District Iii

This is a Vietnamese restaurant in the Avalon mall. It is right at the end of the mall near Starbucks and The Hotel at Avalon. The interiors were beautifully decorated in pastel colors and the pictures on the walls gave glimpses of Vietnam. The seating was a little cramped though. We went to this restaurant expecting to have flavourful and spicy food but the food did not meet our expectations. For appetizer, we had ordered Crispy Butter Eggplant. For entree, we chose Grilled Chicken Vermicelli Noodle and Spicy Basil Shrimp with jasmine rice. The food was bland and every dish we ordered was on the sweet side. The prices were reasonable though.

I’m a Vietnamese American and I believe this place was wonderful! I highly recommend the Vietnamese dishes like the pho combo, it’s definitely a classic of the meat options. Broth was flavorful and the portion was plentiful. The mango stick rice was the perfect way to end the evening. The cocktails were creative and delicious. I’m not sure the reviews that state it’s bland (maybe they’re comparing it to non-Vietnamese dishes), but it’s far from that and authentic to top it off. Ambiance is beautiful, perfect for date night. The prices were also reasonable and comparable to the smaller Vietnamese restaurants in town.

In a word: understated. This restaurant is in a very desirable area as it is adjacent to the Hotel Avalon. The interior has a nice bar area and there are plenty of seating for large and small parties. The menu is varied and has the traditional Pho/noodles but also a good variety of Chinese dishes such as broccoli beef, which I ordered. I liked the Chinese chicken salad with grilled shrimp, calamari and sesame seeds with the fish sauce dressing.

This was my first Vietnamese restaurant that I have tried. It's very authentic and the shrimp rolls I have tried were the best. Instead of the rolls being fried as usual, these were different and amazing, they were the soft rolls. The Pho here was also amazing. I do recommend their Pho Combo which has an amazing flavor to it. Overall the food was tasty and amazing. Even the service was really good although it was getting pretty busy!

Hugely disappointing across the board, from taste to service, after seeing the good-looking menu and hearing some solid reviews. The "garlic noodles with shrimp" were nothing more than box spaghetti with butter and 4 pieces of shrimp for $15, the claypot combo fried rice was soggy with no crisp or fry to it at all, the crab fried rice relied too heavily on the crab itself to add both salt and sweetness so it ended up lacking in both and had large clumps wet white rice. One of our entrees was clearly forgotten about and was brought out practically at the end of our meal after we finally managed to ask our server about it. The best part of the meal was the ban xeo appetizer, but the rest of the food, including the fried calamari, was underseasoned and poorly prepared. I was hoping this place would live up to its potential, but it seemingly intends to coast on the laurels of its location in Avalon and a menu that belies its blatant disregard for detail.

The quality of the food dropped like a brick on a swimming pool. This is the fifth time in the past 12 months we ate at this place, and today (07/09/2022) couldn't be worst. One of my favorites in this place was the curry chicken bowl. The plate arrived as usual with great presentation, missing the chicken. There was a lot of potatoes, carrots, and chicken skin 🤮