Gao Kitchen — Restaurant in Hamburg

Quintessence:

The food was mediocre. The Vietnamese cuisine is not very authentic. The waiters were friendly, polite, and worked fast.

In detail:

My friend and I went to Gao Kitchen on a Tuesday evening around 7pm ish. The restaurant was full and we got one of the few tables that were unoccupied.

I ordered the bun (rice vermicellis) with tofu. The dish was served with rice vermicellis, tofu, different kinds of lettuce, pickled carrots and cabbage, fried onion slices, deep fried onions, mint, coriander and Nước chấm (dipping fish sauce). My friend ordered some kind of red curry with chicken.

I kind of semi liked the dish. The tofu was very well marinated and had a nice taste to it. The fish sauce was already on the bottom of the bowl, whereas the sauce should and is usually served separately. The sauce needed more fish sauce, garlic, more acidity from lemon or lime juice and some spiciness from chilis. They used lamb's lettuce in this dish which I did not appreciate so much, because lamb's lettuce is not really crisp and as soon as it gets in contacts with liquids it becomes mushy. All in all I think it was a mediocre dish, which wasn't very authentic. My friend's curry was also okay.

The waiters were very friendly, polite, and...

I had high expectations due to the crowd and reviews, but after my visit I cannot recommend it. The food like some said, was mediocre. The pho soup- there were noodles, a few pieces of very thin chicken and very few bean sprouts and other things. As someone who eats Vietnamese food a lot, I know the pho I got here was subpar quality. It's almost like the street food you get in Vietnam but you are charged European price. Compared to the pho that I usually eat, those would include a plate of bean sprouts, hoisin sauce and more meat. The noodles would also be more chewy. But that's not the case at Gao. The noodles were too soaked and break easily. On the other hand, service was quick, friendly and ambiance was nice. If it wasn't, it would have...

I land there around 22:20 Initially the person told me that I can not order since the kitchen was closed and then after 5 minutes one other person came and told me that I can order, a bit strange but anyways I was hungry.

The food portion was a lot and I enjoyed it too! The best part of the whole get together with friends but don’t know why I felt that they were in a hurry to close the place.

Exactly at 10:55 they were showing the interest and told us to leave! A bit weird experience...