Orient Spa — Attraction in Hà Nội

Update: I went back a third time for 1 hour leg massage. It was so good - would recommend Anh. She adjusted my legs to ensure they are optimal for the massage and good strength in the right places. Adjusted from 3 to 4 stars. Their leg massage is different from the regular massages in that they do it almost like a regular spa massage of the legs so you will get a bed to lie down face down then face up mid way mark.

Found this place through google reviews and went twice in my trip. I would recommend you stick with the massage and maybe not do the facial. Details below:

Deep Tissue Body massage - 4/5 would go again. Experience was really professional and my therapist had the right strength to work through the sore muscles based on the pain spots survey I provided before the massage. Missing 1 star was just that slight miss when it comes to relieving the muscle knots. But it was good enough that I was convinced I should try their other services and bring my mum along to try.

Anti-aging Facial - 0/5 rating for this. This is where the experience and good feelings all went downhill. The therapist assigned appears inexperienced. She spilled the entire basin of water right at the start which she had to clean up, then struggled with the “extraction” machine which was a suction machine. When it finally worked, she only briefly covered t-zone with ~15 strokes and left out the rest of my face. Then came the serum machine which she was also struggling to switch on, dropped entire machine halfway.. that machine was very warm and when it came to the cold shot, she did a cursory swipe and switched off again leaving my face still very warm. Throughout the session, it felt like she was very busy cleaning up spills/drops or getting the machines to work. As there is another therapist right beside who is quite skilled and a fixed clock working against her, it was a miracle she managed to finish at the same time as the other therapist - at the expense of cutting short certain therapy steps and duration for those steps. What at least helped was the receptionist waived off my facial cost but it wouldn’t have helped the 75 mins I spent feeling unrelaxed and...

Me: Forgive me, father, for I have sinned. It's been a while since my last confession.

Priest: What troubles you, my child?

Me: I've been to Orient Spa three times this trip, more than any other spas in Hanoi, let alone Vietnam. More visits to any church I've ever made in my life. I'm not even Catholic, to be honest.

Priest: You don't say... BTW, who's your favourite masseuse?

Me: two, actually. Anh and Yen.

Priest: (long pause) I might actually pop over later. It's just across the road.

Me: Amen

This has gotta be the best massage/spa in Hanoi. Wifey and I have been to a few, but returning 3 times to ONE spa is a testament to how phenomenal this place is.

Situated just next to St. Joseph's cathedral, it's filled with polite staff, scurrying around making sure our needs are tended to.

This is the spa to be if you need a brief respite from the madding crowd and the hustle and bustle of streets of Hanoi. Anh and Yen come highly recommended. Both are super professional, skillful, and attentive to our needs in terms of strength and speed. I was that massive, sore, slab of dough while Anh wondrously knead and work those weary muscles and joints!

Special shout out to jovial and bubbly Hannah (converses in excellent English) and the front desk team for being so awesome. Also, to Hoai(?) Whom I caught dancing next to the counter. You know who you are. Lol!

Reservations come highly...

Very inexperienced staff. Wanted to do a good job and were friendly but did not know how to give a proper neck/shoulder massage or a pedicure. I do not want to be petted like a cat with oil and just have your elbows poked into me. It had even drawn a picture of areas of concern - it was obvious your just doing the same for every client. Got up before massage - if that was what it was supposed to be - was I ER and went to get pedicure - did not cut toe nails even when ask, did not clean under toe nails even when ask, and told me to get up before polish was dry so toes were smudged and scrapped. p Paid then at that point and left. Went down the street a few feet, had the lady te do the pedicure ( trimmed nails, cleaned from under nails, re- polished and gave leg massage) for half of what I had just paid at Oriental. Place wasn't as fancy - put much better quality. Was so disappointed. Staff did try to give money back at Oriental, but also tried to make me feel bad by saying how much trouble they would get in with their manager if I wasn't happy- and of course, then they would also have said the "foreigner" tried to cheat them and she complained so she didn't have to pay. I live in Vietnam, I get spa treatments weekly, this place is high cost, low quality - all bells...