Unauthentic, Bad Food; Poor Service; French Fries???
Monday, May 25, 2009
I was here on a lunch meeting with a business associate and our request for a large table was not greeted with enthusiasm. The stuffed squid appetizer was overcooked. When we actually ordered our main courses, I had ordered the Special Steamed Rice Rolls - one of my favorites. 15 minutes later, they bring out my colleague's pho. He politely waited for me to be served. 5 minutes later, I'm urging him to eat otherwise his pho would be no good. Still no food for me. I called the waitress - she seemed to have forgotten about my food. She leaves and comes back to tell me that they only had half a portion of the steamed rice rolls and it was not very good so they don't want to serve it. Would I like to substitute with steamed pork rolls instead. Why didn't they know this fifteen minutes ago??? Do I have choice? A few minutes later, she placed a plate in front of me that left me speechless. The plate was covered with grilled pork on one side and cooked beansprouts on the other. On the side was a whole pile of FRENCH FRIES and a lone, grilled shrimp. My first response: "What the h--- is this on my plate??" For those who don't know , this dish is suppose to have plump, steamed rice rolls stuffed with a ground pork mixture. It is served with pork roll, steamed bean sprouts, herbs, and fish sauce (dipping sauce). The special may have grilled pork but it must have banh cong ( a deep fried "shrimp bread"). My rice rolls were flat and there only 3 of them (buried underneath all that other stuff) which would not have satisfied my 5 year-old but more importantly, what the heck was french fries doing on my plate!!!!!! I am sooooo offended I took it all off my plate.
I'm grateful it was not my business associate who picked the place. I will never go back. There's just no excuse for serving food to paying customers like it was a pile of leftovers you needed to get rid of. The owners/chef should be ashamed for serving pseudo-vietnamese food. The nice decor is just lipstick on a pig.
Pros: Nice decor
Cons: food, service, chipped serviceware