I am a business minded person and public speaker and I am amazed at how great mimi's customer…read moreservice is and I love how informational she is with the menu also not to mention how great that food was I am definitely coming back!!

Our family of four visited Rainier Restaurant during our Seattle trip and enjoyed several of their…read morespecialties. The beef ong choy salad had a delicious balance of sweet, sour, and savory flavors, while the sautéed venison with curry and spices was tender and flavorful. The baby clams with crispy rice crackers were savory, spicy, and fun to eat. The crab and fish maw soup was also flavorful, although slightly salty for our preference. The restaurant has an older, cozy atmosphere, and the service was excellent: quick, friendly, and efficient. Overall, we had a wonderful dining experience and would definitely recommend Rainier Restaurant. We look forward to returning!

Vibe: casual Service: standard…read more Items ordered: - pho Bo: 8.5/10; broth is on the sweeter side but overall good bowl of pho

Long overdue... this is my favorite pho restaurant ... I recommend the short rib pho if you never…read morehad it. The pho here is consistent. So even the baseline is always good and if not good then it's great... I wanted to add this review because I finally got to the point where I've enjoyed so many time that it deserves the devotion Its provided to me.... Pho dac biet or combo without tripe is the new go to if you want a solid bowl with out the extreme level of protein!

Seattle doesn't have too many good Vietnamese restaurants so the bar is low, but this is definitely…read moreone of my favorite places to get pho here. The chicken wings are hot, cripsy, and flavorful. I usually get the pho dac biet and the regular size is a decent serving in terms of noodles and meat. The beef is cut thinly and is tender unlike many places. Only downside is that the price frequently keeps increasing every time I visit here. Went at 5pm on a weekday and there was plenty of seating, but once 6-6:30pm hits, the rush of people come and the wait seems like it could get pretty long since the restaurant is quite small and has few tables.

Hmm, the place was packed and I ended up sitting right in front of the door. Less than optimal,…read morebut I moved on Honestly,I thought my pho, although huge...was just alright. I had an egg in mine, which reminded me of ramen, and I don't think I would do it again. Staff was friendly, and maybe they had an off day because they were replacing equipment while we were there.

Xóm is a modernized Vietnamese restaurant located in Chophouse Row in the Capitol Hill area of…read moreSeattle. Our group of six spontaneously decided to grab dinner at Xóm since it was my birthday weekend! There was a bit of a wait to be seated since we didn't have a reservation, but luckily, we were seated within 30 minutes. We ordered the Xóm Wings (crispy whole chicken wing in garlic butter fish sauce reduction) to share as a group. These were delicious! The crispiness and fish sauce together was excellent. It had me drooling. For my entree, I decided on the Bún Thịt Nướng (choice of chicken or pork, vermicelli, lettuce and herbs, cucumber, picked daikon and carrot, purple cabbage, friend peanut and oiled green onion, and nước chấm). I opted for the pork option because that is always my protein preference with Bún Thịt Nướng. It's always a good sign with Bún Thịt Nướng is served with an eggroll without an extra charge, so loved that! Three of us decided on ordering some of their cocktails, which were fun! We had a great experience at Xóm and I would definitely recommend coming here!

My sister and I stopped in here for dinner on a Tuesday…read more Their menu is Vietnamese with a variety of hearty, creative items. We ordered the: Spring Rolls ($12) - fine Ban Xeo ($18) - big Crepe-like dish, really good, though I was surprised at the scant amount of protein inside Bo Ne ($25) - such a rich dish - I loved using the baguette to sop up the over-easy eggs and pate I suppose the items are on the expensive side for Vietnamese food, but it does feel plated and more high quality than your average pho shop. The ambience inside is earthy, tropical, and beautiful. The staff are nice and the food was prepared promptly.

