Review Sapa Rivers - Caulfield

I've been coming here for the past year and tried many things on the menu and each time the food is delicious. The staff are so accommodating and lovely and always put a smile on my face. Highly recommend this place to dine in to enjoy a beautiful atmosphere.

Went a Couple of years ago in the food was reasonably good. When did tonight and we were disappointed. Things have deteriorated. The noodle dish consisted of half cooked noodles. The sizzling Mongolian played The sizzling Mongolian Fish consisted of fish cooked in honey and little else. It was quite unpleasant. I wint upstairs to the toilets to wash my hands. The area's filthy and the carpets look like the Haven't been vacuumed for ages. The toilet area had an intense urine smell and it needed to be cleaned. It was disgusting.

We went ysaterday and 4 of us had a banquet for only $28 per person. We had to wait a while to take an order but as soon as order was taken the food started coming out and it was fresh, delicius and so much of it , that we could not finish it all! Loved it, highly recoomended.

On a dark, rainy day....a warm retreat, although rather quiet. Staff attentive, selection arrived promptly. Prices reasonable. BYO wine.

I was absolutely surprised by how good the food from this restaurant was ,as it was a place I had driven by a lot without ever noticing.The house favourite spicy salt and pepper fish was just delicious as was the spring rolls,satay chicken skewers ,the special fried rice.This establishment is truly a gem and after my first meal from here, i will certainly be frequenting it.Really Good Vietnamese .. Well I have now had my second meal from here and it was just as good as the first one last week..the food here is just the best Vietnamese that I have had in many a long year. I day it again, this is well worth the visit to dine in or takeaway..

Best Vietnamese in Melbourne.food is consistently fresh and delicious and very nice owners, do your self a favour and go.

Food is really really good here, I was really surprised. Very good value also. 5/5 from me.

Yep, food 5/10 service ok. Wouldn't rush back,but ok for quick bite.

A visit to Sapa Rivers ensures consistently good, tasty food and friendly service which is why the restaurant is so popular. The menu offers a choice of mainly Vietnamese and Thai dishes with the sizzling plates of food being the peoples choice when were were there!. Bun – Rice Vermicelli w/ Spring Rolls

Nice local place for a meal; in fact, we go there regularly (or did) for family dinners (up to 24 people) – and, yes, I wrote that for the benefit of the owner of Sapa River! However, tonight we ordered take away. <br/><br/>After we discovered that we had received the wrong item, we phoned Sapa River who refused to deliver the correct dish. When my brother drove to Sapa River, they wanted him to pay for it, or return the partially consumed and incorrect meal.<br/><br/>Needless to say, the ‘nice’ food is not worth overlooking the terrible customer service and disregard for the law.

Had good experiences here overall. We stick to our usual dishes of sizzling prawns/ scallops in garlic and ginger sauce, the calamari (to die for- you have to try it!), lemon chicken and spring rolls. Other dishes we have tried have been very average. The service is prompt and friendly. Recommended

I have read other reviews. We also found that there was confusion with orders and some things did not come out as ordered .. BUT the food is fresh and tasty. The Vietnamese pancakes are delicious as were the salt and pepper tofu balls. The bill $140 for 6. Fantastic! Persist with this one ...simply make your order clear and get waitress to repeat. We will absolutely be back.

This place has extremely POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE and TERRIBLE FOOD. The female owner of the restaurant is an arrogant and immensely rude individual that has zero care for customers. The place was dirty and the food was definitely below average for all our meals when we dined here. We also didn't receive our drinks that we ordered. I have heard similar reviews from numerous friends but we could not get into our regular restaurant on this occasion so gave them a try. What a mistake! I would NOT recommend this place to anybody. DO NOT EAT HERE!

Absolutly disguisting customer service. Do not eat at this place. They treat people like they are worthless and disregard dietry issues, blaming everything on the customer. The staff and owner argued with us about being wrong and not wanting to replace our meal that was inedible. They continually argued and made us pay for food that could not be eaten. Stay away from this disguisting place with the worst customer service i have ever seen.

Have visited this place a couple of times to try out different dishes. The salted fish fried rice is very good. Other dishes such as the pho and char grilled beef (looks more like a stir fried beef) are just ok, not terrible or outstanding. Bun is good with lots of fresh vegetables. Service is always prompt and friendly. Wouldn't mind to stopby here for a quick meal.

