nothing really stood out for me. We had fried calamari, brandy chilli prawns.
Main courses: I had the macadamia crusted sea bass. The dish was just ok. The sauce was non memorable. The fish tasted ‘fishy’ and the salt used on the crust was not evenly spread out. I tried a little of my friend’s thai seafood pot Au feu which the waiter recommended and I liked the tom yumish sauce for that dish.
Dessert: I tried the Tiramisu and the crème brûlée. Both were average tasting.

The last time that I had dinner at the Lion & Compass was about 10 years ago. I remember it being a vibrant spot with a buzzing Silicon Valley vibe. Alas, the heyday of Lion & Compass has passed. On a recent visit, the dining room was a ghost town and one lonely person was sitting at the bar chatting up the bartender.
The food here is OK, nothing special but not bad. I had the rack of lamb and it was tasty. In the future, I will try to swing a rez at Evvia in Palo Alto if I feel like lamb. Evvia still has the buzz that Lion & Compass lost.
The wait staff was polite and attentive. I had no concerns with the service.
The rest of my party ordered steaks and seafood, they were quite happy with their meals as well.
The only bummer was that fact that the place was so empty and felt sad and lonely…
In the future, Evvia, Madera, Village Pub and the like will be my choice for business dining…

Since when is 82−35=71? Since we went to Lion and Compass. We got $ 82 of food and had a $ 35 discount coupon, with the final bill $ 71. More on this bill (mis)calculation later.
Lion and Compass has been around for 32 years –older than the average Unilocaler!
A good place for a first date, except that there is nothing around here –it’s in the middle of a mixed residential/​light industrial neighborhood on the wrong side of the freeway, in the boondocks, far away from the action in downtown Murphy street. And it is closed on weekends!
Mondays and Fridays are their slow days, with midweek lunches and dinners filled with business guests. Think Steve Jobs and Noland Bushnell, founder of Atari –I know, before your time!
Friday afternoon at 6pm, as my ex-​wife nurse would say, the place is barely comatose! Six tables occupied, three with couples, one couple in jeans, one table with 4 men in dress shirts without ties.
It’s got classic California décor, with white walls, multipane windows, cathedral white ceilings, and a glass sunroof, covered by a white canopy.
As we enter, we are greeted with white tablecloths, and red roses, with silverware gleaming in the candle lighted tables, over tan colored tiled floors. Great attention to detail, so that even the thorns are removed from the roses!
Service is slow, and the bread is cold. Not a place to eat if you are in a hurry. And you better have a thick wallet, as this is one of the more expensive places for a casual meal! Of course if you got a hot date, nothing is too expensive, and you have all the time in the world!
We get a table next to the window, with a view of the courtyard.
I get the $ 39 8 oz filet mignon, with bourguignon sauce, mushrooms, aspargus, and mashed potatoes. Very lean, little fat, juicy, tasty, cooked perfectly, it is one of the best pieces of beef I’ve ever tasted –better than Rok, and there you have to cook it yourself.
My wife gets the $ 35 full rack of lamb with polentia and krail, and gives it two thumbs up, while licking her chops, just like our two cats, munching on one of the best lambs she’s ever tasted!
Total food bill with $ 8 glass of wine is $ 82. I give the waiter one of my ancient 4 year old SJ Metro newspaper $ 35 discount coupons, and he reappears with a $ 71 final food bill.
I take one look at the bill and ask for the manager. Now $ 82−35=$ 47, and with $ 4 tax equals $ 51. Not at Lion and Compass!
Kim, the manager there for 28 years takes a look, and is perplexed also –I’m the first person in years with a coupon, so they don’t have these transactions too often. The LC computer takes the $ 82, adds the $ 8 tax to the total amount, not discounted amount, contrary to the California state tax laws, adds an automatic 18% tip surcharge to both the purchase and tax, and then subtracts the $ 35. It’s a heads you win, tails I lose, in the timed tradition of Silicon Valley!
And wouldn’t you know it, when I put it on the credit card, the transaction comes back as a $ 71 purchase of food, with tip amount to be added. They wanted another tip, after calculating the tip based on both the purchase and tax combined!
I left no additonal tip, but did take up Kim’s offer to show me the hidden library in the restaurant, where all the big Silicon Valley honchos ate! A no charge tour of Silicon Valley history, where all the bigwigs made their behind the scenes horsetrading and smokey back room deals! Only this customer isn’t getting hoodwinked!

We came here recently for lunch. Since we had reservations, we got seated immediately. Al though the restaurant is behind behind the weeds, the place is pretty big and can occupy a large crowd. They have large seating halls and even a small hall ideal for a group of 10.
We were served complimentary bread and butter. I ordered a plate of mushroom ravioli and cream of mushroom soup. Both the dishes were okay; not too good, not bad either. My mushroom ravioli dish was a tad salty.
Service is brisk. But not excited to return to the restaurant.