Orlo’s Restaurant

Orlos is closed for regular dining
It was open for Valentines Day It was a lovely evening from the service the ambience to the meal. The meal was really fabulous The lobster was delicious and the lamb very tasty as well. It was great value for Valentines Day because it was a prix-​fix meal and you got appetizer 2 main courses and a beautiful dessert. including 2 chocolate covered strawberries
Thank you for a really nice experience

In contacting Hayes Mansion to make a dinner reservation, I learned that this restaurant is closed. There is another restaurant there called, Silver Creek. We are going to try it out. I’ll let you know.

I love this restaurant… it is quaint, intimate and so very serene — away form the hustle and bustle of downtown. The wait staff is always attentive and friendly. The early bird special is such a great value for a wonderful prime rib dinner. I’ve always enjoyed the chicken dish as well as the filet mignon and the fries there are to die for — I’m always sneaking some from my daughter’s plate! I’ve NEVER felt rushed at all there and am able to relax and enjoy the fine meal.
I’m very sad to have just learned that the restaurant is closing. :(

Thank You Orlos for a lovely Valentines dinner. Excellent service, good food very well priced for a Valentine Prix Fix menu. Never had to ask for a soda refill they were always there as I needed the refill. A simple gesture that most restaurants do not get at all. but makes me a very happy camper.
Beautiful grounds stunning building make for a charming place to celebrate any occasion. I certainly will be back

As I live in Sunnyvale and Orlo’s is on the other side of San Jose, I don’t go there often but I have probably dined there an average of twice a year over many years now; usually if I’m dining with friends who live near the Hayes Mansion or if someone I’m taking to dinner requests it. Last night I took out a friend who is retiring and she requested it.
If you’ve never been there, the restaurant is basically two rooms with about eight tables in each. When we arrived only two or three tables in each room were occupied — which would be true for the rest of the night — so it wasn’t as if they were squeezing us in. Yet the hostess managed to seat us, a party of two, at the worse table in the entire restaurant. This table was so bad that the wait staff had not finished setting it figuring, I’m sure, that no one would be seated there. I know I should have said something but it didn’t fully register until we sat down, one of those things where you know something is not right but it takes a few minutes to figure out why. The other diners were also couples but were seated at tables for four so they could sit next to each other. We were seated at a table for two so we had to sit across from each other. It was the only table for two in that side of the restaurant and was in the middle the room. Like I said, I’m sure the wait staff never figured anyone would be seated there.
As to the wait staff, they are good but tend, as in any nearly empty restaurant, to hover. You get the feeling of being rushed. Or maybe you are being rushed as they know that with no one there they can close up and get out early. It isn’t a good feeling.
On to dinner. Orlo’s used to be traditional upscale American fare: boring but predictable. Since the Dolce people took over they have tried to liven up the menu. There is nothing wrong with that and sometimes it is interesting. Last night not so much.
We shared a seared ahi tuna starter. There were three slices of tuna, paper thin. If you put these three slices together they would have equaled one normal ahi tuna slice, like what you might get with a salad nicoise, where of course you would have five or six. What we had would have been okay as an amuse-​bouche.
Next, my friend had the tomato garlic soup which she described as like pasta sauce. For her main course she had salmon and this dish, which I sampled, was good. The preparation was excellent and the portion side was correct. I, on the other hand, had a monkfish dish. The fish was overcooked, flavorless, and completely dried out. Had it been properly prepared the portion would have been too small but as it was I certainly wasn’t missing what should have been there.
The wine, a 2004 Stag’s Leap Chardonnay, was good and not grossly overpriced and the shared dessert was fine. But the rest of the experience came up way short.
After so many passable years I don’t enjoy giving Orlo’s a bad review like this but the sense I got was not simply a restaurant having a bad night but one with real problems. The bottom line is that Orlo’s is now off my restaurant list, special request or no. I’ll drive half the distance into downtown San Jose and have a much better dinner.

My husband and I had a terrific dinner when visiting Orlo’s on ⁴⁄₂₃. The food was very good and with generous portions. The wait staff were all very attentive. The restaurant was very slow and I am not sure why as the food is delicious and very reasonably priced. It is truly a beautiful place to have a nice romantic dinner. We will definitely return!

