Miss Saigon Vietnamese Noodle House Windermere — Restaurant in Edmonton

Came into the restaurant about a week ago (April 23) with my boyfriend at around 11 PM. It wasn’t busy, only one other couple was in the restaurant at the time. There were 3 servers present. The girl at the front was really friendly and greeted us, she recognized we were regulars at the whyte ave location. It was our first time trying the Windermere location and were really excited to eat after a long day. After we sat we looked at the menus. We were discussing what to order and was approached by the male in tattoos and asked if we were ready and we simply said no because we needed more time. He proceeded to leave and clean tables. A few mins pass by and we were ready to order. There is still only one other couple at the restaurant at this point. One employee was sitting with their phone in a booth, the other was sitting at the bar and the other was just refilling sauces. 5-10 minutes go by and we waited patiently as the servers looked “occupied” and thought someone would come by when they were free, eventually it became around 15-20+ more mins. We even put our menus to the corner of the table and me and my boyfriend even stopped talking to pretty much signal we were ready to order. The restaurant was pretty much dead silent. Throughout this time the two employees were still sitting on their phones and the other was just walking around wiping things. The person walking around walked past us multiple times. We thought he would’ve asked if we were ready but it honestly seemed as though he was purposefully ignoring us. I work in customer service as well and I usually don’t get upset because I understand how it is, but there were no customers present, we waited patiently, and we were not rude to the employees at all. There were 3 employees present for one couple. None attended to us until 30+ mins later. We were going to leave because we were getting hungry and sleepy, but the girl finally approached us and apologized. From this experience alone, especially for it being my first time at this location. I cannot recommend this restaurant as the service made the rest of my experience subpar. When our food arrived we weren’t even hungry anymore because we were just upset at that point. It honestly ruined my day as I was looking forward to having dinner with my boyfriend after coming from a long day at work. It is really disappointing to see how the service at this location is worse, especially when there is 1-2 tables for 3 servers to oversee versus the other location with what it feels like 15+ tables with 3-4 servers. I still enjoy your food, nothing wrong with it, I will still gladly visit your whyte ave location. But will most likely never step foot in the windemere location again because of...

It's alright.

First impressions: Awkward. We came to eat on a late Saturday afternoon (4:30ish). Wasn't busy at all. They had maybe 3 - 4 tables that were occupied. Upon entering, we were not greeted whatsoever. We made eye contact with one of the staff a couple times as she chatted with her coworker. We realized later that they may have been talking about where to seat us, but it would have been nice to at least been greeted with a "Hi, we'll be right with you" because it was rather awkward to just stand there. Even while seating us, it felt like they were unsure of their decision of where they placed us.

Food: Adequate. I ordered a Double Doubowl with Bun Bo Hue and Pho Satay. It was alright but I felt the amount of noodles was a bit lacking. Meat tasted fresh. Noodles had a good texture. I'm not used to seeing huge chunks of tomatoes in the Pho Satay so I didn't really like that. I would've preferred that they were sliced thinner. I felt like the broth was a bit plain. It didn't have enough of the peanuty satay flavour. The BBH broth tasted good but a bit on the oily side.

Price: Definitely pricier compared to the usual price. ie. $16-18 per bowl vs $13-15.

Service: Amateur. I felt like they hired a bunch of high school or university students who have never worked a restaurant job before. The servers who bring food to the table just put it down and walk away. You thank them and get no response. It's not a big deal but little things like this add up to the overall service experience. They seem like they were more busy chatting and hanging out by the bar area with their Tim Hortons coffee than they were working. The only server that was nice was the one going around refilling water. Overall I felt like they didn't meet the basic requirements. It's a huge difference compared to their Whyte Ave location.

Atmosphere: I liked the interior decor. Definitely not the usual decor you'd see in a Vietnamese restaurant.

Other: They have alcohol on their menu but can't serve it because of the lack of an alcohol license.

I probably wouldn't come here unless it's a late night meal and everywhere else is closed. The food is adequate, but given the price, it's not my first choice. It's nice though that they offer a half and half option that no other Vietnamese restaurant that I've been to does. The service though is seriously lacking and amateur, so I hope they improve on that. I know everyone starts somewhere but I think they should at least have someone older with more experience there to...

I was looking forward to the opening of this location so badly, because we used to drive out to Whyte ave often just to go to Miss Saigon. However, I was not too impressed with the service on my visit yesterday. The food itself was great, but there was certainly room for improvement especially for families with little ones.

We asked for a high chair for my toddler, and we were told there was only one and it was being used by somebody else. The server said she will go check if there are more high chairs. (But you just told us there was only 1?) Before returning back to let us know what was going on, she started bringing food from the kitchen to other tables and she continued on with her other tasks. In the meanwhile, another server comes and pours water, and asked if we needed anything or ready to order. We told her that we are still waiting to hear back from someone else who just went to check if there is another high chair somewhere. Again, she said there's only one, but now we were offered a booster seat. We told her we are totally fine with booster seat, and now she brings it to our table, but instead of hooking it up to the chair herself, she just tosses it at my husband and says, "you must know how to use this."

We ordered 1 regular house special and 1 large house special, two appetizers. After being served appies, the server brought a regular size bowl and gave it to me. When my husband's bowl arrived, we noticed that the soup was in a different color and it wasn't ours. Apparently, it belonged to a different table, and mine was a different menu as well. Instead of taking back my bowl, I was asked if I'd be okay to add on additional toppings myself, if she brings them in a separate bowl. Since I did not want to wait any further, I said it's fine.

We weren't getting served bean sprouts and mint along with the pho. We started our pho already because the servers weren't bringing anything to our table, and nobody was checking on our table either. Finally when somebody came to pour more water, we asked for bean sprouts and mint.

We will certainly come back again, because we love the food itself. However, I was not too impressed with the whole experience yesterday and hope for improvement. At the same time, I want to put it out there especially for families with little ones because I have never been to a single restaurant with only...