Review Annam - Wellington

I was visiting my family in Wellington and we all wanted to get together for a late evening meal ! This restaurant stayed open late to accommodate us ! Not only was the service spot on, but the food was fresh and delicious! The server custom designed my meal for me because I was tired from travel I couldn't decide ! So they whipped up a special plate just for me ! The ambience was warm, however, the food and great service was superb ! Hello from the USA 🇺🇸 cheers Nikki

Fresh and delicious only begins to describe the quality of food here, hands down the best main in Wellington yet. Those who say the wait time is poor just don't appreciate the amount of time perfection and quality takes. 10/10 and would recommend

Describe our evening at Arbitrageur: well, I'd say it's a beautiful and busy restaurant with a very impressive wine list. Loved the Duck Leg main with lentils and root veges. Delicious! Recommend 5 star.

Great restaurant with delicious food and friendly service. Great selection of Vietnamese inspired dishes. These are a gourmet interpretation of the originals and are still quite tasty. But don't expect authentic Vietnamese food

I've only been here once but everything was INCREDIBLE! The service was magnificent... the food was fast and some of the BEST I've had (After Salute' in Greytown) and the waitress/manager were attentive, welcoming and persistent in making sure we were happy. I'm going back this weekend and I cannot wait! 5/5!

They had wonderful service, great food and beautiful wine. The atmosphere was warm and welcoming and the music, jazzy and old school classy. I highly recommend Arbitrageur to anyone who wants to enjoy an outstanding restaurant.

Excellent dining experience with a chic and friendly atmosphere. The well informed waiter offered up a great wine match, and the steak was cooked to perfection.

Had a very nice dinner here. I wasn't so sure about it when I found it online. But the food was great and the service was excellent. I would definitely go back

Superb service and delicious food. The duck salad was so good I had to go back and order it again the following night.

Exceptional food acompanied with a beautiful wine and followed with delicious handmade chocolates. One of my favourite dining experiences.

Beautiful restaurant, great wine list and menu - staff are friendly but have to say their oyster bar is my favorite!

very tasty, one of the better vietnamese, though bit pricier than cheaper places like where's charlie over the road

Great food, very good atmosphere. A little pricey for lunch.

Hi,<br/><br/>I made a reservation for 5 people yesterday and got a confirmation (via internet) in the afternoon.<br/>When we got there today this restaurant was closed no sign what happened. <br/>It was padlocked.<br/><br/>Sorry that this restaurant has been closed it was a great restaurant.

Delicious food for a working lunch. Good portion size for lunch. You might need a bit more at dinner. Didn't have many of the beers on the menu. Duck curry was amazing. Sizzling beef and crazy rice also looked great.

I have never rated a restaurant 1 out of 5 before, but really not happy with the lunch experience. <br/>Food: mains here are around $20 to $27. Was expecting some good quality food considering you can get $13 pho from a lot of Vietnamese restaurants in town. Ordered teriyaki pork ribs for $22. Food was ok, but definitely not amazing. A lot of bok choy and bean sprouts under the ribs which made the dish very soupy. Rice came with the main, however with only one third portion as how much you would expect elsewhere. So towards the end of the meal, the dish was too salty to eat without rice. <br/>Service: food was average, so we were expecting to at least receive some service. We went as a group for one of our friends birthday. There were 15 of us, all ordered mains. We brought a cake, but were told there is a $15 cake charge. It’s my first time hearing about cake charge... Their reason is hard to clean the plates. Should that service be included in the meals? Does that mean if I ordered an oily dish, I would have to pay extra for cleaning the dishes? We did not even receive extra plates for the cake; we just reused the little ones already on the table when we arrived. The most annoying part is the restaurant agreed with my friend to waive the cake fee as we were not told about the cake charge when we booked, but then still charged her the cake in the end. <br/>When we paid at the counter, the guy was really mean to all of us. The conversation was like me: can I please pay for one of the pork ribs? Him not even looking at me, no greeting, passed me the eftpos machine and said $22. Seriously? A food court shop would have been better than that. <br/>Will definitely not go back to this restaurant again, as the only thing fancy is their menu. <br/>Btw found a dead bug on the chilli sauce on my table, god know how long that sauce has been there for...

