Bánh Boy — Restaurant in Belfast

I had never written a negative restaurant review until now. Both my father and my husband work in hospitality, and I have seen how negative reviews affect them. Unfortunately, this one is unavoidable, as alongside my first negative review, it was the first time I ever walked out of a restaurant after being mistreated by a member of staff.

I arrived seven minutes early for my booking at 8 p.m. yesterday, and was told by at least two members of staff that I was "ten minutes early" and that I had to wait for my table. Odd, but okay as it is a small restaurant which recently opened. As I was standing near the entrance, two customers arrived and asked me if I were waiting for my table. I jokingly replied that it had been highlighted to me twice that I was ten minutes early, so my table wasn't ready, and one of the customers pointed to two free tables across from us. As he was doing that, the manager greeted them and informed that their table was ready.

In complete disbelief, I asked why their table was ready, but not mine, as they arrived after me. The manager's defensive reply was "but I haven't walked them to their table yet" and then proceeded to explain to the other two customers that "she arrived too early, so her table isn't ready yet". The two customers then asked about the two free tables across from us and the manager replied that it was a table of four, and he had, allegedly, allocated a table near the door for my booking, which still had customers having desserts and drinks. At that point, it was past 8 p.m., and I had no choice but to walk out of the restaurant as I felt very much like a nuisance to them, instead of a paying customer willing to spend my disposable income at their newly opened restaurant.

While I was waiting for my friend in front of the restaurant, one of the customers (!) went outside to advise that they were willing to split that table of four for me. About ten minutes later, as my friend and I were already ordering at another restaurant nearby, I received a phone call from the manager. No, it wasn't a courtesy call to reassure me that my card wasn't going to be charged, but an extension of his defensiveness to explain why he couldn't allocate one of free tables to me because it was for a booking of four. The cherry on top of the cake was the utterance "I'm sorry IF you felt unwelcome at our restaurant".

I have been to good and bad restaurants, but in all I have experienced at least a minimum level of respect. This certainly wasn’t the case for Banh Boy. I hope that this doesn't happen to...

I eat here pretty often so think it's fair I leave an honest review. Food - the food is class. I eat mainly veggie, so I love it here as veggies aren't a second thought. I hate fake meat stuff when I'm out for dinner but the plates here make veg, tofu, lentils the focus. If your a vegetarian and you dont know what I mean then just go and try it. For meat eaters the selection is great. Always options, loads of flavour and for people who are new to Asian food there is always a milder/ more familiar option. Then menu changes regularly which I love, they have a new theme each month on a Wednesday night. Drinks menu is great. Get a midori sour. Taiwan larger cans are 12/10. Wine list has me liking wines I didn't think I would. Get a bottle of Pet Nat. Non alcoholic options are great too, nice to have something that's not just a bottle or can. Service - service is unreal. It's nice to have staff that can have a laugh with you and not feel like your being served by robots. I could write loads about this but it's all in the small details which you just have to see for yourself. Atmosphere - the atmosphere is probably the best part. I can eat here on my own or with a group and not feel weird. Like going on my own cos the music is class. Even the places itself it's the perfect brightness I don't even know why that's so important but it is. I've seen other reviews saying it is overpriced. I can't disagree with this more and if this is your opinion then you don't eat out enough to understand and you should educate yourself on a) food b) how business works and c) the current economy. Most importantly always get the Thai fries because they are...

Good food but service is a bit off.

It's a shame to write this review as the 1st time we went to Bahn Boy 1 couple months ago we were raving about it. So when some friends wanted to go out for dinner I suggested we go here. We booked for 4 but unfortunately one of the girls couldn't make it last minute. When we arrived we explained we would actually only be 3 people and were told we'd be charged £20 for the no show on the basis they'd have given us a smaller table. Maybe we're pigs but we could barely fit all our food on the table we were given we definitely couldn't have fit 3 of us on what I'd call a '2 person' table. So be it that was our fault I'm sure it says it somewhere in the booking fine print. Unfortunately the waitress seemed uncomfortable with our table the rest of the evening and it felt quite awkward. Only to be exacerbated when they put a service charge on our bill which obviously we weren't going to pay having already been charged the £20 fee. It was such a shame because the food really is good but the whole thing just felt like a real own goal from a service point of view. We'd honestly have had another round of drinks and happily paid the service charge if they hadn't tacked on the £20 which would overall have left the restaurant and waitress better off. It just leaves a bad taste and makes you disinclined to return or recommend it again. All 3 of us live within 5 minutes of the place too. I felt especially bad after suggesting it to my friend who...