We went here twice while on vacation. The food came out hot, fresh, and fast…read more I had the beef stew, Stir-fried Rice Noodles with Vegetables & chicken, and the Vietnamese pancake. Overall, the food and quality is great! I loved the beef stew! It was extremely flavorful. I was not a huge fan of the pancake (it was very brittle and tough to manage cutting a slice without chunks crumbling off). Overall, I highly recommend.

We came midweek for our dinner in Rotorua. It was pretty quiet inside with only two other groups…read moreinside. The restaurant was quite spacious with lots of seating inside and a few tables outside. Photos of the popular dishes were posted on the wall along with the timeline of the owners immigration to Australia, meeting and marriage, opening and finally expanding their restaurant. Orders were placed at the counter by the kitchen and paid for. It didn't take too long before our food started coming out of the kitchen. Our appetizer was the fired tofu. Crisp on the outside and smooth and hot inside. It went well with the accompanying peanut sauce. Since we were chilled on our walk over we all got phos. No matter the type (spicy lemongrass, original beef, duck, or seafood) we enjoyed all them. Good broth, lots of noodles and meat/seafood. We were quite stuffed after. We did come back the next afternoon and ordered their famous egg coffee (creamy) and regular Vietnamese coffees (strong with just the right amount of condensed milk.

After nearly a year of living in Hamilton, I finally came to eat here for lunch the other day. I…read morewas home sick from work and I just wanted some pho to soothe my aching throat. I have never been to Vietnam, so cannot comment about the authenticity of this food. I can only compare it to the many Vietnamese restaurants I patronized while living in California. To start with, service was a bit slow. Just one server for the whole place during a weekday at lunch. No worries. Started with the summer rolls. They were fine. Nothing special, but not bad. The dipping sauce was standard, decent, but nothing to write home over. Next, the pho. It looked beautiful and my hopes were high. Maybe too high. It fell far short of what I was hoping. If I'd never had pho before, it might have been fine. But I found the broth flavor to be lacking. There were WAY too many onions (raw yellow, red and spring onions) and it was topped with crispy fried onions. There were also far too many bean sprouts. I'm used to it being served with jalapenos and lime - they had red chilis and lemon. No problem. There was not enough basil. The noodles were in one big glob on the bottom of the bowl, as if they couldn't have taken just a few moments to separate them and swirl them around a bit. My husband had the beef bun. It also looked nice, but left him unsatisfied as far as flavors go. He said, "I'd give it 4 stars for Hamilton and maybe 2 or 3 if we were eating it in the US." So, there you go. I will go back to try to bahn mi sandwiches. They looked good and I hope that they are. This trip was disappointing, but I do think they deserve another shot with the sandwiches. Will update review once I try them.

Cute spot for a funky Vietnamese feast. My lychee soda was refreshing and tasty. My bun (vermicelli…read morenoodle, Viet salad, spring roll and lemongrass beef) bowl was generous and delicious. $23 all up

I feel like this may be a starter review. I think there is definitely more potential here. I am…read morebasing this review on the one meal I had here (Pho Bo (Tai - raw beef, no beef ball) It is a different style of Pho from what I am used to. Coming from Los Angeles, I have grown accustomed to getting ethnic food that is just as good as in the Home country. Here in New Zealand, ethnic food choices are very limited and the few that do exist seem to adjust flavors to the local clientele. That being said, this wasn't a bad bowl of Pho. I finished it. I felt that there could have been a lot more broth, and the broth could have been much more flavorful. When it comes to Pho, the broth makes it or breaks it. This broth had much more oil than I am used to, but still had a decent flavor. Again, not the best, but not the worst. The noodles seemed more like pad thai noodles vs. Pho noodles, and didn't have the same fresh chewy texture that I've grown to love.. Again, that may have been due to this restaurant also serving Thai cuisine in addition to Vietnamese. I will try this restaurant again and see if perhaps the Thai food is the forte. I hope to be able to upgrade my rating since I feel there is some definite potential here.

An extensive menu, friendly staff, and generally typical but pleasant Thai restaurant atmosphere…read more The menu offers Vietnamese and Thai options, making it a lengthy read. Not ideal if you don't know what you want, but fantastic for choice. The dishes we had were not a disappointment, and the food was prepared in good time. Service was good - a little interesting in the way they went about things, but intentions and attitudes were good. It was nothing unpleasant. Overall a nice restaurant, not overly busy on the Tuesday we went, and they were looking to close as we left at 9-ish, but this isn't reflective of the food quality. Worth a go.

*American reviewer* the immediate pleasantness of coriander greeted me upon entering this…read moredelightfully cute, clean and welcoming café. I did not have have time to stay and eat, but the selections looked appetizing, especially the banh mi that graced the table (and stomachs) of my co-patrons. you could hear the crispness of the baguette as they bit into their unctuous sandwiches. I ordered a vietnamese coffee, which I was told would take 5 minutes. 20 minutes later, I receive a lukewarm cup of coffee, which (for my taste) needed 2x more condensed milk. the taste (after addition of more milk) was fine. now I know to order the viet coffee for dine in and another beverage for take away during my next Hamilton visit.

This was not our first choice but it was reasonably priced and you didn't need a booking to get a…read moretable. We ordered the noodle salad with chicken, despite saying I only wanted noodles and meat with no veggies, I still got veggies. It wasn't bad, just on the smaller side and more expensive than what I get back home in California. 1$3.50 Hubby got the rice plate with chicken, he liked the sauce that came with it. Tasty. He ate almost all of it. $13.50 Also ordered eggrolls, you get two for $6.00. The had cold water in bottles to drink. I obviously was thirsty, went through two bottles. Could have gone through a third, but the waitress disappeared. We didn't really see her again until we walked up to the counter to pay. $33.00 for it all. Only issue was the lopsided table and dirty chopsticks with dried rice on them.

Came here as our Yelp recommended place was booked out and we just looked for a nice place for…read moredinner. As there was no menu outside we had no clue what to expect. I have to say it was a very positive surprise, the food was delicious, worth 5 Stars. Also the staff was nice and helpful. What was missing to 5th Star? The tables are very close, the environment was a little loud and the wine was served in water glasses. Beside that, everything else excellent.