Great value local Vietnamese food. Some nights its very busy and sometimes its easy to get a table. The pho is great. Recommend also for take out with orders normally taking 10 min

We have been staying in the area for a month and have been to Sapa Rivers 3 times! Great variety of dishes, something to suit everyone in my family of 5 - fantastic spring rolls, rice paper rolls and pho. Family friendly atmosphere, the waitresses were lovely (even to a very rude lady sitting next to us last night). Highly recommend

My family ate (use the term loosely) here last Friday night, and to say it was a disaster is an understatement. We watched 4 tables walk out after waiting for an hour to get no food. Just after an hour we received our meals and let me tell you it was not worth the wait. We specifically ordered no garlic with our meals and when it arrived it clearly had garlic only to be told that it didn't. It was inedible!!! They then argued with me and refused any replacement or discount. The staff told me they where not authorised to give any discount....and the owner / manager was not contactable...what????? Anyway do yourself a favour, stay away from this place! Awful food, terrible service and staff who like arguing with customers!

Waited way to long for food , when it came it was not bad, but it's hard when we have young kids , the owner compensated some money off our meal , my brother that I was with would give them far less than 3 stars, , might be better on not such a busy night.

Slow. Dry chicken. Little attention. Garlic and ginger prawns lacking. Noisy. Not happy.<br/>Go to victoria st for vietnamese...don't bother with this place. Not impressed.

Lovely place, great service, and good food.<br/>Ambiance was very nice and pleasant. Ordered stuff chicken wings for starters, was very oily. Had to try the excess oil with the tissue, but it went really well with sweet chilli sauce, for main ordered rice with chicken and spring rolls ( forgot the name), and for desert had ordered deep fried banana with vanilla ice cream, with drizzle of honey, well the most amazing fried banana I ever had.<br/>Value for money, will go back again.

Nice place but a little noisy. Prices are a little more than normal for Vietnamese food but food was tasty.<br/>Rice paper rolls were lovely and fresh as we're the spring rolls.<br/>The rare beef pho was a little on the more noodles than anything else but the broth was tasty.<br/>The vermicelli decent but a little on the small side and overpriced as we asked for grilled pork which was not on the menu.

This little Vietnamese place is not bad for a little local restaurant and is most likely a sister restaurant of the not too distant Saigon hut in Elsternwick. The food is decently priced and they also do deliveries. The beef phó is actually traditional and is probably one of the best beef phó's you will find in Melbourne!

Sapa Rivers is one of our local favourites consistently delivering good service and food. Tonight the table ordered two Pho's, Lemongrass & Chilli Lamb and Sweet & Sour Prawns. Unfortunately we received Sweet & Sour Pork. To their credit they replaced the meal fairly quickly. We will return but next time we will ask the waitress to repeat the order.

This place has good food and nice staff buts still, it has its faults. The noise is unbelievable and worst of all, (dramatic pause) the staff don't listen to your order. We've done some delivered takeaway and we got the wrong order. This day we got green curry instead of red curry. Other than that the food was really quite good.<br/>-Matthews son

absurd $3 delivery! $35 minimum delivery! greasy noodles! speaking english seems to be a struggle for most of the staff! would not go back!!

Rude attitude. Food was brought out very quickly - which was great. However attitude by older male waiter was rude. He seemed annoyed that I wanted to order more food ! I went as a mother with a 3, 2 and 1 year old child with a pram and initially we were the only customers in restaurant at lunchtime and I felt like I was an annoying nuisance. I agree there is more work to clean up after kids, but that is why I eat out, so mum can have a break from meal cooking and cleaning up. My children were all well behaved. I felt like I was seen as a too hard customer as it easier to deal with adults- but we were all kids and a restaurant needs to cater for all people in the community. Hospitality is about being hospitable, and feeling welcomed - but disappointingly I felt the opposite. Maybe it was just that waiter- I don't know about other staff.<br/>Rice paper rolls used western mint leaves and not authentic Vietnamese mint. Chicken dish was tasty.<br/>I'm not going back, I'll find some where else.

Veggie Laksa. Beautiful coconut based spicy and flavourful laksa soup with egg noodles, veggies and tofu. The perfect meal!

Not sure.... We went for dinner after being recommended by friends. Service was friendly though very casual. The wine list was not great and we ordered prawn rice paper rolls which were really fresh and lovely, sauce was watery with these though. We also got the quail entrée which was very tasty. Then we ordered sizzling squid which was extremely light on and a chicken dish which was very generous and very tasty, though the rice under the chicken was very, very old and dry, enough to make you worry about its safety, which is a shame given how easy and quick fresh rice is. Overall it was ok but I wouldn't go back.

Food good but service terrible when busy and very noisy. Best to go on a quiet night.

