Maison Sen Buffet

The place was beautiful, nice ambience and music. The service was decent when bringing us to our table.

For non-locals, it is important to note that the 2 staff that were at our area could not speak english at all and had to call the manager when we asked them to fire up the pot. It was very difficult to communicate with them.

About 30 minutes later, we were caught off guard when the manager came to our table and told us that he was going to charge us for water. He then pointed to our bottles of water on the table. Now, we know that drinking your own water comes with a price and we will not do it again. However, we were entirely unaware because we already had a bottle of water on the table at the start of our dining duration but the manager and the 2 staff did not warn us at all. It would have been nice if we were given a heads up instead of what felt like a threat by the manager to charge us a fee. We would also gladly buy water from the restaurant if not met with such hostile treatment. Thankfully, after explaining to the manager, we were not charged for the water, but after such hostility, it made me feel very uncomfortable, unwelcomed and I wanted to leave immediately.

I would like to give a special mention to the kind lady at the booth who served me the lobster porridge.

Overall, the service is definitely not as good as other restaurants in Hanoi. The staff will leave you at the table unless you go up to them and ask for something. Perhaps because we don’t speak the same language.

With regards to the food, you can definitely get better tasting and better quality food elsewhere. The only saving grace of this restaurant is the aesthetics of it.

It is also very rowdy and noisy here, if you are looking for a quiet and peaceful place to dine, this is not the place for you..