A&J Vietnamese Restaurant — Restaurant in Armidale

We’ve been on the road for 10 days and, sadly the takeaway dinner that we got from A&J Vietnamese was the worst meal we had in the entire trip. To be honest, it was one of the worst we’ve ever had. I rarely do ‘bad’ reviews - but I’ve decided it wouldn’t be fair to other travellers to only post the ‘good’ ones.

The reviews that I read for A&J talked about the freshness of the food. I had the Crispy Chicken & Vegetables. The chicken definitely tasted like it had been cooked a couple of days earlier .. and the “vegetables” consisted of a soggy lettuce leaf topped with cucumber and grated carrot. Not the fresh ‘vegetables’ I was hoping for.

We also ordered a fried rice … but, when we got back to our accommodation and opened the container, it was a pork chop with steamed rice .. and a lettuce leaf, cucumber and carrot. It was obviously someone else’s (sad) meal .. but it taught us to always check the containers before driving off.

As I don’t like to knock a small business, I hope the restaurant takes this as constructive criticism and improves the quality of the meals. And, if they state the meal comes with vegetables, they shouldn’t provide what is considered to be ‘salad’ in Australia (a meagre...

The thing I love the most about Vietnamese cuisine is its freshness - coming from crisp aromatic herbs and fresh veggies. Sadly my pho was desperately lacking in freshness. Only a single sad and wilted basil twig and bean sprouts which were turning brown. Not a sprig of mint nor a single vegetable, no fresh chilli in sight! The chicken was tough and dry and a total bummer. The atmosphere was also terrible. The only sounds were the hum of refrigeration, clanging from the kitchen and the chewing sounds and slurps from a nearby table. Need a Bluetooth speaker stat people! Service was a little inattentive but mostly fine. Won't be...

The best ! We came for dinner and have ordered some fried spring rolls for entrée (they made them, not those Chinese frozen weird cheap nuts as you can buy from Woolies or Coles) and to bowl of Pho (beef rice noodles soup). Absolutely amazing and tasty as f^#k! As a Vietnamese traveller who away from home and haven't been in Vietnam for such a long time, their food made me so happy and can't wait to come back next time when I pass Armidale again. And last but not least, I've found they also have the traditional Vietnamese Iced coffee,...