A Taste of Vietnam — Restaurant in Leominster

This small vietnamese is located in a little strip of stores in Leominster MA. When I approached it I confess I was sceptical despite the good reviews I'd read. It's definitely not a looker from the exterior. We were not dissuaded, luckily. We walked in and were immediately surprised to find an intimate, lovely dinning room. The servers welcomed us right away and showed us to our table. The menu is extensive and easy to read, including appealing photos of many of the dishes. I believe this to be a custom in many of the Eastern countries and I find it helpful as I'm not always familiar with the dishes. Our waiter was very pleasant and efficient. He asked us if we had any questions, which we did. He answered them all to our satisfaction. As a starter we ordered fresh vegetarian spring rolls, which we're truly fresh, plump and generous. They came with a fine peanut sauce. We ordered a second starter called crispy eggplant. This was honestly one of the best eggplant dishes I've ever had, and I've had many since my wife is an eggplant fanatic. It consisted of a generous amount of tempura fried eggplant cubes with vegetables and hot peppers in a delicious light sauce. Despite the hot peppers, the dish was not spicy. It's worth going just for this dish. For entrees my wife order tofu and vegetable vermicelli. Delicious and very generous. I had the wonton soup. It too fantastic. This place is worth a drive from Boston but I expect that not many will venture out that far. However, if your driving to Western Mass or Vermont it's well worth making a pit stop to or from. It's not far from route 2 and you will be pleasantly surprised and delighted. If you enjoy Vietnamese, as I do, this is a must. If you just like food in general it's well worth a visit. ...

The staff was very friendly and helpful, and this was my first pho. I had the "meatballs" and asked for less noodles and then kicked it up a notch with some spice (which I love). The meatballs were reconstituted blah, so never again on those. I should have gotten chicken or beef. But the jasmine tea was great (and included in the price, I believe) and the pho was good. Honestly, though, it just may not be my thing because the noodles have no taste, the broth isn't exceptionally savory and the hot spices you can add amount to a bottle of Siracha or some red pepper paste (which, I think, they make in-house). They brought out a plate with mint, a few slices of jalapeno and a pile of sprouts, all of which I added to the pho. I still thought it needed the hot sauce and I still wasn't terribly impressed. But maybe this is EXACTLY how pho is supposed to be...and it's just not my thing. Not sure. And also keep in mind...I only ordered one thing. ...

Worst Vietnamese food I had ever had in New England! Fried rice was so greasy and you would think you were eating a plate of oil-flooded rice! Rice was not fried till dry or fragrant! LoMein was boiled, not stir-fried. First time having lo mein that was very saucy and the sauce was super sweet too! Yikes! Grilled beef was tough and rubbery. Spring roll was tasteless and dry! Another dish that had a bed of fried noodle at the bottom with some combination of proteins and vegetables stir-fried with some sauce put on top was super salty! All the dishes that had beef and chicken were very tough and rubbery! Price wise, though not too expensive BUT definitely not cheap either. Definitely not worth the price with that kind of quality of food!!! Two good points though: 1) the service was quick and pretty attentive. 2) All the dishes that had vegetable in them were full of vegetable. Seriously don’t understand how did all the good reviews come up! No...