Restaurant Hương Lài — Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City

The simple yet elegant decorum and spacial ceiling gives an air of colonial atmosphere and an the staff were quite attentive, in fact overly so to the point of it becoming an irritant as the waitress keeps barging in the conversation between my date and I, pushing for additional order like its some cheap food vending hawker even though we had already ordered 3 main dishes, a veggie plate, rice and drinks totally over $40! When I discretely mentioned this to the Jap owner, he casually dismissed it as a misunderstanding. BTW, this is NOT traditional Vietnamese cuisines but rather a bland modern "fusion" dumbed down by obnoxious Jap owner because he thinks real Vietnamese foods are too strong for the civilized palates of White Westerners! Finally, the portions were skimpily small to save $$ so that one must order copious foods to get the net worth of comparable Western portion, best suited for r stuck up food connoisseurs and def not any humanitarian scam of a restaurant. Please ask long term Western expats for suggestions of VN restaurants with proper traditional Vietnamese eateries instead of relying on passerby tourists with little or no insights on Vietnamese culture. The all foreign patrons should tell...

Where to begin? I came here because of all the good reviews however I left extremely disappointed. I have never left a restaurant after one spoonful however my visit to Huong Lai was the first time. I ordered the chef’s recommendation: shrimp and bitter melon soup. First of all, although I ordered it medium sized, the soup was minuscule, the shrimp were poorly cut, part minced, part chunks, not to mention that there were only 3 of them (yes I counted), all in all, the quality was abysmal. The soup was not only bland but really bad (and Im not picky with food!). I wish the waiter would have at least told me about the quantity but when I asked about the size (thinking it would be too big… oh what a fool I was) she told me it would be enough for me. I attach pictures and I must say I have really tiny hands. However the service was overall very good and welcoming. I advice you to save your money and spend it...

Reviews did not disappoint. We sat by the windows upstairs to look at the busy street view while we ate. We ordered without knowing what was popular and luckily every single item we ordered was delicious! Our server was nice, attentive and honest. We did not look like locals and when we asked the server if we should order more items, our server said we ordered the perfect amount for two people already. There was no pressure and no up-selling at all. They even waited for us to completely leave our table to clean it. I always hated it when servers come in and disturb our privacy while we are just finishing up our water after we finish paying. I had a completely pleasant experience here and would totally recommend...