I have been to many other Vietnamese places but never been here so paid my visit.<br/><br/>Ordered pho beef and braised beef.<br/><br/>Menus are pricy. The pho came with rice noodle which was slightly undercooked. The soup should be hot but it was lukewarm. I can definitely tell you there are many other places who cook better pho. Taste was nothing memorable and needed more flavours. I was disappointed.<br/><br/>The braised beef was $28 with a rice noodle. We didn't like it. Not much taste at all.<br/><br/>My partner and I were disappointed at their dishes and decide not to there again as there are so many better places than this one. Highly not recommended. Posting photos here but don't be fooled by how they look - not yummy. <br/><br/>Just to update - I had pho beef which had raw beef. I don't think beef was fresh as it was a day after labour holiday. I am having diarrhea since then. Very unhappy!

Great food, attentive staff and nice ambience. Good fusion of Vietnamese and French cuisine. Tried their passion and pineapple shake, Annam Combo for starters - Summer rolls, chicken skewers, pork & prawn dumplings and Hanoi calamari and slow roasted pork belly for mains. They are all delicious! Will definitely come back again to try the other dishes.

Monday night after work waiting for my partner I decided to grab a bite here. Been meaning to try for ages. Arrived about 6:15pm, reasonably busy.<br/><br/>It's bigger inside than I though from the outside. Dim lighting. High ceilings. Nice space<br/><br/>A search indicated Annam as a veggie friendly restaurant. The menu wasn't huge and although there are options, not as many as I'd hoped for or at least what I fancied. I did struggle a little bit to find something.<br/><br/>Eventually I asked if some of the dishes were or could be veggie. Yes, some could be but not many.<br/><br/>I opted for the veggie curry with rice and annam sauce. And a tiger beer.<br/><br/>The beer was $10. Turned out it was for a glass of draft which I felt was a bit steep.<br/><br/>Meal took about 15 mins. It was more a mix of stir fry veg with salad on top than a curry but it was actually closer to what I really wanted.<br/><br/>Plenty of veg and a nice variety. Tasty sauce. The salad elements complimented the dish nicely. Little side dish of rice was the right amount.<br/><br/>Enjoyable.

Went for luck. Very good food. Excellent duck dishes. Perfectly cooked. Service was a little slow. 40 min wait for entrees but staff were apologetic.

Went to this place on Friday night.. there was a group of drunk roudy obnoxious middle aged blokes sitting immediately inside the door. Not the restaurants fault but they made it unpleasant for everyone.. my chicken curry was ok but my wife's chicken pho was bland and tasteless.. won't be back

Vietnamese French fusion, thats my description for this restaurant. Came with my work colleagues and we had Pork belly, duck curry and vietnamese coffee.<br/>The pork belly was delicious, soft and full of flavour.<br/>Duck curry was abit lacking on the spice. It came with rice and bread though.<br/>The Vietnamese coffee was lacking the signature viet coffee flavour. It was served with lots of ice, meaning sooner or later, the drink will be diluted and destroy all the flavours. (Seriously needs improvement)<br/>Recommended to try in Wellington

There were no tables so we sat at the bar. Approximately 15 minutes before someone asked if we wanted a drink for which we hadn't seen the menu it was then a further 20 minutes until someone asked if we wanted to order food of which we had again not seen the menu. Decided it wasn't worth our time ordering and went to get takeaways. Terrible service but when the drinks arrived they were good a little overpriced in my mind. Probably wouldn't go back

As a group we all shared, the starters and mains were unanimously voted as delicious. There were limited vegetarian and gf options as each course had five to ten options. You definitely put your money where your mouth is when you come here - but definitely worth it. Vietnamese X French has done well - but where were the snails?

