Nem Vietnamese Fusion House — Restaurant in Waitematā

I love Vietnamese food and really wanted to try it out from the amazing reviews. It was my Birthday aswell so we wanted an experience. I felt a little disappointed in my honest opinion. Presentation and aesthetic was there, however I felt like the food we had wasnt as fresh as what we expected. The calamari we ordered was very chewy and rubbery. It was quite hard to swallow.

My pho I received, I felt like the noodles were very soft and overcooked. It was literally breaking while i was using the chop stick that i ended up using a spoon. The broth felt like it was reheated rather thn that fresh aroma of vietnamese pho.

My husband ordered the 'bun cha' which looked real fancy coming out, but the meat stew did not taste fresh. It was also rubbery like it was reheated in a microwave. We can also tell that, by sitting near the kitchen, the microwave was consistently being used fo reheat food rather thn cook. I dont mean to say these things to be rude and unhumble, but I was just let down a bit. Im glad we didnt order dessert, as I saw one of the cheifs defrosting frozen mango presumably for the mango sago dessert (we were going to order it but opted not too).

In future, i wont be coming back as the experience wasnt as amazing as...

Located on Parnell Road, The restaurant entrance is down some stairs from the main road, just keep an eye out for the signs and menu board. The interior looks quite nice, traditional but also quite modern with quite a lot of wood. A bit dim but quite a nice and comfortable atmosphere. The initial service was good, given a table and water and menus. It wasn't to hard to flag someone to take our order. They didn't check up much after ordering though, only topping up water when asked. The food had nice flavours. We had the summer rolls and the calamari chips to start off with. The summer rolls were nice with the dipping sauce but did have quite a bit of lettuce. The calamari chips were interesting, crispy and a little spicy in chip form. Dad had the Pho and the broth was a bit on the salty side. I had the bun cha and it didn't come out as I expected. An interesting presentation and the flavours were quite nice, although it was hard to tell if it was grilled since it didn't have that charry flavour. Also tried the pandan crepe roll for dessert. The crepe was really good but the dish was lacking the coconut flavour. A nice place for Vietnamese food but it did look a bit different than other places but the flavours...

I had booked online the day before ie Fri for Sat 8pm for 4 people on time slot available but they had no record. We arrived early 7.40pm. Very busy. But they managed to fit us in and we were seated 10mins later. The food was fresh and flavoursome, we ordered most of seafood n chicken dishes, as 2 in our number do not eat beef or pork. We had scallops stood out as best entree, calimari and ? For our mains Papaya salad, aubergine, flaming prawns, chicken steaks, green fish curry all delighted our palates. We ordered 4 cocktails and dessert, sago, black rice n ice cream. We enjoyed our meal but only 1 criticism when the food came it all came almost together main dish came with entrees n the roti n rice almost came at end of meal(requested early on but still came late) when most of saucy dishes were already consumed. In the end I felt our dining experience was rushed rather than a leisurely savouring of each of the dishes. We were one of the last to leave but looking at watch was only 9.15pm. Hence 4 stars on this visit, will come again but maybe for leisurely lunch or...