Ngon Cafe — Restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne

Not allergen friendly, was served food I was allergic to despite notifying staff.

First time at the restaurant today and sadly we will not be returning. We are always keen to try local restaurants and support small businesses, however, this could have ended very badly.

We ordered starters of fried tofu and chicken summer rolls, and mains of beef shin bun bo hue (the spicy one) and shaking beef rice. We also ordered a snow lemon juice. The waitress asked if there were any allergies and I asked for no seafood/shellfish. She reassured us we’d be ok with our order.

We were waiting around 10-15 minutes for the starter which was acceptable, although it looked plain and colourless when it came. Thinking this was the fried tofu, we both tucked into it but I realised far too late that this was fried squid instead. We double checked with the waitress and she confirmed it was fried squid. I clarified that we had ordered the tofu and although she took the plate away, there was no apology and no concern as she did not seem to even remember the shellfish allergy.

Then a serving tray of chicken summer rolls and fried tofu was carried in from the kitchen… straight to a different table. The customers said the tofu wasn’t theirs and she took it away, not even thinking it could be someone else’s. They kept and ate the summer rolls though, even though they had ordered the prawn and pork rolls (which they received later) and not the chicken one. I could clearly see it was ours but couldn’t shout this across a room full of people.

More waiting until we got our mains. The shaking beef rice is incredibly expensive for what it is: 6-7 pieces of beef with no sauce and a big disproportionate serving of plain white rice. Very dry and lacking all flavour. The spicy beef pho looked exactly like the non-spicy version and tasted so bland. Our starters eventually came and tofu (definitely tofu this time) was ok. I had asked for peanut sauce with the summer rolls but she brought the hoisin sauce and said they had run out of peanut sauce. Why? Because the last one went to the table she mistakenly gave our order to. At this point, we had already had such a bad night we didn’t even say anything.

The best part was the snow lemon juice which was quite nice.

Luckily for the restaurant, I don’t react to all shellfish the same way and the squid did not cause any symptoms other than itchiness. We hardly ever go out for dinner and this was such a disappointing night after looking forward to it all week. I really wish I had said more when I was there or when we paid, but it can be so hard to say something publicly. However after thinking about it, it is important that this is fed back to management so other customers don’t experience what I did. I tried calling them many times to relay what I have said here but no one picked up and I can’t find other contact details. I hope the restaurant reads this and replies, because tonight could’ve ended up with dire consequences for everyone involved.

Edit: Over a month later and no reply, highly...

I love Vietnamese food and got taken here on Valentine’s day. It is now one of my favourite restaurants i’ve been to. It’s sad to see the lack of Vietnamese places in Newcastle however, Ngon Cafe makes up for it entirely. I decided to get two starters instead of a main so I ordered the vegetable spring rolls and tofu summer rolls. Although I usually prefer summer rolls over spring rolls, this time was different. Both dishes were very good but spring rolls might just be the best i’ve ever had. They each came with a side of sweet chili sauce so an explanation for liking the spring rolls more would be that I favour a peanut sauce with summer rolls. The spring rolls were so good I even tried to order a second portion however, they unfortunately ran out. My boyfriend had the beef stew and we spent a very long time sitting there as he was adamant to finish what he said was a winning stew. He said it was incredibly flavourful and the beef was super tender. I wish I had taken pictures as I don’t even remember what the presentation was like because the food was so good. The staff were very sweet, accommodating and patient. The interiors were nice and the ambience was great whilst managing to not overpower the dishes. The prices were insanely good and I would have happily paid more. As a university student this restaurant is a great way to feel like you are treating yourself to a ‘nice’ dinner without...

Visited on 19 Feb 2023 at 7.30pm.

Newcastle was lacking a Vietnamese restaurant and I’m glad that Ngon has opened!

I ordered the Grilled Lemongrass Pork Chop with rice (£10.50) as this is one of my favourite Vietnamese dishes to eat apart from pho. I would say that the pork was slightly dry for my liking and the salad didn’t have any dressing or seasoning added. I didn’t notice this till later but I also didn’t receive the spicy sauce with my dish. However, as my table had ordered spring rolls which came with the spicy sauce too, I used that to dip the pork chop in, which definitely helped with the dryness.

Moving onto the spring rolls (£6.50), those were very delicious and I would highly recommend ordering that. My friends ordered the Rare Beef Pho (£10.50) and I tried the broth which was very flavorful and rich, perfect for a cold day. Lastly, we had the Grilled Pork with vermicelli (£11) which was not bad but definitely can’t compete with their pho.

The staff was very friendly and would check in on us to ensure everything was good. I would definitely come back to have my own pho bowl and would recommend Ngon for anyone who has a...