Vinh Hoa — Restaurant in Houston

"Food was really good!" Orig Comm (2 Yrs ago)

Updated 03/2024: Food is still really good. Authentic and generally consistent. HOWEVER Observations During my Most Recent Visit: I was DEEPLY DISTURBED as I watched 1 of the waitresses constantly blowing her nose in the dining area, replacing her face mask, and then removing it again to put a narrow inhaler over each nostril to help her breathe, one nostril at a time. 🤔😫🤮😡 She never washed her hands nor attempted to use any type of sanitizer to clean her hands. I never took my eyes off of her because I was very disturbed by this lack of hygiene, especially Post Covid. 👀 She then grabbed bowls to bring to a large party of 8, with her thumb partially in 🥣 as she counted and carried them to the table. I told my party it's time to leave.

Reporting my observations to Management was the most appropriate action, but I didn't want to open a door for any silent retaliatory behavior & decided not to. I never personally experienced rudeness personally in the 2 years that I've been ptronizingvthis place, but I had been witness to several incidents with other patrons. Also, after seeing at least 2 other waitresses observe six waitress very directly committing these health code violations, and behaving as though it was completely normal, it pretty much told me everything that I needed to know.

This type of behavior is exactly why there was a pandemic in the first place. SMH

Sharing here, in a review, seems better to protect others with a warning to "proceed at your own risk."

It's really sad because I loved this place! Really Good Food (Times I had gone) = 4 Svc was a 4 until now. I now rate a 1 Star due to unsanitary health & hygiene practices of Staff. Atmosphere was a 3 (Ok), but now a 1 Star due to unsanitary health & hygiene practices of Staff.

NOTE: Every time we've ever eaten here we've spent $100+ and we've recommended many people over 2+ years, especially to travelers wanting to do a food crawl.

I will not be back and no...

This place is amazing. We came here with a group of 11 and our server was fantastic, she brought all our drinks and food out so quickly, perfectly adapting to all our miscellaneous requests. In terms of food, everything was awesome. The standouts for me were definitely the beef flat noodles and the sautéed snow pea leaves.

The Hu tieu ap chao bo - flat rice noodles with beef - was by far my favorite. It was so savory with an amazing balance of chewy noodles and tender beef.

The Hu tieu ap chao ga - flat rice noodles with chicken - was also great, a little less flavorful, but great for our friends who couldn’t have red meat.

The Muc rang mui - salt pepper squid - was so crispy! The squid was very fresh and bouncy, even better with some lemon slices we requested.

General tsos chicken was pretty standard, sweet and crispy- perfect for the picky eaters at our table.

The Mi xao giỡn combination - fried egg noodles with meat and sauce - was the best value by far. It was absolutely packed to the brim with the crispiest egg noodles that softened with the sauce.

Snow pea leaves with garlic sauce - my favorite vegetable we tried, the leaves were so savory and absolutely smothered in the garlic sauce.

Spicy tangy green beans - very mediocre when compared to the snow pea leaves in my opinion, but maybe the green beans were just out of season. They were very well seasoned, so not too bad overall.

Salt pepper tofu - soft and crispy, perfectly simple : ).

Egg tofu with shiitake mushrooms and bok choi - a perfect meal for any vegetarians at the table, it totally fulfilled that saucy, savory craving we had.

Our total ended up being about $160 with all these dishes- which was SO great. We had plenty of food for everyone plus leftovers.

We will definitely be coming...

The good here is really nice, portions are average, and the price point is just right. We got the fried whole shrimp, green beans, fried whole fish, and soup. The shrimp was a little stringy, but nicely crisp on the outside. My favorite was the fish and green beans, which came with mixed ground beef. Just that and the rice made me full.

We started with a guy who asked for what we want and gets our drink. We got our food before we got our drinks. When we got our drinks, she asked who ordered the Iced-tea and water. When we claimed what's ours, she just put the cups on the table near the side instead of giving it to ordered. Same thing happened with the soups, but this time the guys were vocal and saying "No, I ordered that one and he ordered this one". She just put them in front of the first person she saw who ordered a soup.

We also asked, many times, for soy sauce. Our table didn't have any condiments, and she shook her head. Then the guy came, few minutes later, and still no condiments so we asked again. After about 5 minutes, I just got up, walked to the empty tables, picked up the condiments, and walked back to our table.

Someone else saw us do this and did the same. I feel like the service really needs an uplift here. I think a few times they didn't understand English because they just nod their heads. What a shame though, I like the food, but probably won't be going back if they don't fix their service. My friends like it so they'll tell me if...