La Maison Da Nang — Restaurant in Vancouver

We knew this was a new Vietnamese restaurant and it was close to home, so we gave it a try.

We came on a Sunday afternoon. It was not too busy before noon. We seated right away. A server brought us a couple of hot water. One cup of hot water looked fine as the water was transparent but the other cup of hot water was yellowish! 😨 my guess was the hot water was mixed with tea but we requested hot water. The server should not bring a cup of clear water and a cup of yellowish or orangey colour of water to us. She should have changed it before serving the customers.

We ordered the salad rolls and two bowls of #28 spicy rare beef, Vietnamese ham and beef balls with vermicelli in soup. The sauce or dip for the salad rolls should taste like peanut flavour, however, I couldn’t taste any peanut flavour at all 🙁it was so different from the salad rolls that I had at other Vietnamese restaurants. The bowl of spicy beef noodles was fine. The table had a small sign and said they would use very little MSG but I still felt very thirty after lunch.

The pricing is reasonable. There is street parking near the restaurant. The restaurant is kind of spacious that it has many tables and chairs. The food came out quickly once we ordered it. However, based on the food quality that I had, I would probably not come back and I would eat Vietnamese food at other restaurants as Lower Mianland has many options. I saw some people rated this restaurant high. They might order other dishes that tasted more delicious than...

Walked by and saw the sandwich board outside with the crab soup. Looked good so tried it out yesterday. Got the BÚN RIÊU/Crab paste vermicelli and BÚN CHẢ GIÒ/Fried rolls vermicelli. I had never tried huyết/congealed pig's blood but heard of the mineral taste. This one was very light and had the consistency of soft tofu. The soup side had the pig's blood, tomato, crab, and tofu. The noodle side had pork hock and I think pork roll. When I tasted the broth initially I thought it was not so sour. I had mistaken the small container of liquid in the bag of shredded cabbage to be hoisin sauce for the fried rolls-it was actually the sour crab paste. After adding it the flavour was more what I expected. Definitely sour, crab, and a fermented flavour. A very good soup. Unfortunately the vermicelli noodles with the fried rolls were overcooked and mushy. The noodles for my soup were perfect. Even after sitting in the soup they kept their texture. I really dislike throwing away food, but the noodles with the fried rolls were just not edible. We had left the shop to eat in a park. I am sure if we were at the restaurant we could have gotten new noodles. I might come again once we feel comfortable dining in/on...

So I really had high hopes for this new clean modern Vietnamese restaurant in my neighbourhood. Sadly, I was quite disappointed. I came on a Thursday afternoon, not busy at all, only 2 other tables.

I was specifically craving clear noodles (made of potato/mung bean) I did not want rice noodles. Upon looking at their menu, they had a page for PHO (rice noodle) and a page for CLEAR noodles. I was pretty excited about it because not many Vietnamese noodles offer the clear noodles. When the food came, I pointed out to the server that I had ordered clear noodles and he said they only had one type of noodles. (Yes, he spoke English) He brought out the cook and she said yes only one type of noodles. I opened up the menu and showed them that it clearly says "CLEAR" noodles on the CLEAR noodle page! They said "no sorry, we don't have." Ok, that's fine. I finished my bowl of seafood PHO but it was bland and the seafood did not have a nice texture, it tasted like frozen overcooked seafood.

I also tried their PHO Tai (rare beef) it was just OK. To top it off, I ordered an ice coffee and it was forgotten. Did I mention there was only 2 other tables?! 🙉🙊🙈

Will not return, will spend my...