Nice but don't go if you have any special dietary requirements!. I have been to this restaurant twice now. The first time I went with a few girlfriends. For the most part the food is nice. However if you need to make any adjustments to any of the dishes or have any special requests, don't bother even asking. The manager is so unaccommodating. I was there with my young daughter early on Friday night (6pm) so there were only three tables of guests. I asked if I could have the entrée sized wonton soup with noodles instead of wontons. That's it. How easy is that? I was told in no uncertain terms that that was impossible and they were too busy. Really? My daughter was almost in tears. So I was forced to order the large bowl of noodle soup (with the crispy chicken on the side which they did agree to) and it was full of all manner of things my daughter wouldn't eat. So I had to take the noodles out of the large bowl and transfer them to the small bowl (that's on the table) making a grand mess whilst doing so. But why couldn't the staff have just done that? By the way, the crispy chicken served in the noodle soup is awful. It has large chunky bones in it so really hard to eat when in a soup! I asked the staff to pack the rest of the soup up for me to take away so I could at least eat it the following day. When I got outside I found all of the soup had leaked out of the take away container into the bag. Total waste of money because they were "too busy" to meet a simple request. Even when I was there with my girlfriends we asked if one of the dishes could be served less spicy and that just wasn't possible either. So if you're okay eating the food exactly as is on the menu, the food is good. The service is severely lacking. The restaurant does get busy and I understand that puts pressure on staff but the attitude displayed by some of the staff is unacceptable. I won't go back on that basis even though it would be convenient given its proximity to my home.

A Pleasant Surprise. The family and I went for the first time today for an early Sunday evening dinner and were extremely pleased we did. A very no nonsense looking place, a little too bright maybe but certainly comfortable and clean. We ordered several dishes and they came one by one all hot, all delicious and a real mix of spices and flavours. Top dish was the the stable dish of Pad Thai. A real cracker! The Peking duck was juicy and fresh and the papaya prawn salad wonderfully clean and spicy.<br/><br/>A real local winner

Ridiculous surcharge for paying credit card. What's worse is that I paid eftpos and they still charged me. Said they didn't have another option on their machine. Unlikely.

Green Papaya Salad with Prawns. Amazing fresh summer salad

Great find but they wanted us gone!. First time at Sapa Rivers last night with three friends. Food and service great, price reasonable but they gave us the bill as soon as we finished main course. We had to ask if they were closing or could we have dessert. Then as we were finishing, they had stacked all the chairs on top of the tables around us. It was only 10.30pm! Will come back but perhaps should come earlier so the staff can get home!

Big Hank. Some wonderful Vietnamese tastes and flavours with very attentive service. Place really packed out with a great atmosphere, signs of a popular place. In taking a hungry family, serves are on the small size and better value would be considered with larger portions... look forward to making it a regular close to home.

At last! Authentic Vietnamese comes to Elsternwick!. For 20 years years we have been travelling to Richmond for authentic Vietnamese food! Sapa River hits the right spot. Clean fresh flavones, quick service and reasonable prices. I'm a bit embarrassed. To say we've been twice a week since it opened. Excellent!

Very Disappointing Pho - unattentive service and not authentic Vietnamise at all. Toilets were filthy. Spring rolls and prawn crackers were ok.

I'll be back. Great food, nice atmosphere, good service, good price, what more could you want.

Excellent!. Even if very busy on Friday night, we ordered and did not have to wait long to be served by the 5 very attentive and kind waiting staff. The food was delicious and VERY FRESH. Possibly the best Vietnamese duck salad I ever had, during my many years of worldwide travelling. Perfectly cooked scallops in satay sauce. I definitely recommend this restaurant.

A one hour wait to receive entree of sweet corn soup .Unacceptable.Will not return .Will continue to go to Victoria street Richmond.

Awesome to have a Vietnamese place so close by. I got the green papaya salad with prawns takeaway. It was absolutely delicious! BUT $19.80 for a little bowl is way too much. They either need to double their serving so it can be a share dish or take it down to $15 then I'll be back and recommend to friends.

Very noisy and slow service. It took over a hour to receive entree. Very squashy and was required to stand up when others departed. Food was ok but small servings.

Real Vietnamese food is back on Glenhuntly Road! I missed Saigon Palace when it went. Now I don't have to drive to Pho Hoang in Springvale for a fix that is on par, the Beef was much better at Sapa Rivers BTW, 1 criticism - put some fried Garlic & Shallotts on top of the Pho. I love Broken Rice & it's spot on here too. The staff were very attentive. If you like real Vietnamese food get in there & give it a crack, you'll be back! The restaurant decor & location reflect the slightly elevated prices compared to some good Vietnamese restaurants in Springvale & Richmond. This restaurant is going to kick on & flourish if it remains consistent. I hope so - I need very good Pho & Broken Rice within walking distance from home. Enjoy the clean, crisp, fresh, crispy & very tasty flavours of SR. FEAST!

Just opened today and we had a really fresh tasty meal, this vietnamese is fantastic . We will be back next week !