Viet's Express — Restaurant in Houston

At first, I was a bit skeptical of the place from the outside. You, too, will probably feel the same way as the location is not exactly ideal. The surrounding establishments are "meh". Nonetheless, however, I decided to give it a try.

Upon walking in, I was pleasantly surprised by the interior. The decor they chose is similar to what you would find at an upscale Rice Village restaurant. Picture contemporary benches, clean tables, TV's, and a very neat shelf stocked with to-go boxes, as well as a jug with ice water and cups.

Moving on to the food. After perusing the menu for a bit I decided to try the Vermicelli with BBQ Chicken. In a few minutes, I was rewarded with a large bowl stuffed with fresh vegetables and a generous serving of chicken. The food was nothing short of fantastic. The vegetables were extremely fresh, the chicken was perfect (not too salty, not too sweet), and the vermicelli noodles were cooked just right. Again, everything aside from the exterior was reminiscent of a Rice Village Asian noodle bar where the same dish would have costed $15. To note: here, this highly healthy meal costed only $8. Absolutely fantastic--glad I discovered this gem so close to the medical center.

Again, don't pay attention to the...

I absolutely love the food and every time I visit the cashier (older Hispanic lady) has been really nice and even complimented my boots once. I thought to myself wow I finally found a place I can go on the regular and receive great service. Well today that changed. I called in a order for a chicken vermicelli and I said oh no do you have pork she said yes and listed off the other items available. I said I’ll get pork vermicelli instead. I walk in to see my order with two boxes in the bag. Once off the phone I tell her my name she reads my total and I apologize then say I meant I wanted the pork instead. She huffed and sighed loudly and said you didn’t tell me that you told me you wanted both. Sighing like that in front of a customer is just rude. I sell cars for a living I deal with people all day. You have to put your best face on no matter what. She reads out the new order and proceeds to tell me next time I need to tell them so they don’t waste their food. I said okay you don’t have to be rude and from there she got loud with me. I’m sure this establishment won’t care that they lost a customer due to their rude hostess/cashier....

Not authentic Vietnamese. I should have known when I called to order a bun thit nuong cha gio and the immediate response was "No one understands Vietnamese here. Nobody is Vietnamese here" without my asking. Surprised I asked if this was authentic or fusion as I was as not in the mood for fusion. They told me it was still authentic and not fusion so I ordered anyways because it's close to where I live. Not fusion, yes, but feels like a poor imitation unfortunately. The spices to marinade the meat seemed very off and don't really taste at all like how the dishes are supposed to be. The nuoc mam didn't taste right at all.

If you like it, that's great. If it's close to you that's good too. But it kind of make me sad that this was promised to be authentic and it's not even something you'd find at a subpar Viet restaurant. The taste was unlike any Vietnamese vermicelli I've ever had and not in a good way. I don't like leaving low rating so I guess perks of this restaurant is that it's very fast (however, Vietnamese food can usually be prepped quite quickly) and the location can make it a convenient stop if midtown or Chinatown is too...