Thanh Hoai 1

I came here when it wasn’t crowded. I like the atmosphere and got good service. Got my pop the big bowl of Phở (chinese is called the fire engine head), I got the porkchop, egg, and sausage over rice. Also, got a banh mi to go for tomorrow’s breakfast, lol.
Feedback:
Price is good
Food also good
Service was good, but I haven’t gone when busy.
Atmosphere is good and comfortable
Only weird thing, I think the waitress momentarily thought I was leaving a 19 dollar tip for a 21 dollar meal, which I rectified… quickly. :/​Not a deal breaker I shall return!
P. S. had the Banh Mi this morning… not good, but not horrible, a lot of room for improvement. Again, my review was based solely on my dining experience.

I tried this place long time ago & just came back recently with boyfriend & friends. My boyfriend observed that they have new management because they add more food to the menu & looks new to us like the set up & everything. We ordered soup & some boiled crab. Serving time kinda long & servers are not that good coz they always forget something. We ask them if we can have soda & the server forgot so we ask them again.

I went here with my friends on Halloween night cause they open kinda late and we want hotpot. There are 11 total of us and we ordered 2 special sets of hotpot with sweet n sour Thai broth and some other side dishes, summer rolls and fried frog. I LOVE the frog! This is exactly the first time I see a Vietnamese restaurant serving frog and I’ve always been craving for it. It did not disappoint me at all. The curry fried frog is even better that we ordered it twice. Hotpot is fine but there were too little beef… Thai iced tea not recommended people!
Would come back to try other Vietnamese dishes.

I had ordered a simple bun bo hue, banh mi, and a small appetizer, and it took 50 minutes to arrive, while the Seamless time estimate would’ve set it to another forty minutes later. I called them, they hung up on me, called again, the guy over the phone stammered, and then apologized profusely. At least the food is still decently warm.
Edit: Just bit into the summer rolls — they taste FOUL. The complete opposite of fresh, and there’s a strange pungent odor coming off the rolls AND the brown peanut sauce.

Phở, hot pot, banh mi, shrimp boil… this newly opened Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown really has it all. And all of it is actually quite tasty as well, which is usually not expected when a restaurant has pages upon pages of dishes on their menu. Jack of all trades, master of none? Not Thanh Hoai 1.
My go-​to dish would definitely be the shrimp boil with the garlic butter sauce. Thick, juicy pieces of shrimp covered in perhaps the best boil sauce I’ve ever tasted. Doesn’t really get any better than that. I love that Thanh Hoai 1 also includes a few pieces of sausages and a corn on the cob for every pound of seafood you order since not all places provide both without charging extra. You’re also given gloves which many also don’t give out, which I also appreciated, as we all know how messy eating boils can be.
The phở and hot pot are also good, but not as good as the shrimp boil. There are also definitely other places that do them better, but Thanh Hoai 1’s are nothing to complain about. The only thing that might have been slightly on the less tasty side was the meat for the hot pot. You can tell just from the photo that it wasn’t the freshest. Aside from that though, the rest of the food given with the hot pot was great. Honestly, you probably can’t go wrong ordering most of the plethora of dishes offered.
My only complaint (and the sole reason why this review isn’t a 4) is that after Thanh Hoai 1 brought my family and I the wrong order, they didn’t correct it at all. We had ordered 2 pounds of the shrimp boil and 1 pound of the snow legs, but instead, they brought out the opposite – 1 pound of the shrimp and 2 pounds of the snow legs. They didn’t immediately notify us of this mistake, so we immediately dug in only to be told minutes later that they actually gave us the wrong thing. After they told us, they didn’t immediately offer us any kind of apology or plan of action to rectify this. Instead, they kind of just stared at us. My uncle had to be the one who to bring up the price difference between what we originally ordered and what we received and after several moments of discussion, they finally agreed to charge us just for our original order. They made no attempts to fix our order and give us another pound of shrimp at all, which I thought was poor on their part. I’ve never been to a restaurant that didn’t bring out your correct order after messing it up the first time. If it weren’t for this incident, I would definitely be rating Thanh Hoai 1 higher.
Despite this little slip-​up, I did still enjoy my meal, as the shrimp boil was bomb. Not sure I will be returning since there are definitely other boils in NYC that are just as good with great service too, so here’s hoping that nothing like that ever happens again to anyone else who goes!

