L&T Vietnamese Cuisine Hot Pot Specialties

I thought this place was alright. Came a couple times, once to meet up with friends whom I hadn’t seen since high school graduation. The food was okay, nothing to brag about, but one of my friends who is currently attending culinary school begged to differ. She seasoned the hell out of her bun bo hue lol. Actually, now that I think about it, the first time I came, I ordered something I had never seen on a menu before, but it sounded good. When it came out, it looked like a steaming bowl of grey mess and tasted worse than it looked.
Service was poor. The first time I was there, we had a new guy and he appeared so confused. The second time I was there, the wait staff paid as little attention to customers as possible, it seemed.
I actually forgot about this place until a friend called me tonight to say that she saw this place closed down — sign is gone and it was pitch dark inside.

Last time my husband and I went here was when they first opened. It was SUPER bad — everything was taken so long. After almost an hour, our food still not on the table so we left. Couple weeks ago, we went back here again to see if they get any improvement and also give us and them another chance. Second time, it was MUCH better, they’re getting improved. We didn’t wait that long. I ordered Bun Mam (Fish Noodle?) and my husband ordered Bun Ca-​ry De (Lamb Curry) and both tasted GOOD! They also have 5 and/​or 7 dishes of Beef which is rare at other Vietnamese restaurants. Hopefully next time we come back to get 7 dishes Beef and give us a smile on our face! :)

A daring move on the owner to occupy this space with a Vietnamese restaurant when most of the Vietnamese population now flock to Jimmy Carter for Vietnamese cuisine.
When you first walk in, you’ll notice how large this restaurant is:2 stories where the bottom floor is general dining and the top floor seem to serve more parties type of deal.
There seems to be a stocked bar area but I didn’t notice any alcohol, maybe due to them not having a liquor license yet.
Arrived on a Friday afternoon about 6:30pm and there were only about 4 other guest and a party upstairs, felt that it was a little empty considering it is Friday night. I do hope they have more customers as time goes on, I hate to see restaurants not do well.
Service was decent, nothing to rave about. Hovered over the table before we had a change to look at the menu, but when they left us alone, they didn’t really bother to come back to take our order. After about 10 minutes of just sitting there waiting for a waiter, we finally ordered, a bowl of phở and a bowl of bun mam. My dad said his bowl of bun mam was good, comparable to somewhere such as YANY Express on Jimmy Carter while I thought my bowl of phở was below par, especially on buford hwy standards. I didn’t like their flank steaks seemed to be tenderized which in itself, isn’t the norm with phở, which I didn’t really like. They could’ve just kept it how it’s normally served instead of being special and I probably wouldn’t have been so harsh.
I think this is a family restaurant so I do hope well for them. As a local restaurant, I think it’s below average considering what else is on buford hwy but once they have their liquor license, it might be a different story for them. They might attract a different crowd of people for late night dining and wining.

