Flowers of Vietnam — Restaurant in Detroit

This restaurant was an absolutely pitiful experience. I cannot believe how bad it was after having colleagues and friends rave about it to me.

For the price, and the fact that you need reservations to get in, you'd expect this to be at least somewhat of a fine dining experience... It isn't. Not even a little.

This restaurant is very hard to find. There's no signs outside... That's because they don't own their own space. They rent space from a Coney Island during the evening hours. This has more impact than you might think (they're using the same kitchen, some of the food had charcoal flavored char on it that was very unpleasant). The noise... You'd think you were in a bar. Communication with our waiter was difficult because of how loud it was, I could barely talk to my partner across our table. It's cramped. The booths are probably fine, but the tables in the center of the room are so close together that you're practically bumping elbows and at the least, nothing in your conversation is private. The service is not that great. To go against our expectations that it would be a nice dining experience, our waiter was dressed in a sports jersey and we could smell him from three tables away (having dinner at 6:30, they had only been open for an hour and a half). Getting our main course food took just slightly over an hour. The food isn't that good. They use the same sauce on nearly everything. The grill they use (which obviously isn't regularly cleaned) imparts the same unpleasant charcoal-flavored char on everything they cook on it. It's unpleasant. We ordered one of the most expensive entrees on the menu which turned out to be a giant pile of under flavored rice with an over glorified pork chop sliced up, an egg, and some Chinese sausage (this part was pretty good and unique). For the price ($40 for just that plate), we were very unamused. Some of the dessert items looked like they might be genuinely delicious... But at that point we were so fed up with everything about the restaurant that we refused to give them any more money, so we didn't order dessert. It was over $100 for the two of us, and I wouldn't pay even half that, given the quality, service, and atmosphere.

I'll never come back here. There's way...

Most of my experiences with Vietnamese cuisine has been with pho and maybe some spring rolls or what not, mostly comfort food I never thought of Vietnamese food as a fine dining experience.

Flowers of Vietnam is not only the best Vietnamese restaurant we have ever been to it is also one the best dining experiences we've ever had. Everything we ate was amazing from start to finish including dessert, which is usually a let down with Asian cuisine, was exceptional.

Everything you order is meant to be shared which is the way we usually eat anyways that way we can try as much as possible. The menu is a little overwhelming but thankfully our server gave us a detailed run down of the menu.

We started with a beef dish that is I can only describe as beef carpaccio Vietnamese style. It was amazing, we then ordered fried rice which we enjoyed with the rest of our food throughout our meal. It had tiny shrimp and chinese sausage. It had a little sweetness to it that made it unique while not being overly sweet where it would be off putting. We ordered a dish that had beef rib cap cooked and seasoned to perfection and it came a dipping sauce that your supposed to make yourself. We also had the octopus dish which was sous vide and the grilled. Out of all the dishes the octopus was my least favorite although it was tender and not chewy at all, I wish they had grilled it a little bit more in order to get a better char on the octopus. Even so it was still delicious and easily the least offensive way to eat octopus if one has never tried it before. For dessert we had a flan dish that was amazing. It had a mango thing and a light caramel sauce. One of the best desserts I've ever had.

We also enjoyed some cocktails with dinner. There's and option to do bartenders choice and I went with that. I got a good bourbon drink out of it and my wife had some sake although she had the same cocktail I had once she finished her sake. The food was delicious and reasonably priced considering the quality of food that your getting. A fine dining Asian restaurant like this in South Florida would have easily cost twice as much and the food would probably not have been...

Fun vibes, and highly recommended to fellow food nerds! My husband and I dined in their outdoor patio several weeks ago, and it was lovely. From their photos and menu, I expected it to be an "all style no substance" type of place, but was happy to have been proven wrong. We ordered papaya salad with pork, seasonal fish, and Japanese cheesecake, and my husband got a Stargazer cocktail. I had no idea what papaya tasted like and was curious how it would fit into a salad context. They marinated it in some sort of vinegar and cut it in thin stalks, so it was quite starchy and mild. The various veggies mixed in were refreshing, and the sauce on the side was sweet and delicious. Both the portions of the salad and the add-on pork were generous and worth the price. I was hesitant on ordering the fried seasonal fish, because I don't like fried stuff. However, the waiter assured us that "fried"-ness was not the main focus of the dish, and he was right! The inside of the fish was tender and flaky, and the tomato sauce on top was full of complex flavors. Black rice and cilantro balanced out the dish perfectly. The waiter was super impressed with how thoroughly we devoured the fish, but we couldn't imagine leaving a single morsel uneaten. The Japanese cheesecake was a wonderful ending. Coconut ice cream and passionfruit curd went really well with the cake. Service was great, and our waiter seemed genuinely passionate and knowledgeable about the menu items. As for the atmosphere, we were amused by the fact that we were dressed up, eating with chopsticks, and listening to some pretty intense hiphop music, surrounded by tiki torches. A random and quirky vibe, but somehow it worked! Overall, Flowers was an unexpectedly satisfying dining experience, and I'd love to go back. A few tips: I'd think twice before bringing kids/people who are sensitive to curse words, because of the music they play. I'd also avoid wearing high heels when dining outside, because it's difficult to walk with all the...