Chelsea Cottage’s Viet Grill

I’ve been a loyal customer but only ordering from their delivery menu. Their food and selections is great, and until 2 years ago their prices were competitive and fair, but lately it seems they are increasing prices every 2 – 3 months. The last 3 times I’ve ordered for delivery, I asked «how much?» and the delivery person added$ 3-​$ 4 to the total. The last time I challenged him and ask for the check. He gave it to me reluctantly and right off I saw the total was actually $ 13.25 and not $ 17.25. I wanted to refuse the order but was hungry having waited 45 minutes for delivery. I told him I was onto his con and didn’t tip him. I immediately called to complain and basically was told there must have been a misunderstanding and got no apology. Other people in my building have experienced the same situation. I’m done with this place and plan to tell everyone I can how dishonest they are. DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS PLACE!

Worst food ever.
— chicken tasted like plastic.
— what they call corn soup was egg drop soup plus literally a piece of corn added to it
— dimsum was also very starchy
— delivery was late by 50 minutes and whenever I tried to cancel the order the restaurant hung up on me. Food was delivered cold.
I had one bite of each and threw all of them away. What a waste of money and horrible place this is. I wish I had read these reviews before ordering.

walked here from the meatpacking district, piss drunk in the freezing cold at 2am with a co-​worker after a company Christmas party, and from what i remember, it was the best place i have ever walked to in the freezing cold at 2am after a company christmas party…
i had the chicken and broccoli, 2 orders of wonton soup, multiple egg rolls, fried rice, and whatever else that adds up to $ 61. this place was awesome, and apparently dealt with my obnoxious drunk ass very well.
ill definitely be coming back here, 2am, 2pm, whenever…

Dried out chicken Banh Hoi, yuck. «Angel hair» noodles were matted down like a carpet and the whole nasty thing (along with some pretty gruesome fish soup) was delivered lukewarm. Mmmmmm, if you never see another review from me on Unilocal it’s because this concoction killed me. Omg.

I used to love this place– however last few take out time I have been getting messed up orders-​and as someone with gluten sensitivity– it’s not ok. Also– my vegetarian do it yourself meal last night– had a weird mushroom that turned out to be meat. Last strike I’m sorry to say — i can’t trust that kind of careless ness– makes me wonder what else is happening in the kitchen…

This place is rinky dinky and not fancy, but the grilled sliced pork, which was delivered to my office was hot and tender. They accomodated me when i requested the rice be switched for a salad and an egg roll for the soda. I am a pain with my food! It was delicious! Even the egg roll was hot and not «AS» greasy as i usually encounter in other takeouts. The flavor of the sliced pork was a blend of seasonings that was not overpowering to the taste pork has on its own with just salt and pepper. The prices are super great and the portions are very filling. I would have given them a 5 but they did not tell me the sauce on the salad had walnuts. I do have food allergies but not to walnuts. They should have asked me that first. Overall great food and hot!!! I mean like hot food :)

This place use to be good, now it’s disgusting and orders are delivered wrong. Too bad

Had some mei fun with chicken, very spicy and they prepared it very well. I also had some shrimp shumai. Very good and gluten-​y.
The place doesn’t look clean and the waiters are very attentive. If you want some quick Vietnamese or Chinese food, go for it.

We come here for Phở during lunch since it’s a quick walk from our office on 34^th street.
The phở isn’t bad at all! No complaints there.
Problems:
There’s a «B» health score, ouch!
The service is adequate, but not attentive.
The owner came by and offered me more noodles on the house, then the waitress charged us for said noodles. OK after much arguing they took it off. Then when we gave our credit card to pay they slipped that into the credit card charge. Unbelievable.
Phở — good!
Service — bad!

They have surprisingly good phở noodle soup. It feels quite authentic and is at least delicious. I would come here when I don’t feel going all the way down to Chinatown.
The staff when I came at night was nice. But I once came during the day, the staff was loud and curt. The woman taking orders on the phone was vicious to customers. That made me kind of nervous.
I really recommend the food though.

My best friend and me craved for Vietnamese coffee. So, we ordered two Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk. When, we got it, the coffee was even worst than Starbucks brew coffee. The menu even mentioned Viet. Style.
If you are craving for Vietnamese coffee around Chelsea area, just walked a few blocks away and I’m sure you will get better coffee than this.

