Hanoi Hanoi — Restaurant in Dublin

I have come here many many times and was always delighted and full from the decent portions after leaving. I have sent so many people here to eat because i felt like it was one of the most authentic Vietnamese foods in Dublin. Tonight was a totally different story. I am extremely disappointed I couldn’t enjoy my meal. A bowl of pho normally comes with bean sprouts etc on the side. Tonight they were all inside the bowl. There was hardly any noodles I was stunned. The waiter was nice and had it sent back and I requested no bean sprouts. She explained new staff changed the way they serve it. Second time it comes back, exactly the same. 80% bean sprouts 20% noodles. At first I tried to let it go and eat it anyways . I couldn’t. It was overwhelming with just beansprouts. I asked for the beef cooked and it was rare. I had to give it back I barely ate anything. They still wanted to charge me and after arguing with the supervisor for awhile I finally didn’t have to pay for something I didn’t ask for and couldn’t enjoy. Extremely disappointed. He even said he knows i go there often. I won’t recommend it anymore. The portions changed the dish is full of garnish. Waste of money if you had to pay for that. As a Vietnamese person that pho was a joke. The broth was different. New staff need to be trained on how it used to be done. No fault to the waiter, they are always lovely to deal with. €3.50 for a can of 7up as...

The decor is lovely, and this felt like it could've been a far swankier restaurant than the address would suggest, topping its neighbours.

My doubts surfaced after I tried to book a table in advance, and had to remind the waiter to write down my name and the booking details.

On our arrival, i was told that the table I'd been shown earlier wasn't available, as it had been pre-booked (yeah, by ME!). However, another group were sitting there now, so we were shown to a back room.

Our dripping wet coats weren't taken, and when I asked it they had somewhere to hang them, they were put on the back of a chair on a nearby table - on top of each other, so that they not only didn't dry, but actually became wet inside as well. (It's Ireland - a place to put coats and brollies should be factored into your design, guys!)

My friends were served their starters, then mains, before my starter arrived. It finally came, at the same time as my own main. This meant that my main was cold by the time I ate it. Cold duck is not as nice as hot duck, nor noodles. That duck was also cut in a very odd way: huge chunks, each with a bit of bone inside, making it very difficult to eat with chopsticks, despite years of experience using them. Shredded, off the bone duck would have been a better serving option.

Finally, the appetising-sounding ginseng whiskey isn't worth ordering but for satisfying...

Got there for 6.30pm. Didn't get out of there till 9.30pm. Very slow service. The servers, while very pleasant and mild mannered, took ages. Our drinks, starters and mains were drip fed to us so we were always waiting on someone's food or drink to arrive before being able to enjoy anything together. The wait between our starters and mains was around 30 minutes.... I can understand that for something top line, but we ordered a chicken curry, 2 bowls of pho and duck with rice. Trying to get the attention of a server for us to pay took ages. Once got, the server headed off to get our bill which left us waiting around even more. Seeing that same server then serving food, drinks and busying themselves in behind the bar out of my line of view didn't impress. It gave off an air of unfocused chaos to how things were being run.

For the price and the amount of wait time we endured, the food was sub par. Being served hot food on a cold plate does not make me charitable when I write a review on a restaurant experience. All in all, nothing special. I will say this though, the passionfruit and lychee lemonades were a saving grace.

I'm going to put this down to the restaurant being understaffed, or servers being new and inexperienced with their job role, or...