Monsoon Bellevue

Expensive but good food and drinks is how I’d describe Monsoon. This place smells amazing every time I pass by, so I knew I had to try it when my friend wanted to do an impromptu dinner in Bellevue. It was definitely pricier than I expected! My friend smartly suggested that we split 1 appetizer and an entrée, which was the way to go as the large portion size was better suited to sharing.
We had the bo la lot appetizer (steak wrapped in leaves), which was delicious and came with a nice dipping sauce. There were also 4 pieces so perfect to split between us. For the main entrée, we had the drunken chicken, which was tasty but didn’t seem as authentic as the bo la lot. I loved my queen of siam cocktail, which was summery and refreshing (psstt, the cocktail list is in the back of the menu!)
This restaurant would be great for a date as it’s very trendy. The place was more packed than I expected on a sunday night, but we were able to snag a table in the bar area immediately. I only wish there were more entrees that were less than $ 20 here! I ended up spending close to $ 40 and that wasn’t even getting my own entrée and appetizer.

I had the ox tail phở. It was very salty and not very good. I came in for a late lunch I was very disappointed I am use to good phở but I would not eat there phở again.

Food is average, especially knowing Asian fusion doesn’t cost much to make. I ordered a dish that contained chicken in a sweet sauce. I also ordered a beef dish alongside an appetizer which was a bit weird for my taste. It was wrapped in some kind of green leaf and had no idea what was inside it. A little overpriced for my taste, however you are paying for the environment and location. I probably wouldn’t come back here unless it’s for a date.

The phở was great, it seemed to be too sweet at first, but as I continued to drink the broth, the full complexity was uncovered. The meat was very tender and the noodles were perfect.

My sister-​in-​law who traveled around Vietnam said Monsoon is the only place that comes close to genuine-​article Vietnamese food, and that I would experience a higher echelon of phở if I went.
So Friday evening (~715pm) after a helluva week I took my bad self to Monsoon. I found free parking a block-​ish away, up the street next to Pagliacci. Friendly hostesses, sat me right away at a table even though I was only one person. I perused the menu and saw no phở — apparently they don’t serve it at dinner, which is weird, right? That was disappointing after hearing how «amazeballs» it was. The waitress was super nice and offered suggestions, and I hemmed and hawed about leaving but decided to stay and order the Bo La Lot (rare, seasoned flank steak in leaves with sauce on the side) and Ahi Rolls (ahi, avocado, lettuce, and more in a rice paper roll with a delightful sauce). Out of character I went the non-​alcoholic drink route because I was so intrigued by their Reaching for Summer bevvie, which was lemon juice, basil seeds (weird lookin), grapefruit bitters, and ginger soda.
OMG you guys. The food was INCREDIBLE. I felt extremely pleasured and satiated afterwards. The drink was good but very sour, which I remarked to the waitress and she brought me simple syrup, a lovely addition. I was glad I didn’t have to talk to anyone or share, I could just space out and get totally down with my appetizers.
I was pretty full after actually, but had to check out the dessert menu. All the items are homemade and sounded delish, but I decided to get some gluten-​free choco cake from Whole Foods and drink some red wine I had at home. The wine glasses were $ 9+, a bit too much for this kitty cat. For everything I got it was $ 25, and worth it.
The atmosphere is lovely, it’s bustling but classy. I got to sit next to the window and watched the bartender make dranks. I also watched everyone around get their food and drooled over theirs too. I think you can’t go wrong with what you order, but mine were def winners.
They have a FULL bar, and lovely string lights that set the mood. The staff was oh so nice. I am knocking one star off because WHY NO PHO !
Visit. You will not be disappointed!

We just had lunch on Friday, luckily the place wasn’t busy at all, which was great.
The food was great. Atmosphere is also modern, would be a perfect spot for just drinking or during happy hour.
Just the wait time for food was way too long beside the restaurant was almost empty. (Probably the waiter forgot to place our order?) :(

Nice spot for dinner. The atmosphere is modern and the atmosphere was lively but not too noisy. The food was decent, though nothing fancy.
Warning, the parking is a bit weird, but if you follow the instructions on the website you will be able to find it without any problems.

