During restaurant week, I was enthralled by the vibrant colors that adorned the place. It's a delightful fusion of Latino and Asian flavors. A highlight was witnessing a seasoned female bartender patiently instructing a novice on crafting a virgin drink.
Ed M.
The food here is solid. Had some spring rolls and birria fries. What threw me off was thinking there was a bar here. They do not sell beer or alcohol although the bottles here do look like it. They sell mocktails and non alcoholic beer. I guess the first clue also should have been the teenage servers behind the bar. Outside of that the mix of Asian fusion and Mexican food is an interesting mix.
Jamison E.
Food was delicious, ordered a main dish, appetizers and dessert. Food came out in a timely manner. Service was excellent. Restaurant environment was beautiful.
Holly P.
great food and drinks, samantha was a great server and gave really good recommendations. would def come back
Maria Fernanda R.
Came in here today, really cozy fancy ambiance. The food smelled amazing and tasteful. The service was amazing and attentive. I recommend the pandan horchata drink, tomyum pasta, and kare curry
Vina R.
Saw this come up on IG and was intrigued by the birria ramen dish, but when I saw the menu I knew I had to come. The birria truffle fries and birria dumplings were calling my name. Athough the dumplings were on my list to try I did not try them. Instead I tried the lychee lemonade, margarita wings, birria truffle fries and birria ramen. My friends ordered the strawberry coffee, ube coffee, birria pho and Tom yum pasta. All the coffees were delicious and the lychee lemonade was good. Tasted more like lychee which I was hoping for. The best food item I tried were the birria truffle fríes. Something about that truffle and birria consume just worked so well together. The margarita wings are a dry rub that gave me a slight hint of mole (wings were good). As for the main dish..... The birria ramen..... I think it packed some flavoring. More salt and more lemon didn't do it for me. Not sure what I was expecting flavor wise (to taste more like birria or ramen), but it gave more meat flavor than the birria spices. The portion is decent and took half of it home. Going to play around and add some spices to season it a bit. Place is very nicely decorated and the staff was so nice and helpful. Definitely coming back to try the birria dumplings, fried banana ice cream, golden fried bao and some of the cocktail drinks.
Monica F.
This place will get you sick, i've dined in and not even a day after ive had constant hurtful dry heaving, safe practices are obviously not put in place by the chef as seen in their open kitchen view, no gloves at all were used, servers touching things with their bare hands and standing around just talking, not to mention a 40 min wait time, both the regular and birria pho are super bland: birria pho is super dark and distasteful, not traditional at all and what you would expect from typical birria, beef pho: so bland you'd wonder why you didnt go to pho 7 cow instead, if its not bad enough, you can hear the chef yelling and screaming at his employees
alexis a.
has serious potential to be 5 stars! the space is very inviting and decorated well and kept CLEAN! just what we need out here in national city. one area that this restaurant lacks in is the service. we walked in with only 1 worker at the bar and took a few minutes to get seated, nothing too upsetting. after being seated i didnt see any other workers until about 10 minutes later and we still weren't taken care of when some of them came out and were tending to other tables. over time, the service did pick up so im not too upset about it. but there should be more people out there just in case, not just one person! regarding the food and drinks; the coffees are so good and a must try! the wings were good but its hard to mess up a wing. the garlic noodles were also satisfactory however the seafood was very oceany. i expect seafood to taste like seafood but it tasted like a mouthful of ocean! the tom yum pasta was outstanding!!! another must try! additionally, all the food came about 10 mins apart. i wish it all came at once or at least closer together. the place is a little pricey but its understandable with how nice it is and the food is plated nicely and is generally good. it would make it more worth it if the service was better! i am writing this as we are waiting for the check and we have been finished for 20+ minutes. again, has a lot of potential to be great. please work on waiters attending to everyone. considering coming back to try more!
leticia R.
I'm so delighted to see that National City is getting some food craft. I saw Chao XO in Instagram and always want to support local so gave this place a try for my nephews 18th birthday. The place is really cute, clean and crisp. I'm not sure about the artificial plants but that's ok, easy to maintain. We had the Siracha Corn, Beef Pho, Ceviche and Saldato with Filet mignon. The winner was the Saldato! Wow was a delicioso flavor and mix. You can make an app just on the mushrooms. I was not sure how I would like the fries but it seemed to work. I'm not a huge fan of fries in a dish, save the carbs for a fast food type of day. Also the side of jasmine rice was overkill. I would have swap the fries out for the rice instead and the dish is still amazing. The coconut ceviche is just ok, needs more spice. The fish however was super fresh and delicious. But as I go to Ensenada quite often the hole in the walls where you can get ceviche is mind blowing and for a fraction of the cost. Still, pretty good. The Beef Pho was just that but my 12 year old daughter ate the entire bowl and that says a lot. The portions are good, the presentation is gorgeous. The Corn was really, as expected, buttery, tangy, mild, not spicy at all. I think it would be better served in a bowl rather than plate or serve the chips together If on the place and save the extra bowl :) The service was really good, you can tell that they are somewhat green but really making an effort to ensure their guests are happy. Hostess, servers and food runners can make the experience from good to great! Always pre-buss please :) Dinner ticket was $100.00 with tip. A little high for national city, but it was a good sensory experience and I would come back. Good luck !
