This place gets a lot of mixed reviews on the usual sites, but the majority of the complaints seem to be about the fried food items offered here. I can’t speak to those because I haven’t tried them (though, the friend who joined me had a salad roll and a deep fried spring roll and she really loved the spring roll), but I’m going to focus on accessibility and the food I have eaten here.
Things of note:
- Vietnam Village is in a strip mall with ample dedicated parking so it’s always easy to park fairly close.
- There are no stairs to deal with.
- The chairs are sturdy metal with padding and they don’t have arms. There are also padded booth-style seats along one wall. The tables and chairs can be moved as required.
- There are two single-room bathrooms and one of them is designated as wheelchair accessible.
- The staff is really friendly here.
From the outside the place is really unassuming but it’s bright and cheery inside.
Previously, I’ve ordered bahn mi from this place and took it to go. For those of you who live where really excellent banh mi is readily available (Vancouver, for example) will probably not be thrilled by the bahn mi here. It’s good, but it’s certainly not the best I’ve had. Kelowna is very limited in its bahn mi offerings.
That said, on this visit I ordered a pot of tea and their chicken coleslaw salad. It was absolutely bang-on! I will definitely be going back for this again and again. It’s shredded cabbage, carrots, and chicken with basil, mint, cilantro, fried onion, and peanuts in a sweet rice wine vinegar dressing. It was really crisp and fresh and the flavours were a wonderful combination. If you don’t like cilantro, or you have an allergy to peanuts, or you want them to leave any other ingredient out then they are happy to do so.
They also offer a number of vegetarian items and seem eager to do their best to cater to the needs of their customers. This salad, though, is going to keep me coming back!