We had an impromptu meeting here with a few friends. I started Impromptu s as a way to network without the need to RSVP.
I am pretty happy with their Happy Hour selections. It has a very inviting bar area located in the front of the restaurant where all the windows are rather than the back dark corner.
It’s a definite must for a return gathering.

Came here recently for a week day lunch. Really enjoyed the whole experience. The ambiance is casual chic, like a modern asian bistro. The food was outstanding. We had the Bo La Lot to start, followed by the vegetable wrap with grilled pork, and Lemongrass Chicken Skewers. All were delicious. Favorite was the grilled pork vegetable wrap. Service was attentive enough. The food came pretty quickly. Good value too, at least for the lunch. You pay a little bit more for the ambiance but it’s well worth it.
So nice to have another nice restaurant to go to on the east side, one fewer reason to go eat out in Seattle, avoid the pain-​in-​the-​neck parking and 20% mandatory service charge altogether.

I finally tried something other than the Drunken Chicken, which if you haven’t tried it, you must try the Drunken Chicken it’s soooo good.
The Caramelized Idaho Catfish Claypot was AMAZING! Served piping hot, the catfish clay pot has the sweetest caramelized onions, I’ve never had caramelized onions this good before. The catfish bakes in its savory juices and is very succulent. Cooked perfect!
I highly recommend both the Catfish Claypot and my favorite The Drunken Chicken.

We’ve officially decided not to come here again. It’s sad as I enjoy their vermicelli dish, mainly because of their fried spring roll. Sadly, this is only available during lunch and not dinner.
Prices for dinner is outrageous. I cannot justify paying $ 22 for their pork chop dish that doesn’t even come with rice. They charge $ 2 for rice. That’s like ordering phở that has no noodles and you having to pay extra for it. The chop wasn’t even thick. It’s the same size as other Vietnamese places.
Some may argue the ambience sets it apart from other Vietnamese restaurants, but to be honest, the service is not that great.

Have to say I’m a big fan of the happy hour. Goes from 3 – 6 and 9-​close M-​F. Really nice selection of beverages and tasty snacks. Menu changes are frequent, but they keep the staple (popular) items. They also have the cheapest prices on Pappy Van Winkle in Bellevue, and that alone is worth a trip a week! Next time you’re at the mall and hungry, head into Old Bellevue and give Monsoon’s happy hour a try.

Today is the day I decide that this restaurant has gone too hityhoity.
Since they got rid of online open table reservation system, I tried to make online reservation for three for bellevue, but they don’t take online in this snotty place.
So I called. She asked for my number and I said 425… and she hung up.
I had it with them.
So, I’ll be going to Arayas across the street with my 3-​diners, where they even have mango sticky rice in the buffet.
These snotty place obviously don’t need my patronage to make it here in bellevue! The attitudes of that woman was terrible whoever it was. Yuck!

A couple of friends and I went to Monsoon East for Dine Around Seattle and had a wonderful experience midweek. The food was flavorful across the courses, which included a tasty cabbage shrimp salad and the drunken chicken. The one thing I would say is I did not expect the drunken chicken to be fried and, although tasty, wasn’t necessary.
Great food, friends and patio seating at Monsoon East on a sunny Seattle day is hard to beat!

It had been way too long since I was at Monsoon, which was confirmed when we went for Dine Around Seattle. I had forgotten how awesome ME is… but never again!
For Dine Around Seattle you get three courses for dinner for only $ 33, which is well-​worth it because you certainly get more than $ 33 worth of food. To start I had the Imperial Crispy Rolls, which were pork and shrimp rolls fried and are accompanied with lettuce, bean sprouts and cilantro that is recommended you roll your roll with. It was sooo good! It’s easy to share, too, as there were about six small rolls. For my entrée I wanted to try something different, so had the Wokked Squid, which came with Chinese celery, mustard greens and cherry tomatoes. It was very fragrant and fresh, and I especially loved the crunch and flavor of the Chinese celery, which went well with the perfectly-​cooked squid. For dessert I had the Banana Cake, as was a favorite by our server and it was well worth the wait. It was warm, gooey, and I absolutely loved the coconut sauce that came with, which was perfect for it. I also tried the Chocolate Ganache, which came with a caramel sauce and was salted, which was so rich yet addicting! This was such a great deal for Dine Around Seattle.
We came here on a Thursday night at 8PM, and our hostess informed us that tables usually open up after 7:30, but because of Dine Around Seattle the place had been busy. We had made reservations at 8, but had to wait about 10 minutes for a table to open up at the bar. The space is not big, but they have a private dining room and the bar’s décor is quirky and reflective of Vietnam. Also, at the bar they have fresh oysters on ice, and a chalkboard above, telling where the oysters are from. The hostess was really cool, and though it was obvious our server was exhausted from the packed house, she had a great attitude. I can’t wait to visit again for the dim sum brunch!

