Nam Son Restaurant — Restaurant in Melbourne

I have been a regular customer here for almost 20 years. Most of my experience has been generally positive, however in the last 1 to 2 years, I have noticed that service here has just dropped dramatically.

This negative review is mainly about my experience today. This review is about the service. NOT the food. The food is great which is why we kept coming, but after today, we may stop coming altogether.

We are a regular customer. We live past Dandenong but we try to have dinner at Nam Son at least once a month, whenever we are in the area.

So today we were in the area and decided to come by for dinner. Here's the three things that really made me write this review.

We walked in, and the lady with the glasses put us in the back room. We sat down and she came over. She didn't greet us or even ask us how we were, she just left the menu and tea and walked away. We knew what we wanted so after 5 mins we hailed her to take our order. Again, barely got any words out of her. She wrote down our order and left without saying a word. We got our order a short time later but I was missing my entre soup. I thought maybe they are making it as sometimes we had parts of our order arrive later. No big deal.

Outside was 36 degrees. The back room was well over 30 degrees. As the family started eating everyone started sweating. He was noticeably HOT. I'd say close to, if not over 30 degrees in the back. NO door open for ventilation, Aircon not even on. By this point the other table had already left so we were the only ones in the restaurant. Not long into eating the heat became unbearable for us. I asked the lady if she could turn the aircon on and she did so without a word. Maybe it annoyed her, I don't know. That was the tipping point. We decided to just leave. I went up to the counter, asked for take away boxes and paid the bill. I asked for a receipt and lo-and-behold, my soup wasn't on the order. At this point I didn't bother to tell her.

As we were leaving the male manager (I'm assuming) came back, and he at least said 'Thank you' to us as we left, but the glasses lady didn't say a thing. Or if she did, it was very quiet.

To sum it up, 1 star for:

Service - NONE. Glasses lady wasn't welcoming, friendly or even responsive, and she forgot part of my order. Didn't say anything when she brought our order. The service here has taken a slide in the last few years I've noticed. Of the last few visits, almost every time I've had to point out that I'm missing something I've ordered or they've gotten part of my order wrong. Not being racist, I'm Asian myself so I keep my orders as simple and understanding as I can to avoid any mix-ups. We get better service when the male manager is there.

Atmosphere - BAD 36 degrees outside, felt pretty close to that inside. Only the front door open for ventilation, aircon wasn't even on until I asked for it to be turned on.

Very disappointed with my experience today, but my wife was especially disappointed not just with today but the last few visits as well. She said she will NOT be coming back.

The food is great value, delicious and affordable, however when the service is lacking to this degree, is it worth it? Especially since we drive 30 mins to...

SCAM! we were looking for best crab noodle soup in springvale and this place came up. We gave it a try on Friday night 2 July. First impression is ok and the front of house/owner lady was nice and chatty. I ordered crab noodle soup which priced $18 as written on the menu and other dishes. Fried wonton came out first then she approached us saying the kitchen made extra fried wontons and asked if we wanted the second/extra serve. We were kind and didn’t want to waste food so we took it. The crab noodle soup came with half of a crab and claw with a couple of pork slices. I thought wow this is good value for $18. My husband’s order was forgotten and came out quite late. Foods were ok and we enjoyed our night until…paying the bill. The bill was double compared to what we normally pay at other places in springvale. We then found out the crab noodle soup wasn $45. The explanation was it was fresh half a crab so it cost $45. $18 one would be only crab meat or softshell crab. I pointed to the menu which did not state fresh crab noodle soup is $45. At no point when ordering she asked if I wanted fresh crab, normal crab meat or softshell crab and price differences between them. She also charged us for the second wonton serving that they made extra. Normally other places would not charge us for their mistake of making extra food. I felt scammed, ripped-off and fooled. I could go to ACCC if I wanted...

Today ate at Nam Son Restaurant. The moment I walked into restaurant, service was on point. Server was attentive, very friendly and was able to provide great communication to customers. The restaurant, itself, well-represents Vietnam. One thing I learnt, from this restaurant, was family. They had a strong bond together, in this restaurant. Despite that, then came the food. First tried the Stir Fried Beef and Rice Noodles. On the positive side, beef was tender, flavourful. Paired well with the sauce. However, the sauce was really sweet. Then I tried the Shaking Beef and Rice. The only I could taste, was the rice and sauce. Rice was fluffy and delicious. Sauce was kind of molasses-like flavour. It was sweet, but with a hit of savouriness to it. But the beef was tastless. Don't think they seasoned the beef. My mom tried the crab soup, and was on point....