The Vnam Kitchen - Vietnamese cuisine — Restaurant in North Island

The food was good however the service was not great and made us feel unwelcome.

The place was busy and they operate on an “order, pay then take a seat” basis. There were no tables and the workers did not attempt to help facilitate customers with seating. Many people who hadn’t paid for their food rushed to the seats so we were left standing although we had ordered and paid for our food before their arrival. When there was finally a free table we sat down and we were told to leave the table as it is reserved for 6:30pm which was 20minutes away. I asked if we could sit until 6:30 while we wait for another table. The waitress did not respond and dismissed my question and simply put the “reserved” sign on our table. Without saying anything they cleared the dishes that were on the table then brought out our spring rolls. At this point the table was not wiped clean, we did not have cutlery or napkins and we were not given any water. Every other table had the standard of service listed above. There was zero communication at any point. It was very disappointing as I had high hopes for this restaurant as our family were visiting from overseas. I have always been proud of the kiwi hospitality and kindness to my family overseas but we were utterly disappointed today. All in all the other waitresses were kind and respectful. However I do feel that it was unfair that we paid for our food and we were not given any service and we were made to feel unwelcome at the Vnam Kitchen. I understand it is difficult when there are a lot of customers however I think the situation could have been handled a lot better with good...

We walked past this on our way to Rotorua Duck Tour along Fenton Street. This caught our attention with the crowd and the lovely aroma. We decided to drop by this place for lunch on the day. We were greeted by a friendly waitress who offered us a menu as we waited for our seats. Within 10 minutes we got our seats and the food arrive shortly. We ordered pho (Vietnamese noodles), Vietnamese springrolls and Vietnamese drip coffee.

The food was outstanding, especially the clear broth with a good portion of vegetables (bean sprouts to be exact). The glass noodles were cooked nicely, slippery, soft - causing a tendency to slurp (which is a great thing). The broth felt light but tasty, not overly salty. The beef was tender and nice. We made the mistake to keep the beef too long in the soup, causing some of the latter pieces to be tougher. At the same time, the non fried spring roll was really nice. All of us preferred this to the crispy one we ordered. The coffee was a nice and sweet ending to the meal.

In fact, it was so good that we returned for dinner. One of the stand out dish was the grilled pork with rice. The meat was flavourful and went well with the sweet chilli sauce provided. It was no wonder that there was a good number of customers who ordered this. Clearly one of the signature dishes of the restaurant.

We finished our dinner slightly past their closing hours but they did not hurry us at all. By the way, this restaurant offered free wifi and of course, my first world kids loved it. highly...

Food was actually good and reasonably priced but: . . . . . -we waited more than 30mins for our meal because our order was missed. Apologies made by staff but still it wasnt a good experience seeing ALL 3 other tables had their food before us, we ordered 2nd and right before the first table ordered. Staff could have easily seen this when she brought food to other tables but she didnt realise until I called her( after waited 20mins and other tables around us had food).

-meals were made but its once again was wrong. We ordered lemongrass pork chop on rice but got grilled pork instead. We couldnt wait for it to be remade again. Once again, apologies made and we were given $1 refund due to difference in price of the meals, should have been handled differently. Not a good experience to have, we didnt need the $1 refund tbh and too tired to argue. Its been a long day. Overall, the food was good but the entire experience ruined our meal.

We just wanted some good, enjoyable vnese meals at rotorua why is it so hard :( probs we visited on an unusual day of the restaurant, we work in hospo so we could somewhat empathise the mistakes but could have been...