MANA Station — Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City

Great place to meet up over good food and friends for fellowship.

The atmosphere is not the ‘hip and happening’ for instagram, but more where one can relax. The menu is wider than the usual Vietnamese regional fare and spans a wide gamut of Vietnamese dishes. All of them are yummy!

The flavours are (I am told) authenthic and range from Hue to Saigon to the coastal regions.

Soft, inspirational music is played which never overpowered the conversation at the table. And my personal favourite is the wonderful coffee (I confess to being a coffee addict)

They are closed on Sundays to give their staff a rest, and everyone is such a joy to interact with, even though not all are fluent in English. Then again, I’m the one who should be speaking Vietnamese in Vietnam, right?

I’d give more stars if we include the attitude of the place.

Highly...

Very polite and humble staff. The food didn’t blow me away - I had the golden noodles with chicken and my partner had Bun Cha, but compared to the everything else I‘ve eaten yet in Vietnam it was actually not very good. The noodles were overcooked, flavorless. The chicken was more bone and cartilage then meat.

But the reason I‘m writing this is actually the price. We knew it would be a little bit more pricey because of the location/street it‘s on, but we were unhappy to learn that the prices in the menu didn’t include VAT. When I pointed this out and asked to at least make it visible in the menu that VAT was excluded from the price, the staff member smiled and nodded, but I‘m not sure they will include VAT in the future or at least write in the menu that VAT‘s...

This is a small and bright restaurant with a relaxed vibe. The staff were equally relaxed and pleasant. I ordered the Bun Cha (grilled pork with fresh herbs and noodles) and it was delicious. Light and flavourful I enjoyed it so much that I decided to grab something to go for later. I ordered a large brisket pho and when I got home and unpacking the order I realised that I was given a less-than full bowl of pho!! The broth was only half-full, not many noodles, 3 basil leaves and no lettuce. I ordered and paid for a large and was terribly disappointed and clearly short-changed in every way. The pho was just okay, btw, and since I was shorted on the take-away I will not go back and cannot recommend take-away. Dining-in...