Maison Sen Buffet — Restaurant in Hà Nội

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...

After visiting the world famous Marriot buffet my girlfriend and I decided to try this place out. This restaurant is often recommended by locals and does have a bit of upper class vibe to the place. So after visiting this place I have compiled a short pros and cons list comparing the Maison to the Marriot:

Who has more seafood offerings? 🏆Maison (the grilled shellfish are a delight)

Which restaurant has a birthday service where you get to meet not 1 but 2 of your favorite minions? 🏆Maison

Which restaurant actually helps you learn Vietnamese by labeling all the food only in Vietnamese? 🏆Maison

Which restaurant offers a hot pot option? 🏆 Maison

Which restaurant has a dedicated local Vietnamese cuisine food bar? 🏆 Maison

All in all after visiting both buffets in Vietnam you could say I am a bit biased that I feel the price of Maison and their seafood selection is simply unbeatable (did I mention the grilled shellfish were a delight?).

How would I score the Maison? 4 dancing minions out of 5. I would have given them 5 but sadly the minions didn’t dance...

A large selection of Vietnamese and international dishes. 398,000 VND + drinks are extra (29,000 for a coke) + VAT

This was by far the most expensive meal I had while in Vietnam, but I think it was worth it for the selection. Seafood, meats, sushi, hotpot. I especially enjoyed their dessert section and Chè bar. The ice cream was not good though, very icy :(

Be sure to make a reservation, which can be done by messaging them on Facebook, as they get very busy. One thing to note is that it seemed to be a popular place for children’s birthday celebrations. Multiple times they brought out a large minion costume and sang happy birthday, and there were kids running around. I would imagine during the weekend it’s even busier, as I had gone on a weekday.

The staff were nice. It was raining on the evening I went, and there was staff waiting outside the building to walk you from your vehicle to the entrance and shield you from the rain, which I thought was...