Food was tasty, but service was poor. We were in a group of 12 and we pre-ordered our food couple of days in advance. But food was not served until after 45 minutes. We were there on our lunch breaks, one person had to change his order to takeaway. In the end we all had to finish out food in hurry. We raised the issue with the manger, but I don't think he got the concept of pre-ordering the food in advance.

Limited menu options for vegetarians - the Annan vege has no rice or noodles and doesn't have enough broth to go with either. The duck curry is ruined by the pineapple despite being advised by the waiter (who apparently also hates pineapple) that it is delicious. Only upside are the cocktails that are fantastic.

Annam is a French-Vietnamese restaurant on Featherston Street. I tried the duck curry which was great, with just a nice touch of spice. Went for dinner on a Wednesday night, there were only two servers working - had to 30 minutes for drinks. Thank goodness the food was great.

This place has THE WORST customer service EVER!!! <br/><br/>We booked a table for our team Christmas drinks at 4pm (well in advance) and on arrival were seated in the cold drafty entrance way and were told we could not order drinks until 4:30pm as there was no bar staff. We waited, then ordered and waited about for another 15 minutes while the owner was sat at a table taking to what looked like someone interviewing for a job. We asked if we could order food and were told we would have to wait until 5:30pm (isn't that illegal?) until the chef arrived. We decided to leave and he shouted and told us never to come back...Wow. What a total goober. No we won't come back and we will certainly make sure our friends, colleagues and families know about the who runs this dump. <br/>

My supper of Pho Bo didn't disappoint. A generous bowl of fragrant broth with tender rare beef, bean sprouts, herbs and fried shallots. Accompanied with a small platter comprising of hoisin for dipping the beef, red chilli, lemon wedge and a mouthful of crisp salad - just enough to refresh the palate. Upbeat professional service. Only a minor quibble, as possibly indicating the end of service, the music was too thuddingly loud, so it was time to leave.

Came here for lunch twice. Both occasions had the Bun Cha Gio Thit Nuong (grilled pork with fried spring rolls in salad and fresh noodles with fish sauce). It's a filling, very satisfying dish, and all the elements mix nicely. A little bit pricy as a weekday lunch at $21 (compared to somewhere like Where's Charlie that does a similar dish for only $11). The place looks great for a modern Asian fusion restaurant, and the service deserves kudos. I think I need to try a few more things to more fairly rate this place. I see a lot of potential for this place, a welcomed (Asian) addition for Featherston Street.

Although Annam was a French protectorate of central Vietnam it is also the Sanskrit word for food. Quite clever really .... as was the morphing of Arbitrageur into this French Vietnamese restaurant. <br/><br/>Walking back to my car at lunchtime I saw Annam had an outside menu that advertised beef pho, my last experience of which (sublime) was at Bolaven in Auckland. So in an inquisitive mood and with exactly an hour to spare I went in.<br/><br/>The makeover has been significant although it wouldn't surprise me if the basic arbitrageur had been added to rather than completely redone. It's as if two interior designers with two briefs, one Vietnamese and one French, had competed for space. The themes seemed unblended and the colours rather drably dim. Consideration of authenticity seemed irrelevant really, it was quite cosy and pleasant enough as a dining room. Shiny copper tables, black comfortable seating.<br/><br/>Service, as from the previous incarnation, is good, amusing and somewhat frenetic. <br/><br/>My bowl of pho arrived quickly - in a generous quantity and my first thought was "hell I can't eat all that!"<br/><br/>However I did. <br/><br/>Pho is a bit like the ramen that I'd had the previous day at the ramen shop in Newtown. Essentially a broth and noodles with a variety of accompaniments. This was a beef pho as opposed to a chicken pho. The soup contained very nicely cooked slices of beef, with bean sprouts, spring onions and the flat narrow ribbon noodles.<br/><br/>To the side is a little bowl with sliced chilli a wedge of Lemon and a spoon of thick sweet soy, like Kekap manis.<br/><br/>The broth was gentle quite sweet, scented with star anise and clearly contained sugar - It lacked depth and lacked umami richness. It needed the additions. The noodles were very much in evidence - they were perfectly cooked and pleasant. <br/><br/>Comparison with Bolaven in Auckland is inevitable. Theirs was a little richer, not so sweet and also contained bok choy, tomato as well as mint. On the side were crisp fried onions and a few other bits and pieces - it was delicious and memorable. Annam's was good and I'd certainly be happy to have it again but it does have scope for improvement. <br/>