Average vietnamese restaurant. Have an extension menu like boiled seafood. Not bad but not the best. A little salty and not spicy to me compared to the boil.
Boiled clams with hot & spicy mixed with scallion ginger and butter garlic sauce.
Clean and good service.
Overall: 2

Avoid the seafood boil at all costs!
We heard about the seafood boil they were offering from a friend’s friend and thought to give it a try. First mistake. We asked if the crawfish was fresh and was told they were frozen, so we ordered the King Crab and Clams. Second mistake. The crab smelled horrible, emitting a very strong ammonia scent. It was so overpowering that at one point I gagged. The clams were mediocre. We ate almost zero of the crab and was still charged full price. Anyone who loves fresh seafood would know that OLD seafood will start to give off an ammonia smell.
We also had the lotus salad and salt and pepper soft shell crab. The lotus stems were soggy and not crunchy, extremely poor quality and old ingredients. These people clearly do not believe in serving quality. Everything was so oily. We told the lady in charge and she pretty much didn’t give a rat’s ass. Horrible.

Came here with my family for my brother-in-law’s birthday last week. He’s been here multiple times and rave about the food. Since he’s half Vietnamese, we took his word for it, even though the other half of him may be wrong. We ordered two 7-​course beef (bo 7 mon), a ginormous bowl of phở, 2 large orders of spring rolls, some fried rice, a salmon casserole and salmon soup. Bo 7 mon started with a beef salad, which was marinated beef over pickled vegetables — very appetizing! That was followed by a dish of beef marinated in 3 ways, beef congee (which I love because it tastes like phở) and beef hot pot, which a majority of us weren’t too fond of since it was merely sour beef (I didn’t mind it because I eat everything). Besides the hot pot of beef marinated in white vinegar, everything else tasted delicious … with the 6 other beef, salmon casserole and salmon soup being the highlights of our dinner. Service was great too as our server was monitoring us the entire time to ensure we were well taken care of.
Food was so good I forgot to take pics. Trust a Viet when he recommends a Vietnamese restaurant, whether he’s full Viet or not!

I came here with 2 friends for the happy hour Raw Oysters that comes out to $ 10 per dozen before 9p. Surprisingly, the table next to us was doing a hotpot (this was the first time I’ve seen hotpot in a Vietnamese restaurant and it was quite a sight). So we order the hotpot and I’m glad we did. The base was a spicy and sour base with a nice chilled meat selection and of course it goes well with a white rice.
*Now the reason I was especially happy was because I have a slight fear of raw seafood and the soup felt like it may have killed off some if not all the «parasites» that inevitably exist in raw items. But all in all, the hotpot was like any other,
No, we’re not full yet, we also order the Vietnamese Sandwich $ 5.25 which was nice, toasty and not crunchy but bite for bite, it chewy, the meat portion was on the lacking side and I would recommend the BBQ Pork variant of the sandwich or even the Vietnamese Burger.
We also ordered the the Vermicelli soup and non soup version with beef sausage. The soup was fine but the non soup beef version was a little tough for me and it was an order you can discard as soon as you bite into it.
For the most part, the server (older gentleman who wore glasses) was very nice and gave us the special even after the happy hour and he was very attentive. This is certainly one place I’ll be coming back to.

I have to tell you that this place is the true definition of «as good as it gets!» The place has a nice ambiance and seems clean esp if you compare to other restaurants in Chinatown. This place is an exception!
We were 6 of us so you can imagine how crazy we were when we ordered. But the owner was very patient in taking our complicated orders and include a big smile! He also gave us excellent recommendations for each meal. We are Indonesians so maybe that plays part in our similar taste. Here’s the list of meals that we had:
Appetizers :
— mango salad with beef
— 2 spring rolls
— tofu
— crispy squid
Main entrée:
— a whole lobster
— 2 kinds of crab
— shrimp fried rice
— garlic kale
— fried flounder fish
Drinks:
— 1 milk tea
— 3 durian shake
— 1 ice tea
— 1 pot of hot tea
EVERYTHING came out really good and perfect for our taste and everybody was so happy. In the end the owner gave us free desserts of coconut-​banana ice cream with sprinkles of peanuts which is very similar with an Indonesian dessert.
And ALL THIS WAS ONLY FOR $ 230! I don’t understand how this happened but hey, we’re happy customers! The owner also gave us a 10% off for our next visit and will definitely use it! Thanks for making our day Thanh Hoai!
PS: Apologize that there is no picture of the food cos we finished them fast as they’re sooo gooodd!

