We had a really bad experience at this place. I wasn't going to bother leaving a review, but when I saw the other review and how the owner responded, I felt the need to.
First, we showed up on a Friday night, at prime supper time, and the place was completely dead. This is never a good sign. However, we'd been meaning to check out the new kid on the block so we ventured in.
We took a seat by the window, with a table full of dirty plates behind us that was never cleared the whole time we sat there, despite the fact that the restaurant was empty and their were no other customers to serve. First strike out on cleanliness.
The owner was generally amenable at first, bringing us some menus and a class of ice water. We ordered our food and my partner was brought out his soup, an asparagus and crab concoction. I tasted it and it was okay. Nothing to write home about, in my opinion, but not terrible either.
Then our meals came out. I had ordered chicken with lemongrass and my partner, chicken with peanut sauce and crispy spinach. I have to agree with the previous reviewer that our meals tasted completely bland. I could hardly taste the lemongrass in mine (it seemed basically non-existent), and I tasted the bf's dish, and it was equally bland and uninspiring. We love Asian cuisine, be it Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, fusion etc., and we've been to all of the other restaurants on the same block. In our opinion, the other places are far superior to My Tien. My dish tasted mostly of salt and not much else, and the bf's serving was really puny, so he ended up helping me finish my chicken lemongrass. We were hungry so we did end up eating most of the food.
Because my dish was so salty, I started to become extremely thirsty. I hadn't received a refill of water since we'd sat down. We kept looking back at the kitchen, trying to get the owner's attention so that he'd bring us more water. I could have easily have downed a full pitcher. After about 5 minutes of straining our heads towards the back of the restaurant, my bf finally got up to grab the pitcher of water from the counter and serve us, as I was becoming unbearably thirsty. The owner's wife saw him do this, at which point the owner hastened to come out from the back and serve us some water, apologizing.
I have to wonder, if your restaurant is empty and you can't serve your only two clients well, what are you doing in this business? Word of mouth and first impressions are everything. After this, the owner seemed a bit more present, taking our dishes away at the end of the meal, but he never asked us if we wanted anything else.
Let me say that never in my life have I not left a tip at a restaurant. Never. And it wasn't my intention to do so at My Tien. When I was paying with my card, the buttons seemed to get stuck and I couldn't enter the tip amount that I wanted to. However, as soon as my receipt printed out, the owner jumped on me right away, asking me if I was aware I'd left the same amount as my bill. I literally had my hand in my wallet to pull out some coins, but he seemed so money-focused that it completely stunned and offended me. He started to ask me aggressively what was wrong with his service, at which point I decided that I was not going to tip this off-putting individual. I simply said, "your service was just alright" and smiled, while trying to back out of the restaurant. He continued to berate us, and I couldn't actually believe it was happening.
To the owner of My Tien I say: if you want a tip, first serve your customers well and attentively. Second, if you don't get the tip you wanted, do not berate your customers, as this will probably have the opposite effect. People are not likely to give you their money if they feel attacked.
Needless to say, we will not be back at My Tien nor will we recommend it to anyone. Perhaps the owner was just having a bad day, and I do wish them well despite my bad experience. read more