5 Qoo Nguyen (QNg) - 3 months ago
I’m bit confused why this gem of a restaurant ‘only’ has 4.3 stars at the time I write this review. Compared to other Vietnamese restaurants this is actually quite low and I really don’t see why the score would be like this. Food was really good and 100% AUTHENTIC + extra points for offering Northern Vietnamese style
Ambience:
It’s a very pretty restaurant with quite modern interior design.
Authenticity:
Regarding the food my friends and I ordered I can assure that this is as authentic as it gets. It’s exactly how I grew up having it and how I would make it for myself at home. It’s very common for restaurants to try reducing costs by cutting ingredients at the expense of authenticity and flavour. This was not the case at all. I feel obliged to say that we only had rice vermicelli (Bun) dishes since those are typical for summer since the dish is not hot. So if anybody is looking for Pho I can’t guarantee if it’s just as good.
Food:
Some of the lower scoring reviews report that the dishes are bland, have too much salad or are too small. I can’t confirm any of these claims. I suspect that those customers just didn’t know how you’re supposed to eat Bun (rice vermicelli). My friends and I had 3 different Bun dishes (1x grilled pork belly, 2x minced meat wrapped in La Lot, 1x Beef) and we all finished the greens that come with the dish. The greens are not really meant to be eaten separately like a salad but rather with the noodles+meat+fish sauce. But hey, you do you. One of my friends thought the dip was a bit on the salty side so it really wasn’t bland at all but rather a sign that they don’t dilute the fish sauce with too much water. Regarding the size you can see on the photo that they’re really generous with the pork belly. The meals were filling for all of us (3 men and 1 woman). I do see that some really big people might want to eat more but I think all in all these are very reasonable and healthy portion sizes.
Service:
We went on a Saturday afternoon and it wasn’t too crowded. Most tables outside were occupied but we were the only ones inside. The staff was really friendly and food came fast too. Some people mention that the food is really slow when it’s full and I actually find that plausible because the tables are actually quite close to each other so the restaurant can potentially seat a lot of people and it does seem a bit ambitious. However during our visit service was flawless.
Prices:
This is always a tricky topic. I personally think that the prices were more than appropriate. Let’s not forget that everything got a lot more expensive in the recent years and that people’s idea of how much food costs might be warped. Ingredients+utility+rent+staff+tax are not cheap and gastronomers also need to make a living. If you just take the ingredients alone for the dishes we ordered it really wasn’t expensive at all. Nonetheless I do agree that the price isn’t exactly cheap either but cheap food has become rare nowadays.