Beware of bill scammers.
First, the food was average. Not bad, but just average. Personally, I would not go out of my way to revisit. The negative review is is not about the food.
The thing that really bothered me was not the food so unfortunately I am giving a 1 star because of the other aspects of my lunch:
1. Service was terrible. It was very difficult to ask for anything as anyone that was near out table always looked in another direction. We ordered 3 coffees and 2 sodas.1 soda came when the teen at our table asked several times for it. The coffee came after asking for it several times and about ½ way through my phở.
2. The very sneaky and just plain shady billing practices. Long story short, when the bill arrives, the numbers don’t add up. I asked for the menu to verify that my numbers were not off and they were not.
The hand written bill with no prices only had a final total. I asked for an itemized bill and the hefty tip was the reason.
I should have asked for the itemized up front but my Asian uncle was fighting for the check and I hastily stuffed my credit card to the server’s hands.
Did I miss the sign that stated tip already included?
I will add pictures so this does not seem to be (in my opinion) an unwarranted, negative rating.
If you patronize this establishment, ask if the tip is included because they will not make it known on the vague handwritten bill.

At any Vietnamese restaurant I try, the first dish will always be the number 1 Phở extra large.
A good sized bowl of broth, a great quantity of rice noodles, large and varying types of meats are all great indicators to a good eats. As with any Chinatown phở, it arrives just as quickly as you order it. Ready and piping hot for your immediate enjoyment. The broth was hearty and wasn’t as MSG filled or mouth drying as other broths I’ve had around town. I’ve also tried their pork chop over rice and it’s as good as another place that serves this classic dish. The pork was a bit burnt on the edge, not enough to deter me from eating it but noticeable in texture and a bit of a burnt crunch.
Large seating area with a good cooling system. I like their fish tanks they have in the middle of the restaurant. I noticed that at least one blue fish in the tank is very aggressive and attacks the other fishes.

Had dinner here with my husband. Did not order phở but had their grilled pork chops and few dishes, and drinks. Food were good, and quick service. I would go back to try their 7 course beef meal next time, seems very interesting.
Their fried eggrolls were very good.

Thanh Hoai
NY Manhattan Chinatown
9:45pm Wednesday 24^th 2015
Four Stars
Phở places are never crowded probably because they are super efficient. I feel like you should always get the first thing on the menu, which I did. The phở #1 was an Extra Large Rice Noodle Soup Bowl with a variety of meats for $ 7.75 (pre-​tax). It took less than five minutes to get my food. The fixings were a bit sparse: one Thai basil sprig, a handful of bean sprouts, and a single lime. The bowl of soup was very large. It had medium rare thinly sliced pieces of beef. A light layer of scallions and onions. The broth was salty, sweet, unctuous, and magical. The noodles were plentiful but I never can get enough. The tripe was a bit tough but the large pieces of tendon hit the spot.
The real reason I came here was because last night I watched a documentary on sriracha.
Fun facts:
1. The name of the sauce is sriracha and it is pronounced in three syllables «See Rotch Ah.» The sauce itself takes its name from a small coastal village in Thailand and that is why the «Si Racha» is not copyrighted. The famous bottle with green tip should be referred to as Huy Fong’s sriracha. The rooster is on their because the owner was born in the year of the rooster.
2. Owner David Tran is ethnically Chinese but is from Vietnam. His people were deported on freighter called Huy Fong. He eventually ended up in California and decided to make hot sauce to be use the Vietnamese national dish of phở.
3. The sauce is made in Irwindale California from locally sourced red jalapeño peppers from a single source. It’s not that Asian.

