Va Va Voom Cafe - The Vietnamese Concept (Updated)

I met the girls for dinner on Friday night. Despite a miscommunication on the location, I finally made it, found the place. It is on Seah Street, next to Raffles Hotel. It was the first time I went to va va voom cafe, I never even realized it existed in the first place. Thanks to Livia for introducing it to us.

























We shared the grilled chicken salad and the chicken wings. They were very good. The salad tasted a bit like coleslaw because of the shredded cabbage. The dressing is tangy sweet, very refreshing. Very fresh and crunchy salad we had. The chicken wings were well marinated, and the flavor permeated through to the meat. It had a bit of sweetness, which could be sugar. Really nice!

I decided not to order my usual boring pho bo (beef noodle soup) and ordered the beef stew in claypot. There were some spices in it, giving it a wholesome flavor. The beef cubes were tender, but not those melt in your mouth type. The stew was more watery than I expected, making it more like a soup rather than a thick gravy.


Livia had the grilled pork chop with meat pudding. I would say her main was the star of the evening! The pork chop was so tender and bursting with juices and flavor, that even me, a non-pork eater liked it. The meat pudding was quite puny in serving, but it was good too. It tasted like the filling of a spring roll.

Would like to go back there again to try the pho bo. Davis ordered that, and it looked pretty alright, quite standard.

No contact details as I didn't flinch a business card. But it is cash/NETS payment only. Oh yeah, the prices were low, making it very affordable. Less than $10 for a main.

Update:
I went again a few days back with Livia and Davis. We sat at the same place again. Ordered the pho bo this time. It was nice, but a bit salty for me. Maybe there is MSG in it. We shared the mango salad which was good too.

However, I have decided I won't ever go back again. Why?
I was quite turned off by one waitress's attitude. I ordered at the counter and while making payment, I asked her if she could serve us iced TAP water too. She replied they do not serve tap water at all as there is no service charge or GST charge. Let me paraphrase the entire convo:

C: Could you serve us iced water too?
W: Oh, no. We do not serve iced water at all as we do not charge GST or service charge
C: Oh, is this a new policy which just started?
W: No, it has always been our policy.
C: But I was here just 1-2 weeks ago, and I distinctly remembered being served iced water. (Now, this is true. We ordered other drinks too, but also requested iced water. Plus, I remembered how helpful the other server was. She actually came out with a jug and asked if we want to top up out water glass. We declined as we were leaving soon.)
W: Oh no. Who served the iced water? In the 4 months I have been here, we never served iced water.
C: I don't remember the person who served us.
W: Well, we just do not served iced water.

I was quite pissed off with her attitude, doubting my words and emphasizing the fact she has been there for 4 months and it never happened. I would be fine if she said, oh it is a new policy or something. I took umbrage with her insinuation that I lied and just wanted iced water. We also did order drinks (lemongrass drink and I had the plum with lime soda drink, just as I did the previous time as I liked that).

This is really POOR SERVICE from the waitress and a bad move from the management. To do this so soon after the heel of the report in the dailies about restaurants charging astronomical sum for water. Some restaurants charge $6-$12 for a bottle of water, but those are usually from the fine dining restaurants, and they do serve tap water if requested.

Other smaller eateries (but much bigger than this cafe) which are chain-restaurants also charge between $1-$5 for water and they do not served tap water at all. And this information is stated upfront on a tent card on the table.

It drew flack from many people, especially at those restaurants' operators reasoning. They said they have to charge for tap water to reduce the cost of manpower. That the waiters spend the time topping up water for non-paying customers (as in people who occupied the table for 2-3 hours, long after they finished their food). While I agree that there are some people who will just take a table and stay there for hours without ordering anything but just keep requesting for water top-up, and those people should be charged. They should not charge diners for water when they have ordered food. It is ridiculous.

Sometimes people do need to drink water to cleanse the palate or if not feeling well and can't take other beverage. It is just so wrong. I just feel that some restaurants are just jumping onto this bandwagon to make a few quick bucks.

Certain outlets do see many people occupying the tables without ordering more food, but not all outlets have that sort of clientele. I can understand why Coffee Club outside Orchard California Fitness charges $1.50 for a small bottle of Evian. It is a 24hr outlet and that location attracts many teenagers who spend hours there just chit-chatting or studying. It is a prime location, and this could affect their business if they do not have spare tables for people who want to eat there. And kudos to Coffee Club for not taking advantage of this reasoning to charge for water at all its other outlets. I dine there often enough and do not mind paying the $1.50 for water. While I don't necessarily like it, there is a legitimate reason for it. Plus they are serving Evian at relatively about the same price as what you would pay for in supermarket.

Now Secret Recipe charges $0.50 for a tiny housebrand bottle of water (3 huge sips and it's gone). I don't find that justifiable at all. The chain of cafes is usually located in shopping malls, so they operate at mall's hours and while it might be full during meal times, it is not overly crowded at all. And I find it nonsense when they said they save time by not serving water as they do not have to wash the glasses. BUT when they served the paid water, it is also served with glasses.

So what can consumers do? Boycott places where you think is out to pull a fast one.