Problem: Visiting from OC and the land of accessible and pretty good Vietnamese food, I had pretty high standards for this place. With an extensive menu that had both Thai and Vietnamese dishes I started to get a bit worried. I agreed with Jason O. that they probably had thai dishes on their menu to appeal to the general midwestern populace that wasn't so interested in Vietnamese food. We had the tom rang muoi (shrimp with salt/black pepper) and the pork com tam. Perhaps we didn't choose the best dishes, but the tom rang muoi tasted quite bland with the salt/pepper mixture being nonexistent. There was also very little heat with the jalepenos provided. Also, in my experience, tom rang muoi is traditionally prepared with the shells still being on the shrimp in order to keep more seasoning on and in the shrimp as it's being fried. This shrimp was peeled...ultimately leading to its strange texture and blandness. The pork com tam we had was just a generic pork chop flavored with lemongrass and grilled. The pork was flavored nicely, but was quite overdone and ended up being a bit dry. The dish came with most of the traditional garnishes for com tam, but was missing the traditional egg/pork "meatloaf" that disappointed me. All in all, Ha Long Bay was a bit of a flop. I won't be coming back here on my visits to Madison. Don't let this place ruin Vietnamese food for you. I'm giving this place 2 stars, one for their attempt to create a good Vietnamese restaurant in Madison, and the other for having such a wide variety of choices...albeit the choices that we had were greatly disappointing.
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A: negative

Problem: Avoid this place! Their registers are horribly understaffed while employees just stand around and laugh. I'm posting this review on 12/15, the heart of the holiday shopping season and have been waiting in line for 30 minutes. They only have 2 registers open with a bunch of employees standing around. Annoying!!
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A: negative

Problem: If I could give this place a zero I would. HORRIBLE food! My boyfriend and I paid $40 for just him and I, no drinks, other than the 75 cents they charge for water. We ate a hamburger and chicken nuggets (like we are at a kids restaurant). The food is worse than Mcdonalds. My bf's hamburger tasted as if it was cooked in the microwave. Very limited selection on the menu that is EXTREMELY over priced nasty bar food. The more I think of the concept the more stupid I think is to actually pay someone to be an asshole to you. Save your money go eat somewhere nice that actually has decent food and go to that show you always wanted to go to. I will never return to this ridiculous place.
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A: negative

Problem: My first, and most likely the last time coming to this place. Unlike some other reviews, I did not have an issue with rudeness of the staff. But my pet peeves are other customer service related issues, like WiFi access. I am trying to connect to the locked signal, I asked my waitress (Ruby) for the password, and she said she doesn't know. She said it's for the credit card machine only. Seriously??? Com on!!! What place in Ballantyne does not have a free WiFi now days. If the Sam's clubs, McDonalds and grocery stores have it, why wouldn't they.....anyway, like I said, my little pet peeves. Decor was inviting. I thought it could have been little busier for a lunch, perhaps if it was run differently. For lunch, food was little bit on the expensive side. Most dishes are above $10. I know that prices are going up in that direction, but most places are trying to still keep the numbers in single digits. Food was decent, but the whole experience does not deserve double digit price. As for my dish, lunch menu item #2, chicken soup with plantain, rice and avocado. The combination just didn't work for me. Individually each item tasted OK, but I was not sure what to eat with what. Perhaps I just don't understand Peruvian food. Too much cheap starch. Soup was little on the salty side, with few pieces of chicken, potato and yucca. Than, once I am done with soup, eating bland rice with plantain was like eating a white bred with doughnuts. I suppose that avocado was there to bring some color on the plate. Another detail, my pet peeve (as I get older, I get more and more of those - old fart) avocado vas not even taken out of its shell. I see that as not very hygienic, especially when the the shell still had a PLU sticker on it. It was probably taken out of the box, never washed, cut in half and put on my plate. Maybe it was washed, but the way it was presented to me in the plate, I am tempted to believe that it was not. Serving avocado in a shell, to me spells lazy, sloppy an not creative. If it was taken our of the shell, they might have gotten one more star. I ask myself, should be going there again? I can only answer that with another question...why? So many other choices...
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A:
negative