Hạ Long Bay Restaurant in Madison

Great food and service - definitely a hopping place, always busy but the wait wasnt too bad. Parking can be a pain..They also have a great Carryout service!

First time experience. Food was really good. I didnt have an expectation. Glad I was open to try new things. Arrived there waited for a friend. Brought water right away. Nice waiter. Gave great recommendations on things to try. Little rough to park.

Only our second time here, and it was as delicious as the first! It has become an automatic stop for visiting Madison!

This is one of the only restaurants in Madison, Wisconsin that is worth your time. Trust me. The beef pho is wonderful, and I really enjoy the mango curry with tofu or chicken. I love supporting this local business and would wait hours to eat it. What an incredible find!

The worst waitstaff I have ever encountered in my life. When asking about the food order status after 1 hour and 20 minute wait, our waiter deflected and blamed us instead of just owning whatever the issue was. Whether it was due to his own forgetfulness or a kitchen issue, a simple apology, a smile, and maybe offering a dessert would have helped the situation. Manager, please train your staff some manners, customer service, and proper etiquette. Blaming the customer and using profanity hurts your business.

Weve ordered from HLB since it opened because its really good. Pretty much energy everything. Pan fried chicken dumplings and spicy chicken wings are especially awesome, as is the pho, curries, pad thai, it is all fantastic. Take-out can have its challenges. Ive re-dialed 70x before I got through to order. The queue for taking the take-out can be long and mildly chaotic and the food is never ready when they say. Add like 15 minutes at least. Items have been missing from orders on numerous occasions so best to check the bag before leaving. Parking is minimal and that can mean parking along the side street & using hazard lights because parking is not allowed. The only issue is if dude who lives across the street sees you; he will tell you off while he calls the police. It has happened only once of many times so risk is low. The food is for sure amazing to endure the aforementioned hassles in getting it.

My food was absolutely delicious, and the service was wonderful as well! Im not from the area, so I didnt know what to order. My server suggested the sesame chicken, which was fantastic. The spicy wonton were excellent also. I would highly recommend to anyone coming in to town and craving Asian food.

Stopped here for lunch while in Madison today. LOVE this area! Lots of cool old shops and restaurants. I always try to shop locally owned before the chains. I got a delicious Vietnamese stir fry (would have tried the pho but it was too hot out todayand my partner tried pad Thai. Also had shrimp spring rolls for an appetizer - all of it was very good. They have a very large menu which should have something to please most diners.Its housed in an interesting old building too. So many great businesses in older buildings in this area. I forgot to take pics because we were so hungry and needed to get on our way. Definitely recommended.

Vegan and vegetarian options amazing. I’ve never had such good pho!! Also, this boba is so soft it must be homemade. Our sever was very kind and helpful. Quiet enough to hear each other at a 6 person table, but it was busy since it’s SUCH GOOD FOOD!!

Ha Long Bay is just a tad above mediocre overall. granted, the food is decently good. Unfortunately the foods quality is overshadowed by the extreme lack of genuine service and ludicrous waiting times. At the time we came in, it was at 20% capacity with no one in line for takeout and from the moment we were seated to when we got our food (which was 2 bowls of Phoit took about an hour to get our meals. The waiters show little care in service and in my experience after coming here a few times, makes this place feel less like a genuine experience and more like a get and get out mentality. Id rate the service a 3.5/10, the food 6/10, and the atmosphere a 7/10. I hope this place can improve in the near future.

Very busy place, if you are interested in eating here, I recomend getting a reservation. Although the wait time wasnt that bad.The Crab Rangoons were good. Not served with the traditional sweet and sour but still worth it!The curry is in a very liquid form. I tend to like mine a bit more creamy. But still decent.Overall, it was decent and the staff was friendly.Fairly cheap too.

We have been here 3 times in the past 5 years and LOVE IT!There is usually a wait when we come but its totally worth it. Service is fast and always on point.Never had anything i wouldnt order again.Wish I didnt live 90 miles away.

Meh. Been here twice. Its ok, but not sure why the restaurant is so busy. The fried dumplings were overcooked and tasted burned the first time we visited. We got the steamed dumplings the second time and they were delicious.Entrees were inconsistent with the spice lacking on one. Service is slow. So again, meh. There are better places in town for these cuisines.

Always so delicious, firefly made and service is wonderful. Everyone is working so hard. Very friendly despite very busy times like Friday night.Keep in mind that portions are more than generous. One dish easily can feed two people.

Four of us went to dinner there. It was very busy, and it took a long time to get our order brought to us. However, the food was well worth the wait. All of it was fantastic, from the duck pho to the Laotian pork dish, to the sticky rice for dessert.

