Hạ Long Bay Restaurant 1353 Williamson Street, Madison, WI 53703

"Literally the best food I’ve had in a very long time!!! The potstickers were incredible and the blueberry rangoons are a can’t miss. Cole C was amazing, we’ll stop by anytime we’re in town!!!"

"The food was mostly all great. I did unfortunately get a soup that had all the squash skin as hard as drywall with the taste of chalk. I just had to remove it all from my soup. We got moved to a better table because of how much we ordered but other than that there wasn't much good service. We went on a weekend so I understand it's busy but we never got drink refills and we had to ask the waiter for dessert. I'd love to try more items here, but again, I wish the waiter would have been more helpful in helping with the selection of dishes or explaining them."

"This is a great place for authentic Vietnamese, Thai or Lao food. At lunchtime there might be a little bit of a wait to be seated. We try to arrive of dishes and found them to be delicious."

"Our first time here.. We walked in at 8pm and were surprised by how busy the place was. It seemed like a full house and very noisy. There was also a line in front of us waiting to be seated too.. We were greeted and asked to sign in and wait to be called. Finally, we were seated after waiting nearly 30 minutes. I guess that's not bad because I had waited longer at other places before.. Anyway, to make a long story short.. 1. Service was a bit slow. I wouldn't make it back to work in time if I came here on my lunch break. 2. Staff could use a bit more training on customer friendliness. A. Greet guests with genuine smiles, not fake.. lol. B. Check on customers more frequently. C. Don't be afraid to ask for customers their inputs, so you could make improvements 3. Food were OK only, not very strong flavor, too plain. 4. Unfortunately, I won't be returning because the food just doesn't quite meet my tastes. Good luck."

"We arrived at the restaurant for a late-lunch-early-dinner type meal at about 3:30 on a Sunday. The place was pretty busy, however, we did not have to wait for a table to be seated. They also appeared to have at least 3, maybe 4 servers during this shift, so it was very surprising that it took over 20 minutes for someone to come by our table to take our order. In fact, I had to ask a member of the cleaning crew to advise our server that we were ready to order. When they finally came, they were very friendly and professional. We put our order in, got the appetizer about 15 minutes later, and lo and behold, waited for the rest of our food for over 45 minutes.... I don't know if they forgot about us, or what happened... Nonetheless, they gracefully took care of this issue in the end, that is why I am still giving them four out of five stars. The Food: For an appetizer, we got Veggie Curry Puffs. They were shaped a bit like rangoons and tasted a lot like samosas, with a bit less flavor. The sweet sauce that accompanied them was tasty. Overall, an ok dish. For the main course we got Chicken Pad See Eew, which was PHENOMENAL! Honestly, the best I have ever tasted. The sauce was perfect, the noodles were great, the veggies fantastic. That was an iconic dish that I would recommend. Tom Kha Gai soup variation with noodles. The noodles were thin spaghetti-like, the flavor was good, but I think I like the traditional style better, with straw mushrooms. TI also feel that it did not have enough lemon grass and galanga root, because it was lacking these flavors. Also, the kaffir leaves were not too fresh. Massaman Chicken was also mediocre. Did not get enough peanut flavor, even though it had whole roasted peanuts in it, and I felt that it did not have sufficient red curry flavor, which is one of the main components of the dish. This one was a bit of a disappointment/ Finally, we tried Xao Thom with chicken, the first time having this dish, it was interesting. The chicken in it was really nice, battered and lightly fried. The pineapple pieces sweet and many. The sauce was good. Overall, a good dish. When we were leaving the restaurant around 5:10 pm, there were people waiting for tables. I don't know if they take reservations, but if you are planning on going there at these busier times, it's worth it giving them a call beforehand."