Homestyle Thai Bistro — Restaurant in Dayton

This place used to serve really great food when the old woman and her son ran the place. It is now under "new" management and a young couple are now the owners. The quality of the food is terrible at best. Usually when new management takes over a place, they invest in the place to give it new life; these new owners only seemed to invest in a fancy new cash register and everything else is going to pot.

I have eaten at this restaurant many times and I have ordered many items from the menu. This is my first time back to this place in about three months and it will be my last time.

I ordered a Pork Bahn Mi and "SHRIMP" rolls with extra sauce for the rolls and on the sandwich, hold the cilantro on all. I also requested the Bahn Mi to have an egg. Traditionally, this is a common way to order the sandwich, but the new cooks looked at me like I had a third eye when I requested it to be added to my sandwich. The guy had to consult with his wife (the cook) if that was something they did. Apparently, they had never heard of such a thing even though I always ordered it that way for the past 20 years. After much debate, they said they could add the egg for an additional cost of $2 for each sandwich. The last I checked, you can buy a dozen of jumbo eggs for 59 cents at the store. The additional cost seemed exorbitant to me. I decided I would just do it myself when I got home.

My order was royally messed up, I mean any drive though window could have done a better job. When I got home, I called the restaurant to complain about the way my food looked and how the order was not filled correctly (No extra sauce included, bad rolls, sandwich as jacked). The lady that cooked the meal said she had done everything right and never apologized for the bad food. Instead, she just hung up on me. This should give you some kind of idea of what to expect from this place and the service you will get from them.

Wondering why I placed the quotes around the word shrimp. Well one of the rolls I got had some kind of mystery meat included with it that should not have been there. I took a photo so you can see for yourself. Also, the "Shrimp" was barely included and one roll even came with only half a shrimp. The other issue with this is that the rolls were made very small. They have a picture of what you are supposed to get on the wall where you order, I guess the lady that made them needs new glasses too because the rolls I got were basically little turds.

When I got home I looked at my sandwich. OMG, what a cluster &@#$! The sandwich is supposed to be buttered on each side of the bread. There was none. The thing was dry as a bone. The meat had no sauce on it and the worst thing of all, THEY BAKED THE SANDWICH. Bahn Mi's are never baked. This ruined the sandwich completely. I did my best to rescue the sandwich and I added my own sauce. I did cook a over-easy egg and placed it on the sandwich. It made it a little better but overall, this is the worst Vietnamese food I have ever eaten. I been eating this kind of food for more than 20 years and know what authentic food should taste like. The cooks here do not know what they are doing and I suspect this place will be closed very soon.

I really recommend you skip this place. Google Little Saigon as it's not far from this place, you may have...

This is my favorite restaurant in Dayton. I've eaten there three times (once takeout, twice dining in) and had three soups so far (pho #11 with everything, tom yum with seafood, and the bun bo hue with beef and pork), and all of them have been exceptional. My favorite is either the pho or tom yum; the pho is about as good as any I've had, but the tom yum is deeply savory and satisfying. My wife got the noodle soup with pot stickers, shrimp, and pork the first time we ate there and has gotten it again every time since, with good reason. It's fantastic. Every soup they serve is delicious.

As far as appetizers go, the spring rolls and egg rolls are both delicious (good sauces with both as well) and I really like the fish cake but I could see that being less popular. It has a very chewy texture with kind of a heavy breading, sort of like a cross between calamari and a chicken nugget, but obviously with a strongly fishy flavor. I had the pork belly sushi the first time I was there and thought it was fine. I had it as take out, and by the time I got home it was fully cold. I suspect I'd enjoy it a lot more if I had it dining in.

My wife loves desserts, and we've had both the mango sticky rice and the banana crepe. The mango sticky rice is very good. It's a bit less sweet than some sticky rices I've had, but has the savory notes that I want in sticky rice. I'm not sure exactly how to describe what makes sticky rice good, but theirs' is. the banana was good, but a bit too sweet for my taste. It was served with bananas and nutella and whipped cream and ice cream and a syrup drizzle (maybe caramel?), and by the time I shared it I was already uncomfortably full. It tasted really good, but I'd be fine if they stopped adding the syrup, it felt like overkill.

Also, speaking of being uncomfortably full: holy cow the servings are massive. I love pho, and every pho joint I've been to has served it in borderline excessive portions, and Xuan takes it to next level. Growing up, my parents literally used the style of bowl they serve soups in as a salad bowl. The bowl that you dished the salad out of, because it is large enough to hold enough salad for an entire family. These are the kinds of servings where, if you don't take leftovers home, you will feel physical pain as a consequence of your foolishness. I know this for a fact, because I keep eating the entire bowl of soup and it is too much soup for a human frame to contain. It is also too delicious not to eat in its entirety in a single sitting.

TL;DR: The appetizers taste good. The desserts are solid. The soup is the best soup, made with the best broth, and it is a blessing to everyone who eats it. Your life will be poorer if you don't eat here. The owners are super nice, are doing a great job maintaining pandemic safety, and I hope and pray that they are able to stay afloat through the pandemic because I want to make everyone I know eat...

I am Vietnamese. I was born with a bowl of Bun Bo Hue in my hands; for breakfast I eat Pho. For lunch I eat Pho. For dinner? You guessed it, I eat Banh Mi (ran out of pho). So imagine my immediate disappointment when I was introduced to the misplaced hooting and hollering about The other "authentic" viet restaurants in town. My god, I was going to be living here for at least another 4 years... there wasn't a store in sight that didn't cook pho like they're cooking pour-over cup-o-noodles. Sad. I have been living the past 4 years making my own pho at home to quench my thirst. It takes quite a bit of time and you can't really just cook enough for one serving so it's always nice to just have a restaurant that you can go to for a good bowl. I've gone to multiple viet restaurants (I think all of them) from central Dayton, to Beavercreek, to miamisburg/centerville. Rarely, when I get the chance to converse in Vietnamese to the owners of the few that are actually owned by Vietnamese owners I always prompt the question: "Why is the pho here different from the pho I get back at home (moms/vietnam)". Answer: "we Americanize it" because we don't think they'd like our pho otherwise. I am so glad Xuan has not followed under those same principles. I am grateful that the dissolution of "authentic" Vietnamese restaurant has finally stopped with a restaurant owner who was brave and proud enough of her own traditional food that she didn't feel the need to conform to any taste. Truly, of you wanted a real, unadulterated, unaltered, unapologetic [insert another un-A word here later], bowl of pho or would like to try the Bun Bo Hue here: please, do it. Allow the Vietnamese community to finally introduce to you our real cuisine. It's not "the best" I have ever had but when it comes to authentic, it is "the best" around here, beavercreek, and centerville BY FAR. Annnnnnnd of course I'm now leaving Dayton as we speak...Damn it Xuan... where were you 4 years ago? Happy...