Boulangerie de Saigon — Restaurant in Nottingham

I was really looking forward to getting here as have been after a Banh-mi for a while and this seemed the perfect opportunity. I had seen the reviews on here about wait times at the weekends etc and I guess that's to be expected for somewhere with reviews as good as this place.

However - we came in (3 of us) on a Thursday lunch time, 12:02 (they start doing them at 12) and there were two people ahead of us in the queue. We were immediately told it was a 35 min wait - let's be clear up front, this is not acceptable for a sandwich at any time of day, particularly at lunchtime when the place is empty and people are on a lunchbreak. We were a little surprised but decided to roll with it anyway as we had an hour and were looking forward to it.

35 mins came and went, around 55 mins or so the person who was running the place left (leaving all the customers in the empty restaurant) - It seems like potentially their electricity was in the process of being disconnected or something similar as meter enforcement officers were there. During this 10 mins we heard the "ding" of the dumb waiter and I'm assuming that's where our sandwiches sat until they returned. We chased for updates but she was not apologetic in any way, it took over an hour for them to arrive.

When they arrived - they were ok. All ingredients were cold (including fried egg) - unclear if this is by design or not but if it is intended to be that way then how it takes more than 5 mins to assemble is a mystery to me. Customers came and left in this time put off by the crazy wait times, and some that came just after us were still waiting for theirs as we left. A real shame but not somewhere I'd...

Such a calm and peaceful environment,

Food Savoury: Bánh Mì Taste: full of umami flavour so many textures and very balanced, most authentic Vietnamese tor taste, Xá xiu Pork is delicious, jammy egg yolk in the fried egg. The pickled carrot and Daikon have a great crunch to them. For this item I give a 8.8/10.

Food Sweet: Matcha Roll cake - great matcha taste and vanilla cream on top, 8.5/10 Chocolate Bannana cake - great banana flavour and good balance between the chocolate taste 7/10 Key Lime Meringue Pie- zesty and balanced, meringue not to sweet and a nice caramelised flavour from the blow torched top biscuit base moist and crumbly almost nutty in flavour which compliments well with the other two layers. 8/10

Drinks: Cherry Blossom Latte (Matcha) Subtle flavour almost like rose but sweeter like honey, well balanced against the milk and the matcha. The matcha is higher grade a super bright green, which makes it taste cleaner and a little minty as opposed to a more grassy flavour other matches I’ve tried around Nottingham and other parts of England. 8/10

Cà Phê Sũa (Veit coffee with Condensed milk)- delicious in flavour, sweet and rich coffee taste, if you like coffee strong you will love this! 7/10

Staff: Made everything with Detail and care, super friendly!

Overall: I have visited this cafe twice and I am in awe of how gorgeous the interior is, so trendy and well thought out, creating such a peaceful and photogenic location that you will love to visit over and over again.

I will be coming back soon, and I hope whoever reads my review will give this place a try...

I was really looking forward to trying this place after a friend’s recommendation, but unfortunately, the experience was a huge disappointment. We ordered the blueberry matcha, pork banh mi, and fries. While the blueberry matcha was great, that was the only thing we actually got to try.

Despite waiting for an entire hour, the rest of our food never arrived. At the 30-minute mark, we checked with the staff, who reassured us that it would be coming soon. Yet, after another 30 minutes of waiting, nothing had changed. What made it even more frustrating was seeing three tables that ordered after us receive their food—including the exact same items we had ordered. This means the restaurant knowingly prioritized other customers while we were left waiting with no explanation.

Although they apologised for the long wait, their response felt indifferent to the fact that we had wasted an hour and still didn’t receive our food. Despite sitting right in front of the staff, they made no effort to proactively check on our order, all while efficiently serving multiple other tables. The lack of basic customer service and consideration was incredibly disappointing....