I was super excited when I heard Thanh Hoai offered the 7 course beef. What a disappointment. The fact that they even call this «7 courses» is pathetic. I’ve had real 7 course beef from legit Vietnamese restaurants and this place does not even come close. If you want a real 7 course experience please do not come here. Take a trip to Boston and visit Anh Hong in Dorchester (
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1. Beef salad — barely any beef, just lots of cabbage
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2. Sliced raw beef cooked in vinegar hotpot — came with the saddest looking side of veggies, barely enough to make 2 spring rolls. When we asked for some extra pickled radishes they said it would be an additional $ 3.
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3, 4, 5, 6. Please refer to my pictures for their tiny portions. The meat was also served lukewarm.
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7. Congee — basically rice in soup, was not congee consistency.
Total cost of the 7 course beef: $ 29.99. Was it worth it? NO. I would give this place 1 star but our waitress was nice.

This is without a doubt one of the best Vietnamese restaurants in Chinatown. Actually, this may very well be the best one. The décor and food is awesome. My recommendations would include the summer rolls with shrimp is a must. I always ask for two orders. And, of course, the legendary phở soup option — #23 on the menu, Phở Dac Biet Xe Lua. Enjoy!

Lunch
BE1 Bo Luic Lac (beef cubs w/​salad) $ 13.95
Those small beef cubes were a bit tough sadly but the portion was perfect to share (with two) but not eating from the morning, I finished all. I wish the meat was executed better and it lacked dinner sweetness that I crave in any Vietnamese food. Watercress under the beef was enjoyable — that bitterness worked with charcoal-​smokey dish.
Efficient South American waiters were fast and helpful sales person with good English. What do we do without them? Dark but clean bathroom was nice.

From the moment I walked in, I knew we had nailed it. The décor was casual, with a fish tank chillin’ in the middle of the restaurant with tables lined around. We were seated and immediately greeted by the most adorable waiter, old but caring. We were struggling with pronunciation of a few of the orders we wanted and yet he knew exactly what we wanted.
They quickly brought us the food & and bruh… it was fantastic. From the chicken wings, to the soft shell crab to the sand which we ate, we were happy campers. Additionally, they’re take on the flan was spot on and somehow at the end I wanted more; not because I was hungry but because everything tasted so good!
I really wish I could give more Thank five stars — thanks Lam!

Good ambiance with fish a tanks and music
Good menu Vietnamese variety
Good service fast!
Good food! Ordered rice noodles soup with beef! Tasted delicious! Had some scallions and cilantro yum!

Finally after all these years I’ve found my people! As a Vietnamese-​American used to having endless options in Houston, the lack of authentic Vietnamese restaurants was one of the things that made fully loving New York so difficult for me.
In an admittedly diva-​esque move, I literally left the last «Vietnamese» restaurant my friend suggested because it was way too Chinese (I couldn’t even read the menu, the Vietnamese names for dishes were printed as some sort of subtext/​translation to the Chinese name) and THANK GOODNESS I DID BECAUSE I FOUND THIS PLACE.
For the first time since I moved to the city, I heard the waitstaff speaking my mother tongue. MUSIC TO MY EARS.
We had the grilled pork summer roll (Goi Cuon Thit Heo Nuong) to start with. That’s something I feel like you don’t see on menus enough. The meat inside was actually warm like they had just grilled it right then. Then I had a Phở Tái, which was nothing mind-​blowing (but still good, especially for these brutal NY winters).
Their Chè Ba Màu is off the chain – shaved ice, beans, green jelly, and coconut milk, all topped with peanuts? What more could you want for a light, refreshing dessert?
Best of all, THEY SERVE AVOCADO BOBA Y’ALL! Gosh Da Nang-​it, why isn’t this brilliant Southeast Asian move to make avocado sweet not available wherever tapioca balls are sold?
I would say the only thing that isn’t traditionally Vietnamese about this place is that the waitstaff is actually super friendly and the décor is great. There’s really nothing bad about it.
Now if only we could do something about the black ice and the summer smells, then I’d wholeheartedly love NY!