4 /5 Koh: Visited this newly opened Vietnamese restaurant today. Overall, the standard was lower than I expected. Two dishes I originally wanted to order were unavailable.
For starters, we ordered Vietnamese fried spring rolls and Bánh cuốn. The spring rolls were mainly just salty, lacking depth of flavour, and the fish sauce dipping sauce was very mild with little taste.
For the main, I had the grilled pork noodle dish. Again, it was mostly just salty without much of the distinctive Vietnamese flavours, and the pork had a strong pork smell. The portion of meat was also on the small side.
I ordered a freshly pressed apple juice, but by the time it arrived at the table it had already oxidised and turned a dark brown colour.
As it is winter, the heating was not on inside the restaurant, and we had to keep our coats on throughout the entire meal, which affected the overall dining experience.
The restaurant charges a 10% service charge, but the level of service did not really reflect this. When asking for the bill, the staff brought it over and immediately asked whether I would be paying by cash or card before I had even had a chance to look at it, while I was looking at my phone, which was a bit surprising.
As the restaurant has just opened, I also noticed that the current food hygiene rating is 4 stars. Since it is still new, I do not want to leave an overly negative review and hope they can improve on flavour, consistency, and service details going forward. Wishing them the best of luck.
