Tín Vietnamese — Restaurant in San Francisco

I was attracted by these good reviews and this place is nearby the Moscone Center. I ordered the ‘vermicelli noodles bowl with chicken’ and fried cracker shrimp, and Vietnamese coffee. This place has only one waiter to serve ALL tables and guests, of course, you will not get any service. I totally understand how busy and how exhausted he is, but I have to be honest that the experience is terrible. My waiting time is not long, as I came before 12pm. However, after placed my order, I waited for more than 20 minutes for a coffee and the appetizer. I can tell the appetizer was waiting to be served for long time, as they are cold already. Then, I have to wait for another 30 mins for the noodle bowl. I feel bad because the guys came after me already have their food ready to eat. I don’t know how hard for the chef to make the noodle bowl comparing with the pho they ordered. I was really hard to speak to the waiter, and I told him that if the noodle bowl is not ready, I am good to pay the bill and leave, then after 2 mins, it is ready. The chicken is very salty and has kind of teriyaki sauce flavor, no chili sauce for the noodle salad, and the sauce on the top has no taste at all. I was scared to call the waiter as I don’t wanna waste anther 20 mins for the chili sauce. My regular impression of this course should be fresh, chili, with a bit basil and contain fish sauce, but not here. Honestly, the coffee is good, no complain of their coffee. I just feel really upset with this experience, I also feel sorry to the people who stand at the door for 20mins without any attention from the waiter. Well, again, as there is only one waiter, I know how busy he is and I understand it, but it really gives me a bad experience in SF. Maybe I should order a Pho with soup to have a smooth experience, anyway, I don’t have 2 hours to spend in this place next time, I will not...

It's common that in heavily populated Asian communities the cultural food is really good and authentic and you'd be wrong if you thought SF had a concentration of Vietnamese that would showcase this. The predominant Asian community is Chinese. I was fully expecting a wonderful display and a broad authentic menu. It's about half the options I was expecting and a little more gourmet than most.

Spring rolls were large and rolled nice and tight plenty of pork flavor, but the shrimp was there, but I barely tasted it. The peanut dipping sauce was extra sweet, very little fish sauce.

The pho broth was excellent the noodles were a little less than proportionate to the size of the bowl, but the rare steak was really good and probably the best brisket I've ever had. Intramuscular fat, sliced to perfection. Not quite fall apart. No tripe, no flank, no tendon, no meatballs. A very watered down version for more public consumption. A nice size somewhere between a regular small and large.

Lemongrass pork is tender, well marinated and crisp notes of the fresh herbs used were a winner winner. A little light on the rice and the usual cucumber and tomato garnishment.

Do not add grilled shrimp to an order. It's $2 for 3 medium shrimp probably U-25 sized. Vermicelli is perfect . Fish dipping sauce was thick and not very pungent. I would have liked to see true broken rice dishes.

They have quite a few drink options, but none of the super traditional kinds.

On a busy Saturday night the wait wasn't very long, but the service wasn't up to par. Server was not friendly, probably stressed out, our waters and tea were not refilled and they took some of our dishes a little early despite asking if we were done. Definitely in a hurry to move along another party. I like the décor as it's more modern and not so traditional, no fish tank. TV's in the corners are not...

We arrived at 12:40 on a Friday, and had to wait for about 10 minutes, which was really quite reasonable. If you ever find yourself arriving to a line, make sure to go inside and write your name on this list. I was a little surprised that there was no host taking care of this, but it seemed to work just fine.

On to the food! I ordered a vegetarian bun with lemongrass tofu, and when the server asked if I would like to add a vegetarian egg roll to the dish, I happily agreed! My friend had the lemongrass beef bun. While I have had better tofu, it was pretty tasty. The ingredients were fresh, and there was no shortage of raw vegetables and delicious vermicelli noodles. However, I found the sauce to be a bit lacking. It's not that the sauce didn't taste good, because it was decent. My problem was that it was so mild! I am accustomed to the clear vinegar-y sauce on a bun being spicy and very flavorful, and I can only describe the one I had at Tin as mild. After a few bites, both my friend and I decided to make use of the bottles of hoisin sauce and hot sauce (think Sriracha-style) provided on the table. I usually avoid adding anything to my food, as I trust the chef to strike the right balance, but this bun was just a little under-flavored. Again, the food was fresh, and there was nothing about it that tasted bad, it was just a little boring compared to all the buns I have had in the past. I might consider returning, but I will definitely be trying some other Vietnamese...