Delicious Thai, Vietnamese, and Laotian cuisine. The squash curry and Thai bubble tea really hit the spot. Staff are courteous and helpful. So happy to have this place in Madison!

A Friday night was so disappointing. This place was highly recommend both by conversations and reviews.Staff wasn’t friendlyIt took a long time for food to come outThe whole restaurant was very smoky from fried foodsVeggies in one of our curry dishes were clearly frozen veggies added (the soggy-ness and texture)Ordered medium spice but had very little flavorThe sticky rice was very staleThe hot tea was cheap and did not brew wellMaybe we caught them on a bad night but I don’t think we would come back.

It’s truly sad to see the hands down most authentic southeast Asian food in Madison’s reputation get destroyed because one or two team members shows no respect to people that supports this restaurant.I strongly suggest the manager asking all the servers to wear a name tag so when people report reviews on our experiences we don’t harm the kind and thoughtful servers that is keeping this restaurant going.

The environment is so noisy and loud. We can barely hear each other while having dinner here. The waiting time is extremely long. And the food.. is terrible. We ordered four entrees, one salad, one dessert. Only one entree — the drunken noodles is good. The salad has a weird smell of socks. The Tom Yum soup is so salty and basically just soy sauce soup… The Tom kha soup and curry are just mediocre… come on, isn’t this a South East Asian restaurant?? And the dessert.. I don’t know how on earth sticky rice with mango can go wrong… and the mango is not even Asian mango… smells bad.. and the sticky rice is sour and just not right at all. I highly suggest not coming to this restaurant. You can definitely find better Thai restaurant in Madison (though Madison does not really have good Thai restaurants)

Have always loved the food here. Mango curry especially. Went tonight about 6:30. Didn’t seat until shortly after 7 - I get it. Busy….. but we were missed in queue and had to ask to be seated after they sat a group that arrived after us. They made it right but then it took 20 minutes to get a server to the table - with others who sat after us placing orders and receiving food. At about an hour in, we got our apps. At an hour and 45, we just asked for the food to go. Clearly they were busy but there was a house full of staff. I’m sensitive to staffing issues but for some reason, our table fell off the grid with the staff while others received prompt attention. It’s sad, this has traditionally been a phenomenal place to eat. What didn’t help was getting home to find out one of the orders ended up being half the amount of food it should have been compared to another order in the bag. Disappointing and an expensive experience.

The food here is amazing. But the state of the restaurant is sad when it takes almost 2 hours to get your entrees. I’m sensitive to staffing challenges but 2 hours and the restaurant is full of staff and customers… it didn’t make sense. I wish they would have told me that there was an exhaustive wait up front. I’d have respect for anyone giving honest expectations. We ended up asking for our food to go. Got home and the portions weren’t consistent - one container was half full against another that was almost full. Just sad - such a great place that is being mismanaged.

This place has been a long-standing favorite but we went to eat here on Monday and something has definitely changed. Service was absolutely horrific and no one looked like they were having a good time working there. It was busy but not super packed like usual. Burned out lights in the ceiling, peeling paint on the walls and an overall dirty look. To be fair it was never the cleanest place but now it just feels grungy and gross. How hard is it to clean fans (I swear the fan in the Mens bathroom is categorized as a living creatureand replace light bulbs in the dining room?? There was a previous review just posted about the atmosphere being “cool & comfortable” and I think they were reviewing the wrong place because that just isn’t true. Dirty and loud - yes, most definitely!The food always used to be amazing, but something about our fried rice and Pad See Ew tasted “off” and I ended up with food poisoning after eating it and over 24 hours later I’m still not recovered. (And yes, I am positive it came from this restaurantThe pho that a friend had was passable at best, and the spring rolls were terrible and shouldn’t have been served. Very sad to see everything here slipping. There are much better places for Thai food in Madison. We won’t be back any time soon!

I ordered lunch take out. The Pad Thai and cucumber salad was delicious! I love that you can customize the spice level. Fair lunch menu prices and friendly/timely service. Call ahead if you want to avoid a wait, they get busy.

Usually pretty good. This time around ordered pad Thai with no egg. Was told by the front person there is no egg in pad Thai... pad Thai came with egg. My spring rolls were wrapped so poorly, they were falling apart. The sprouts in them were brown and old. Really unpleasantly surprised

Wife and I enjoyed our meals. I had the drunken noodles (DNw/ chicken, and she had the Suki-Nam soup with tofu. The only other place in Madison Ive gotten DN from has been Monsoon Siam, takeout, but having these DNs in house at HLB was definitely a cut above.I confirmed with my Asian server that when they say 4/4 spice level, thats still geared toward American tastes, not Thai/Vietnamese, and therefore would not utterly destroy my mouth (he confessed with a smile that when he orders from his own place of work, hed get a "level seven" spice which is not listed in the menu)4/4 was a great balance to combine pleasant spiciness with me still being able to discern other flavors, too. The broccoli was still tender-crisp, the noodles were au dente and not overly soft, and there wasnt too much sauce pooling at the bottom of the bowl.Their prices are still very good, Im surprised theyre able to keep them this low these days.

