Lai Sinh - Vietnamese Cuisine : NO DINE-IN — Restaurant in Converse

Interesting little restaurant.

The best part of the meal was the perfectly breaded and crispy tempura shrimp appetizer. I also enjoyed the goi cuon, cold shrimp spring rolls with peanut sauce. Other than those two items we didn't enjoy anything else enough to finish it.

The Thai tea was bad, tasted like a powder boba mix without the boba.

The fried spring rolls were ok.

As for the pho, we had the pork meatball and crab pho, which was recommended per the star on the menu. The presentation was beautiful. Fresh red and green cabbage and beautiful basil on the side. No Bean sprouts, no jalapenos. Don't ask for those, they'll tell you thats not what they do. The texture of the meatballs was really off. They were quite grainy and not flavorful. The broth was ok. Not particularly rich or flavorful. It had a few pieces of crab that looked like imitation crab meat, and 3 surprise shrimp. Not something I'd ever choose to eat again.

So overall the food was just ok. What was interesting was the personality of the place. First of all, don't dare take pictures of the food. There's a sign on the wall demanding no video or photography. Considering presentation was the best part of the meal, it doesn't make sense that they don't want pictures of their food online, but ok. Walk to the bathroom and youll be reminded by a sign that paper towels and trash don't go down the toilet. The restrooms are there for your convenience, so says another sign, which asks you to keep them clean. Another sign to find you to turn off the light when you're done and then one to remind you to turn off the water. Helicopter mom vibe. Enjoy.

Also, the blaring TV was just laughably loud. No, I don't need a Trump rally screaming at me while I try to eat mediocre Vietnamese food. They switched to jazz or something, but wow, what an awful ambiance addition to a restaurant that is clearly trying to do a good job.

Converse is pretty much a food desert and I'm sure this is the best Viet food around. I'll just have to expand my...

Let me just start off by saying that I am not a very adventurous eater. I once thought that I could become a food critic and then later realized that I am not a fan of a lot of types of cuisine and can't eat anything slightly spicy so that was out. This restaurant was part of a food genre that I thought I could never eat because I had eaten vietnamese once at a different place and didn't like it so I never tried it again. On this particular day there was traffic heading to our usual Chinese food spot and we were running out of time so I decided to turn into this place and man am I so happy I did! When we walked in we were immediately greeted by a really nice man who brought us some menus and struck up a conversation. As it turns out he was more than happy to work with me to find something I could like and offered different recommendations based on the things I told him I liked. He had a sense of humor too which is a bonus in a world that is always in a rush to get you to shut up and order. So I ended up getting the lemongrass chicken and rice and my husband got the vermicelli pork along with Jasmine teas and tempura shrimp and I can't remember the name of it but it looked similar to a spring roll. I'm not a fan of shrimp so I ate the roll and it was good, the lemongrass chicken was amazing and flavorful, it had a slightly sweet crunch in every bite it was so so delicious! I had a bite of my husband's vermicelli pork and it was absolutely delicious too....I'm going to be torn next time I go back on what to get because the food was that good....and yes I will be going back. The jasmine tea was a little strange at first but I quickly grew to love it and almost wanted to ask him if he sold it by the gallon lol. All in all it was one of the best neighborhood surprises yet and I am so glad I found it....you...

No idea where the high ratings are coming from. The food was about as far from authentic as I've ever had. The Vermicelli bowl I had didn't come with any vegetables (unless you count spring onions). The meat was cut way too thick, and was tough to chew. I also got an order of fresh rolls. The wrappers had been left in water for far too long. The exterior was rubbery, no carrots, almost no cucumber, no cilantro or basil, and barely cooked shrimp. The sauce that came with is was a version of hoisin with nuts on top. I ended up throwing both of the rolls away, and only ate about half of the meat. It was over priced and poorly prepared. There are only a few tables, so it's meant more as a take out place. It's in need of an update, but it is clean. But with the poor preparation of the food, and lack of authenticity, I...