VN Street Foods — Restaurant in Sydney

Disappointed; Average value, poor taste.

Ordered the traditional pho and a 5 meal set. Pho looked promising unfortunately, the broth tasted sharply of stale spices, suspiciously like stock pho cubes. The cuts of meat were good, and they did use a different variety of rice noodle(ropier) which was a refreshing change however I prefer the other kind.

The tomato rice was not tomato rice at all, but red bean rice that was slightly sweetened. Satay chicken was overpoweringly sweet, I had to really strain to try to taste other flavours, peanut was definitely absent. The coating of sauce was thin and I doubt the meat was marinated. Lotus seed pickle was overpoweringly gingery. The vegetables didn't have any fish sauce or savouriness to them, it was just occaisonal hints of garlic. To put into perspective how bad the set was, my huge 1.95m bf who's always finished what he gets did not finish or take away any of it.

Cocnut jelly was the saving grace, genuinely made, had 2 layers, a cream jelly and juice jelly. Honestly it's the main reason I'm not giving the place 1 star. After writing my review and reflecting on the food rather than my dining experience with my dog and bf I am tempted to.

Value; okay. Taste; poor. Quality; medium, the ingredients were actually fresh and authentic, just not cooked to their potential. The place is pay right after you order, and they do have outdoor seating. Staff didn't voice concern over dog outside .

Recommendations for improvement; broth needs huge improvement. Change chef or review recipes for your set menu.

I may give the place another try but I don't...

Positive

I love Vietnamese food.

I love the location of this one on the doorstep of train station.

I did enjoy a lemongrass beef with fried rice. I will return for that dish again.

Negative

I just dont get excited at the prospect of a lot of the dishes VN Food serves.

I know they can get busy, and getting a table is difficult. I wont even get into how low the tables are when you do manage to snare one. I am 6'3 its a long way down!! I know this is how it is in Vietnam

I find the whole go in to order, go in to pay, get your own drink, wipe your own table, go in to collect food when its ready is on the one hand a way to save money on waiters/waitress' and maybe increase efficiency of getting food out by staff being dedicated to preparing food but if there is no service it defeats purpose of eating out. What rating does one give for service when you do everything but take the order?

I think Marrickville has a good happy medium. They clean tables and bring food out. Thats it, but it's just enough.

I think the serving sizes are just not quite enough food as well...! Tried an additional dish betal leaf pork with vermicelli but that was additional $16 and was then too much!!

Price is steep for what you get at Wolli creek store $46 for two of us one dish each and drink each and one serve consisting of two chicken avocado fresh spring...

Second time I've been here. The first time was at the Marrickville store, second time at Wolli Creek. Both times were pretty bad experiences. Both times I got the "Bento Box" and they were not too flash. I expected succulent meat for the Grilled Lemongrass Pork, but the entire thing was just pieces of fat! I literally did not get to eat any pork, just the fat. It was so gross. It was also really hot today and they did not have any fans or anything. If they are willing to waste electricity by leaving on their lights in broad daylight, why don't they invest it in installing some cheap fans? Even a portable one would have saved us from sitting there so uncomfortably on their low and hard seats. I'm not even tall but my back was hurting by the time I finished my meal. Also, the avocado shake was just horrid. The consistency wasn't creamy and the taste was just off. I've been drinking avocado shakes my while whole life but I've never had one this bad. I've also never had any Vietnamese food this bad before. The pho however is not bad,the coconut water lychee mint drink refreshing, and the spring rolls were large and absolutely delicious. I really hate to write a bad review as the staff were really nice, but its the second time VN Street foods has disappointed us. Also, what kind of a Vietnamese restaurant doesn't serve...