Overall: 5 stars Fun…read morebrunch joint which is a literal boat built to utilize a triangular plot of land. This place uniquely has an interesting set of Filipino options for brunch, which adds to the diversity of options in Seattle! Waffle and Sago - The most exciting item on their brunch menu with so much going on, with two flavors of waffle, and a warm bowl of coconut sago. I love that the waffle flavors prominently come through and just soaks up the broth to give it that additional tropical complexity. Food: +1 Presentation: E Price: +1 Atmosphere: +1 Service: E Menu: +1 Insta/Yelp/Beli: @amei_eats Insta/TikTok: @ameizing.race

I was here with friends catching up over brunch…read more Seating is quite limited at this place with several tables and a few bar seats. Service is quick and the food was ready about just when we expected it. The coffee (not shown in photos) was great. It was robusta coffee with coconut water which is refreshing on a nice sunny day. The chicken was a bit tough to eat, honestly a little over cooked but very flavorful. My personal opinion, there is too much sauce for the chicken. The waffle was great! Pandan had better texture, flaky and pairs really well with the coconut cream. Banana was somehow not as flaky and has more of a subtle taste but still paired well with the coconut cream. Overall, a great experience for first time! I'll be coming back for the waffles and coconut coffee in the future!

i have gone to tamarind tree countless times in the past and haven't been there in at least a year…read moreor more. we went for lunch and i was used to it being packed with people who work on pill hill or the i.d. but surprisingly, it was quite empty with only a handful of tables occupied. is that due to the razed building in front of where tamarind tree is located or the precarious/sketchy nature of the main corner of little saigon at 12th and jackson? either way there we're noticeably less people eating during prime lunch hours. the food was exactly the same quality and presentation i remembered. it came out relatively quickly and tasted good. i visited the bathroom at the end of our meal and this was where the noticeable difference was: it just looks run down and shoddy. it was clean but definitely not maintained well over the years. in general, tamarind tree used to be such a popular place to eat. it will still be a place i'll go but my overall impression is that it isn't what it used to be; it's seen better days.

Came with a friend to try some Vietnamese dishes that are a bit more challenging to find in NYC and…read moreit hit the spot! It's a bit pricey for the portions, but overall we enjoyed our meal and I really liked trying dishes beyond the typical spring roll/pho/rice place. Here's what we ordered: - Baby clams with rice cracker: Generous portion of clams, paired nicely with the crunchy cracker. - Braised fish pot: Make sure you eat this with rice as it can be a bit on the salty side, but super flavorful. - Tamarind tree soup: A great combination of sweet and sour with lots of veggies. Wish there was more protein. It's located in a bit of a sketchy mall, but it's one of the nicer restaurants located within the mall. The food took a longer than we were expecting, service was a bit more short, but overall it's a nicer sit-down Vietnamese restaurant in the area!

Lotus Pond Vietnamese Cuisine is one of those places that does not look impressive from the…read moreoutside, but the food is amazing. It has that hole-in-the-wall feel off Aurora, but honestly, this is some of the best Vietnamese food I have ever had. I am Vietnamese myself, and I have been looking for months, really years, for a Vietnamese restaurant in the Seattle area that actually feels worth coming back to. A lot of places have been average, or they have dishes like bún riêu or bún bò Huế on the menu but do not really do them well. Lotus Pond does. I tried the bún riêu and the bò né with steak and sizzling eggs, and both were delicious. My friend got the seafood pho and loved it too. Everything tasted like someone actually cared about the food, and I really appreciated seeing menu items that you usually have to search far and wide for, or go somewhere like Orange County or Houston to find done properly. The only downside is that it is definitely on the expensive side, but I will absolutely be coming back. The outside may not be flashy, but the food is seriously worth it.

This place was briefly blowing up my IG feeds in small intervals, so I had it on my list sometime…read moreearly last year. Fast forward a year later to a Sunday at 12:30pm and I finally made the long drive here without going through Aurora Ave since my GPS randomly decided to give my road rage some grace. This place has plenty parking around the perimeter, so it was easy settling in. Only confusion was finding the entrance to this place, but when I did I was actually surprised where I was stepping into. Inside is laid back and cool with plenty of seating for groups of various sizes. There's tables and booths, and I got booth seating for myself when I walked in. There's a TV playing sports nearby where I was, and Vietnamese pop music was playing in the background too. Menu consists of regular foods in most Vietnamese restaurants, though their provincial noodle soups and banh mi sandwiches caught my eye. They even have bún măng vịt (duck and bamboo shoot noodle soup), my favorite that I gotta try next time I come here! From my IG feeds and as a starting point, I got their bánh mì thịt heo nướng (grilled pork Vietnamese sandwich), which comes with all the works of a regular banh mi sandwich, though I was kinda surprised how brightly orange the grilled pork was. Regardless, it was tasty and the meat was juicy. The pork pate added a nice savory touch to the sandwich, and no other condiment was in excess that it took away taste from the flavorful grilled pork. Staff was very kind throughout, and refilled my water every now and then. It was also nice chatting with one of them about our day and other recommendations from the menu. There's so much to have on their menu so I need to make the drive here again to have more of their stuff!

