Monsoon Seattle — Restaurant in Seattle

I have been coming to this restaurant for 10+ years. It has been one of my favorite restaurants. The last 2 times I have gone here have been less than ideal. The first time our server was standoffish and rude, took a long time to come to the table and took even longer to bring our drinks and food. By the time we were done eating it was 20+ minutes of us waiting for our checks while she was just inside talking to the hostess and not paying attention to us. The 2nd time I made a reservation and they sat us in the bar area. Very soon I realized our server would be the same person we had last time. We got sat and she said hello and she would be back to get our drink orders shortly. Another 20 minutes go by and she finally comes back, we order our food and I order a cocktail and my boyfriend orders a regular lemonade. She asks for both of our ID (we both are residents and have Washington IDs) which we happily and willingly do so. She takes them and starts aggressively looking at them. She then asks for us to recite information off our IDs. Me and my boyfriend are young (mid 20s) but not so young that we look as though we are up to something. We comply and it seems to appease her for the time being. Again my boyfriend did not order an alcoholic beverage. She leaves and comes back 10 minutes later and asks for my ID again. This time taking it away from the table and bringing it back to the bar where I can see them shining a flashlight over it. She finally brings it back another 10 minutes later and thanks and walks away. At this point I am starting to get frustrated, I don't understand why or what would prompt her to do that- my boyfriend still hasn't gotten their lemonade. I tell him I feel uncomfortable and that I think I would rather have our food to go, I am unsure why this has escalated in this way. We then ask a different server if we can have our food to go which they say of course. As they are walking away someone from the table next to us (they have our same server) gets up and asks if they can check on their order they had been sitting there for 45 minutes with no food. Me and my boyfriend feel validated seeing that this service is not some isolated incident. We receive our food to go but our server is no where to be seen we wait another 15 minutes and my boyfriend finally goes and pays at the bar. The whole interaction and situation was very bizarre and off putting. I am very disappointed and sad as I love this restaurant but now feel uncomfortable going back. Unfortunately they have lost a dedicated customer.

Giving it 2 stars as I can't bring myself...

I don't normally leave terrible reviews but this place managed to push all my buttons. Sometimes you hear people talk about yelp reviews in Seattle being inaccurate or overinflated and this place is a clear cut example of that. Usually in a gentirifed neighborhood, people who like asian food (Vietnamese food in this case) will settle for anything basic/Americanized. I have no idea how this place even got this type of review, but maybe me and my table just all ordered the wrong stuff.

I wasn't sure on a choice of 3 different options and the waitress recommended me to the drunken chicken, which caught my attention as the menu said it was crispy and I love different textures in my food. Let's start with saying this "crispy" is a false and dream crushing lie. No exegeration, but this was literally on par with Panda Express, if it even compares, I would honestly prefer panda.

The chicken was TERRIBLY flavored. The flavor profile was just totally off, imagine cheap cheap terrible takeout Chinese sweet and sour chicken with way too much sweet and sour sauce used. It was basically deep fried chicken with a joke of a sauce coating it for $18 before tax and tip. How could a waitress even recommend this?!

Even better yet, the dish doesn't come with rice or a CARB'S , so I ordered a side of rice. This is where this restaurant really shines. THEY SCREWED UP THE RICE! it was mushy and almost soggy, comparanle to the consistency of slightly slighly undercooked mashed potatoes. How can a Vietnamese restaurant that charges so much screw up setting as mundane as white rice.

I'm glad I came to this restaurant, because I'd never have to ever come back again. Save your money and go somewhere else. 2 stars because the restaurant itself was nice and they had good drinks but the food is trash....

I came to the Monsoon on a Saturday night about 8 PM without a reservation. The place was busy but there were several tables open. We were told we could be seated at the bar but could not have a table. I thought this was reasonable and would be okay. I was wrong. The spot was more of a wait station than table and a couple of the staff were rude and seemed to be offended that we were in their space. After dinner when only one of the tables had been filled I felt burned. Most of the food we had was quite good. There were several notable exceptions. The basics: Dinner for two just under $140.00 before tip. The worst thing happened first. We ordered a bottle of wine from the low end of the list $39.00. The cork broke while the bottle was benign opened. Our wait person went into defense mode and poured a “sample” with several pieces of cork. I mentioned the cork, our wait person ignored what I said. I decided to just live with a poor selection. This place seems to pride itself on a large wine list and presentation. As a person who has been involved on both sides of this ritual I can say with monsoon it is just a show without substance. We started with Duck Comfit Rolls and Crab Asparagus Soup. The rolls were small but good (better without the sauce), the soup turned out to be very ordinary egg flower there was visible crab and asparagus but the flavor was not there. For dinner I had Ribeye with mushrooms and green beans. My companion had scallops. We shared a side of Fiddle head ferns. Except for the items I already mentioned I thought all these items were good (maybe the smoked mushrooms were weird but I bet some people love them). That said, for over about $160.00 with tip my companion and I left feeling mistreated and still hungry (three...