L'Usine Saigon Centre — Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City

Dined in on a lunar new year night so the place was especially crowded, but our family had such an unpleasant experience that we hope you would take consideration to better the customer experience as well as the food. Service: All staffs we interacted with were quite young and polite, but super inefficient in delivering our orders and not yet clear on basic restaurant services. Since it was a busy hour (7p), we were priorly alerted that our main course orders would take 30-45 minutes, to which we just said we’d appreciate if they could deliver as soon as they can. However, even drinks and fries alone took 20+ minutes to arrive at our table. When we reached the 30-45m timestamp, we alerted the manager just for the sake of checking as that was the time we were promised. The manager only replied that he already knew, it was ‘just reaching 30 minutes’, and he will check. Would’ve been simpler to just check and actually push for the food as our food came out after 45 minutes with the staffs forgetting 1 crab pasta order and had to rush the kitchen to fulfill the dish. Cutlery and cleaning of the table were also uncoordinated… An example was a staff bringing dessert up to our full table of finished plates without clearing the table first. Not sure where they’d plan to put the dishes down. Cutlery, napkins was also retrieved on demand and honestly it was tiring to keep asking for basic items. Staff communication: Had so much waiting time that I just had to observe the way the service team works and it stressed me out how inefficient the team is… No communication/ cross checking between the staffs e.g, rushing to serve us desserts when our mains haven’t even reached the table. Not sure how they communicate/ check table status as none of them have any phone/tablet/walkie talkie etc. Total of 4 staffs and 1 manager waited on our table, which was completely unnecessary for us and them. Is there no allocation system per table? Was very difficult to call on the staffs as well due to the seating chart of the area (blocked by a random square in the middle of the restaurant). I am sure they had a headache waiting for different tables as well because they all had to take adhoc requests from all table and couldnt possibly communicate with each other. Not sure how communication in the kitchen was as there was such a lag time in delivering the food, both mains and desserts. Table next to us also got their pasta order lost while other mains were served. This inefficiency upsets me because towards 8p I could see the staffs turning away customers (closing time was 9.30p, so definitely could’ve had another round) due to ‘overload’. By this time customers have left, empty tables everywhere and they couldve served more customers had the team better coordinated and had higher discipline. Our total servicing time was close to 2 hours and we only had 2 courses, with 2 desserts already prebaked. Dont know if your back kitchen is understaffed but definitely had enough front staff to take care of rush hours. Food: Food was very average… Main dishes felt rushed and flavors were mediocre (we had the chicken burger, crab pasta, broken rice). The stonepan steak was good according to my mom. Desserts were also mediocre as after extra 10 minutes of waiting after the main dish (we ordered 40 minutes prior), I was served a cold lava cake. The fried banana dish was good. If possible please take time to deepen your food as portion is not the problem, but the taste is, quite flat. We did receive a 20% voucher for the next time, but frankly was too upset so we discarded of it. Please know that I’m trying to be very constructive and although I won’t be coming back, I truly hope you better the experience and food if you want to grow. Very frustrating experience on what was supposed to be a happy lunar new year dinner for my family, hope this won’t happen...

Menu Items had at my experience today were two drinks, Root Radiance (orange, celery, beetroot, carrot) and Green Yogi (coconut syrup, celery kombucha), the Dinner Platter (marinated flank beef, fish (barramundi: a type of freshwater lake fish) and chips, seared chicken diavola, bbq grilled pork, Montclair sausages, mixed salad, cucumber and jalapeño pickles), and the Vegan Buddha Bowl.

Their Vegan Buddha Bowl is smaller than the picture shows, so it is not as filling as I thought it would be. However, the saving grace is that the Vegan Bowl is extremely delicious in terms of personal preference and taste, so please understand this is my biased opinion. The Vegan Bowl highlights the flavours of each ingredient showcased, the cashew sauce is more of a rough blend of cashews with little extra seasoning added. The pumpkin pieces come out piping hot and none of the individual ingredients taste like they are past their expiration date. I would personally recommend the Vegan Bowl for those who love fresh, simple, raw, lightly seasoned and cooked ingredients that when put together, is not over-complicated and leaves you feeling light hearted.

The Dinner Platter comes with a vast selection of meats that have their own unique style and taste to them. I found the meats to be quite dry if you don’t finish the entire platter quickly; definitely not meant for a vibe and chill tapas style platter, but a meal to be enjoyed on the spot. Nothing is particularly spicy on this platter, so if you’d like they offer a black pepper grinder table side; not sure if there are any other spice options as I didn’t ask. I’d like to mention that the deep fried fish and chips are excellent and the pickles are not too sour which is a bonus.

Receiving both drinks first, I started with the Root Radiance and it is extremely refreshing and light. It is not very sour and is more on the earthy side due to the beetroot and carrot. Highly recommend for those looking for a dose of healthy vitamins, with a light taste.

The Green Yogi showcases an extremely light fermented celery kombucha, not very fizzy or sour from what you’d find from the average North American Scoby. The coconut they use is a light syrup that’s not very sweet, but a little strong on the perfume of coconut flesh. Highly recommend for those who want a floral boost to their digestive system.

My overall experience here was extremely delightful as the staff was very polite and very willing to answer whatever questions you have for them.

P.S. They have a ‘Get Free Icecream’ if you write a google review! Though the promotion did prompt this review, I genuinely enjoyed the experience due to the atmosphere, vibe, and general beauty and presentation of the place. So if you do have the chance to come to Saigon Centre, please give this place a chance to have a meal or even...

DISCLAIMER - I was enticed by free ice cream to write this review. That said the opinions are my own without input from the establishment. The pistachio ice cream was not my favourite; a tad sandy for me.

TL;DR - Great Food | Attentive and Accommodating Service

First meal in Saigon. Ordered the pho and had the guava pineapple tea, both of which were excellent. Service was very accommodating as well; able to assist with a stroller and baby. Staff were also bi-lingual, which was a bonus. As a degenerate tourist I appreciated this.

Highly recommend checking this cafe out if you’re in the city. It’s on the pricier side, but I enjoyed it.

I did not get diarrhea, and it’s my first day,...