We must have been here ~ 30 times. The University Village location is also great…read more The food is amazing. They really have elevated Saigon street food. The Crab noodles (& ask for an order of their chilly oil to go with it), the Garlic butter prawns - i do think that one needs a better name, the highlight is the sweet and tangy, spicy tamarind dip, and the Chinese donut, which is unlike any donut you would have had. Some of my favorites - the Com Ga Hoy An, Crispy Pork Belly. Cocktails are great - Asian inspired, spicy, tangy. The service has always been friendly and great. Great for a casual lunch and dinner. They're open till late in the night. Often our place to go for dinner after a show.

I still love the food at the original Ba Bar 10 years after my first review. When I need a super…read moretasty, comfort meal to make me feel good, I order the Bun Cha Ca La Vong, the rice vermicelli with Washington Rockfish. It is one of my favorite restaurant dishes in Seattle and it hits every single time. It includes fried rockfish with tumeric, fresh dill, green onions, fried shallots, an Imperial Roll (yes!), fresh mint, basil, lettuce, cucumber, pickled vegetables on a bed of rice vermicelli. *Chef's kiss!* This Ba Bar has A/C (a beautiful thing in Seattle), free and paid street parking nearby, and a nice, low lights vibe. Service the last three times I went was good--friendly and efficient. They also have an excellent happy hour if you drink and like wings and such. If I lived closer, I'd probably go there all the time, but I don't, so I go whenever I'm in the Capitol Hill/First Hill area around lunch or dinner time. The only thing I don't like is they charge for takeout boxes. I think last time I ordered a pretty big order for myself and friends, I was charged 3%. Not cool. But that's the only beef I have with Ba Bar. NOTE: The pics below are from my review 10 years ago. Sorry I don't have any recent pics. Alas, they no longer offer the catfish or the beautiful, layered cronut. Tears.

We walked in for happy hour and walked out with a happy belly…read more The vibe is pretty casual with moody lighting and retro photos on the wall. We sat near the patio for fresh air and better acoustics so it wasn't hard to hear each other talk. Food wise, we did half dozen oysters with house hot sauce (yum!), hollow bread, shrimp toast, chicken bite and mini donuts, duck egg custards, and fish and chips. Dessert was coffee and pomelo entremet (fancy). I will definitely do shrimp toast again and try some other dishes next time. Drinks are pretty but not super memorable. I enjoyed the service that's warm attentive but not over bearing. Overall lovely date night spots and solid happy hour food menu.

This restaurant is full of contradictions. On one hand, it…read morecontains some of the best individual dishes I've had in the city. On the other hand, some remarkably bizarre choices and inexplicably bad dishes leave you thoroughly confused. I'm a positive person (kind of), so let's start with the good. Their bahn tieu, or hollow bread, ranks up there as maybe the best bread-as-an-appetizer in the city. From the moment you cut it in half and feel the hiss of the steam escaping from the middle, you know it's going to be good. The outside is crispy, and the inside is so unbelievably fluffy it's wild. The honey coating on the bottom just adds that slightly sweet flavor that makes it even better, and the honey butter works perfectly to spread and let melt on the hot bread inside. For just $4, it's comes at an unbelievable price. We liked ours so much we ordered it again at the end. Following that same theme, the next thing we had, the toasted bahn mi, was also incredible. This is definitely not your typical bahn mi - as it comes in two mini triangle shaped pieces with a fried exterior. This outside has the perfect crunch and slight oiliness in its texture, and the inside of chicken liver parfait and pork floss just works so well. The nuoc cham also has essentially every flavor - sweet, salty, umami, spicy - it's the perfect dipping sauce. Ok, now let's talk about the truly incomprehensible. The rockfish fish and chips contains some of the worst fried fish I've ever had. The breading is beyond repair - it's practically soggy to the touch. When taking a bite out of the fish in your fish and chips feels like eating a bamboo shoot, you've completely lost the plot. I shudder to think about how this would appear when put next to some of the other fried fish I've had in Seattle. There's no seasoning, and to make matters worse, something just tastes very off about the inside. I don't even mean that's its overcooked, which it is, but there's just something weird going on that I can't quite put my finger on. Also, the tartar sauce might be the worst I've ever had. It's essentially just a pickled salad. There's no fat - no mayo or anything to provide something good to dip the fish into. It's just watery, liquidy, and functions atrociously at its job of being a dipping sauce. At least the fries were decent enough. If that wasn't everything - there's two more things that went wrong. The first one of these is just laughable. When we sat at our table and tried to order from the lounge menu, which is an all-day menu (not just happy hour), we were told that we couldn't be served the lounge menu at our current table, and had to be moved to the lounge area. And then - completely serious - we were proceeded to be moved like three seats over, now told we were in the lounge area, and allowed to order the lounge menu. It was so ridiculous both of us couldn't stop laughing for like five minutes. Even now I find it incredulous. The fact that there was some great firewall standing between the lounge and main dining area that prevented them from bringing a lounge plate one iota outside the allocated area is exceptionally funny. The second one is a bit more annoying. When we got our table, we were asked if we wanted still or sparkling water. I found this a bit odd - it reminded me of Europe - but I didn't think too much of it and asked for still, assuming that like essentially every restaurant in the US - the water would be complimentary. It was my absolute shock that we were charged 12 (twelve) American dollars for water. What!? In the land of the free? And the home of the brave? Really? Twelve dollars? Water? You know the kind where Seattle has some of the best tap water in the country, and you can literally just fill that up. Granted, it was probably partially our fault for not blocking the question entirely and asking for tap water from the start, but I assumed they asked between these two options to just determine the type of water we wanted. Overall, this has a couple of the highest highs, but the lows here are in the depths of hell. 5/10

