Indochine Vietnamese Restaurant — Restaurant in Melbourne

This used to be my local favorite. I returned for the first time in years. What a terrible and disappointing experience.

We made a booking at this restaurant, yet when we arrived, there was a queue outside. Naturally, we went inside, assuming our reservation would be honored. Instead, the male owner who was seating guests accused us of cutting the queue—even after we explained that we had a booking. He outright refused to serve us and let three other groups from the queue in first, blatantly ignoring us. He then put our group of 5 on a table that usually seats 4. That was our introduction to this place—rude and unprofessional.

As for the food? Overpriced and completely underwhelming. I expected better given how busy the place was, its reviews and my over 10 years old memories, but I was wrong. My lemongrass beef vermicelli bowl (bún) was a disaster—zero lemongrass flavor, dry and overcooked beef, and a bland fish sauce. To make matters worse, the dish lacked pickled carrots, a basic component of this meal. Instead, they just threw in plain cut carrots. My friend’s son ordered beef pho, and shockingly, it arrived without the usual side plate of herbs.

How this place is so popular is beyond me. It was a complete letdown, and I will never be returning.

To the owner: If you can’t respect reservations, don’t take them. Accusing customers of queue-jumping, making them wait, and treating them like an inconvenience is unacceptable. Just because your restaurant is busy doesn’t give you the right to be rude and dismissive. No customer should have to endure such treatment.

P.S.: The person who took our order was friendly, but that doesn't erase the awful first impression. The way we were treated upon arrival was completely unacceptable. I'm giving the service a 2 solely because of the table service—otherwise, based on that initial experience, it...

Food was average but we love premium wines in life. We ordered 3 bottles of wine for our dinner. First was year 2020, then moved to 2018 and then ordered 2017 wines from cheapest $60 to $75 for the four of us. Wrong bottle of wine 2023 delivered to us and the goring noodles and salad were too sweet and we didn’t event complaint. But rather I raised my feedback and their mistake to them first to the lady owner then to the male owner Mr Indochine. No acknowledgement from them or no emotion or comfort or concern from them for my friendly feedback. I was infuriated inside and confused what and where customer service was. I was the first time having Vietnamese food in Box Hill ( which I only go to St Albans, Footscray, Springvale for my Vietnamese fix, quality and service guaranteed). Two owners ignored my comments and feedback, WORSE was that they showed no emotion and spoke no words but to me and continued on with their errands as if nothing or no one spoke to them. I felt like as if had only ordered or spent $20 dollars set menu. Each wine was over $60 x3 plus 6 dishes hence the bill actually came to $400 for 4 of us. Tell me if I was wrong in...

I have been dining at this restaurant for 20 years and this is the first time in all my life I have ever been "kicked out" of any eatery. The service given to my friends and I this evening was absolutely appalling. The manager on the floor was constantly glaring at us and pushing us to order, and when our food finally arrived, he came and shuffled our tables across to fit more customers, whilst the uneaten food was on the table! The restaurant was busy but the other half of their hall was completely empty so we had no idea why it was necessary to move our tables, whilst sloshing our food everywhere! Then one of our friends arrived late and ordered her meal whilst we were eating, and before she was evening half way through her dinner the manager again came to our table and quite rudely asked when we would be finished stating that he wanted to sit other waiting customers! We had made reservations and intended for a lovely girls night out which was completely ruined. After receiving such terrible service and continued pressure from the manager my friend gave up on her food and said we should just leave. I will never...