Delicious! They accommodated a gluten sensitivity. The dishes were well prepared and well seasoned. Thai Boba tea was great. Service was exemplary. Theyre an extremely popular little restaurant, we learned, but they did a great job getting us seated almost right away and the food came so quickly. Great vegetarian options! Very reasonable!

Great food selection and after 5 visits every dish has been great! But my bud had a flashback one lunch, from his tunnel rat days in nam. He started yelling "you want me?? F** off! Ill kill you and your whole family!!!" The waitstaff was calm and simply led him out side. He broke a window at Amoco and army-crawled home. Good atmosphere too!

My parents and I got takeout from Ha Long Bay last night, and we were not disappointed! I got the Bahn Mi with the sautéed tofu. I also got the first curry with tofu! it was delicious with all the flavors in it. My dad got the classic Pad Thai, and my mom got the mock duck dish! We loved everything we got, and we are definitely going to get takeout here again. We can see why this is a Madison East side location staple for food.

Delicious Thai food. Lots of vegetarian choices. Very noisy. Dishes can be made at several levels of spicy, from mild to extra hot.i got my Curry mild but would get medium next time.

more like ha long slay! always so good & such an expansive menu, a madison classic!

Ha Long Bay Restaurant is not your standard corner asian restaurant. Very diverse menu, and had the pleasure of dining in for Fathers Day. This came as a highly recommended Vietnamese, Thai and Laotian cuisine. The service and drinks are stellar, with domestic beers and Imports stealing the show. Try a Singha or Capital Amber if youre not a local. Definitely cold, refreshing and tasty Our table started with Chicken Dumplings, Vegetarian Samosas and Spicy Potstickers, all flavorful and light. Entrees were Bahn Mis, Curry, Fried Fish, Noodles and the Vietnamese fried rice. Those who enjoy family style or on a budget will enjoy their portions which are large enough to share. The kitchen staff really knows their flavors and was told about a visit from Andrew Zimmer... a picture of which hangs on the wall. The family is very proud of their recipes and Ha Long Bay Restaurant really delivers great Asian at welcome prices.

I enjoyed my lunch here but I dont think Id go back and Im not sure why its so popular, though I assume its simply because of the fact that its downtown which makes it accessible to all of the college kids. No matter the reason, its a busy place thats also small which means it can be loud, hard to find parking, and difficult to get a table or even place an order over the phone sometimes.The first time I came here was on a Saturday around 7pm - I went in because I called three times and it was either busy or they didnt answer, but they were packed and there were 3-4 people waiting to order in front of me plus more people piling in the door so I decided to leave. I went again today around 3pm and there were only a couple of tables taken so I was able to get in fast and find good parking (I recommend the free lot beside the St. Vincent De Paul Store).The Thai spring rolls are huge and they taste great (despite having cilantro which tastes like soap to meplus the lime water is wonderful, so no complaints there! As for the pho, it was good but Ive certainly had better broths and the beef meatballs had a bit too much fat for my liking. They were out of guava juice which was a bummer, but my waiter was very friendly/helpful and did a good job of checking in without hovering.

Wow!!! Amazing food. This is a MUST visit when in Madison. So many layers to the flavors in their dishes.

What a joke! Waste of time and poor service. Seated for an hour and no food. Couldnt get the servers attention at all. When we asked where our food was he said only one Lao station. Tables that came in 2 or 3 after had already gotten apps and some food. Paid for our drinks and left. Had high hopes and left super disappointed.

The food was great. Need to come back. We had a group of 10, and they handled it well. The server was nice, and the food was worth out wait. I have a couple dishes I want to come back to try.

We hadn’t had Thai food in a while and this place came highly regarded as one of if not the best in Madison. It was good food, but I’ve certainly had better. The locals clearly love it, as evidenced by the number of dine in patrons and those picking up take our orders. The menu is extensive, as they serve a variety of Thai, Vietnamese and Laotian dishes. You will certainly have a tough time deciding what to get. Eclectic little place in an eclectic neighborhood on “Willy St.” All in all, not a disappointment.

