Tripadvisor is dodgy and Trung Tuyet in Ninh Binh is not THE BEST FOOD IN VIETNAM OMG

Something is up with Tripadvisor. Can we really trust it to list us the best restaurants/hotels/whatever? I believe the answer is no.

Four weeks ago I wrote three restaurant reviews. The second one I wrote was for Trung Tuyet, the number 2 restaurant in Ninh Binh on Tripadvisor. The first and third reviews got published almost a few days after, my Trung Tuyet review was pending for weeks. It got published a week ago but with many other five star reviews published directly after it – so my review was never on top for everyone to see. It is now on the second page of reviews. I have a feeling that Tripadvisor has an interest in keeping this restaurant at the top. I gave it three stars, so not a poor score, but my review does not praise the food, like most of the others.

This is my review:

“Nothing special – definitely overrated”

I honestly don’t know why this restaurant has rave reviews. I am from a Vietnamese family so grew up with home cooked Vietnamese food. The dishes on the menu are nothing special – I ordered the fried noodles and egg and the noodles were just normal instant noodles.

The portion was huge and the waitress was nice, but apart from that, I don’t see the hype around this restaurant. We decided to come here because it was recommended by Lonely Planet and we regretted falling into this tourist trap.

Anyway, the point of this post is to say that I don’t trust Tripadvisor and that Trung Tuyet should really not be praised as much as it is, and I really doubt it is a top three restaurant in Ninh Binh, let alone serve the best food in Vietnam like a few of its reviewers claims.

Food in Ninh Binh kinda sucks, you really don’t have many options there. Most restaurants just offer the same dishes (fried rice with beef, fried rice with chicken, fried rice with pork, fried rice with egg, fried noodle with beef… you get the point) and Trung Tuyet is no exception. I feel sorry for all these other restaurants that don’t get customers because Trung Tuyet has such hype around it which it doesn’t deserve. Like I mentioned in my review, we went there because we thought we’d check out Lonely Planet’s recommendation (the first out of two restaurants listed) and yes, we regretted it. So if you’re looking for a great place to eat in Ninh Binh, don’t get your hopes up. Just go to any random restaurant (we actually got some pretty good pho and fried rice from a place next to Ngoc Anh Hotel on  Lương Văn Tụy) and you’re likely to get something just as good as Trung Tuyet or better. 😉