15 November 2013

Restaurant review. Griffith Vietnamese

| cmdwedge
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Restaurant review – Griffith Vietnamese Restaurant

Rarely do I take the time to bother writing a review of a restaurant. I’ve made exception on occasion, usually for an exceptionally great dining experience. Tonight, unfortunately that is not the case.

My wife was tempted by a couple of positive reviews of this place on Yelp. This was our first mistake. She put in her selection for a dish, I added a couple of my own, and I ordered takeaway. Asked for it to be ready at 6, I turned up early at about 5:50 and it was already ready and sitting on a bench. Not particularly fresh I suppose, but these are first world problems.

Anyway, to the food. Arrived home in short order and served it all up. We had ordered the following:

Vietnamese spring rolls
Beef in black bean sauce
Chicken with Vietnamese mint, peanut and onion
Pork braised with black pepper in our own sauce and onion
Special fried rice

It was, in a word, awful. In some more words, it was literally the word Asian food that I’ve eaten, and that includes Maggi Two Minute Noodles (low salt chicken flavour). As the pictures will attest, every dish looked exactly the same. Meat, onion, carrot, cabbage. The rice looked pale yellow and contained a few peas with some chopped up sliced ham – the sort of ham you’d find in a kid’s school lunch sandwich. There were no greens whatsoever. None. Just the carrot, onion and cabbage in each.

We plated up to our two little boys and ourselves and got cracking. The food tasted even worse than it looked. Completely and utterly bland, except for the taste of oil. The ‘mint’ dish did not appear to have mint in it. The beef in black bean contained no black beans, just oil. The pork contained no peanuts. Just oil. The rice lacked any flavour, and I mean to say that it didn’t even taste like boiled rice – it tasted of nothing at all.

The portion sizes were pretty tight too, barely half filled containers, but I’m prepared to accept that for very good quality over a poor quantity. Sadly, these dishes had neither quality nor quantity. I’m not sure what exactly is so Vietnamese about this place. It’s just generic, very bland Asian food. I really cannot recommend against this place enough.

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FioBla said :

cmdwedge said :

Yeah. Our local Vietnamese is actually in Fisher, but I work in Barton so we thought that we’d try something new. Fisher Viet gets it right about 75% of the time, once in a while we get a bad batch but for the most part it’s quite good. Not particularly generous but great flavour. We get Fisher Viet maybe 4 times a year or so.

I’ve been waiting for years to read *any* reviews of the minor Weston Creek restaurants.

So… they get it wrong one in 4 times?

On average, it’s a little disappointing around once out of every 4 times or so. Usually very good. In regards to other Weston Creek places, the ones I’ve eaten at (or from):

Fisher Fish and Chips – not very good, and literally the most expensive f&c you’ll ever have. The pizza prices are absurd. 3/10
Chapman Cafe – very poor. Prices are ok but everything is frozen and just chucked into the fryer, nothing is made fresh. I really miss hand cut chips from back in Melbourne. 4/10
Sin Yau Restaurant Chapman – really good. Really really good actually. Very generous portions, lots of veg, and really friendly staff. I’d give them 8/10.
Maestral, Coolo – excellent. We’ve gone there for our wedding anniversary dinner/escape from the toddlers for two years in a row now, and it’s just brilliant. Great food, great service, quite loud. Almost obscene portions of steak though! 9/10.
Masala Hut – dire. Worst Indian ever. 2/10. Go to Rama’s instead.

cmdwedge said :

Yeah. Our local Vietnamese is actually in Fisher, but I work in Barton so we thought that we’d try something new. Fisher Viet gets it right about 75% of the time, once in a while we get a bad batch but for the most part it’s quite good. Not particularly generous but great flavour. We get Fisher Viet maybe 4 times a year or so.

I’ve been waiting for years to read *any* reviews of the minor Weston Creek restaurants.

So… they get it wrong one in 4 times?

That grub looks bloody woeful, thanks for the heads up.

switch said :

I am amazed, this is one of my favourite restaurants in Canberra, although I haven’t been there for a few months. It always had rave reviews in the past, including here on RiotACT. Hope Tanh hasn’t moved on.

Tanny is still around, still complaining about how hard it is to make a dollar. As I understand it Griffith props up their restaurant in Macquarie.

We have supported him for close to 20 years and will continue to do so. The food’s never been incredible – and many dishes are similar – but he kept us well fed as uni students. Lots of good memories from the old days in Hobart Place.

hot diggety that looks vile.

I did dine there one night before leaving Canberra and it was very disappointing. The service was friendly enough but the dishes were awful…just bland and cheaply prepared (we were regretting not just getting drive thru Maccas). It’s not even close to Vietnamese food either (which is meant to be very fresh and packing flavour). And I never trust a place that has 10 million menu items….that says to me “all these items are the same with a different coloured sauce”.

Holden Caulfield2:17 pm 18 Nov 13

lumpy said :

…We’ve been going to another Kingston local, where we can buy one generously-filled container of stir fry and rice to share between us at a much cheaper cost…

Please share the name of this restaurant.

I’ve always had excellent meals there, both dine in and takeaway. It’s good, cheap and basic asian food. I have noticed the takeaway serve sizes are getting smaller but never as small as in your photo.

lumpy said :

I’m a local and I stopped going here for the reason that I was growing tired of receiving onions and carrots with every dish I ordered, and the fact that they only half-fill the containers. I’d have to buy a dish each for my partner and myself, and the quality was so so. We’ve been going to another Kingston local, where we can buy one generously-filled container of stir fry and rice to share between us at a much cheaper cost. And they throw in some proper vegetables!

Yeah. Our local Vietnamese is actually in Fisher, but I work in Barton so we thought that we’d try something new. Fisher Viet gets it right about 75% of the time, once in a while we get a bad batch but for the most part it’s quite good. Not particularly generous but great flavour. We get Fisher Viet maybe 4 times a year or so.

In the favour of Griffith Viet, I can’t fault their service. They were really friendly and cheerful, and that can be hard to find, particularly in Asian take aways.

In regards to getting something ‘more exciting’, the beef and black bean was for the kids (as it’s predictable) and the others were the grown up dishes. Whilst it might be fair to say that we didn’t get any vege dishes, everywhere else we order from, Vietnamese and ‘other’, it comes with a range of colour veg as well as meat and sauce.

Not cross with Griffth Viet, just won’t be returning ever again.

I’m a local and I stopped going here for the reason that I was growing tired of receiving onions and carrots with every dish I ordered, and the fact that they only half-fill the containers. I’d have to buy a dish each for my partner and myself, and the quality was so so. We’ve been going to another Kingston local, where we can buy one generously-filled container of stir fry and rice to share between us at a much cheaper cost. And they throw in some proper vegetables!

Queen_of_the_Bun10:35 am 17 Nov 13

Deref said :

Very odd. I’ve had some wonderful feeds there. I wonder if it’s changed hands.

I wonder too. I often get takeaway from there and it is very good. But I haven’t been for a couple of months. Agree with BimboGeek that the lack of vegetable dishes could be one reason, as their vegetables are amazing. Would like a report on the Vietnamese spring rolls as they have always been very good.

Very odd. I’ve had some wonderful feeds there. I wonder if it’s changed hands.

I don’t think I’ve been there in a couple of years but the vegetable dishes are very fresh. Maybe you should order something more exciting next time?

I am amazed, this is one of my favourite restaurants in Canberra, although I haven’t been there for a few months. It always had rave reviews in the past, including here on RiotACT. Hope Tanh hasn’t moved on.

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