Went to Orlos for the first time, had been to Hayes for brunch on many occasion, is pretty decent allthough they serve the same thing year after year, but was pretty impressed with Orlos. Went to the early bird as we went with the in laws, had the prime rib and it was yummy. Melt in your mouth. Also, was only 14.95 before 6:30, now yes, that is early to eat, but it only goes up to 24.95 after that.
Vegetables and garlic mashed were good as well, had a nice wine selection. Hubby ordered a Heferweisen and got a Sam Adams on draft instead, but other than that, was great.

It’s been many years since I’ve been to eat at the Hayes Mansion, even though I live about 5 minutes away. My brother said he at eaten at Orlo’s several months earlier and thought it was pretty good, so I opted to celebrate my birthday here. We made reservations at 5pm on Saturday to take advantage of the early-​bird prices (Three course dinners for $ 15). The crowd was light, but there were lots of people around the facility due to a wedding on the lawn.
Our group mostly ordered prime rib but there were two free-​range chicken breast entrees also. I brought my own wine — so the waiter opened the bottle and returned with a decanter. He also brought bread rolls, fresh from the oven. (One per person, but you can ask for more.) Caesar salad began the meal. It was tasty, but it was more like Caesar-​lite. I had the prime rib, garlic mashed potatoes and steamed veggies. The prime rib was served with a thickened au jus on top. It was cooked properly, but I think the au jus should be served on the side. Also, the horseradish was very wimpy. The potatoes were good, but I only received two very small broccoli spears for my vegetable.
I had the Mandarin Curd Tart w/​blueberry dessert.
Overall the meal was pretty good. I gave it 3 stars for the food and rounded up due to the efficient service and price.

I was a little bit torn over how many stars to give this restaurant, truth be told it’s about two and a half stars. After weighing out the overall experience I decided to be generous and round up my rating. It has been such a long time since I’ve been to Hayes Mansion that I had forgotten how impressive their building and grounds are, I wish that we’d had more time to stroll around since it really is very beautiful here. When we arrived at the entrance to Orlo’s we were promptly seated by the hostess at an intimate corner table that was next to a window overlooking an indoor courtyard. After reviewing the menu I decided to try the discovery menu a 3 course pre fixe menu at $ 24.95 the price is very reasonable. The servers at Orlo’s dole out bread from a basket a slice or two at a time, and while I’m sure that this is very cost effective it also comes across as cheap and tacky for a restaurant that I would class as fine dining. I started with a mixed green and blueberries salad which was delicious, perfectly fresh greens lightly tossed in a vinaigrette with blueberries that exploded sweetly each bite. Everyone else had caesar salad and while there was nothing wrong with it there was nothing special about their Caesar either and I’ve definitely tasted better. We ordered the fried calamari that was perfectly tender and was served with a yellow tomato salsa. This appetizer was absolutely delicious and was a definite favorite of the meal. I had the filet mignon for my main course and had asked for it to be cooked medium what I was served was medium rare. My filet was delicious and I had no problem with eating it medium rare, but it seems that the kitchen has a difficult time following cooking times as this was a theme throughout our meal. My mom ordered the prime rib which was asked to be cooked medium, what was served was most definitely well done with not a scrap of pink to be seen. I would had sent it back immediately as I’m definitely not a fan of overcooked prime rib, but mom said that it was delicious and seemed to enjoy herself. I felt really sorry for my dad he ordered the salmon filet with a basil pesto sauce that was utterly dismal. My dad is not a picky eater and is easily pleased with just about anything you serve him, but he didn’t finish eating even half of his entrée stating that it was overcooked. Slightly sceptical I tried a bite of his salmon and he was absolutely right it was completely overcooked leaving the salmon tasting like dried cardboard, a shame since salmon is one of his favorite things to order. Taking pity on him my mom and I shared our entrees with him and he really enjoyed each of our dishes and later told me that he’d probably stick to the meat entrees rather than seafood should we decide to return. We finished our meal with coffees and a mandarin tart that was perfectly sweet with a slightly tangy hint to the custard filling.
Our server during our meal was nice and attentive, something I am grateful for since I didn’t read Bobak’s review until after our dinner at Orlo’s The other review is correct when stating that it gets very cold in this restaurant, I finally noticed as we were leaving that the floor vent adjacent to our table was blowing out cold air and I noticed another couple switch tables to try and escape to a warmer spot. Several times during our meal the chef came out and chatted extensively with other tables, I am guessing that they were guests at the hotel that had dined at Orlo’s fairly regularly since he didn’t really circulate amongst all of the diners in the restaurant. I like chef’s that come out and talk to their patrons to get a feel for how their dishes are being received, but I think this chef needs to get in the kitchen and take a little control of the line since dishes do not come out as ordered. We had three entrees and not one of them was prepared as requested, this is really a shame since this is a nice restaurant in a truly lovely setting. I’m not writing Orlo’s off completely, but I won’t be in any rush to return either.

