NANA VIET KITCHEN — Restaurant in Oakland

Edit: as emotionally charged as throwing a drink express frustration? I think it was fair for me to ask to not pay for something that had a lot of sugar when I was told it didn't, that I didn't consume. You're entirely wrong that I don't like Viet Names establishments. Đà Nẵng Quán is one of my favorite restaurants and there's several others in that same neighborhood that I have given 5 stars to. Cheap and mediocre food would have at most gotten you 3-4 stars if you were polite or reasonable. You threw a drink and startled customers. This isn't about ethnicity. I eat Viet Names food weekly and respect the cuisine

I don't usually give one star reviews.

To start, the food was mediocre at best. It didn't look anything like the photos and was missing ingredients. My curry with carrots had no carrots, and barely any meat. The meal my vegetarian friend got was also mostly just rice noodles. The price to nutrition ratio here is terrible. Not a place to sustain yourself

The reason I gave it one star though is because I asked if the salty plum soda drink was sweet. I said "I don't drink sweet drinks, is this sweet or is it just salty". The waiter said "just salty". It came and it was sweeter than any soda you could buy in a convenience store. Sickeningly sweet, albeit slightly salty. I said "it's very sweet", and he just shrugged and walked away. I didn't drink it.

When I went to pay I asked if he would remove the drink from the order. He said "I can't, it was already made", I think fundamentally misunderstanding the way restaurants work here typically. An angry woman who was probably the boss walked over and didn't speak English and he seemed to scared to translate. He said "it was already made" again. I told him I didn't want to pay for it because it was different than he said it was and therefore I didn't drink it. I just waited there patiently while they argued. Eventually she walked over to my table where my friend was sitting and aggressively grabbed the drink in a disposable plastic container (all of the food was served on plastic), and walked over to the dish pit and threw the drink several feet into the dish pile and made a loud crashing noise and then stormed away

The server removed the drink from the bill and I paid, and left shortly thereafter

Normally I would try again and give them another yet but I wouldn't...

This was my favorite place a 2-3 months ago. I came here for bun mam & bun rieu. The 2 dishes I mentioned above were great, especially bun mam. The place is very clean and spacious. The Vietnamese staff was great at my first visit. I’m not sure what happened and if the restaurant changed ownership, but on my second visit over 1 month ago, the Vietnamese staff was no longer there and they were replaced w 2 non Vietnamese speaking staff members: one young male staff cooking in the kitchen, and 1 young female waitress on the floor. The waitress is nice and always smiling, but she can’t speak nor understand English or Vietnamese. So It is difficult to place an order. You have to point the finger at the menu, and if you have questions, her always answer is smiling. I ordered bun mam, the replaced male cook used wrong type of noodle, pho instead of bun, but the owner was very gracious and redid the order. I came back a few times after just for bun mam, the dish consistency was no longer there. Either the ingredients were missing, the broth was salty or something always something else. I came back today and ordered bun rieu. It was not eatable, the broth tasted like blank water w color. I was so hungry and I couldn’t even finish half. After today visit I can’t come back. I let the owner know of the food quality and the service when I paid today, but I’m not sure if it will make any difference. Having a restaurant business is tough especially during this time, so you want to give the restaurant the chance to improve. It has been 2 months since new staff members came aboard, but the food and service still have not reached the level they once were, so there is very little hope. The young male owner is very nice, but he can’t continue ignore the issue of the non speaking English/Vietnamese waitress and the inconsistency of the food, because eventually regular customers will leave. The restaurant had a lot of potential on my first visit when the owner mother was still there. Even I won’t come back, it is not too late for the young owner to take action and correct the mentioned issues unless this is a...

Almost 5 stars overall (5 stars for friendly staff and clean dining room). So glad Nam Hanoi opened in Oakland, nowhere else to go for solid/good northern style Vietnamese food! We've only had them via DoorDash once before today - rare beef pho noodle soup and grilled pork vermicelli (bun cha Hanoi). Was decent/ok but we knew it would be better to eat at the restaurant, which we finally did this afternoon: buddy had rare beef pho and I had the bun reu (tomato & crab vermicelli noodle soup).

He was very happy with his pho and we both thought it's same/comparable to the popular spot for this dish in SF (Turtle Tower on Larkin St). For me, OMG - the BEST bun reu in the East Bay (probably SF too since I've never had good bun reu over there either). Tomato crab noodle soup is probably one of my fav Vietnamese soup noodle dishes and this place does it RIGHT - sweetness of the tomatoes comes thru, smell and taste of crab/crab roe comes thru, soup base has a nice balance of sweet and saltiness. I already want to come back for the bun reu! I spoke with the young lady waitress who said it was her family's restaurant and told her the bun reu was basically perfect and ask that the chef NOT change the recipe :)

Side note - the northern style grilled pork vermicelli was 'okay' - pork was a lil on the dry side, and the fish sauce lacked more punch (if you're a fan of the bun cha Hanoi at Pho Au Sen on International (which probably makes the best version of this dish in the north bay, you likely won't like it...