Mars Venus Restaurant - Garden in Island — Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City

Overall great place for a date or special occasion, but food leaves something to be desired.

The atmosphere is quite pleasant. You arrive by boat and enter the restaurant through another restaurant. All the tables and chairs are adorned with nice LED lights, enhancing the ambiance. We ordered one of the set menus. The salad was definitely the highlight of the meal. The soup was pretty good, but the two main courses left something to be desired. The pasta noodles were enjoyable, but the sauce was overly strong, and the shrimp was overcooked. We also had the duck, which had good flavor but was far too dry. The scallop was quite good—I really enjoyed its texture; it wasn’t soft but had a pleasant chewiness. The steak was decent with good flavor, though it was too chewy. The grits served with the steak were interesting, somewhat like a localized version of grits. The best part of the steak dish was the roasted garlic—it was some of the best I’ve ever had. Its consistency was perfect, and the flavor wasn’t overpowering; I could’ve eaten the whole bulb myself. For dessert, we had the cheesecake and molten lava cake. The molten lava cake was just okay and not very molten—it would’ve been much better with vanilla ice cream on the side. The so-called New York-style cheesecake was neither New York-style, nor cheesecake, nor even a cake. It was more like a cookie crumble topped with sweet cream and a layer of pistachios or nuts. The taste was decent, but if you’re expecting cheesecake, it’s nowhere close. It should be renamed to something else. We were also given a call server button to request service, but it didn’t work at all. When we pointed this out, they didn’t bother...

Steak didn’t cook right. But they took two wine glass off the bill and brought two pudding dessert as a apology. Good value if you can do some few things well. The snail served is totally different than photo in the menu. Staff came asked if he can take it back and cook some more. So food gone cold by serving in the table, few minutes later cook again makes the snail chewy…. Kitchen staff should study. Inconsistent wine glass size. 🙀🤷‍♂️Stingy pour. Remember one bottle has five glasses… They pour like 1/7. I asked for rib eye steak and later came back and told me they don’t have it. Kitchen should inform staff if something in the menu is not available… also super basic knowledge and communication. Chuck eye mid-rare came as a Rare…. Chef don’t know how to cook steak. Buy a thermostat for cooking and check the temperature of the meat inside before serving. It’s super basic, Easy and cheap. Waiter Staff is super nice polite and courteous. Kitchen needs to step up their performance. It’s a...

We had a very disappointing experience at Mars Venus. Even though we had a table reserved for 5:00 PM, the kitchen didn’t open until 5:30. The décor was extremely tacky, the tablecloths were dirty, and the chairs were wobbly and rusty. The food quality was very poor. We ordered steak, but it was cooked terribly – dry on the outside and raw inside. Definitely not medium as requested. The service was just okay. We were greeted when we arrived, but when leaving, none of the staff said goodbye, even though they were standing at the entrance. We’re not sure if this was because we gave honest feedback about the food. Overall, a very bad experience. We cannot understand how this restaurant has so many positive reviews. We will not be...