Viet Soul — Restaurant in Richmond

I came to Viet Soul expecting a serviceable Vietnamese meal. What I experienced was not quite bad enough to be called out right bad. However I wouldn't call it Vietnamese, and I certainly wouldn't call it good.

Our visit started with an observation of the oddly disjointed atmosphere. The service was on par with expectations and I have no complaints about the staff, but the food, like the decor, lacked true identity.

I initially ordered spring rolls as an appetizer, and was informed that they were out with apologies. This is a bit odd for a Vietnamese restaurant, but not a big deal. I then ordered a grilled chicken and rice plate, and my companion ordered a basic Beef Pho. We also decided that despite it not being Vietnamese, we would try an order of Kimchi fries which are a fusion favorite of ours.

The Pho (The good...almost): The Pho came out steaming and for a moment there was hope, but as soon as the broth smell wafted my way I knew disappointment wasn't far behind. The dish wasn't bad overall. It was hollow. It was rice noodle soup with prices of beef. It lacked enough flavor and distinction to be called Pho.

The Chicken (The Bad): This is where things really started going downhill. The chicken was cooked to a rubber like consistency and was flavored with what I suspect to be a watered down version of "Mr. Yoshida's" or some other variety of generic Asian marinade. It certainly was not the juicy, flavorful fare I expect from this dish.

The Kimchi Fries and Egg Rolls (The Ugly): If you're going to be lazy with fusion food, why even try. This dish consisted of fries doused in a "Kimchi Sauce" which was quite clearly mayonnaise with just enough kimchi spice to tint it the lightest of pink. This was topped with a trifle of shredded beef, which was dry and flavorless. Finally a bit of actual Kimchi was placed to the side and served more as a garnish than a feature.

The Egg Rolls were just plain bad. They were greasy fried packets filled with an unidentifiable and all but flavorless mixture of what I assume was meat. I would be surprised to find out if they came from anywhere other than the frozen section of the local supermarket.

Conclusions: Viet Soul is an extremely generic attempt at a Vietnamese restaurant. The food is reminiscent of someone who tried to recreate something that they had had heard about, but never actually eaten.

To sum it all up, this restaurant doesn't know what it is. The result is a lifeless eatery that offers little in the way of exciting fare. Unless you are just plain desperate for a...

Disappointed at the quality of the food for a to go order. Took about 10 minutes to arrive at the crib and this is my experience. I don’t usually leave poor reviews about quality, but this is my honest opinion and that’s all it is, an opinion. Speed of the service was quick so that was good but once the food was tasted, not too much to applaud. From my photos the fried egg rolls, the consistency with in, felt like one piece of sausage is very tight and compact and did not have the normal consistency of other eggrolls that I’ve tried. I could not separate between tastes of the meat and the vegetables within the egg roll itself. The eggroll skin was also very mushy and not crispy. This is also not typical of other establishments even at a 15 or 20 minute timeframe for take home. The shaking beef (bo luc lac) was cooked tender on the inside, but the texture was super dry on the outside, and was lacking that savory flavor I expected. The dish did not include the normal salt, pepper and lemon/lime that I wanted with a normal shaking beef. The special banh Mi had no pate. This was highly unusual, as the sandwich always has pate. This point was my greatest disappointment with this establishment as the sandwich was super lacking in flavor because of that one ingredient. I later fried an egg, and added Sriracha just to make this edible. The last photo shows a strangely mutilated cucumber. I have no idea why and establishment would cut out a critical piece of the vegetable. This is also the first I’ve seen this happen at any establishment. The two stars that this review receives is from the friendliness of the staff. The young lady had on a Marvel, dark Phoenix shirt, and the Speedy service that I received for the food coming out. The only reason I would go back to try. I would need to read about better reviews, post mine, to give this place another try as there’s too much competition in Americanized...

Went here Saturday after lunch with my husband. It is new for us, opened recently. SUPER busy. We were lucky because we were the last to walk in and get a fresh table. After us, 4 families walked in (duration of our meal, maybe 40 min?) and had to wait at the provided waiting chairs at entrance. Ordered: Fried calamari to share Pork vermicelli bowl (for me) Beef vermicelli bowl (for husband)

Fried calamari was excellent! I've never had it with a tangy, honey sauce. It just went amazing together. Perfect sharing appetizer for us (smaller side). Both vermicelli bowl were delicious and FRESH. The cucumber was crispy, the noodles were well cooked. My pork was yummy and good sauce. Each vermicelli bowl came with a half egg roll (cut at an angle). I see a lot of reviewers complain about not having a full roll...I just want to mention that the full meal made us very full. I don't think every restaurant has to cater to huge portion needs... Waiter (young female) was rushing around to get everyone's beverages filled. We had good service. CON: Only con we experienced. Waited to pay for 10 minutes. Put check on edge of table and waited. Finally we went up to register (not run by anyone at the time) and saw a big stack of other checks waiting. Someone approached us and was somewhat confused why we're paying at front, we just said, we want to pay. He was fine with it.

Of course, parking shared with rest of strip mall businesses. We didn't have a hard time parking so...