Hai Phong: How are they so highly rated?!

After our failed escape from Locked Canada's Asylum puzzle room, we were famished (and high on adrenaline)! BeautyQueen suggested a place nearby and here we were! There's lots of free parking up front, which is great!

Restaurant: Hai Phong Vietnamese Restaurant (visit their website here)

Location: 1246 Kingsway, Vancouver
Cuisine: Vietnamese, Noodle Soup
Price range: $10-15



Date of visit: May 14, 2015
Atmosphere: 3/5
Staff/service: 2/5
Food variety: 5/5
Food quality: 1.5/5
Buck worthy? 1/5

It was quite empty for a Friday night around 7pm, which kinda took me by surprise since they were so highly rated on Urbanspoon. Anyways, looked through the menu, there was a lot of variety for each person's liking. Their Garlic Butter Chicken Wings ($7.95 for 6 wings) sounded delicious! Utterly disappointed at how they looked when they arrived and disgusted when I tasted it. They were fresh and hot, but so salty it stung my mouth and throat. They were overcooked and dry, not crispy on the outside either. The lemon pepper sauce didn't have the pepper mixed in either =/.

RetroGirl and I got their small Rare Beef, Brisket, Tendon, and Tripe Rice Noodle Soup ($7.50), I got it without the rare beef. This was average, it met the norm but I wouldn't say it was exceptional. Broth was hot, rich and meaty, and there was a good amount of beef in it.

GoddessV ordered a Small Shrimp and Crab Patty Noodle Soup ($8.50) without the pork feet and pork blood. It actually looked pretty good and she said the broth was really yummy. She got really thirsty as she continued eating it though, probably too much MSG =(

Overall I wasn't impressed and felt scammed that they were so highly rated (maybe I ordered the wrong things). BigGuns tried many attempts at flagging down a waitress to get our bill but they completely ignored him. Not even a busy night, there were around 5 small tables of people and two waitresses managing the storefront. Quite disappointing for a Vancouver restaurant to operate so poorly. At least Locked Canada was fun, and I was with great company ^-^