Bookworm's Coffee — Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City

I had a couple of interesting experiences here:

1. First time was brilliant, really enjoyed it. I turned up, wowed by both the menu and range of board games and books in every language. I love these kind of places. But the menu was really what had caught me. Having been travelling for 5 months, a good home-cooked western style breakfast was really what I had been craving. Slightly greedily, I opted for the vegan full English. I was a bit disappointed at the quality and if I’m honest, the fake meat was quite disgusting. It was too real, too bland, too gross. Alas, the guy (an expat, presumably the owner) floating about the place was really cool. He is what made the experience fun. He was both interesting to talk to, as well as interested in my travels. It was refreshing.
2. The second time I visited, the guy was nowhere to be seen. Instead there were two Vietnamese ladies with an unpleasant attitude about themselves. It was a bit strange and unexpected, especially as they spent most of the time hiding away in the kitchen than attending to the few customers who were equally waiting for some time. After much time in the country, I’ve now put it down to just typical Vietnamese customer service... direct, a little harsh and sometimes borderline rude. On this occasion I simply ordered soya milk coffee, after a while of waiting. When I eventually saw one of the ladies to ask for sugar, she just pointed to the other end of the cafe. I went over to look but couldn’t see what/where I was supposed to be looking. I asked again, wished I hadn’t, and was almost thrown some sugar on my table that she got from in the kitchen. I suppose the stash she was pointing at had emptied. Glad it wasn’t just me, I then witnessed two separate other customers have difficulty, one of which said ‘forget it’ and left quite promptly. It was all quite weird.
3. I decided to give it one more try, as the menu was extensive of homely comforts. This time the guy was there again who greeted me, but only for about 5 minutes before riding off on his motorbike. Instead, I were left in the cafe with a small child. It became again, a very strange experience. The kid was happy enough for a while, playing with a toy car and then some Jenga type bricks. Every now and again the lady from the kitchen would come through and put a bowl of something in front of the kid. But before you know it, the brat appeared. She started crying and throwing the bricks around the room. I was so confused, why is this child here on her own? Why is this child kicking off and nobody coming to quieten her? More importantly, why is the customer service so bad here, why is there never anyone around to serve the customers and what is the point having a cafe if you’re not going to make food/drinks? Needless to say, it went on for a while, I finished my coffee, asked to pay up and promptly left. This was the last time I visited. I had high hopes for this place originally but after the three very odd experiences, I’m not quite sure they’ve...

Don’t be deceived by how the place looks. For a restaurant that doesn’t have any fancy advertising like other shops on the same street, the food exceeds expectations. I had the beef steak and also the banh xeo here (my boyfriend and I came to this place twice while he was getting his tattoo across the street). He got the English breakfast and on another day he ordered a different breakfast dish twice in the same day. The food is full of flavour and delicious! The staff were accommodating to my requests for more meat, and as someone who is Vietnamese that was some DAMN good banh xeo. One sweet lady there was running the place by herself handling all customer and grab orders and would make sure we knew the meals were coming. Super friendly, talkative and fun.

One of the days we ate there, I actually hadnt planned to eat there because of my presumptions of how the food might be based on how it looked. I ended up ordering grab from somewhere else to the restaurant and when I received my food, it smelled off that I was scared to eat it worries about getting food poisoning. I tried once piece of the meat and that was it. Later I decided to order from the restaurant because I was hungry and we were already there. The lady working asked if the takeout bag was for the garbage and was concerned why I didn’t eat it. I mentioned it smelled a bit off and then ordered that amazing banh xeo (as previously mentioned). My stomach was actually already feeling off from the piece of meat I ate from the other place, and the lady actually came back to confirm with me that if I ate that I definitely would’ve got food poisoning and said that it smells like it’s been left out for awhile, and it was good I didn’t eat it. The fact that she was concerned enough to check my take away box (that was already tied closed) if the meat was really bad or if it was just my paranoia felt like an extra bit of care on top of the service. Most people I would think would just throw the box away and not think to really check if a takeaway order from somewhere else is bad as long as the customer is now ordering from their place.

Anyway, long story short, great food for an affordable price, friendly staff, and cute dog to keep you company while you have...

Place - old, dusty and not too clean. Its like a typical house without regular cleaning. They have a stash of dust covered novels and gamegoards, motorbikes parked inside. The upside was the cute little dog that wipes the frustration away with his sweetness.

Food - ah, terrible. Had to pay nearly 400k for sets of breakfast which can easily be cooked at home. My fault cos i was too tired from exercise and lazy to cook so i resorted to eating here thinking maybe the food’s good. Unfortunately, it’s not - I should have just had a hot, good bowl of bun bo hue 40k down the road with banh cuon and banh tom - I would have been happier paying 150k for that with full happy stomach. The portions are small, evidently not cooked with love and didn’t even bother to at least have a nicer presentation to stimulate the appetite. Bottomline, the food is not worth the price. (They also charge 2% more if you are going to pay using card)

Service - the staff seems to be in a hurry to get our orders, and hastily grabbing the menus away immediately. When trying to grab the menu again to check again whats included in which breakfast, the staff just closed the menu. When they clarified which drink we would like, we told them and she smirked like we don’t understand what she’s saying which exudes impatience and utter rudeness. They were very good and giddy when we were paying though. Had the calculator handy, computing the bill and wasn’t attentive with our payment method and kept on insisting there’s 2% charge for card payment, while we won’t be paying by card. Mediocre to lukewarm service at best.

Conclusion: Find other resturants that are cleaner, brighter, more conducive for eating with more accommodating staff. Im quite sure that there are a lot of other restaurants around where you’ll get your money’s...