Mi — Restaurant in Richmond

If you don't want to read the whole review here's a summary: -very curt, unwelcoming hostess -decent food that is overpriced -nice atmosphere

My family and I ate here around 2pm on a Saturday. It wasn’t busy and we paid $50.25 for four people. As soon as we walked through the door, the hostess stared at us with such distaste that I immediately felt unwelcomed. As she assisted us never once did she smile and she treated other customers similarly, even at the register when we paid for our meals. As a past food service worker I understand that employees may have rough days and they can be too exhausted to smile, but as a hostess tasked with welcoming so many customers into the restaurant, I expected her to be more friendly. She gave us the impression that she did not want to be there and that she didn’t care about the guests she was seating. The other waitress didn’t smile either but she at least nodded in response when we said “thank you” instead of look away and almost roll her eyes like the hostess did. I enjoyed the atmosphere of the restaurant! It's cozy and there was no intrusive music/background noise. I appreciate this because I could talk to my family. One of the chopsticks provided to us had a waxy, spider-web-like white substance twined around it. It looked like melted plastic or wax and it was on the end of the chopstick meant to pick up food. This flaw was very clearly visible on the darkly-colored utensil and yet the eating hazard was still given to us to use. The dishes were served in filling portions and we were served very quickly. My dad loved his tripe pho! The beef and meatball pho tasted okay but it had a fishy aftertaste. They included bean sprouts already in the soup so the customer can’t choose to add or omit it. I say this because the menu doesn’t mention that bean sprouts are served already in the soup rather than on a separate dish as other restaurants do, so we didn’t know to tell them “no”. The egg noodles are salty but delicious. The beef chow fun was a huge disappointment. Here it costs $12.50 but I have had better beef chow fun for $8.00 elsewhere. Mi’s chow fun is strangely slimy and shiny (yes gravy can make it wet but Mi’s is a cheap takeout quality slimy). The flavor isn’t as good as others I’ve tasted and as the food cooled down it tasted more and more unappealing. Overall the average-quality food was overpriced and I love the comfortable atmosphere, but the staff was rude enough to drop an average 3-star rating to a 2. I note that the owners of the restaurant read these reviews and a past review mentioned rude staff too, but with my experience today maybe they haven’t become any...

have been a regular customer for 10+ years, dropping by for lunch at least once a week. I have been spotted by some of my co-workers so often at this eatery that they joked about buying a share of the eatery. I enjoyed their offerings especially the Cambodian noodle soup and wavy egg noodle. The wavy egg noodle ('mee-pok') served with soup on the side and volumes of black vinegar reminds me of yiem-mee commonly found in Pontianak (in Kalimantan) or Bak-Chor(u) mee in Singapore. Anyhow, my last visit a few weeks left a bitter after-taste. I ordered Cambodian noodle soup and as usually it came with a 'mountain-shape' amount of noodles in a bowl. However, the soup was not topping to the top of the noodle 'mountain' (about 1' below the top) and so I asked for more soup. The lady server looked at me with straight face, and said "that would be an extra $1'. I was hungry and did not want to make a fuss out of it and so I paid up. The soup base, as usual, was great. However, I thought more about it later. I have asked for extra soup in the past and was not charged for it. Is the extra $1 a new practice put out by the owners or was it a side-dealing by the server? I would certainly understand it if an extra charge was added to help the owners make it through this pandemic and would support it. I love their Teochew noodle. However, if it was a sideshow by the server, I would...

Food is pretty good namely their noodles, which makes this place different than your usual Chinese restaurants. My issue with the place is more with typical Chinese rudeness and their having no manner. I was next in line trying to pay for my meal. The guy in front of me was having some issue with the credit card machine. Another Chinese woman came up and said something in Chinese to the waitress behind the counter and she let the woman pay for her meal before me although I was already waiting in line. This is a typical Chinese behavior that I've observed. They have no common courtesy. The woman customer not having manner is one thing but I expect better from an employee. She should've told the woman that I was in line first and let me go first. I was tired and didn't feel like arguing so I let it go. But it left a bad taste...