Viet Pearl — Restaurant in Melbourne

the short version: food was on the bland side and the timing of the food out of the kitchen was poor. I waited 10mins after the first entree for mine and 20 minutes for my main after the first was on the table. I will stick to my local 'spit and sawdust' places in Springvale. Long version: We arrived as a party of 5 last night (sat) around 8pm and I was surprised that it was less than 1/3 full with most tables eating mains so didn't expect any delays, however, my starter arrived a good 10 minutes after the first and my brother's summer rolls, which lacked seasoning, were a good 5 minutes after that. When it came to the mains we ordered one each with a fried rice and singapore noodle for the table. The delay in mains was even longer than the starters. I ordered the squid with curry a dish I have enjoyed in Springvale but not only did it arrive 20 minutes after the first main but it had little flavour from a hint of a thin curry sauce and no chilli; the tomato rice arrived a further 5 minutes after that! I realise that in todays supposed 'health conscious' world places are cutting down on salt/msg and other flavour enhancers but if they compromise the eating pleasure then what is the point? I think I will stick to my localplaces in Springvale which have a more 'spit and sawdust' feel but at this place the increase in finesse is not worth the...

Food: The lemongrass sizzling squid was great, $19 for squid with capsicum, carrots and onions. The springrolls aren’t recommended. They were quite basic. The proportion of actual meals is good tho, not too much or too little. If you want a lot tho for cheap price I recommend the crispy/soft noodles.

Service: quick and easy, answered questions well and was patient. The food came out around 7-10 minutes after ordering which is quite quick.

Ambiance: clean and well organised, can fit a lot of people in, typical suburban Vietnamese restaurant style. Nice lighting. No music.

Recommend to go to this place if you’re in the area. Nothing too special so if you live on the other side of Melbourne it’s not worth coming all the way here just for Viet Pearl lol but is great if you’re nearby and craving some tasty quality...

The food was ok but I confess that I really get annoyed by people eating with the mouth open and making loud noises, unfortunately they were the staff members on the table next to me. I think the food is a bit overpriced for what it is. Another thing that annoyed me is that they have a menu on the glass facing outside with one price, and the menu inside with a more expensive price, tricking potential customers. When asking some questions about the sugarcane juice they have the guy who I was talking to wasn’t understanding what I was asking which made the conversation a bit awkward. The sugarcane juice was an industrialized product and not freshly made, and to be honest it was the worst sugarcane juice...