While the decor seems a little confused - the owners of arbitrageur have otherwise done well with this new incarnation. The food was super fresh and well flavoured. We particularly enjoyed the duck salad. The service was friendly and prompt, with a nice touch of humour.

good food, service was okay, they seemed a bit confused but it was ok. I think they only opened a couple months ago which may explain their confusion

Great lunch time spot. I had a nice Wok Tossed dish, my friend a Curry, both very fresh, full of flavor all accompanied by great staff and atmosphere.

I was really looking forward to eating here. <br/>The food is tasty but over-priced. The waitress was quick to take our order but the food took 40 minutes to arrive. <br/>I think they might be first time restaurant owners or something as the basics are lacking...<br/>There's nothing wrong with the food but the kitchen services needs to step up a notch or five!<br/>Probs won't go back.

The service was the worst I have experienced for a long time. We were ignored for 15 minutes at the reasonably empty bar while ordering drinks to wait for a table. The waitress ignored the order for food and a request for chopsticks. We then waited more than an hour for our meal to arrive - which it did but without the rice (which for a main that consisted of 6 small bits of salmon floating in a broth, is really 3/4 of the meal). One of the staff was very apologetic and explained the kitchen were struggling - which seemed to be a regular occurrence at times that might be thought of as busy because he suggested we come back when its less busy. In the end we walked out. A ruined night and pretty thinly veiled poor food and low staffing/staff competence to cover for high profit margins. To cap it off, the guy then overcharged for what we had consumed. I would strongly recommend you find another Vietnamese place to eat and enjoy your evening. Avoid this one at all costs. Eat at your peril.

One word to describe my experience here 'really'?  I ordered a Bun bo hue, a spicy beef noodle soup.   First of all it was not spicy, the soup was barely luke warm, the broth was super salty and the fresh Vietnamese herbs were spring only and finely sliced red cabbage.  You call that Vietnamese herb?  I think not.<br/><br/>Not being to rude, this was not very authentic at all, definitely caters to the Western taste bud.   In saying that, I would like to return to try other dishes.<br/><br/>If you are after good, tasty, affordable Vietnamese cuisine I would suggest you make a trip to Fisherman's Plate located on Bond Street.   <br/><br/>Please visit my website for an indepth review.

Lunch on Thursday, although it was very busy we got a table within ten minutes. The service was excellent, the food, fresh and delicious and was glad to see such a strong wine list and cocktail menu. Recommend for sure!

Terrible. Service was cold and unfriendly. Staff took a long time to take our orders. Food took a long time to arrive. Food was cold when it arrived. Worse part was biting into a raw prawn! It takes 30secs to cook a prawn, but these guys couldn't even manage that. We ordered tamarind prawns, lemongrass beef skewers, salt and pepper squid, and crispy pork rolls. To cap it all off, we were over charged with 2 additional entries in our bill. When we pointed it out, the guy didn't seem overly surprised. Never again. There are far better Vietnamese restaurants in Wellington. Try one of those instead. <br/>

Excellent Vietnamese food. I've traveled Vietnam and I've tried most of the other local Vietnamese restaurants and I think that this is the best. <br/><br/>Vietnamese food demands super-fresh ingredients, a lot of herbs, and excellent stock (Pho). Annam has all of that. Definitely try the Pho. It's superb. <br/><br/>The service is friendly and fast.<br/><br/>I was surprised by the affordability. Mains ranged from $19 to $22. <br/><br/>Highly recommended as a lunch time stop and I'd book, it's popular.

What a disappointing experience! The once brilliant arbitrageur goes budget! Abysmal service, lacklustre food, a confused decor. Will I be back? Probably not!