Elephant Bar Restaurant

This was one of my family's favorite restaurants to go to back in the days.. I used to always order the same thing on the menu - the crispy teriyaki chicken with the occasional strawberry banana/raspberry something smoothie. The flavor was consistent every time!

The reason why I am giving this place a three stars is because of my more recent visit (today actually). I haven't been here in years. I stopped by for happy hour and ordered their tempura salmon rolls and sweet potato fries. I love their sweet potato fries! The tempura salmon rolls were just mediocre.. they barely had any salmon. I felt like I was mostly eating rice. The happy hour price for the rolls was nothing drastic, just a dollar less.

And the service was ok. A bit difficult flagging down a waiter even though there were barely any people in the restaurant..

I'd only come here prolly for their sweet potato fries and their crispy teriyaki chicken (if it's still as good as I had remembered it to be!)

I was really hoping that my experience was a lot better than the reviews because we came here for a staff lunch.

The decor is fun and cool. The fruit drinks that went to other tables look fun and good. But the food left me disappointed.

We ordered a round of appetizers:

Artichoke Dip--the dip with creamy and rich, but was neither bad nor awesome.

Calamari--The breading was crispy and the seasoning mild. But I could hardly taste the calamari within.

Coconut Shrimp--The panko breading was crispy, and the sweet grated coconut was too much with the sweet Thai chili dipping sauces. Sweet and Sweet confuses a savory dish.

Tempura Salmon Roll--the roll tasted mostly of filler material here. No other distinct flavors came through. It might as well have been a tempura crumb roll.

Elephant Platter--the onion rings were alright. The sliders were boring. The nachos were lame. But, the potato skins were really good.

I ordered the Triple Smoked Burger hoping that a bar would serve a decent burger. They got my request for meat temperature right (wanted medium), but everything else was a fail. The bacon strips were tiny, and were overlooked to the point that they almost shattered like glass. The smoky aioli was lost in the mess, the cheese cap was overlooked into an oily smear. The charred onions...?? I saw red onion slivers... With no char...! One side of the bun looked squished like, I dunno, an elephant sat on it. And the patty looked a lot smaller than--I've been acquainted with quite a few 1/2 pounders and this one lied about its weight!

The side garden salad with blue cheese came with about 1 tsp of dressing, and a few leaves were browning on the edge and flabby. Y'all know how much I like browned food, but not lettuce.

My lunch buddy did not care for his chicken strip salad either.

In the end, the awesome conversation from company made me grateful to be here. But the kitchen needs some work... How else can you account for the fiasco with the burger?!! One of the most forgiving items on the menu, and it is botched, on a weekday lunch, with hardly anyone in the house--the Elephant has trampled this bar into the ground.

My first safari or Elephant Bar experience was at their bayside Burlingame location many years ago when they first opened. This was about when the fusion food craze started, so it's been a while.
While sorting through my envelope of various restaurant gift cards, I found one from here and noticed one at the Serramonte Shopping Center on the south side of the mall. Getting bored with our usual weekday Costco lunch rotation, I asked my shopping partner if she minded trying something new, hence the recent visit here. The dining room is spacious with the bar and high top tables to the right of the entrance. The greeter led us to a booth near the kitchen which gave us a great view of the front of the restaurant. After a quick study, here's what I tried:

Appetizer (shared)
1) Artichoke dip (https://www.yelp.com/user_local_photos?select=oEXXZBIVopGDqfO0Jn1wWw&userid=saJuyv784apZzH--psHZ3Q) - One of the top three things mentioned on Yelp, I made a point of ordering this. Flavors were good and especially liked the crispiness of the chips which made for great dipping.

Entrée
2) Philly cheesesteak sandwich (https://www.yelp.com/user_local_photos?select=TXk-aIH6ucf197XnG8UCsA&userid=saJuyv784apZzH--psHZ3Q) - Actually, having mushrooms was enough for me. Looking through a microscope, all of the ingredients and, like the dip, nothing was overly salted, a rarity for chain restaurants. My only criticism is that the bread was a tad on the dry side. See this (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheesesteak) for more of an authentic take on this East coast classic and scroll down to 'bread'.

Our waiter was cheerful and enthusiastic in taking our drink and food orders. The feel is similar to BJ's but with less hustle and bustle. There were TV's in the restaurant which makes for some diversion for kids or dining partners who don't have much to say.
Not sure when I'll come back as I'm not really a mall person. Must say that Vicky L's (https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=M271Ac7UKVaQ9U5AOvc_9A) review makes me want to try their desserts while Cherylynn N's (https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=eKUGKQRE-Ywi5dY55_zChg) made we worry a bit.
Guess I hit the right dishes on this trip.

Came here with my bf right before happy hour started at 10 pm. It's a good time to get some cheap food and $9 alcohol drinks. I was disappointed by the service. The server was extremely slow, and they ran out of orange sauce for the orange chicken...like how is that possible??

I was upset with the slow service, and the fact that we couldn't order happy hour until exactly 10 pm, not even 5 minutes before. The food took a long time, I got soup noodle and it tasted so bad. The mojito and margarita was pretty good for $9. Long story short, server was too slow, service was bad, food wasn't that great. I've been to other branches and they have tasted a lot better!! Club sandwich was great!!

There's plenty of parking outside, a great mall to shop that's near.

I checked in here last night with my girlfriends and I was extremely disappointed with the service! When we got seated, the host handed us our menus and mine had a tomato stuck in between the pages while the rest were sticky. The restaurant needs to better job of replacing their menus or at least clean them.