In terms of what I consumed, I am only reviewing the hot Viet coffee with condensed milk. Their service is really friendly, but I did not like the front cashier-​woman. I realized after I left that she knowingly charged me extra and did not give me back my change.
The coffee was horridly bitter and did not taste good. I would highly not recommend ordering this; however their food is probably pretty good since it smelled really fragrant in the restaurant. Perhaps they are known for their food and not beverage items.

Ah, Chicken Bun, you are my favorite thing. I even liked the fish sauce until I learned it was fish sauce and then I got weirded out. Same thing happened to me for worcestershire sauce when I found out it had fermented anchovies. For the record.
I have never been to Chelsea Cottage itself but I liked to order from them. You get large portions and usually it is enough to make two meals out of. I consider this a step up from your typical Chinese take-​out place in terms of quality. It is not great across the board but certain dishes, like said Chicken Bun, are awesome, so stick with that!

I was here today with a friend and a friend of a friend today. One lives in New York my friend lives in DC. They both have been here before.
There is not much ambiance to speak of. They have both Vietnamese and Chinese food on the menu. I don’t know how authentic the Vietnamese food is.
I ordered the Squid with Lemongrass. It was served over what I can best describe as a mixed green salad and also came with choice of rice– I chose brown. The salad was bit of surprise but not as surprising as after taking a few bites of a cut up green vegetable in the salad, discovering it was jalapeño (or some other hot pepper) and not scallion. That’s ok I like spicy and I knew this would be spicy as it had that picture of a pepper next to the menu.
One of my lunch companions ordered sweet and sour pork and the other guy designed his own steamed dish with chicken, snow peas, spinach, and maybe some other vegetables with brown rice and black bean sauce on the side. I’m guessing he liked it because he ate most of it. Initially they forgot the chicken when it was brought out with the sweet and sour pork but that was quickly rectified. My food came out last and thankfully only because the server couldn’t carry the food for all three of us.

Can’t decide if you want Vietnamese or Chinese Food for delivery?
No worries, Chelsea Cottage & Viet Grill have both. Cheap fast delivery, two menu’s to choose from and generous portions, (i.e. everything you’d want from a place that delivers).
It’s not where you go, it’s what you order:
MUST TRY: one of their «Bun»
my favorite:
Grilled Beef & Spring Roll Bun:
Grilled Beef wrapped and rolled with Sauteed Onions, Fried Pork Spring Rolls, Julienne Papaya, Carrots, and Cucumbers, Lettuce, Bean Sprouts & Mint over a bed of vermicelli rice noodles
I haven’t been to the restaurant, but can say I order the Bun from here for delivery quite a bit. You’ll be pleasantly surprised. Four Stars for the Bun!

My boyfriend and I were on an Asian noodle binge, so we went to get some cheap phở in the neighborhood.
I first noticed something was wrong when we got lemon slices instead of limes. Eh? Then, when I got a small bowl of noodles, I wanted to ask the waiter where the rest of the phở was.
To be fair, the broth tasted okay, which was the most important part anyway. My biggest gripe is that I can get better phở than this in Durham, NC… and that is just wrong, people.

Fast, cheap, and mediocre. Wanted phở from a traditional viet place, but had a vegetarian friend that can’t eat anything at a traditional viet restaurant so the chinese angle is great if your party requires some culinary flexibility.
Moral of the story: If you want good phở or viet food, go to a real viet restaurant, if you want good chinese, go to a good chinese restaurant, if you need a little bit of both, this is not a bad option if you’re in the area.

Good service, decent food.
It’s nice that they have both chinese and vietnamese options.
The serving sizes were reasonable for the price. But overall it wasn’t a very memorable experience, and we probably won’t be back again.

They get points for delivering to us in lower midtown, but the food overall was very mediocre. The vermicelli bun dishes weren’t bad, although the dark meat grilled chicken was dry and not the best quality. The spring rolls were also very soggy and chewy. My coworker mentioned the summer rolls were great and the chicken satay dish looked fine.
For an impromptu delivery Vietnamese place, it’s not too bad, but really don’t see myself going back.

Years ago, this was just a Chinese restaurant; the Vietnamese angle works quite well too. Had one dinner there and it seems the basics are in the same category as the Chinese food here — you get a decent meal for the price.
Service was very attentive and fast. And here’s a big improvement — much nicer dishes than what this place had more than a decade ago…