Den Long - Home Cooked Vietnamese Restaurant — Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City

Disappointing experience with small portioned and over-presented food.

My group left hungry despite the fact that we ordered one main dish per person. A couple members of our group were born and raised in Vietnam, while the rest of our multicultural group (made up of westerners and asians) have had extensive Vietnamese cuisine experience around the world to know the difference between average and exceptional Vietnamese food. We all found the meal to be extremely underwhelming.

Portion sizes are small similar to high priced western fine dining and unlike the plethora of fantastic and authentic foods that can be found mere streets away.

This restaurant speaks to family style and home cooking - anyone who has experienced any level of asian family style dining will immediately understand these portion sizes are laughable.

The number of five star reviews left by local guides definitely raises an eyebrow and so I felt compelled to leave an honest review from one tourist to another.

As a recommendation to the owner who appears keen to defend the pricing model of his restaurant, it may be recommended that wait staff inform diners that they should be ordering multiple main dishes per person to...

It was an ok experience for us. Just had dinner there after reading great reviews. Two tables next to us get the full menu presentation with recommendations from server, we had an order taker. No one check with us to see food is ok. Beverages are very alcoholic so that depends if you like it that way. Shaking beef tasted braised instead of wok tossed. Crispy Tofu has ton of lemongrass, doesn't seem to be executed well. Not cheap but I think I would had better dinner trying out street food.

Update after owner responded: Thank you for responding to my review so quickly. I was there in between the two tables. So I came in second. Server did explain menu to first table and then the third table. I was still sitting there with my guest haven't ordered one thing. Since they're both next to my table, I felt awkward we were singled out. I don't want to make any judgment but I've also served in restaurant for over 20 years and it's just a bad taste to watch this in such highly recommended place. I'm sure you'll do well on many more years to come and I wish you and your team all the best.

*owner did offer to have me back again for a discounted price meal but we are no...

I have to say, I didn't really believe this place would be as good as the reviews implied. I am happy to say that it's better than the reviews imply. ☺️

This was my very first meal in Vietnam, and now I feel the bar has been set so high!

I dined alone, so I (unfortunately) wasn't able to get one of everything... But I did get the shrimp spring rolls, grilled baby pork ribs with lemongrass, and pan-fried Tonkin flower with garlic. The portions are a great size to share, and small enough that even a sad (not really), lone diner can enjoy at least 3 dishes. Everything was ngon quá (very delicious)! And the service here really is stellar. The entire staff was extremely nice, and they even wrote down a list of foods/drinks/sites for me to see! 😍

I washed all that delightful food down with a couple local craft IPAs (also delicious)!

I really want to try many other places before I journey away from Ho Chi Minh City, but I think I'm going to have to hit this place up again before I leave at least once more. I wish I could give more than 5 stars because you deserve at least 11. Thanks for an unbelievable first meal in...