After we got seated, it took at least 10 minutes for our server Cesar to approach our table. Actually, he didn't even approach us, I had to call him over to ask who our server was and he said he just found out a few moments ago that he was our server. Knowing people in the restaurant business, each server has their own group of tables to tend to. HIs section wasn't even completely filled so he had no reason to take his time to approach us. When he finally took our drink orders, we also told him we were ready to order our food, since we had so much waiting time.

We all ordered from their pre-fixe menu and got our appetizers served in a good amount of time. We didn't wait too long for our entrees either, so I thought maybe it was just a one-off for this guy. I haven't seen these friends for a few months now, so we wanted to do a lot of catching up. Halfway through our entree, Cesar asks us how many boxes we would like so we can take our food home. We did not ask for boxes, and I felt it was very rude of him to assume. We took the boxes anyway because we were very eager to have our desserts.

It took over 30 minutes for us to get some of our desserts! Those of us that had to wait so long ordered the chocolate cookie ele mode. The manager approached us and told us they were having issues with that flavor so we were forced to order other desserts.

Halfway through our desserts, the check appeared on our table out of nowhere! We didn't even ask for it yet. We put in our cash and credit cards, but one of us needed change, so we thought we could just ask Cesar. However, the checkbook disappeared! Cesar had taken it without us noticing without making sure how much was going to be charged on each credit card. When he came back I told him of the mistake that he had to fix, which not only wasted our time, but his as well, because by then the restaurant had reached its closing time. We left him a bad tip for his HORRIBLE SERVICE! We wanted to make sure he didn't take the checkbook back while were still there by keeping it away from the edge of the table. When he saw that he couldn't just snatch it, he actually asked for it, which I think is extremely rude!

We will not be coming back here again!

This restaurant has really downgraded over the last few years. When this location first opened, it was always crowded and there was such a diverse menu --so many choices.

But recently they've been revamping their menu and simplifying it --not for the better, unfortunately.

My Mom and I headed here for lunch at around 330. The restaurant was pretty empty given the time, but the service was slow. Other tables who came later got their food before us, and it wasn't until we asked the waitresses about the hold up that she explained the kitchen has fumbled with our order. I didn't mind the wait, but they could've atlas addressed this or updated us on our order status.

The food left much to be desired. My mother ordered the chicken marsala which came with a measly two small pieces of chicken, a spoonful of mashed potatoes, and a huge ladleful of marsala sauce-- which my other said made everything overly salty. I ordered the lemon garlic chicken with brown rice and steamed veggies. The chicken was grilled but super salty and chewy, the rice was gummy, and the veggies where soggy from the oil they used.

My mom and I were disappointed with the meal, that we don't think we'd come back again. Definitely not the elephant bar it used to be. Nothing fresh about the food here, just seems like its prepackaged and reheated when ordered. :(

I just came here with a friend at the spur of the moment on a Saturday night. We were seated almost immediately. No one came to approach us for our drink order and it's been a good 15 minutes. Finally I flagged down a waitress and explained what was going on. She was super apologetic and took out orders promptly. At this point we knew what we wanted so everything went smoothly thereafter.

We started with sweet potato fries which were delicious. If u mix the sriracha ketchup they give with ranch, it takes the SPF to a a whole new level.

We got our dinner about 20 minutes after appetizers were finished. The waitress was super attentive and kind. She kept apologizing throughout the meal and even when we told her that it was ok, she kept feeling bad about the whole situation. She even hooked it up with out dessert.

I would definitely come back for good food and good service.

You wonder why this place have 2 1/2 star. LoL...

for real. We use to Luv this restaurant even though always busy. But food was good. NOW... 1 star! only for the service... but if you go to restaurants you expect food to be good... cause you pay for not FREE ...
Today I'm there to have dinner with my in law. Everything we order came out suck...
Artichoke dip.... chips was stale
Calamari.... ehhhh suck.... Doesn't take like anything.
Salmon.... burned.. taste bitter and dried
Steak... burned and dried
Burger... burned
Bread... burned
Soup... taste like desert ( cause so sweet)
Hmmmm really... what good here then... HORRIBLE

Sorry. But we never never and never come back here again ...

Go somewhere esle pay less and good food.

i think the restaurant change owner or chef....

As much as I love clothes, I hate shopping and as I much as I hate crowds, i find myself going to Serramonte a few days before Christmas with a whole list to crush through.

I lose my concentration when I'm hungry, so my Mom and I stopped for a late lunch ala Happy Hour at the Elephant Bar. I didn't have to do much to convince her to do a little pre-game shopping with a mojito and an appetizer to split.

We ordered two Mojitos at $4 each and ordered the Chicken Lettuce Wrap at $5.50 which was practically lunch. After eating, I was totally ready to shop and got my list smashed out.

Another Happy Happy Hour :)

Is this Africa, because it seems like we're on a safari. If safaris were held in restaurants, with fake animals, and servers as your tour guide.

But, don't tell my mom that because she loves this place, and got me a gift certificate for Xmas to spend here.

Didn't want to hurt her feelings by telling her that I'd rather receive a gift card to the food court. Instead, I'm thankful that she thought of me.

So here I am, not knowing which of these awful dishes to order. I figure the Korean beef tacos would be safe. After all, how do you mess up a taco with grilled beef?

You overcook the hell out of it, that's how.

Chewy, overcooked meat. Ugh.

And I still have $40.00 left on this gift card. *sigh*