Loi's Kitchen — Restaurant in Garden Grove

Highly recommend this new establishment! Your new cozy vietnamese restaurant with warm welcomes just entered the chat! Food is unique yet still familiar in taste with some classics!

//CONTEXT// I saw this place on Yelp and wanted to try it out! It's a new restaurant. Came as a party of two in a Saturday at around 11 am and was seated right away. I can see it getting busier soon though

//ENVIRONMENT// Very clean, but has that old style vietnamese look to it so nothing fancy. Small booths of fours and then two big tables. Small restaurant but cozy nevertheless

//FOOD// KHO HA GIOI HU TIEU: a spin on the hu Tieu dish in so used to! Such a umami and savory dish with crispy pork belly, egg noodles with I think pork bits, scrambled egg, boiled egg, scallion, and minced pork (I think)! This dish is a hit - add some sauce or vinegar and so good! Comforting and familiar but with a spin!

BANH MI CHAO - French bread served on a hot plate with Xiu Mai Meat in tomato sauce and filet, egg and dip the bread with the sauce! Perfection! So much umami in a bite - filet was delicious as well! The Xiu Mai inside was a bit cold though wish it was hotter

//SERVICE// Service was decent nothing standout but they took our orders in a quick manner.

//PRICE// $32 after tax with a...

Food is alright, even though they put a lot of msg (I'm allergic, that why I know), service is alright. The thing that bother me is that they calculated tip on top of taxes, not on the total order. I don't like business doing shady/sneaky thing like that.

Reply to owner comment: Yes, I selected the tip on my own, you did not included in the bill. However, that entirely missed the point, I never mind tipping, 15 18 20 even 25% are all reasonable depending on the quality of the service your customer received. However, it is important to be transparent and not misleading your customer, this is not about the $1 different on the tip that I tipped, so no I don't want it back; what I want is for YOU to change your tip calculation to reflect the total amount of the order, not on top of the taxes. If you can't take constructive criticism from your customer so you can grow your business, then I have nothing else to...

You know those wonton soup bowls in the freezer aisle of Costco? I would have rather eaten one of those than the wonton soup with bbq pork I got from here. The wontons had the worst taste here that I can’t quite pinpoint.. I don’t know if they were spoiled/old or had freezer burn or absorbed other tastes in the kitchen but they were disgusting. I felt so off after I ate them and am hoping I don’t get sick.

The noodles were over also cooked and very oily and the broth had little flavor. The best part was the bbq pork but even that was slightly above average.

I hesitated coming here once I saw that they give away things for 5 star reviews on Yelp because I don’t trust restaurants that bribe customers. There are bad reviews on Yelp. I normally get wonton soup at Brodard Chateau which isn’t bad. I’m not coming back here or recommending this place and am angry I wasted money on...