Em Ha Noi - Em Hà Nội Restaurant BGC — Restaurant in Taguig

What we ordered: fried and fresh spring rolls, pomelo & shrimp salad, seafood fried rice, lemongrass iced tea, milk coffee (iced)

Spring rolls are as expected. But the sauce that came with it was really good. It's the same with the salad. I think we'll order these 3 dishes again just because of the sauce. The fried rice was also good but somehow dry. I would also recommend the drinks that we ordered. Too bad they didn't have egg coffee.

Some things they need to improve or fix. There's water dripping near the entrance and it looks like this hasn't been fixed for quite a while now. The bamboo style chairs, while it looks nice, are not comfortable. Some of them already needs replacement. Tables are also small, will be a problem if you're a group and ordered lots of food for sharing.

They have a "VIP" room but it's at the back. You'll need to go outside just to call someone. And we were in that room since the place was quite full and we had 2 kids. I think it was the manager who served us but it seems she's not used to taking orders and wasn't familiar with their menu. She even sent the wrong food (fried shrimp w/ garlic) to which she said that it was the salad that we ordered. Clearly it wasn't. We also requested spoon and fork multiple times which never came.

We wished the glasses for our drinks were also bigger. It's so slim only an infant's hand can fit in.

Food is delicious and we'll get the pho next time, IF we do come back. I'd recommend their food but dining experience was a let down.

Sorry no pictures in this review, the kids were...

The food is actually pretty good Vietnamese food but it’s really expensive for what it is. The Hoi An chicken is literally just 2 pieces of fried chicken in sweet chili sauce with rice and some vegetable sides and it was 490 already.

Anyway what really ticked me off was the attitude of the staff. We dined Sunday evening and in the buss out area there was this staff who was being very mean to the other staff, criticizing them for rendering OT and was being very mean towards another staff member who seems Vietnamese. He kept unnecessarily shouting the orders to the back of the kitchen very loudly that everyone in the restaurant can hear it. On top of that he had this frown on his face and kept crossing his arms and imagine he was stationed very near the entrance of the restaurant (and very near our table) and this really ruined our experience. the other staff member also seemed to not be trained properly as they keep talking among themselves when not attending to anyone and making all these weird noises.. they also seem to not have a good grip on the orders because there was this guy who just kept asking the other staff who ordered the thing he had on his hands. I hate to be that person being very critical of restaurant staff but for the price and location of this joint, the staff are just reallt behaving poorly and ruining what could've been a perfectly...

Chaotic, Disorganized, and Underwhelming

Avoid the lunch rush-or the second floor-if you can. This was easily the most chaotic sit-down dining experience I’ve had.

We arrived just before noon. The first floor was full, but no problem-they had a second floor. Menus were handed out, and orders were taken.

First red flag: The server had to check her own menu, seemingly unsure of the dish names. Second red flag: After 10 minutes, she came back and asked us to repeat our orders because she lost the list. And from there, things just kept getting worse. Dishes meant for other tables kept ending up at ours. We had to wait for utensils, which were being individually wrapped at a counter next to us-only to be unwrapped the moment they were handed over. Orders that never arrived had to be retaken. Appetizers, including pre-made spring rolls, showed up late. Other diners were helping coordinate orders because the staff clearly couldn’t.

It felt like they had just opened yesterday.

As for the food? Meh. The pho noodles were broken, lacking any chew. The soup was already cold by the time it reached us—after being sent to the wrong table twice. The “fresh” spring roll wasn’t fresh at all.

And to end the meal, they had the bill wrong. It’s a good thing we weren’t hungry.

Just go...