Nam Song — Restaurant in Sheffield

Been to Năm Sông 3-4 times now and been waiting excitingly for their big bowl og pho to arrive as the small one doesn't seem to satisfy my appetite.

However, after waiting over 2 weeks for them to get the big bowl they finally got them today! I was very excited to get it! Goes without question that I was looking forward to fill my belly with a big portion of beef pho....but.... appeared to be almost as much as a small bowl. Disappointment is not enough to describe what I felt.. It was terrible.. over £8 for a bowl of a lot of soup/water and not much meat, noodles and veggies...

I went up to the counter and told one of their staff that the big bowl had almost as much content as the small bowl. Upon this the staff told me that the small bowl was more than enough for him and also gave a snide remark to his colleague about me wanting to eat more... I was trying to tell that after eating a lot of Vietnamese food in different places you would expect a little more noodles and a little more than just 4-5 pieces of meat in the pho that costs more than £8...

I'm rating it as 4 stars because of the pho, but more because of bad service. I've been working many years as a waiter, and was not difficult since I know that I disslike difficult customers. I was trying to give constructive criticism to a place such as Năm Sông because I like the place and see the potential for it to grow.

On the positive side: The coffee and the baguette is fantastic and do recommend that. However, some of the staff are too rude and that can unfortunately ruin the whole experience.

But if the bowl of pho would have more "chewable" content than three mouthful of noodles and 4-5 pieces of meat + better service it would be a fantastic place!

Hopefully this place will...

Second time here and will probably be my last. I ordered the beef pho noodles, spring rolls and iced mocha. The noodles didn’t have much taste to it, I had to add in a fair bit of soya sauce and chili sauce to get even a little bit of taste. The noodles were clumped together too. I feel if they doubled the noodle portion and halved the portion of spring onions, it would’ve been better too. But that’s not even my problem with it. The beef slices were very pink and looked like they were still partly raw. I thought that maybe if the soup was hot enough it would “cook it a little more overtime”. But to my dismay, the soup was just a little warm. “Maybe it’s just meant to be that way” was what I thought. Or maybe it was just the type of beef. Hours after the meal my tummy started to hurt. It kept going on and on with weird sounds and queasiness. Let’s just say I’ve been to the toilet more times in a day than usual.

I ordered the pork spring rolls, but they served mushroom spring rolls. Got a new plate of the correct order and a simple sorry. But it’s fine, I know working in the food industry can be taxing and mistakes happen. Spring rolls aren’t anything to be excited about. If you were going I’d actually get the mushrooms instead of the pork lol

I wouldn’t say it’s authentic Vietnamese food at all. Find somewhere else if you’re looking for that. Or just go to Asia completely.

Iced mocha was not bad, just a tad bit too sweet. Probably the only thing sustaining the 2 stars.

Toilet’s not bad too.

I really hate that I have to write this and I’m not trying to defame Five Rivers in any way, but just want to let people know of my experience. My lunch there today wasn’t all that pleasant. At least you get NHS/ student...

This place exceeded all of our expectations. I came for a Saturday evening meal with my partner and we ordered a chilli bread starter followed by a roasted veg & tofu curry and a twice-fried tofu bun. For drinks we had a Vietnamese tea and a mango mocktail. I'm not exaggerating when I say that right from the very first bite we knew we were in for a fantastic experience.

Portion sizes are generous and every dish had great variety. The staff were very polite and more than helpful, and the service times were spot-on (although we did come at the very tail end of the day when it was quiet so that was to be expected). Our visit totalled £41, which isn't an every-day price but is more than well reflected in the quality and deliciousness of the food alone.

Speaking of expectations, it's no secret that some of the best vegan food comes from south-east Asia, and this place leans into that just fine with a good variety of vegan options. It seems like a big handful of the cautionary reviews for this place are based on problems with the meat, so I'd recommend just going straight for the tofu, which was cooked to perfection for us.

Things I didn't know beforehand that you might want to: On the day we visited, the kitchen closed at 8:45pm so don't risk leaving your visit as late as we did lol. They have both typical chair-and-table seating as well as an area with low tables and cushions on the floor, that they ask that you remove your shoes to sit in. We opted for the latter and it was fantastic. The main dishes were served with chopsticks, but forks were also provided at the table.

All round, it was a fantastic experience. Will...