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| - I like the place enough to return occasionally--but I have brought eight people here on three occasions in the past year, and 100% of them had bad experiences. Sometimes I have too, but East side Vietnamese food (albeit somewhat Americanized) is rare and makes a nice change. There are vegetarian options, and for good prices ($11-$12 for a decent portion). BUT: The items on the extensive vegetarian menu are NOT all vegetarian. Good luck figuring out which ones are: I got a lot of lies and dismissals and contradictory answers from different people (wait staff and by phone) simply because they didn't want to go back to the kitchen and ask which ones have no fish sauce--or because even in the kitchen, they have no idea.
SERVICE
After multiple visits over six months or so, I can say it has been consistently friendly, but consistently poor: inefficient, and many mistakes. So many wrong dishes, my guests eventually gave up and just ate the mistakes.
But the WORST thing--unforgivable in food service--is the lack of knowledge about their own dishes, and complete lack of interest in finding out the answers. Aside from vegetarians, we had people with food allergies. That's serious business! Again and again our server thought "I don't know" and "probably" were sufficient answers. Her smile faltered when pressed for real info--she didn't want to be bothered. (How could these questions not come up every single day? Do most people accept "maybe" as an answer about ingredients?)
In the end I was told, regarding some "vegetarian" dishes: "just don't eat the sauce, it's on the side." As though a) I should have known psychically that this particular "vegetarian" dish had a meat-based sauce AND that it came on the side, and as though b) being charged full price for a sauceless, flavorless meal mis-labeled vegetarian on the menu is an acceptable alternative I should be lucky to get. I didn't get one of those dishes, needless to say.
If you're not going to cater to vegetarians, then don't pretend to. The same concern applies to any questions about the food. Stay away if you have any intolerances or disliking for certain ingredients.
ATMOSPHERE
Nice inside (modern) but quite brightly lit, and the 4 sports TVs behind the bar are out of place and distracting (but thankfully silent). The place is maybe half full at the dinner hour on weekend, and cleared out almost completely after that, so if you don't want crowds and bustle, it's worth a look.
FOOD
Average quality, acceptable for the price. But some dishes are TOTALLY different from the menu.
ALWAYS ask whether a dish is exactly like the menu describes, or something else. Example--the Pineapple Chicken:
I came with a diabetic who specifically did not want her meat breaded in carbs. Some dishes specify breading; some--like the Pineapple Chicken--don't, so she ordered that. It was explicitly stated in the menu as chicken served in a half-pineapple. Sounds fun, right? And she loves pineapple. Well, what arrived was very ordinary Chinese takeout, except for lemon in the sauce which was good and unusual. It was breaded, and it was NOT served in a pineapple; in fact it had just a couple tiny pieces of what might have been canned pineapple. Totally false advertising. She ate it anyway because she has to eat on a schedule--and got sick from it while not even enjoying it.
Other guests have commented on a bad smell in the food. Ok, I'll just say it: they agreed that onecertain dish smelled like baby poop. (But tasted OK. Then again, maybe baby poop tastes OK. I cannot opine.) The seafood tends to be worse than other dishes, I'm told.
I'll go back myself--occasionally--but I will never take guests again! I have been burned every time.
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