Q&T Vietnamese Kitchen — Restaurant in London

My friend and I were in the area and our usual spot was completely booked up so we decided to come here after seeing the rave reviews. I have never felt compelled to leave a bad review until today— the experience from start to finish was absolutely abysmal with the only respite being the server. Firstly, we were nicely offered a seat that had a “reserved” sign which we were grateful for given how cold it was outside, however, upsettingly, it was immediately downhill from here. After being sat for over 10 minutes, we were not given menus or even offered water. For several minutes we tried making eye contact with the server who was clearly rushed due to the restaurant seeming to be understaffed. Although, we did notice that a white couple who entered after us were offered menus almost immediately (we are both poc women for reference) After being given the menus and asking for water, we still waited for a long time before our order was taken, and still no water for over 15 minutes after being seated. We both ordered the flat noodle wok stir fry after being recommended it— mine with chicken, beef and prawn and my friends with tofu. Throughout this time, it definitely seemed the staff was overwhelmed with orders rushing in, however it is no excuse for the service as we would’ve happily gone elsewhere. After an even longer wait time after this, we took 1 bite of the noodles and were immensely disappointed. I have never eaten noodles that have been this bland in my life. While the meat in mine still had an iota of flavour, my friend’s tofu was beyond flavourless and the noodles didn’t even have salt! This was unbelievable, I’ve eaten fresh tofu plain and found it more appetising but this was not up to par at all. My friend immediately put it to the side which shocked me and neither of us are picky eaters and were shocked at the food that cost us nearly £14. After debating for quite some time whether to bring this up, we decided to flag down the server to bring this up (however there is no good way to state that the food is inedible and bland). As said before, the server did seem to try his best but he also did rudely state “well what would you like added because there’s already a lot of stuff in there,” which made me seem that we were being blamed based on personal taste. Having waited for almost 40+ minutes and no viable solution being offered courteously, we decided to just get it takeaway and deal with it at home to see if we can revive it with the simplest of flavours. When going to pay, there was 0 apology for this experience, no acknowledgement, which to me is unacceptable when we were even trying to be nice about the situation. In fact, while paying, my friend had to blatantly ask for a reduced price (which usually should be offered) and he just replied “oh yes I was going to take the service charge of” (which was only £2 by the way). It is not the payment which is an issue, it’s the principle. Never in my life have I felt compelled to send food back. On the rare occasion I was once with a friend who had a problem with her food at a different establishment, the waitstaff and the chef both profusely apologised and gave us options to make us feel comfortable and also did not charge for that dish. I’d like to think I’m very adjusting especially with food, but given the service and being ignored throughout the experience, I felt very upset after this meal. This review has not come from a vengeful mindset, but rather a true reflection of how we were treated and what base line quality one would expect from a good quality, well-rated restaurant. I do hope the establishment takes the steps to better staff their restaurant and take into consideration customer reviews. Having worked in the service industry as well, I would not wish this experience and would expect...

Arrange us outside being blowed by wind. Let us wait outside until 2minutes waving hand. She came out and said do not wave hand,just hang up she would see. Oh god, what's the difference to my arm position between waving and hanging up. She was not nice at all when ordering and checking out. Most important is that the waiter never told us the double rice ordered have already been put together. So we ordered another one. Eventually, we had 4!! The egg fried rice is too expensive with that taste and volume!!! Is a fresh experience predestined to be terrible? Never be there again. Below is the response on 28-08-2019 after seeing the reply from Q&T.

I admit that we agreed to sit outside because it was full inside. But the unhappiness were caused because of this. Look at this way, I was sitting there back to you, how could I know whether you got my signal or not? You had not responded to me. I knew you were serving others, of cause, I fully understood that, but you could give a sign to my friends that you already noticed, and you did not. The only way I could do was to tell you we needed a service by hanging up my hand. I insist this makes sense. I believe that the one responded to my review is the lady that treated us without enough respect. If you think waving hand is impolite to you while you were serving other customers, you could tell me after saying sorry to us that you could not come to respond our request. I would have apologized to you for the behaviour impolite in your point of view. But you just came and said "do not ....". Come on, your friend will understand you maybe, but a customer suffering wind will not. And we request you could stop the malicious speculation that we never asked you kick out other customers. I have my right to state the experience in there. If your side told me the two bowls of rice had been put together, we would accept, rather than wondering why there was only one. When we raised the wonder, we were questioned if we want another one. If you think there is only one given and you ordered two, what will be your answer? No doubt the answer is yes. You are a business, no doubt of that, that's why we paid the bill without any bargaining. We were asking if there was free water, rather than free bottle of water. We never requested that. You are saying you offered free tap water, it is curious that we never saw it on our table (an awkward but polite smile emoji). In addition, we ordered 4 soft drinks instead when your side said there is no free water. The rude behavior is to remind us you are not a charity. This is ridiculous indeed. We paid the food, we also paid for the service that was 12.5% of the bill, even though we were not happy with it. We have the right to expect the food that we pay for. We definitely have the right to share our reviews even the comments are not positive. We have the right to tell the truth. We accept your explanations for everything including your tardy service and the rice. But we refuse your rude consideration that we were treating you as a charity. This is an insult we...

This wonderful little restaurant nestled in the heart of the Finsbury park area deserves so much more! The flavours were amazing, the drinks were amazing, and the service was amazing! We were amazed by how good everything was, and since there is so much to talk about, this review is sectioned into drinks, service, and food! In the end we paid around 60£+ for a dinner of 3, including drinks and starters! Which is definitely on the pricier side of things, but 100 and 10% worth it! :)

Food:

We ordered a variety of dishes, I ordered the chicken pho, which was not only rich in flavour, but also rich in vegetables and wonderfully silky noodles! Meanwhile, my friends ordered the Shaking beef, oyster mushroom and pak choi with tofu. We also ordered some starters, such as the curry with tofu and rice, and papaya salad. Which were all incredible!

Drinks:

On the drinks side of things, my friends opted for the thai beer, whilst I went for a house tradition, the cranberry spritz. All of the drinks were mouth watering, and were blended and kept at the perfect temperature to keep them good.

Service:

Not only were the staff incredibly helpful, but they also were extremely polite and kind when helping us pick what was good from the menu, which was an extremely easy task since everything was so good! They were also very quick when bringing us our food, which added so much to the experience.

Overall I would definitely recommend this restaurant to anyone! This is a certified Good Eat restaurant! And a staple of the...