Ben Thanh Viet Thai Restaurant

Food isn't really good, especially for its price. Basically paying lots of money for fast-food style cuisine.

The service is terrible. Maybe they hate students or something, but my friend and I went there and waited over half an hour. The family of 4 that sat beside us got their food before us and they came 15 minutes after us.

I was basically starved and they didn't even serve us water or anything but rather gave all their attention to the "bigger" tables.

The atmosphere is nice though, but they really need to improve their food and service.

Both times I've been here (one lunch, one supper) it has been ridiculously busy and we had to wait for a table, which might explain the poor service. The place is large and atmosphere unimpressive (high ceilings, florescent lighting).

I think the servers are understaffed and thus overworked. On both occasions we sat for a long time before our orders were picked up. Even more bizarre, the food seemed to come out of the kitchen in a random order. Perhaps they just cook things and send whatever's ready at that moment?

The following occurred during BOTH visits:
1. Mains arrived before appetizers.
2. Mains arrived with substantial gaps (5-10 minutes) between dishes. At the supper visit, the first half of our party's food arrived and they were almost finished eating before the second half's food arrived.
3. White rice to go with the curry arrived long (>5 minutes) after the main. I had to ask our server for it.

On one occasion, my bubble tea arrived after we had all finished eating. I actually assumed they had forgotten about it. Unless in Thai culture bubble tea is dessert? Given the haphazard way that the rest of our food arrived I'm unwilling to give them the benefit of the doubt on that one.

I would order takeout from them, but not suffer through that service again.

Decent food for a decent price. $15 each for a drink, an entree and a split appetizer. While the service order was odd for Canadian diners and it was a bit off-putting to have one person served before the other, all the food came out within a five minute block so neither of us was left waiting too long.

The appetizer (beef rolls) was great both with the included dipping sauce and their hot sauce. The pad thai was very good, although maybe a bit small of a portion comparatively. The beef brisket pho (soup) was OK but the beef was a little fatty and that did affect the overall flavour. The bubble teas were both pretty good, although probably not the best in town.

Overall, I would avoid this restaurant if you don't like Asian-spicy, you aren't adventurous or you're only going for the pho (go to Pho Dau Bo) or bubble tea. If you like Thai/Viet food, are open minded and prefer less server interference then this place is great, especially for the price.

This place was disgusting. We only wanted to pop in for a quick snack and drink for take out but ended up gagging at half their food.
The spring rolls were dry and not flavourful at all and didn't have the nice crisp to them.
The mango shakes tasted like thick powder and milk. The service was an absolute MESS. We went in and we didn't get served for 8 mins even though there were a handful of servers just talking amongst each other.
We also realized that they forgot one of our mango shakes and wouldn't refund us, insisting on getting the mango shake when we came back.
Truth be told, we didn't even want the shake after trying the first 2.

Don't go to this location.

I used to go to this location all the time, than I started going to the fairway one in kitchener and don't know why I even go back to this one. The service at this one sucks, the decor is crap compared to the lovely dark style of the kitchener one. It's always loud and packed at this one.

Biggest complaint is how they bring your food out! There is no order to it, they bring out whatever is ready first. We got our entrees first, then our spring rolls, then our soup. It should be spring rolls (that is the appetizer), soup, then main dish. Any other restaurant would know this is standard and the norm. This annoys me because I have plates everywhere and I can't enjoy anything because I am trying to finish it at once so that nothing gets cold and my noodles are always cold in the end, disappointing.

Complaint #2 - the service is not prompt, the waitresses always seem rushed and not focused on what they have brought you, if you need anything and never ask how your food is. This is not good.

Complaint #3 - no refills on soft drinks. You get a CAN of diet coke and a glass with ice, and that costs $1.50! Whereas at the kitchener location you get as much soft drinks as you want.

This location is nothing compared to how great the kitchener one is. I know the food is the same, but the way it comes out, presentation and service is horrible at this one. You actually order at the kitchener one instead of writing your selections down my number on a sheet - this is impersonal and takes away from the experience. The staff is professional and prompt at the kitchener one.

At least they didn't vacuum this time while we were there, that counts for something. Although the place was dirty.

I love going to this place for a sit-down meal. The food is quick and delicious. The service could be better, but lately it depends on the waitress (some are great, most are average, a few are terrible).

Take-out from this place is a completely different story however. We called and ordered our food. When I arrived to pick it up I was ignored for more than 20 minutes. I even watched my food be brought out from the kitchen and left on the counter for more than 15 minutes before a server finally asked me what I wanted. When we got the food home, we discovered that the noodle dishes had steamed themselves while sitting in the styrofoam containers on the counter, and had been reduced to tasteless piles of muck (or tasteless piles of dried up noodles in the case of the pad thai). They also forgot to give us dipping sauce for our spring rolls. So our take-out was either mucky or completely dried out, and everything was bland. We will NEVER order take-out from here again.

Red Curry was very delicious. Bamboo was not too overpowering at it is at other restaurants and the portion was more than enough. Our server forgot the rice which I had to order separately to eat with the curry but otherwise nothing to complain about.

I've both been in the resturant for a sit down meal and also order the food for take out quite often. I do find the food impressive. They give good quantity and quality for the most part. I have to agree with other reviewers on the customer service though. It really could use improving. I haven't had any terrible experiences but have noticed that the kind of service you get depends greatly on who you happen to get serving you or at the desk. Other than that I really do recommend this place on it's food alone. It's worth the trip and the coin!

We have never done this but we can't find an email address for this restaurant. Anyways, we have been going to Ben Thanh ever since we moved here 2 years ago and the food has always been consistent and the service friendly. However, the last time we went there we encountered the worst service ever and I do mean EVER! Our server was the most obnoxious and unprofessional person I have ever met. It took her 15 minutes to come to our table and she even forgot to enter one of our orders. She never once checked on our table, we had to go looking for her to find out where our one missing order was. By the time the rest of the table finished eating the missing order showed up. By then we had to leave so we ended up canceling it. When she was informed of this she literally screamed and started slamming drawers. I can't believe Ben Thanh has people like this working for them. When I tried to explain why we sent the noodles back she was sooooo immature she kept raising her hand and saying "don't talk to me". Seriously who does that, even my 4 year old knows its rude to do that!!! At the time we were so upset that we didn't ask for the manager so we tried to look up an email address to their "head office" when we came home, doesn't exist. If Ben Thank keeps people like this on staff, it will lose its loyal customers, like us.

It is always busy there which is understandable!!! There food is good although they can work at bringing it altogether. The servers are really friendly and hardworking they do very well for being so busy and serving so many tables. Not too many poeple can handle that kind of pressure. Although service sucks at night the staff does a great job!!Food is also very good too.