Faith S.
went here with my friends for the first time and we all chose different drinks: matcha with strawberry foam (9/10), lychee lemonade (8/10), peach tamarindo (6/10), energy boost mock tail (6/10) pandan horchata (9/10). their drink selection is so diverse and yummyyyy. the food was pretty good, we all got some rendition of garlic noodles, tom yum pasta, saltado shaken fries, and sweet chili garlic wings. i loooved the wings and the garlic noodles were as good as i expected. allyssa was an attentive, nice server too! she checked up on us, let us know about promotions, and was overall very sweet :) i think i would've liked a sauce on the salmon, but other than that it's worth a try if you like asian and mexican food!!
the food here was very good! came here for a girls night with my friends and we had a great time. the restaurant had a nice ambiance with a plentiful menu. the drink menu in particular was very fun and our table all enjoyed our drinks. i got the slatado with prawns and it was very good. the fries stayed very crispy despite being covered in sauce. i also got the pandan horchata which was very good as well it was a mesh of flavors that i didn't think would work well but it was very nice as well. we got the siracha elote and sweet chilli wings for the table which everyone enjoyed as well! our server was also very great as well allyssa was so attentive and helped us throughout the night she was so kind!
Annie B.
Very pretty and nice atmosphere and the food is very good. The lady serving us was very nice and always came by to check on if we needed anything which was greatly appreciated! The energy boost mocktail tasted very good and the garlic pasta was delicious!
Jeniffer V.
Pasta is good! Recommended...Place is so nice. Might came back again. Service crew is nice always saying hi and thank you!
Sisco T.
Pricing was way too high. $16 for only 6 wings! Downtown prices in National City. Flavor was ok but presentation was really good. I wouldn't go back or recommend to anyone.
Kim A.
Really good, got the Kate Curry. Super spicy, but delicious. The fried Bao bun was soo good paired with the ube coffee!
During restaurant week, I was enthralled by the vibrant colors that adorned the place. It's a delightful fusion of Latino and Asian flavors. A highlight was witnessing a seasoned female bartender patiently instructing a novice on crafting a virgin drink.
The food here is solid. Had some spring rolls and birria fries. What threw me off was thinking there was a bar here. They do not sell beer or alcohol although the bottles here do look like it. They sell mocktails and non alcoholic beer. I guess the first clue also should have been the teenage servers behind the bar. Outside of that the mix of Asian fusion and Mexican food is an interesting mix.
Food was delicious, ordered a main dish, appetizers and dessert. Food came out in a timely manner. Service was excellent. Restaurant environment was beautiful.
great food and drinks, samantha was a great server and gave really good recommendations. would def come back
Came in here today, really cozy fancy ambiance. The food smelled amazing and tasteful. The service was amazing and attentive. I recommend the pandan horchata drink, tomyum pasta, and kare curry
Saw this come up on IG and was intrigued by the birria ramen dish, but when I saw the menu I knew I had to come. The birria truffle fries and birria dumplings were calling my name. Athough the dumplings were on my list to try I did not try them. Instead I tried the lychee lemonade, margarita wings, birria truffle fries and birria ramen. My friends ordered the strawberry coffee, ube coffee, birria pho and Tom yum pasta. All the coffees were delicious and the lychee lemonade was good. Tasted more like lychee which I was hoping for. The best food item I tried were the birria truffle fríes. Something about that truffle and birria consume just worked so well together. The margarita wings are a dry rub that gave me a slight hint of mole (wings were good). As for the main dish..... The birria ramen..... I think it packed some flavoring. More salt and more lemon didn't do it for me. Not sure what I was expecting flavor wise (to taste more like birria or ramen), but it gave more meat flavor than the birria spices. The portion is decent and took half of it home. Going to play around and add some spices to season it a bit. Place is very nicely decorated and the staff was so nice and helpful. Definitely coming back to try the birria dumplings, fried banana ice cream, golden fried bao and some of the cocktail drinks.
