Mặn Mòi, Tao Đàn - 34 Võ Văn Tần — Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City

idk…i was quite sorely disappointed with my experience here. the atmosphere was brilliant and inviting, but the food? left much to be desired, especially at their price point. 😣👎🏻

i booked a reservation prior to coming to this restaurant, and they seated us outside, but not at a great table either? we were sitting in the centre, where we couldn’t even look out to really see the view from outside. but maybe it’s a small nitpick, because we subsequently did ask to be seated indoors & they did get us seats inside. i do wish you could choose where you wanted to sit on their reservation website, so as to reduce these sorts of issues.

upon sitting, they will give you wet towels to wipe your hands with & a shot glass of some fruit juice, which was refreshing against the blazing heat. our drinks arrived first, both very similar to thai milk tea, but not too sweet, nor memorable imo.

our food came within a reasonable amount of time! but the food itself was not very satisfying whatsoever. the sticky rice with pork wasn’t bad at all, but the ratio of meat to rice was really sad. just 3.5 thin slices of pork on a huge bed of rice, which made it so dissatisfying to eat. the sauce was delicious though.

the pork rice noodle looks like it’s packed with meat right? but it wasn’t. there was a lot of pork organs in the mix, which the menu did not show or describe. we would’ve avoided it if we knew there would be so little pork pieces in it.

we also ordered the chargrilled black pork. it looked appetising at first glance, but there was once again, not a lot of meat, and too much cartilage. i guess you’d like it if you like crunchy pork bones???? but it wasn’t very appreciated since our main dishes did not have a lot of meat to begin with. meat was also hard to chew & tough. it did come with some fresh veggies and sticky rice though.

last but not least, we got the stir fried spinach with garlic. we both took one bite of the dish and did not touch it after. i love spinach, but this just tasted like wet grass. no seasoning or hint of garlic was detected. i can’t believe we paid for a dish that was practically inedible.

the waiter clearing our plates did notice our untouched spinach dish though, and offered to compensate with a free dessert. we chose the banana ice cream.

i don’t even know how to start with this. it is not, effectively ice cream at all. if you don’t count the small cup of cream you pour over it. texture wise it felt like i was eating shredded coconut? i did not taste much sweetness from the banana at all. i feel like they should’ve just spaced out the words ‘ice’ and ‘cream’ without the hyphen from the menu since they both were very much separate from each other.

we paid so much for extremely average food that i feel we could’ve gotten way better elsewhere. sure the exterior was gorgeous, staff were friendly and attentive, and the place was clean, but that’s all there really is to it. we still had to pay for our uneaten spinach dish too, since they said they made up for it with the dessert (idk it was a flop too). it was nice trying it once, but i wouldn’t be back out of my...

UPDATE So, I went back yesterday and while the food is still among the very best - if not the best in its category - I was very, very disappointed.

The waiters mindlessly just take our orders and don't pay attention to anything. Next to us was a table of Westerners. They didn't know how to eat Vietnamese food family-style. They each had a pot of fried rice and eating it right out the pot. The staff didn't even tell them everything was meant to be shared. This is inadmissible. It was sad to watch those Westerners make a fool of themselves because they didn't know the cultural customs here.

The same inattention happened to us. We ordered a whole bunch of food and I asked if it was enough. The waiter said yes. But, when it came out, there wasn't enough white rice. We had to order additional white rice immediately and had to wait 10 minutes to get it while our food was cooling down.

For the standing of this restaurant, this kind of mindless service is INADMISSIBLE! This would never have happened at Pizza 4P's, which is a cheaper place. Waiters must be here as consultants to make sure guests get the best experience possible! This was sloppy as hell...

Also, the 2-way duck dish was VERY bad... For the price it is, the duck came out way overcooked, dry, and chewy. If that's how it always is, then it's better to get it off the menu. I was really unhappy with it. It's not to the standard of other dishes we had because it was truly delicious and perfect otherwise. I don't know how they dared serving us that. It was literally a failed dish.

And the music was very loud for no reasons. We had to ask to lower the music. Music should never have to make us talk louder but just loud enough to cover awkward silences and give background ambiance.

I'll leave my original review below because Mặn Mòi is truly an excellent restaurant. It's worth a 5-star, but I'll downgrade it to 3-star until I come back next time. One star for the mindless service, and one for serving us such a bad duck. For this standing, every detail counts; and they have been very sloppy this time.

PREVIOUS REVIEW Mặn Mòi is probably the best Vietnamese restaurant I have ever tried. It's pretty simple yet a bit different, but executed to perfection. It's not too sweet like it often is in South Vietnam. Very well-balanced!

The pork was incredible! So good that had you told me it was Pata Negra, I really would have believed you! It was pork cheeks...

The fried fish was simple but all deboned and individually fried for you. Bones are the worst part of eating fried fish in Vietnam. Here, I couldn't stop eating...

Absolutely all the sauces had a little something special that made them exceptionally good!

In short, I was expecting nothing special but came out thoroughly impressed! It's nothing over-the-top but this is what perfection looks like!

I don't know who the executive chef...

Food: 8.0/10 Service: 5.0/10

The food overall was good. My favorite was the fried goby fish, the crispy rice with onion sauce, and the veal salad. However my experience at the restaurant was so bad, I don't think I will come back. Initially wanted to give them a 4.0 for the service, but the overall attitude of the host and the servers was O.K, so I'm giving them one more point.

So what went wrong? I booked a table for 3 at 12pm 2 days in advance. I arrived a little earlier (about 10 minutes before my reservation time) so I could place an order in advance. However, I was told that my table was not ready as there were no servers on the 3rd floor yet. This struck me as unprofessional because the restaurant was making me wait for their poor preparation. If the restaurant were super busy and I had to wait because the previous customer were paying, then I would have been more understanding. Anyways, i waited for another 10 minutes and when it came to my reservation time, I asked for my table again and was told the same answer. This is when I got visibly annoyed, so I pushed for it and was shown to my table right away.

Despite the fact that I made a reservation 2 days in advance, my table was outside and on the third floor. The heat index that day was 38 degree so it was scorching hot. I asked to be seated inside. With minimum aircon, it was barely bearable.

The service during the meal was O.K, not the most attentive but I know the servers tried their best.

The last straw was when my mom told me about her experience with the security guard(s). My mom & my sister arrived by car along with my infant niece. Thus, when they got out, it took them a little bit longer as they had to unbuckle the car seat. The security guard(s) were so rude and rudely rushed them and drove the car away (đuổi xe đi). Thus my mom forgot a few essential things in the car. This, for me, is just unacceptable, so there will be no second...