| rev:text
| - This restaurant opened the beginning of April after the owners of Dong-A closed shop. Previous customers of Dong A should take note that, along with the premises, the new restaurant also managed to keep the same phone number as the last owners.
I don't know how much restaurant experience the owners of this new place have, but they need some serious work. First, I had called before coming to verify the hours of operation. At no time did they mention the name of the restaurant when I called; had they done so, I wouldn't have driven the 30 mins. from Goodyear to come.
When we arrived, it was obvious that a lot of work was put into the renovation: the place was cleaned up, painted and repairs made; a very big step, as the previous owners left half the restaurant unlit, cluttered, air conditioner barely operating and the place overall dingy. But the fresh coat of paint and cleaned up floors and bathroom were the highlight of the visit.
Like Dong A, this appears to be a 2 man operation (or seems that way). Only one person was working the floor (and unlike Dong A -- whether due to aggressive advertising or curiosity about the new place -- there were more customers here on a Sunday night than Dong A used to see in a month). We were met by the manager/waiter as we walked through the door and were quickly seated. There were no utensils or napkins (though, to be fair, there were chopsticks in a plastic holder on the table like most Vietnamese restaurants). We were brought no menus; we were brought no water. After 15 minutes, the waiter came to ask what we wanted; we asked for menus and were brought paper take-out menus. After several minutes, he returned to take our order. My partner quickly determined what he wanted, but I could not decide among the very few, non-pho dishes on the one sheet of paper. So he took my partner's order and walked off, giving me more time. Now, I should add here, that I am not slow in either ordering or eating; so when I say he returned after several minutes, I mean that literally; there was barely time to look through the menu. In the interim, several tables came in and he went to take their orders. Which meant I had to wait 15 minutes before I was able to summon him back (I called him; he didn't return). In general, I see nothing wrong with that; but because we sat for so long without menus and then were given such a short time to look through them, this delay meant an even longer wait to get my food, because he had to help everyone else who came in after us, but immediately got menus.
Then my partner's meal came. He had the lemon grass chicken (after having to correct the waiter twice), which looked like Alpo with a ton of rice (he said it was good; I tried a piece and could not verify the breed of feline filling in for the chicken). My meal was still cooking and I had to ask THREE times to get my drink.
My dinner (Bun dac biet houng duc) arrived just as my partner finished dinner. Mine was good, but mostly rice noodles with a very small egg roll and bare amounts of meat thrown in. We then ordered my other half a banh mi thit nuong sandwich, as the main dish was not very substantial. The sandwich arrived on an oversized hot dog bun (a la Walmart) and had meat completely alien to other versions of this sandwich we've had in many restaurants.
I will say that the owner/waiter was very polite and solicitous -- asking several times how everything was and, as was obvious by his quick "thank you"s and nods before I even finished my comments, not having a clue what my answers meant -- but the overall experience was akin to South Vietnamese style fast food combined with North Vietnamese apathetically slow service. I can only hope this was either an off-night or opening-month blunders which will be fixed over time, because I otherwise see a bigger disaster for this place than the fall of Saigon was 40+ years ago.
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