Lai Restaurant — Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City

This place is ok i would say. Not the best. The food is quite oily. I called in advance to reserve a room here for a birthday party and the reservations officers informed me that if you want to use the room, the minimum spending per person would be 1,000,000 vnd. I was quite disappointed but ok, ill go with it. The general theme of the restaurant is quite overwhelming with awkward pieces of decoration inside the private room. When I asked the restaurant if i can bring a decoration team inside to decorate for me. They said i would have to pay an extra amount of 1,500,000 vnd in order to bring people in. They do offer decorations services with an insane amount of price. I dont think this is something that the restaurant would have to offer as i have to transfer money to another separate bank account which is not the restaurant’s account. Corkage fee here is 2,500,000vnd. The food here is ok, not too impressive. The whole menu seems very oily and heavy in terms of food. Some of the dishes arrive to our table not being hot and some of the soup dishes looks really messy in terms of look. Not the best food i would say. I do like the server. He was really nice and supportive. The staff to guest ratio here is quite bad. Our room has 20 people but there was only one server so i feel like it was really difficult for him. With the price range that i paided, i dont think that it is worth it. I would say that this is quite an unpleasant experience here. Me as someone who made the reservation, i feel like im being upsell and this is not something that the restaurant should be proud of. I would really appreciate if the restaurant have some consideration in the way that they communicate with us as costumers about pricing and restrictions. Im more than happy to pay full price but saying that you would have to pay a minimum amount just give me an ick and makes me uncomfortable when dinning here. I dont think this whole process is completely honest between staff to staff and customers to staff. It has come to my notice that the restaurant has charged us an extra 1 million vnd for corkage fee. We were informed that it was 1.5 mil but they put in 2.5 mill for the bill without informing us. I will never return to this place again....

I went to the restaurant on a late weekend evening. That day, many roads were blocked due to some government-related issues, so we arrived a bit later than expected. The atmosphere and food were still as good as my previous visits, but the service really fell short this time.

When I asked for a wet tissue after spilling wine on my shirt, the staff told me they had run out. For a fine dining rooftop restaurant, that kind of response is unacceptable. Essentials like this should never be out of stock. On top of that, the table setup was incomplete, I had to request things like chopsticks and a lap napkin.

The second issue, which frustrated me even more, was when I ordered three mains and a side of plain white rice. The server told me the kitchen had run out of white rice, but that other kinds of rice were available (are u kidding me???) - I found this quite odd. Why restrict customers from choosing plain rice (it’s on the menu), especially when the dishes already had strong, rich flavors and plain rice would have helped balance the meal, right?? Still, since it was close to closing time and I didn’t want to affect the mood of my dining companion, I switched to the stir-fried beef noodles instead (I must admit it threw off the balance of my whole meal and left me pretty dissatisfied). The only highlight was a young male server who was polite and professional.

This was my fifth visit to Lai Cantonese and sadly the most disappointing in terms of service. Management really needs to improve staff training - at this level of dining, customers have plenty of other choices where the service is much more aligned with the price...

I never got the chance to eat there, but I got to experience bad customer service. I ordered a table online for Friday the 14th (Valentine) - All good, I got my reservation confirmation and booking number. Next day I figured, that outdoor seating, with skyline view, would be super nice and romantic for my girlfriend and I. So I write them an email, asking for outdoor seating. I get a reply back that, because it's Valentine's Day, there's a minimum order of 4 mil VND for a couple, with a table inside, AND 6 mil VND minimum for an outside table. They don't advertise this, and if I hadn't written the initial email about a request for a table outside, I wouldn't have known, until the day my girlfriend and I, was there.

I called the restaurant and talked with the hostess - she didn't seem to understand the issue. Then I talked to the manager, he says that it was a mistake (that they don't mention it on their website) and that he was very sorry - which sadly don't really help much, when I looked forward to a lovely dinner and evening, but not for 4 mil / 6 mil VND - and especially not when it is not advertised. When is it presented (or lack of) like that, it seems like a scam and that they are taking advantage of, the fact that it is Valentine and maxing the price without telling anyone, and then surprising people...