This place will get you sick, i've dined in and not even a day after ive had constant hurtful dry heaving, safe practices are obviously not put in place by the chef as seen in their open kitchen view, no gloves at all were used, servers touching things with their bare hands and standing around just talking, not to mention a 40 min wait time, both the regular and birria pho are super bland: birria pho is super dark and distasteful, not traditional at all and what you would expect from typical birria, beef pho: so bland you'd wonder why you didnt go to pho 7 cow instead, if its not bad enough, you can hear the chef yelling and screaming at his employees
has serious potential to be 5 stars! the space is very inviting and decorated well and kept CLEAN! just what we need out here in national city. one area that this restaurant lacks in is the service. we walked in with only 1 worker at the bar and took a few minutes to get seated, nothing too upsetting. after being seated i didnt see any other workers until about 10 minutes later and we still weren't taken care of when some of them came out and were tending to other tables. over time, the service did pick up so im not too upset about it. but there should be more people out there just in case, not just one person! regarding the food and drinks; the coffees are so good and a must try! the wings were good but its hard to mess up a wing. the garlic noodles were also satisfactory however the seafood was very oceany. i expect seafood to taste like seafood but it tasted like a mouthful of ocean! the tom yum pasta was outstanding!!! another must try! additionally, all the food came about 10 mins apart. i wish it all came at once or at least closer together. the place is a little pricey but its understandable with how nice it is and the food is plated nicely and is generally good. it would make it more worth it if the service was better! i am writing this as we are waiting for the check and we have been finished for 20+ minutes. again, has a lot of potential to be great. please work on waiters attending to everyone. considering coming back to try more!
I'm so delighted to see that National City is getting some food craft. I saw Chao XO in Instagram and always want to support local so gave this place a try for my nephews 18th birthday. The place is really cute, clean and crisp. I'm not sure about the artificial plants but that's ok, easy to maintain. We had the Siracha Corn, Beef Pho, Ceviche and Saldato with Filet mignon. The winner was the Saldato! Wow was a delicioso flavor and mix. You can make an app just on the mushrooms. I was not sure how I would like the fries but it seemed to work. I'm not a huge fan of fries in a dish, save the carbs for a fast food type of day. Also the side of jasmine rice was overkill. I would have swap the fries out for the rice instead and the dish is still amazing. The coconut ceviche is just ok, needs more spice. The fish however was super fresh and delicious. But as I go to Ensenada quite often the hole in the walls where you can get ceviche is mind blowing and for a fraction of the cost. Still, pretty good. The Beef Pho was just that but my 12 year old daughter ate the entire bowl and that says a lot. The portions are good, the presentation is gorgeous. The Corn was really, as expected, buttery, tangy, mild, not spicy at all. I think it would be better served in a bowl rather than plate or serve the chips together If on the place and save the extra bowl :) The service was really good, you can tell that they are somewhat green but really making an effort to ensure their guests are happy. Hostess, servers and food runners can make the experience from good to great! Always pre-buss please :) Dinner ticket was $100.00 with tip. A little high for national city, but it was a good sensory experience and I would come back. Good luck !
went here with my friends for the first time and we all chose different drinks: matcha with strawberry foam (9/10), lychee lemonade (8/10), peach tamarindo (6/10), energy boost mock tail (6/10) pandan horchata (9/10). their drink selection is so diverse and yummyyyy. the food was pretty good, we all got some rendition of garlic noodles, tom yum pasta, saltado shaken fries, and sweet chili garlic wings. i loooved the wings and the garlic noodles were as good as i expected. allyssa was an attentive, nice server too! she checked up on us, let us know about promotions, and was overall very sweet :) i think i would've liked a sauce on the salmon, but other than that it's worth a try if you like asian and mexican food!!
Restaurantji Recommends
the food here was very good! came here for a girls night with my friends and we had a great time. the restaurant had a nice ambiance with a plentiful menu. the drink menu in particular was very fun and our table all enjoyed our drinks. i got the slatado with prawns and it was very good. the fries stayed very crispy despite being covered in sauce. i also got the pandan horchata which was very good as well it was a mesh of flavors that i didn't think would work well but it was very nice as well. we got the siracha elote and sweet chilli wings for the table which everyone enjoyed as well! our server was also very great as well allyssa was so attentive and helped us throughout the night she was so kind!
Very pretty and nice atmosphere and the food is very good. The lady serving us was very nice and always came by to check on if we needed anything which was greatly appreciated! The energy boost mocktail tasted very good and the garlic pasta was delicious!
Pasta is good! Recommended...Place is so nice. Might came back again. Service crew is nice always saying hi and thank you!
Pricing was way too high. $16 for only 6 wings! Downtown prices in National City. Flavor was ok but presentation was really good. I wouldn't go back or recommend to anyone.
Really good, got the Kate Curry. Super spicy, but delicious. The fried Bao bun was soo good paired with the ube coffee!