Hoi An House — Restaurant in Christchurch

24th November 2018 - This is a newly opened Vietnamese restaurant that is located in Halswell area. It was previously White House Black [cafe] which has since closed and was replaced by this business (a new proprietor). We went there for a birthday dinner and I didn't make any reservations. We were lucky to get a table for four as they are a busy restaurant. I strongly recommend that you make a reservation as to avoid any disappointment.

We were not expecting too much (we came with an open minded) but since there were plenty of locals (Caucasians), we were thinking the taste must be tailored to their palate. How wrong we were 😅 as the taste was quite authentic.

Anyway, the interior layout is well set up and cosy. The place is dimly lit and it feels kinda good vibe.

There is a bar with a waiting area, for the guests to have drinks while waiting for their tables.

The menu is very straightforward; entrees, à la carte dishes, and desserts. The drinks are on a separate menu.

The menu is not overwhelming (which is a good thing) with choices but rather nicely balanced. They have duck, chicken, beef, pork and many more, and can tailor to suits your taste!

We ordered two entrées; summer rolls (which are fresh spring rolls) and a hawker roll. Let me say this, these are freshly made. The taste was good coming from this restaurant. The fresh spring rolls contain mint leaves inside, which most local Vietnamese restaurants don't have. It made a lot of difference in taste (bear in mind, all Vietnamese spring rolls in Vietnam contain mint leaves). These are served with their chilli sauce. The hawker roll was served with a homemade flat roti (bread), fried fish, crispy shallots and fresh coriander covered with spicy coconut sauce. Quite refreshing to try both entrées.

Now, we ordered four main dishes to share between 4 people; chop chop “bun” ha noi, lemongrass chicken, mekong fish salad and traditional Vietnamese noodle soup. We glad to have ordered these dishes as the kids love it (so do we, the adults) especially the mekong fish salad and the traditional Vietnamese noodle soup. All the dishes have its distinct taste and flavour.

Mekong fish 🐟 salad was refreshing; fresh herbs, spicy and sour with tangy taste. The traditional Vietnamese noodle soup was delicious due to the strong flavor of chicken broth/ soup. They use small rice flat noodles and served with fresh bean sprouts, coriander, mint, sliced chili 🌶️ and lime. The lemongrass chicken 🐔🍗has a strong turmeric flavour and might not be everyone's couple of tea. As for the last dish (chop chop “bun” ha noi), enough said. You need to try it yourself 😜. One thing I will say is that the pork 🐷 tasted similar to Malaysian 🇲🇾 satay.

Overall, it was a fantastic experience for the first visit to this brand new Vietnamese restaurant.

Good portion sizes.

This is a child-friendly restaurant.

This is a licensed (🍻🍸🍷🍾🍹🍺) eatery and not a BYO. There is outdoor dining area.

There is onsite parking 🅿.

They accept cash and EFTPOS including credit card payments (Paywave payments are not available, for those who want to know).

Would I go back? Yes 😀. Well worth a try and you will not be disappointed. Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of 5. It was yummy 😋. Ambience: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of 5. Relax and cosy. Price: ⭐⭐⭐ out of 5. Premium pricing compared to other Vietnamese restaurants in Christchurch. However, the standard of this eatery is very similar to a fine dining restaurant. Customer service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of 5. Professional service and very...

We had also tried to reach out via email, but never heard back. Just shows you that this business does not value customer feedback!

A few nights ago , my wife and I visited your restaurant (Hoi An) and overall had a good meal and experience, until there was an issue with our order. We had ordered a starter of fries. When it didn’t come out with our other starters, we assumed it would arrive with the mains. When it still didn’t arrive with the mains, we assumed it would be coming shortly after.

Eventually, I inquired with the server about the fries, and she said she would check. After 10–15 minutes, with our mains almost finished, I signalled to let her know the fries were no longer needed. She responded that they were on their way, but I explained there was no point anymore, as our meals were nearly over. Despite this, she continued to insist they were ready, and I repeated that they were meant to be served before or with the mains at this point, they served no purpose.

Instead of acknowledging the issue, she rolled her eyes and walked away. She never returned to apologise or explain what had happened.

We had been looking forward to dessert, but due to how we felt we were treated — especially the hostile attitude of the server we decided to leave. As business owners ourselves, we always appreciate giving direct feedback before leaving a public review. However, this experience honestly warrants a one-star review.

Her attitude was unacceptable. If she is new, she should not be serving alone. And if there was a manager on duty, they should have stepped in to apologise and help resolve the issue. To this moment, we still don’t know if the problem was due to the server, the kitchen, or a system issue.

Even when it came time to pay, her attitude remained unprofessional. She didn’t say thank you or goodbye, even after my wife did. We understand that people can have bad days, we all do but that’s never an excuse to treat customers poorly. This staff member clearly needs support and further training, and the duty manager should have been more present and involved.

Be warned when going here, we have been to a large amount of restaurants in our time and never experienced this. Like I said we tried reaching out and never heard back clearly they don’t want to listen and don’t want to improve for you, so do no...

Truly abysmal. Went for dinner with a reservation on valentine's day, nice atmosphere and were promptly seated and had our orders taken. After waiting 45 minutes, one drink had arrived (we ordered two) and we were wondering what was happening. Another 10 minutes later a waiter (different person than tbe one who initially took our order) came and asked us if we had ordered yet.

We told them we had, they apologized and took our orders again, we asked how long it would be, were not given an answer and were left to ourselves. At this point we'd had enough so we got up, paid for our drinks and left.

So in summary we sat for over an hour, were never served any food whatsoever.

No apology or explanation was given as we paid for the drinks and left.

I have never had such abysmal service at a restaurant before, this restaurants service is an absolute joke and needless to say we will never be returning. Thanks for wasting...