Ma Xó Cafe — Restaurant in Hà Nội

A very upsetting experience. The views were lovely and we thought we had ourselves set up for a lovely evening. We sat up on the roof top, when we walked in there were 3 other people who already had their food and drink. A few people walked in after us. It took 15-20 minutes for our bottle of wine to arrive (700k). Bare in mind, a table that walked in after us had their food at this point (we ordered before them and had the exact same wine). A good 10 minutes after our food order was finally taken, we were informed one of the dishes wasn’t available. We understand this is by no means the waiters responsibility, but we would expect to be told much sooner. Unfortunately it only got worse. Our food took 45 minutes to arrive. Our dish was one of the only two mains available. The dish has no business being labeled and priced as a main meal - nor taking that long to be prepared in a restaurant with less than 15 customers. When the food was delivered we were told there is no cutlery because the kitchen was overwhelmed. We’re not against eating with our hands (where appropriate) but there was no working sink. No check back on the food. He asked us to stack the plates for him while clearing and nearly dropped them over my partner. I hope he is just new to the job. When we went to pay we saw the staff members just starting around the till chatting, after telling us they were too busy to give us cutlery or food at a decent time. We politely shared our complaints and no effort to amend them were taken. Excuses continued to be made, especially regarding the imaginary large volume of customers. Please take into consideration, I work in hospitality and my partner is a chef - we are well aware of the strains in the industry, but in this instance people simple weren’t doing very well at their jobs - there was an obvious lack...

The Cafe is front the largest lake in Hanoi which is nice. We've been taken a bit aback by the fact that we had to take our shoes off given all the slippers provided looked dirty. We've chosen to sit outside in the end but going to the toilet it's a pain as you need to take your shoes off and the take them on again etc. The service was quite bad with half of the order being forgotten about. When we asked the waiter told us the kitchen was busy, however, they came clean the next time we asked as they have forgotten about it. We had to wait another 20 mins for the food after I finished mine and when it came back had items that were not specified on the menu. I had the pumpkin rosti which was ok although it could with a bit more salad as it's quite heavy, the eggs were runnier than they should have been. My wife had the shaksuka which the staff forgot about and then had to wait 20 more minutes to get the food which was so oily and the eggs were subpar. The staff was running frantically around with a big focus on ensuring guests coming in do not by any chance go in with their shoes on. It is a bit weird given we were sitting by the entrance. All in all the atmosphere was weird, I wouldn't recommend...

I ordered what was described as a pumpkin potato pancake. It wasn’t. It was shredded potato and pumpkin bound together and deep fried. Nothing remotely resembling a pancake at all. Would not have ordered it had I known it was deep fried- I did show the staff a picture of a pancake. I was given a menu and when I was ready I put it on my table and waited for staff to take my order. Nothing. I get up to go to the register and the staff waitress, who is looking at her phone, gets up and takes my order. I bring this to the attention of the manager, and she says, “ we want to give you your privacy.” I respond, “ If I want privacy I don come to a restaurant.” It was a really off- putting excuse for a lazy worker. I have been a server and I never was on my phone but had my eyes on the customers to see if they needed service. You won’t know that if you are sitting down and face in phone. I was taken aback with the “ we want to give you your privacy excuse” - just wrong. I go to a restaurant to be served - we all do. I was alone and not in a conversation- that I would understand- but once the customer puts the menu down, it usually means they are ready to order. Pleasant atmosphere-...