This is the top rate Thai and Vietnam restaurant in Madison. I thought we were going to have a nice dinner there. Unfortunately, we were disappointed. First of all, we have to wait about half an hour to get our food. The pho is good I have to say that. The bobble milk tea is ok. Taste light also the babble is too big to draw. Secondly, I was asking the server to boil the bean sprouts and he told me he can’t do it. I always ask others to do it and I don’t understand why only this restaurant can’t do it for me. Eventually, we have to leave early because of the strong smell of smoke around the restaurant.

Ive had takeout from Ha Long Bay multiple times prior to tonights visit, and it was always super good and the customer service with pick up was great. However, today I went to eat in for the first time and found my experience very disappointing. Once seated, the hostess said shed return with water. She never returned, which is understandable--it was busy. However, we saw her and multiple wait staff service other tables around us for about an hour prior to someone finally acknowledging us. We were never given water--and yes we could have asked, but after waiting for an hour, watching customers who were seated after us eat their meals, we no longer cared and just wanted to order and eat.The food was good as usual. However, I still dont understand how several waiters (including the one who finally asked us for our order an hour after being seatedwalked passed us to other tables (who againwere seated after us, and didnt even acknowledge us. When the waiter finally came to our table, he didnt even ask if we wanted drinks. He just took out his note pad and prompted for our food orders. We were not even given a drink menu.Again, I normally wouldnt pay too much attention to this, but the table next to us was seated and helped within 5 minutes (I timed it), and they were asked if theyd like anything to drink as usual prior to the waiter returning for their food order. We not only waited over an hour, but we were never given water and our orders were taken hastily.

Vietnamese food doesnt tend to be my favorite cuisine. I dont necessarily dislike it, but I dont particularly go out of my way to seek it out. However, this place blew me away with how good their food was. I never expected to like it anywhere near as much as I did. Absolutely delicious and the waitstaff were super friendly as well.

The food is delicious. They have a big menu, so check it out online before you go. The employees are so friendly and are too happy to recommend a dish.

This place is awesome. Great food and service. We drive 40 minutes just for this special place.

A very busy place but great staff to handle the hustle and bustle. Love the Pad se ew, papaya salad and many more dishes there. Dont forget a green or red Thai iced tea! Yummy

This is one of my favorite restaurants in Madison! The service is always great and the food is very good! I got the chicken yellow curry spice level was hot 5/5, my mom ordered the shrimp drunken noodles which are so good! 5/5. I also order the veggie curry puffs which if I could, I would eat 20 of them in one sitting 5/5. The menu is huge so there is something for everyone. Parking is always a pain but I don’t mind parking far for amazing food!

We dined in on a Thursday afternoon and we were immediately turned off by the smokiness of the room when we walked in (we left smelling like fried food)We ordered AP9, PH6, BM2, and L8. I was excited to try a cup of tom yum soup with my lunch special but they ran out so I had a sweet & sour soup, which was only ok.AP9 - Spicy wontons was delicious and tasted similar to the S&S soupPH6 - my partner had pho and he needed to request for hoisin, siriacha and fish sauce to add to more flavorBM2 - we ordered a pâté banh mí to goL8 - pad see ew (spice level: hotwas DELICIOUSBring cash to get a 5% discount on your order (this saves the restaurant from the fee of card transactions)

Pho was ok but pad thai didnt taste right... They added too much ketchup. Also ordered coconut rice with mango, the worst dish I have had...

An all time Madison fav. Love the thom yum the most but it’s impossible to go wrong. Also the first place I’ve ever seen a Thai iced tea with boba in it, which I was really into. Food came quickly, staff was warm and friendly, and they expect most folks will have leftovers to take home, so making the rest of your order to-go is super easy.

Best Thai place in town!!!This place is an old favorite!! The food never disappoints. Serving authentic Thai food that is just bursting with flavors.Stopped in for a quick lunch today and loved everything we ordered. The service was quick and the portions were huge.We had the:TN4 Pad Kee Mao – Drunken NoodlesL1 Gà Xào DònL5 Xào Hột Điều – Sautéed CashewsAP15 Chicken Satay (4)Highly recommend this place on repeat. 10/10

Every dish here is BURSTING with flavor. I had my eye on this place for a while and finally was in the area to give it a try the other day. Incredible food, and if you like it hot, they do an impeccable job balancing that with the natural flavor of each menu item. I will certainly be a repeat customer and would love to dine in sometime in the future - the inside is very welcoming! Friendly front end staff as well.

Im new to Madison and this was one of my first food stops here. Definitely loved the food and highly recommend the pad see ew. The customer service was great and the place was packed at peak hours even on a weekday. Im definitely coming back!

Excellent food! Best Thai Ive ever had! Authentic, family run place in a great neighborhood. Good prices. We got take out at a peak time on Memorial Day and the wait for our food was a good 30-40 minutes, they were busy!