Hạ Long Café — Restaurant in Charleston

Nestled in the heart of Charleston’s historic district, Ha Long Cafe offers a delightful array of Vietnamese dishes that promise to transport you straight to the streets of Hanoi. During our recent visit, we sampled the pork banh mi, summer rolls with pork and shrimp, and refreshing strawberry slushies.

The pork banh mi was a highlight, featuring a perfect balance of savory, tender pork and fresh, crispy vegetables, all encased in a crusty, toasted baguette. The flavors melded together beautifully, delivering a satisfying crunch with every bite. The summer rolls were equally impressive, boasting fresh and vibrant ingredients. The pork and shrimp were tender and flavorful, complemented perfectly by the accompanying peanut sauce.

The strawberry slushies were a refreshing treat, ideal for cooling down on a hot day. They were sweet, tangy, and icy—just what we needed to round out our meal.

However, the service at Ha Long Cafe left something to be desired. While the food was undeniably good, the staff seemed more preoccupied with other tasks than attending to our table. It took longer than expected to place our order, and we felt somewhat neglected throughout our visit.

Overall, Ha Long Cafe delivers on its promise of delicious Vietnamese cuisine, but the service could use some improvement. If you're patient and more focused on the food than the dining experience, this place is...

Food was good. Front lady was rude. She was told of onion allergy and upon us reminding her and asking for her to swap out the bowl full of green onions, she was rude about it, fought us about it, and picked out the onions rather than making a new bowl

I would like to add that whoever responded to this post on google completely dismissed that we were not made a new bowl and the onions weren’t picked out. When we received the “new bowl” back, it had three or four green onions still left in it. To argue with someone on the internet who dined here is completely disrespectful to the consumer who chose to dine with you today and who suffered to eat through that bowl because we did not want to bother arguing with the lady again. We are not coming back and we will not recommend this place to anyone with how we were treated in store and online. I also would like to add as someone certified in food handling, if the meal is contaminated by any allergy then you make a completely new bowl. Not just give it more soup. What about the beef and noodles that were in there? You don’t care about the customer or the problems that they have with food allergies and one day you will unalive someone with how careless you are.

I have reported this restaurant to the health and safety department and to the South Carolina agricultural department for wrongful...

WARNING! Terrible Food! Horribly Slow Service!

Bad Vietnamese cuisine was something I'd never encountered before visiting Ding Tea. I don't know if there's anything positive to say about this place. After walking in, there were no signs or instructions given by the staff about where to find menus. Their options are limited, and service is snail-paced. My wife and I ordered a coffee, two kinds of appetizer spring rolls, and two sandwiches. It took them a good 10-15 minutes just to get our coffee. The rest came maybe 20-30 minutes later. A group of four came in after us, and their drinks took forever as well. The food was all delivered at once, instead of getting the appetizers first. The fresh spring rolls were chewy and flavorless, and the sauce that went with it was disgusting. Peanut sauce is supposed to have a certain creaminess to it, but this stuff was runny and entirely too sweet. The fried spring rolls were probably the last item made, because the oil burned the inside of my mouth. The sandwich rolls weren't exactly stale, but they were nowhere near fresh, either. It's a shame the bread wasn't better because there was so little of the contents inside that it easily made for the worst Banh mi I've ever had. Like I said at the beginning, I've never had bad Vietnamese food before, but Ding Tea...