Izakaya MATSUKI 18A Thai Van Lung — Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City

I’d enjoyed having yakitoris at Izakaya MATSUKI for a couple of times since 2024, yet the recent experience was really upset and disappointing. I came in alone for a late night dinner around the 5th, ordering my favorite 140k grilled chicken skew set. There were few guests with many staff in and out. First, the staff english needs to be improved, they didn’t understand the chili sauce i was asking. Second? It took over 30 minutes for the grilled chicken to arrive. I kindly reminded them of my dish pending to be served, but ended up receiving indifferent and unresponsive face. Eventually, the grilled chicken skin came out super salty, and what’s worse, the restaurant even took use of bad quality meat. One chicken skewer was too spoiled to eat and i had to put it down. The chicken definitely tasted out to be not fresh at all. you shouldn’t deserve service fee and For this bad dish and non-merit service. It’s shame on you trying to farewell your old customers...

📍VIRAL izayaka with MATCHING expectation!

Last year, I had a chance to dine out at Matsuki Hanoi & was satisfied with the experience so this year we came to Matsuki HCM.

Overall, the concept remains the same - basement izayaka within a building. Seatings in HCMC were relatively straightforward; I prefer something more private and hidden like the one in Hanoi.

Menu runs on $ price as usual. We opted for several choices, including sashimi, meat, and soup. Fuji beef was an absolute FLAVOR BOMB 🤤. We enjoyed every bite of this tongue-melting, umami slice of beef. Their teriyaki rice balls were equally impressive - very savory & rich in flavor. These two dishes are highly recommended.

⭐️ suggestion: staffs were very supportive but a better way is to take a quick glance to judge whether guests are finished with the dish before taking...

Staff is great with the service but the food and drinks leave a lot to improve. We were originally going for another place around the corner to get skewers but they were closed so we went here. The chicken skin was far from what we expected, a bit burned but not evenly seasoned and not evenly crispy like what we had in the other place. The pork tongue was really dry and tough. I ordered plum juice thinking it was juice but it actually was soda based, quite sweet and carbonated. The eel egg was probably the best of all the things. We paid over 400k but not very satisfied tho. When we walked out we saw skewers on the grill but no one manning the station, and we understood why...