Wild Onion Bistro - Palo Alto

I have a mixed review of this restaurant. eating was delicious, but the service was very bad. my friend and I were thrilled to try this brunch place and eating was not disappointed, but the service was practically not available. it seemed to be 3 employees throughout the restaurant with very little organization. there were only 4 tables filled, but we had to hunt someone down and wait until someone else came and could help us. super frustrating. the restaurant itself is very nice, it has an open modern caffe with a large opening to the outside terrace where you can rest or sit to eat. we had the cuddly French toast and the name makers benedikt, both delicious. parking is very confusing and there is no one who helps them. the carbahn is divided by 2 hotels, the other hotel had personal before, but citrine not. we gave up and went to find street parking.

Great service. Food was delicious and beautiful. Nice ambiance too.

Thought that this was a nice bistro; it was one step above an airport restaurant. I had the poke bowl and had to send it back not sashimi grade tuna. Not fresh. Served with dry jasmin rice. No flavor whatsoever. Waitress tried very hard and was very nice but the decor was upscale and the actual feeling was more like cafeteria. Very disappointed. A mediocre (my replacement) burger, fries, overdone small NY steak and an appetizer was over $100 — not worth it at all! This should have been half that price. Won’t be returning.

First time to Wild Onion … liked the indoor outdoor vibe and the modern upscale decor . However , the food was just so-so … nothing to entice me to come back . Even the waiter would not elaborate on what was good but he did tell us what was “ just okay “. The Caesar salad was good . The steak was chewy and had no taste with the steak frites . The miso sea bass was mild but passable . All in all , no real bad complaints , just lack luster meals . Perhaps better to come for breakfast menu or just the burger and fries . We wanted to try a new restaurant nearby and although we were impressed with the decor , it would not be a regular choice for a night out unfortunately .

There is a lot of potential for this small, pool/patio-adjacent bistro in the lobby of the Hotel Citrine, with its cute and modern decor and airy vibe. The staff seem overworked and understaffed, and this showed in their reception of us as we arrived ~10 minutes early and asked if we could be seated early or if we should sit at the bar until our table was ready. The server asked us to wait outside the restaurant instead. Fortunately, we were seated relatively quickly after that by what looked like a maitre'd who was also our server for the evening. The drinks and food, while delicious (except that the fries were undercooked but we still ate them because, well, they're fried potatoes! , were overpriced. I don't spend a lot of time in Palo Alto but I do live in SF and the prices are similar to what one would find at a fine dining spot in SF: $10 for the undercooked fries, $18 for a cocktail containing a ton of ice, and $21 for a salad. Since I was out with a friend eating before a concert at the nearby Shoreline Amphitheatre, I decided the prices were worth it, but I would probably not go out of my way to eat there again.