Vietnam Restaurant — Restaurant in Philadelphia

In the unlikely midst of the hustle and bustle of Philly's Chinatown lies the Zagat-rated Vietnam Restaurant at 11th and Spring St. Armed with a dozen other independent rave reviews on various food sites, it was time to sink my teeth into the restaurant's offerings and decide for myself.

First up, the decor was totally fancy, much like stepping into a time-space warp from the streets of Chinatown. Love the hardwood panels, cozy low ceilings, dim lights, and ethnic pictures. Apparently there's also a bar on the 3rd floor for pre-dinner drinks.

Our party of four had the BBQ appetizer platter which included crispy spring rolls, beef-stuffed grape leaves, char-grilled chicken, grilled meat balls, and rice vermicelli, lettuce and rice paper for your DIY rolls. The BBQ was tasty and crispy, but what blew me away was the yummy dips with copious sprinklings of diced peanuts. We also had the Goi Cuon or shrimp and pork rolls which were as fresh as you can get in any decent Vietnamese dining. Once again, the dip was pretty amazing.

The entrees were somewhat of an anti-climax after our wonderful appetizers. I had the Pho Tai (Beef flank steak noodle soup) and was wondering about the $5.75 price tag at such a fancy restaurant. What could possibly go wrong for this all-time favorite staple dish? Alas, a puny bowl with a few slices of beef arrived with lukewarm soup literally overflowing once I attempted to dip the accompanying bean sprouts and herbs. It felt more like an appetizer and I've had much better Pho in Philly.

One of my companions ordered the Com Tam Dac Biet (House special broken rice) which was a hearty dish of char-grilled chicken, pork, beef and crab meat egg, and according to him was pretty tasty much like the BBQ platter we had earlier. The others had variations of the pan-fried crispy noodles, one of which was the Mi Xao Que Huong (Saigon noodle). They took about 7 minutes to demolish their entrees which was good serving of noodles, shrimp and chicken, so I'm assuming that they were reasonably impressed with those.

Dessert was a super-potent wonderfully creamy Vietnamese drip coffee served in a normal coffee cup (which is not too authentic) rather than the typical aluminium drip pot. Not for folks used to single-shot lattes, the coffee will guarantee hours of hyper-alertness. . . . Another gripe is the lack of free refills for hot tea which is kind of a given in most Asian restaurants.

Overall, Vietnam is a lovely restaurant with great ambience for special occasions, excellent appetizers, good variety, and reasonable pricing. For staples though, if you're not fussy with the decor, there are plenty of other good Vietnamese outlets over in South...

Okay, so I'm not going to say what is or is not authentic here, because I looked at some other reviews and those with Vietnamese last names said that it was pretty close to authentic...not sure if they've tried the Vietnamese food from Paris or NYC...but I have and I thought those were more authentic, especially because there dishes we're mostly the same..slightly different tasting...but menus were similar...at Vietnam in Philly, they didn't even have the basic #1 soup noodle dish, which has brisket, tendon, tripe sliced raw beef...and that was a bit disappointing. They also only serve 3 eggrolls in an order and cut them up??? That was weird. Everything was a bit on the salty side and the rice aka broken noodles were on the hard side....the pickled turnip and carrots we're not really as pickled as I hoped and the fish sauce was weird because they had chili flakes in them...what if someone didn't was there to be any spicy-ness? To top everything off, when we entered the restaurant, the waiter asked the hostess in Chinese, how many people? And she responded with the number in Chinese. Then when I wanted to ask about whether or not they had the #1 soup noodle dish, because I only know it by the Chinese name, suddenly he doesn't speak Chinese and no one can speak Chinese there...which I was really annoyed about...like what kind of self-hating Asian are you??? Or is it some kind of rule...that you need to speak English to the customers in Philly?? I don't know...but I was really bothered by that. Again as I wrote in another review, if there are more non-asians than Asians, I'm going to assume it's not as authentic as I hope and I'll turn back around and walk out the...

Some months ago, I ventured into this place after ordering takeout and have regretted it, since, Whenever I think about how horrible my experience was there, I no longer even want to eat Vietnamese cuisine. Quite simply, I was attending a convention and wanted to get something nearby the hotel. I ordered through GrubHub and, after seeing the extreme delay in delivery times, I decided to just go and get it myself. When I arrived in the store, all went well until I picked ONE peppermint from the counter, while I was waiting for my food. The owner/manager NEARLY slapped my hand and scolded me for taking mints which were for "the customers'. Clearly, he couldn't distinguish between a delivery driver and his customers. I wonder how that happened? Further, he felt emboldened to attempt to continue his attempt to scold me for taking what he would otherwise have given away.

I can assure you that when I got through discussing him, his parents, and his country, that he will exercise serious caution before making such a ridiculous noise about ONE peppermint. He was completely out of bounds and beyond rude, almost to the point of battery. He refused a refund. I had it refunded through the delivery company. And chucked it in the garbage, on the way out the door.

The guy is an immigrant, from a country where my neighbors lost lives in a war. He needn't grovel. Or apologize. Or be in any particular way. Though, he could find a bit of respect for the country which now hosts him and for its citizens and residents, despite his blindly racist assumptions.

In my strongest sense of disappointment, I encourage you to NOT patronize this establishment. HIGHLY...