Cheryl N.
Yelp
I heard so much about the flaming wagyu beef carpaccio but they are located so far from HB, almost 40 minutes w heavy traffic. I decided to go there right after we got off the cruise, 16 days of eating bland food got to me.
We were lucky we got seated right away, I read many folks complaining there was a very long wait. We ordered egg rolls, beef carpaccio and a large bowl of pho. We waited so long maybe 25 minutes, my husband was bent out of shape, we almost left. Finally the egg rolls came, it was made w Chinese wrap not the VN rice paper so they were not as good. Again more wait before the flaming beef came, it was so so heavenly good, I'd rate this 6 stars, unfortunately the Pho broth was very thin, even bland so what happened to all the Ooh Aah I read about, it was oily which I accepted as it meant there were real bones not out of the can.
This restaurant had a huge sign, halal cuisine and on yelp too so the resto was full of halal folks! It was weird, I thought I was in Beirut bc the noise was unbearable, do people have to talk that loud, then to make matters worse we sat next to a young mother w 4 SCREAMING KIDS, I could understand the baby could whine and scream, my next table guest asked the mom to see the kids face, they all looked beautiful, the mother included but why did they scream, my husband almost lost it as when our kids were young if they started to yell, we just took the food home not wanting to disturb the entire room. We had to get up early 6am and got thrown out of the ship, we were so tired and unable to enjoy the food, later a bunch of very tall almost 7ft tall halal people came and boy did they talk loud, we could not stand it my head was aching so we took the Pho home.
We left and a manager stood at the door asking us if everything was OK, I said the broth was good but too thin, he felt bad and said we should have complained, he would make it right, well I did and got another small bowl of extra broth so it was better but the fact it needed more fish sauce, etc.. I asked where he came from as he reminded me of my favorite samurai Hiroyuki Sanata, the best actor Japanese warrior ever, all of a sudden I meet a lot of Japanese lately. He gave out good vibes and I appreciate the customer service, I would definitely come back, the food and ambiance made this 3.5 stars but I upped it to 4 stars thanks to his good customer service.
Conclusion, if you do not mind to have your eardrums blown off this place is good, it's definitely 5 stars for the halal folks as they were so thrilled the noise rose in crescendo till it became crazy, I thought I was in a war zone? I'll give it another try if it will be noisy again and if I was the only people looking so different, I might give up, that is really too bad as I'm addicted to the flaming beef and the PhoRedbo in WTM has grass fed beef, it's tough beef and I'm not crazy about grass fed, I prefer the tender wagyu beef. The best Pho is perfume river in Asian garden mall unfortunately they got entangled w the embezzlement of Covid fund, I hope they won't get into trouble but they are now out of business.