1 Star (½ for each appetizer)
**This is going to be a long one, so for the summary, scroll down to the last line**
What a disappointment. I brought my girl here for Valentine’s dinner, and would have been more satisfied if we went to a fastfood restaurant… what a mess!
Walked in and the whole set-​up was lame. no seats to wait… so there was a line of people w/​reservations because one hostess had to walk each person down a long hall to seat them. Everybody knows this is the busiest night for restaurants, so the clowns in management should have been prepared not only with enough help, but with their A team.
After a 10 minute wait, we were seated at a tiny table and asked to move to a bigger one w/​no problem. The place was halp empty when we got there, now i know why.
Not sure where the draft was coming from, but everybody was freezing… and even though they said they would turn the temp up, it never happened… a lot of people were complaining.
My girl started off w/​a Reisling, and even though it’s what i usually have, I didn’t like the taste. We also ordered Calamari and the Dumpling Sampler for appetizers. These were the highlight of the evening… and they were just «good»…best part being the calamari sauce. I just checked the menu and the dumpling sampler was nothing like it says on the menu…1 «lobster cake» and 1 overcooked «ravioli»…no dipping sauce. Oh, i forgot, the bread and butter was good too, but they give you one piece and didn’t check too often to see if we wanted more.
Water was filled once and although a few employees walked by w/​a pitcher, it wasn’t filled until I asked again.
Server was obviously inexperienced (or incompetent), but we’ll get to that in a minute.
My girl ordered the Furikaki Seared RARE Ahi Tuna — it was actually cooked and not seared, and had a real fishy taste. To hide the taste, they used a lot of sauce that basically overwhelmed the tuna.
I ordered the New York Steak «Very Well Done» with a side of the fingerling & Peruvian potatoes and also asked for a Caesar salad to be brought out w/​my food. I had to order the stake Very well done because I say a customer a few tables down complain about his «Medium» steak what was still moo’ing while he cut it!
The steak was crap… I think they ran over to denny’s and ordered it for me. IT WAS STILL EFFING BLEEDING!!! and tasted really bad. my salad didn’t come out for 5 minutes and only because I reminded the server… no apology, nothing. side of potatoes were drenched in a pesto sauce and didn’t taste good, salad was a few spears of lettuce w/​dressing poured on and some cheese… haha oh, and when the server put pepper on it, this careless lady got pepper all over the table… it’s like she wasn’t even watching!
½ way into our meal, one of the employees reached over our table to take a picture of someone 3 tables down… no excuse me, nothing…
this circus was so rediculous it was entertaining. Finallly, since our server had not checked up on us throughout the meal, I asked the hostess for my check.
I pull out my credit card and put it on the table as I’m waiting for my check, and the server shows up, she starts to clear the table, but sees me put my card down so the idiot puts the plates back down on the table, picks up my credit card and walks away…“hey, whoa, what r u doing?”…guess she was in a zone and just kept walking. leaving the plates on our table like it takes two hands to carry a credit card.
5 minutes later she storms out and goes to the other end of the restaurant because «someone was using the register» according to the hostess. 10 minutes, and about $ 130 later, we were out of this s***hole and definitely won’t be back.
I’d rather eat some greasy nasty jack in the box than come back to this place ever again… and u should learn from my mistake and don’t come here.