Came here with my boyfriend and his brother, and we were seated right away. We came around 10 AM on…read morea Saturday, and there was plenty of seating. They have self serve water on the left side with carafes that you can also take with you. The water is room temperature. Service was very attentive. There was always staff available to take orders right away and help direct guests to a table. The decor is pretty neat. You get a taste of the city, and it was really cool to see the vinyl records throughout the restaurant. It shows a lot of personality and feels really nice to see someone's passion and personal interests incorporated into the space. We ordered the pho combos, rice tower with pork belly, a couple of Vietnamese coffees, a brown sugar matcha, and sticky rice. The food was absolutely delicious! It was especially neat having the pho served in a hot stone bowl because it keeps the soup hot throughout the meal. Every bite was comforting, especially on a cold, rainy day, which Seattle is known for. The rice tower is what my boyfriend and I ordered, and the pork belly was so good! It was nice and crunchy, and the sides that came with it complemented the flavors really well. The drinks were also very good. I would definitely recommend the egg coffee and pandan Vietnamese coffee if you love coffee. I also love that they have some snacks for sale next to the cashier if you feel like taking something home after your meal. Towards the end of our meal, one of the servers brought out a free dessert, which was such a kind gesture! Overall, we loved the food, service, and overall vibe. Definitely check this place out! There is parking available, but personally, I can imagine it being difficult to find a spot during busier hours, so plan accordingly.

My mom has been wanting to come back here for a longg time so we finally went after visiting the…read moretemple around the corner. It was her second time but my first. I can't say it was anything super special but it was definitely worth a try. Food & drink: (4/5) There are for sure certain items that they excel at and some that need some work. We got the banh uot tower with heo quay, banh khot, banh mi chao, and com tam. I see the appeal of the eye catching banh uot tower, but unfortunately I felt like it was very mediocre. I felt like the portion of veggie and meat wasn't enough for all the rice rolls, plus the actual heo quay was dry with barely any crispy skin. I think they also forgot to give us the heo quay because we had to ask for it much after the banh uot came out. I would skip this next time. I would also skip the banh khot as it was on the softer, chewier side when my personal preference is light and crispy. Those who do like it soft will definitely enjoy it though. As for flavor, it had an extremely prominent coconut taste- it usually isn't so strong in banh khot so I wasn't so fond of this. My family did really enjoy the com tam and banh mi chao. I only had one bite of each, but I would get these items again. Their drinks on the other hand, were delightful. I got the tamarind black tea and my step dad got the lychee green tea. Both were super refreshing and even addicting. I think they tend to do sweet items better, including their rice crispy treats that they sell on the front counter. Service: (4/5) The service here didn't really stand out much but I didn't pay much mind to it. They were very nice but there was a sense of disorganization, mostly due to us not being acknowledged when we first walked in and having some of our food forgotten about.