My sister is in town for a visit. We love to have family visit and we especially love to take guests to restaurants. It's quite selfish of us, really. When there are more people eating you need to order more food. That means we get to try more items on the menu. About a month ago we tried a Vietnamese restaurant called Long Provincial. We had already been won over by Long's sister restaurant Tamarind Tree. So with my sister's visit we were excited to make our second trip to Long and wade further into their very extensive menu. While the food was just as delicious and satisfying the second time around, the overall experience in the restaurant was a bit surreal- good blog fodder.
The host seemed very confused when I insisted that my reservation was for 3 and not 2. I had called only a few hours before. "A table for 3," I said. "Three?" "Yes, three." "Three?" "Right." So I don't really see how that got written down as 2. But, not a big deal. They offered us a "cozy, warm" table down in the Jelly Bar- it's where the bar is, and also where the jellyfish tank is. I said "That's sounds great. We'd love to see the jellyfish." He replied that there were currently no jellyfish. Ah, well, it's cozy and warm so we accepted the table. We walked across their beautiful restaurant to the steps leading down to the bar area. Suddenly it was too dark, with swimming pool tile floors and the scent of a urinal. Our table was in the corner with a lovely view of the empty jellyfish tank. It did not have that strong of an odor, so I let it go and we sat down. However, no sooner had we settled in our seats than we were asked to move so that the d.j. could set up in that corner. We were moved to the table closest to the urinal smell. Also right in the draft from a hidden door. To add to the ambiance, our fellow diners were a loud homeless man, and a drunk, shimmying transvestite.
I thought this warranted another move. Although our server said he was pretty sure the dining room was closed for the evening (it was 9:45 on a Friday night, after all!) he did manage to find us a table. Now that I think of it, our terrible table service probably was some sort of protest to us being moved there after the floor was closed. We sat with no food for a really long time, got no water refills and then had all of our food appear at the same moment. Hmmmm...
This really is more a review of the service rather than of the food. The food was spectacular and I will brave the service in the future so that I can eat the braised pork and coconut again. But I will show up before 9:30 so that I don't have to go to the Jelly Bar again! Oh, I almost forgot. We did ask our intermittent server what happened to the jellyfish. I thought maybe it was like the lobsters at Red Lobster and they had all been cooked to order. He told us, "When the take was tank was made they misdesigned it wrong, so it wasn't suitable for jellyfish." So there you have it. Eat at Long. But expect a little quirkiness on the side. And no jellyfish.
The host seemed very confused when I insisted that my reservation was for 3 and not 2. I had called only a few hours before. "A table for 3," I said. "Three?" "Yes, three." "Three?" "Right." So I don't really see how that got written down as 2. But, not a big deal. They offered us a "cozy, warm" table down in the Jelly Bar- it's where the bar is, and also where the jellyfish tank is. I said "That's sounds great. We'd love to see the jellyfish." He replied that there were currently no jellyfish. Ah, well, it's cozy and warm so we accepted the table. We walked across their beautiful restaurant to the steps leading down to the bar area. Suddenly it was too dark, with swimming pool tile floors and the scent of a urinal. Our table was in the corner with a lovely view of the empty jellyfish tank. It did not have that strong of an odor, so I let it go and we sat down. However, no sooner had we settled in our seats than we were asked to move so that the d.j. could set up in that corner. We were moved to the table closest to the urinal smell. Also right in the draft from a hidden door. To add to the ambiance, our fellow diners were a loud homeless man, and a drunk, shimmying transvestite.
I thought this warranted another move. Although our server said he was pretty sure the dining room was closed for the evening (it was 9:45 on a Friday night, after all!) he did manage to find us a table. Now that I think of it, our terrible table service probably was some sort of protest to us being moved there after the floor was closed. We sat with no food for a really long time, got no water refills and then had all of our food appear at the same moment. Hmmmm...
This really is more a review of the service rather than of the food. The food was spectacular and I will brave the service in the future so that I can eat the braised pork and coconut again. But I will show up before 9:30 so that I don't have to go to the Jelly Bar again! Oh, I almost forgot. We did ask our intermittent server what happened to the jellyfish. I thought maybe it was like the lobsters at Red Lobster and they had all been cooked to order. He told us, "When the take was tank was made they misdesigned it wrong, so it wasn't suitable for jellyfish." So there you have it. Eat at Long. But expect a little quirkiness on the side. And no jellyfish.
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