Viet Kitchen — Restaurant in Melbourne

We gave this place a go today and got rare beef pho and the duck coleslaw salad here because our usual favourite restaurants were closed (Xmas week).

The pho broth was sweeter than most other places and also had multiple chunks of ginger in it which I have not experienced before at other Viet restaurants (I understand it may contribute to the stock flavour, but it is not usually included in the served soup). The beef was also not as tender as most other places. The duck coleslaw was also quite sweet, but the flavour was decent.

Most worryingly was the cleanliness of the restaurant. The bottom of the water serving bottle was dirty and had algae starting to grow, so we didn't drink water. They were obviously not regularly cleaned with a bottle brush and are instead just topped up repeatedly. The door leading to the hallway to the toilet was extremely dirty and had clearly not been cleaned in a long time, particularly on the side coming from the toilet. The white tile splashback near the register was dirty, particularly near the right had side electrical power point which was so covered in filth it was literally brown... It makes me really worry how clean their kitchen must be if they leave the customer visible areas this unclean.... Yuck. We did point out the dirty water bottle and door issues to staff at the end of the meal, so I really hope they have addressed this asap.

All up, the food portion sizes were decent, the prices were reasonable and the staff were fine, but I wont be returning as there is better quality food and cleaner restaurants to choose from...

Visited a few months ago with a friend and just found the time to write a review. I was really disappointed with your complacency regarding meat-free food. After visiting a nearby popular restaurant and finding no vegetarian Pho there, we left and came to Viet Kitchen since there were more vegetarian options on the menu. We waited a while for our order to be taken and had to wave down the staff. We were really hungry after searching around for restaurants and then waiting around 40mins for our food. Probably quicker to order take-away and go home. On a positive note the staff apologised for the delays and perhaps we went on an unusually understaffed night. But I am not prepared to go back after what happened with the food. As a starter we ordered 8 spring rolls, 4 vegetarian for myself and the other 4 pork for my friend. They came on the same plate, looking the same, with no explanation upon delivery. I then called the waited over who explained the bigger ones were pork, but looking the same, my friend had to try each one to distinguish the filling. They tasted good. A little different to what they normally taste like. After getting the go-ahead to eat 4 spring rolls, the 5th one also got a nod for being vegetarian. Oh no... At this point I realised I most likely ate pork. Some did taste a little different to carrots and cabbage. For future customers, please seperate spring rolls for those who wish to eat meat-free. Overall the Pho was yum, the staff were apologetic about delays, but disappointed since we chose your restaurant for its vegetarian...

The congee was disappointing. I never expect congee to be visually BROWN and in SOUP with no rice visible at all. Someone posted a photo of their congee here on Google Review and mine looked 3x worse. I’ve had century egg congee and fish congee on the regular my whole life because it’s comfort food and something you always eat when you’re sick, and they’re always nice-looking, appetizingly white-ish, like RICE is! Congee is not just mushy rice drowning in SOUP. And not BROWN soup. It looked disgusting. And as a side note, why even fill up the volume with so much liquid especially when it’s packed to go? And the ingredients were also disappointing. To make up the fish portion of the seafood congee, fish balls were used in addition to 2 cubes of fish fillet. I’ve never had fish balls in a fish or seafood congee. There was a heck of a load of ginger, the soup was overwhelmingly ginger and pepper. And there was no chinese donut to go with the congee!

We also ordered other items with similar opinions from the other eater. Plain, one-dimensional peppery flavour in both brothy dishes, everything was wetter and mushyier than they should have been. Crispy pork in the dish called “crispy pork claypot” wasn’t even packed separately, they were soaking in the broth and closer to braised than anything else. We didn’t take long to pick up and start eating but it had NO semblance of crisp, like it was never crispy. Also, AGAIN WITH SO MUCH LIQUID. Why would a claypot broth be a freaking SOUP?

No one was happy and I’m offended...