Somtam ZAAP - 70 Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai, Q.3 — Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City

We ordered a starter (Somtam, Tum Thai), beer, a mojito and Tom Yum and Tom Kha.

First of all, this restaurant has potential. I do not understand how it has 4,8 stars though. The soups we ordered tasted good, and the restaurant looks very nice. There is just so many small things that reduces the overall score.

The food and drinks were not served in any logical order. First we got my main course and beer, then the starter and finally the mojito and other main. There was way too little lime and sugar to balance out the rum. Drinks should be served with the starter, and the main should come after, and at the same time.

The Tum Thai tasted alright, but was served with a whole garlic skin… Must have been mixed in the kitchen, as it was not garnish. Further the salad had tiny dried shrimp in it, which was not informed in the menu.

The Tom Yum soup I ordered tasted very well, but the portion was small compared to the price. It had only five shrimp and a bunch of mushroom. Some onion would have been nice. The rest of the contents was just inedible herbs. Rice had to be ordered on the side.

The Tom Kha my partner ordered also tasted well, but had the same issue in that it only had a bit of chicken, more mushroom than chicken and no other vegetables. Lots of inedible herbs though…

Lastly, the service was alright. I really hope this place can improve a bit as they have a lot...

Have you ever had good Thai food? Or fabulous Thai food? If you have avoid this joint. Fish cakes had no flavour until dipped in sauce Grilled beef suffered the same fate and over cooked. They told us it would take 20 minutes for the chicken massam but it came in 10. We ordered some morning glory to fill in the time but chicken came first.

We asked one server to cancel the nor I g glory now and he looked at us as if he had taken a hit of some very strong weed…and said nothing. The morning glory never came but we were still unsure if waiter understood our request or they just failed to deliver OK it was not on the bill …the morning glory…but who knows if it was a miss or they understood.

The front of house manager was vaping in the kitchen at one point blowing his vape over the food serving area. He had some sort of attitude and did not interact with us and seated others in silence. Boring food…boring space and tasteless grub…in short I’ve had better Thai food all over Australia ….avoid avoid avoid. Or be bored …

Positives….beer was cold…but at 4 beers and a fed dishes 736,009VND was much too much for food that was virtually tasteless.

Ya get my...

First of all, the place offers 10% discount for a five star review, so go figure...

But let's focus on the food. The ingredients seem to be fresh and the taste is pretty authentic, but that's already all the positives. The prices of the place are ridiculous, especially if you consider the portion sizes. Also dishes in the menu - especially the soups - look significantly bigger than in real life. Oh and don't expect a big fancy soup bowl either. The whole place is basically more of a fancy Thai fast food place with at least decent quality and taste. The main dish was served before the starters, nothing was timed, they ran out of ingredients, overall just not an experience worth the hefty price tag. Also be aware that all prices are without tax, they hide that in a tiny footnote in the menu.

PS: Impressive how you manage to avoid writing anything useful with so many words in your reply to my review. Says it all about what...