My experience here started with great food but ended with disappointing service.
As usual we were a group of friends, getting together on a Saturday night for dinner.
They took our orders right away without any confusion. They were quick in serving us and didn’t make us wait. We ordered a variety of dishes including mussels, drunken chicken, beef shoulder, catfish and etc. I ordered papaya salad which was really tasty. Overall the food was great and everyone was very happy with their food. The drinks were just ok, nothing special.
I would say the food is slightly overpriced though. Since we were s larger group they added %20 gratuity which is on a higher side… especially with such mediocre service.
We had a surprise birthday cake that we asked them to bring us after we finished our food, but they forgot about it and started to take dessert orders and kinda spoiled the whole surprise. They also didn’t really clean the table and left glasses and napkins all over the table until the end of the night.
Another downfall was that most of us ordered hot tea after dinner and the water was not hot enough for tea.
At the end, my most frustration came from them refusing to bring us separate checks, we had to spend so much time figuring out the bill and splitting it.
This place has a nice décor and great potential for being an amazing restaurant in downtown Bellevue but it’s not there yet… overall, I agree with 3 star average on Unilocal

Old Bellevue is such a diamond in the rough, I highly recommend strolling it one day with a partner. Monsoon East is a very good meetup point for people who are looking for cool and welcoming, SE Asian décor, with some razzmatazz. All of their Small Bites menu is tempting, and their variety of entrees is solid– we completely enjoyed their beef tenderloin medallions which the chef dished a generous portion of au jus to further drizzle, and as a bonus came with cherry tomato and arugula salad which added to the saliva-​producing presentation. The Asian eggplant sauce was far too salty for our taste and they could’ve made the eggplant slices thinner to reduce chewing effort. Our server was helpful in suggesting a side of rice to blend with this. Our fried shrimp appetizer was tasty but be warned they serve them with the heads, antennae and all, and yikes we just weren’t up for that. I’m Asian but not that (and never-​will-​be) that level of Asian.
Positives on the friendly service and hostesses, and for keeping our waters filled and plates cleaned away and changed often. Thanks Monsoon East for great atmosphere and décor, effort in presentation, and overall friendliness.

I have gone to Monsoon East for years and the food quality is always great. However the service is soooo inconsistent. There have been days with excellent service and many with really poor service.
My most recent visit was case in point. We had 7:30pm reservations. We got there early and asked to sit in the bar area and were told they would come find us but that they were running on schedule. Instead, at 8pm we had to check in with the hostess and they still did not have a table for us. They seemed overwhelmed with walk-​ins and seemed to have no idea how to manage their reservations system.
We then were sat down with no menus, and the waiter basically never visited our table. We did get our food fairly quickly once ordered, but felt like we didn’t exist to our waiter.
It’s too bad because it’s a great location, space, and has solid food. But they need to get their act together on the service side.

We ordered the combo phở, BBQ pork, and Vietnamese crêpe.
The phở was okay and the broth tasted a bit like Chinese medicine but the beef was tender. Also I think the price is really high for how much meat they put in there. BBQ pork was he best among what we ordered as it was recommended by the waitress. The crêpe had bean sprouts, shrimp and pork but my friend said its kind of a weird combo. Environment is ambient and service is great!

I had originally rated Monsoon East as a solid 3 stars, but after receiving Jeff N’s (the owner, I assume) rude response, I have no choice but to lower my rating.
Unilocal is a place to share one’s opinions. Jeff N. has clearly no regard to that and left me a «smart» reply. In my 1^st review, I had written that my meal was similar to a Trader Joe’s frozen meal. He responded to the comment by saying that Trader Joe’s must have a «kick ass» frozen meal and that he cannot «remark on the frozen foods because he does not eat frozen meals.»
Lol!!! Rude!!!