Hanoi Phở — Restaurant in Budapest

I am a Vietnamese currently living and working in Budapest. This evening, I had dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant located in the city center. In terms of food quality, I would say it was quite decent – especially the Nha Trang grilled spring rolls, which were well-prepared, flavorful, and clearly showed the effort of the kitchen team.

However, I’m giving this place only 3 stars due to the disappointing customer service experience. Right from the moment I walked in, the staff member showed an unfriendly attitude, and even appeared to look down on the customers. Her posture – such as standing with one hand on her hip or leaning with both arms on the table while speaking to guests – came across as disrespectful and unprofessional. Having spent 4 years as a manager at a high-end restaurant in Hanoi, I find this kind of behavior completely unacceptable. It reflects a street-market, rough manner that has no place in hospitality.

I would like to offer this feedback sincerely to the owner: by naming your restaurant “Hà Nội,” you are not only choosing a name, but also representing the capital of our country. Every action, every element of service carries the image of Vietnam to the outside world. Please don’t let the hard work of so many people – from the founders to the kitchen team – be tarnished by the careless attitude of a single staff member. Don’t let short-term revenue become more important than long-term brand value.

As a business owner myself here in Budapest, I deeply understand the importance of maintaining the image of our homeland abroad. A 5-star rating should reflect excellence across all aspects – food, atmosphere, and service. If even one part falls short, it can cast a shadow over everything else.

I hope the business takes this feedback in a constructive spirit and makes the necessary improvements. I truly believe the restaurant has strong potential – if it genuinely respects its customers and upholds the cultural...

First of all, we have been here before and the food and the service was good. So we were very dissapointed when we returned today. We had a gift card which in our understanding had 16000Ft for two people and the waiter couldn’t check the balance for some reason and gave us a vague idea of what the card can be used for. There wasn’t any dim sum, which is a staple item, so it was weird that they didn’t have it tonight. After waiting a long time, like 20 minutes, we recieved the starters which were excellent, again we waited 15 minutes for the soup, which was also very good. And then came the main course, after 40 minutes of waiting, it is absolutely questionable why we had to wait that long because there was one table other than us, and the food was obviously microwaved, the vegetables and the seafood were undercooked and cold which is very dangerous in the case of the seafood. We told the waiter or problems, to which he confessed that the kitchen was unprepared and not working well that day. He should have told us this before we ordered anything, that the food is not of good quality. We asked for a discount but we really shouldn’t have paid for that much, because we didn’t eat any of our maincourses. They shouldn’t serve customers if the kitchen is unprepared. It was a...

Really bad service. We got in with just a dropping off the menu without even receiving a simple greeting "Hi" from the waiter. Even when we checked out, he didnt ask us if the food was good or not, not even a word or smile- I dont know if it is normal here in Budapest but in Asia or in Netherlands, it is considered to be rude. The taste of food was okay enough, a little bland for us but nothing special. The atmosphere was cozy which is suitable for families. I would never come back here even though...