In case you’re wondering what the «L» and «T» stands for, «L» is for «Lau» and «T» stands for «Thom», which translates to fragrant hot pot. That was explained to me by the server, but then the «&» doesn’t make sense. whatevs
Even though their main specialty is hot pot, they serve a limited selection of other popular Vietnamese dishes, like rice, phở, and other noodle soup like bun bo hue for those who want their own thing. Their hot pot is something you’d want to share with at least 3 other ppl. L & T hot pot options are — Thai, Seafood, or Mam (fermented fish). The femented fish is #2 on the hotpot menu and unless you know what you’re getting into, I wouldn’t recommend it. The stuff is concentrated and very pungent. I got the Thai hot pot which includes a hefty amount of greens — enoki mushroom, napa cabbage, the usual you’d find at a shabushabu place. The meats include shrimp, thinly sliced beef, clams, squid, octopus, mussels, fish balls, and I’m probably leaving something else out. Btw, you can get large or small hot pots. We were a group of ~8 and ordered the large. I think it fed us alright with 2 appetizers on the side. We probably could have used more food though. But I think everyone was done with the hotpot experience.
The group also ordered «Bun Cha Ca», which is actually a popular dish originating in N. Vietnam. There’s a place called Cha Ca La Vong in Vienam that has been popular forever, and I was surprised to see it on the menu. We gave it a whirl and I don’t think the group was fond of it because not everyone is familiar with rolling spring rolls. I liked that there were plenty of fresh herbs to wrap the spring rolls in. I don’t like how the server couldn’t tell us how many people it could feed. We ordered the small and it probably can feed 4 ppl. The fish looked like it was catfish fillet. It had the right seasoning, but slightly salty, even when it’s rolled with greens and vermicelli. The dipping sauce is the mam nem, which is not the yellow fish sauce you usually get with spring rools/​eggrolls or dry noodles. It’s the fermented sauce, which I don’t think the group was too fond of.
We also ordered the squid salad, which is vinegar based, with mainly strips of artificial squid, carrots, lotus roots, herbs, and a side of fish sauce. It’s ok, but I think others enjoyed it. The fried wings were temperature hot, but not spicy. I can kinda smell fish sauce marinade. It’s really subtle, I’m not sure others caught it. Anywhichway, I think most people thought it was good.
It was a very inefficient set up for a group of 10. I’m going to give them the benefit of the a doubt because they’re new. They seemed inexperience, but the servers did try to help our group as much as they could. They checked up on us, showed some of us how to eat new foods, and got food for us. They offered to take pictures for our group. They even split the check between 9 ppl and did not charge gratuity (that’s prol because Vietnamese customers would put up a storm if they did). Hence, the extra star for service.

I returned to L&T Vietnamese Cuisine with 12 others for last night’s Buford Highway UYE (
). When I attended L&T’s grand opening 18 days ago, I tried a little bit of everything on the menu, *except* for the hot pot. Last night, I made it a point to try the hot pot. We ended up ordering a Lau Thai Lan (Thai-​style hot pot) for the table among other dishes.
As mentioned in my previous review, L&T offers several different types of hot pot priced at $ 35 for a small pot and $ 45 for a large pot. Our server told us that a large feeds between 7 – 8 people, but after our experience, I think 5 – 6 people sounds more appropriate. If we could do it all over again, it probably would have been best to share one small hot pot for about every 4 people. That way, each hot pot is within easy reach for each person. Since we had one large hot pot shared amongst 8 – 9 people, there was a lot of getting out of our seats and maneuvering that had to be done. This brings to light the advantages of a place like Mini Hot Pot, where each person gets his/​her own hot pot.
For the hot pot, a portable stove was brought to our table along with a pot filled with broth. The pot was divided into two compartments. This was perfect because two people at the table had shrimp allergies. Three plates of raw food were brought out to be cooked in the hot pot: (1) vegetables such as mushrooms, spinach, and cabbage, (2) seafood such as fish balls, clams, mussels, shrimp, and tilapia, and (3) rolls of beef. We used the provided solid plastic and metal wire ladles to scoop the soup and food out. I was generally «meh» about the hot pot. I would have enjoyed it more in a smaller setting, where I wasn’t sharing one hot pot with so many people. It’s not that I don’t like to share, but more about ease of access.
Another dish we ordered, which also required a portable stove, was the Cha Ca La Vong (grilled fish, $ 20 small, $ 35 large). I’m not sure what kind of fish it was. The fish being grilled at our table was more of a novelty than anything else. The fish was grilled with garlic and onions and was served with cold vermicelli noodles and a plate of herbs and veggies including Romaine lettuce, basil, and mint. Bowls of water and dried rice paper were brought out so we could wrap our own fresh spring rolls (using the ingredients listed above). A salty fermented fish paste was used as the dipping sauce. Not bad, but your hands do get sticky and messy handling the fish, noodles, veggies, and sauce. You also have to know what you’re doing when it comes to making fresh spring rolls.
Along with the above large items, we also ordered some appetizers including the Canh Ga Chien Nuoc Mam Me (house special chicken wings with fish and tamarind sauce) and Goi Muc (squid salad). Everyone enjoyed the squid salad and I touched on that app in my last review. The chicken wings were OK. They’re like crispier, less meaty versions of American wings. Different flavor too. It’s a decent option for the less adventurous. Others at our table ordered the Bun Mam («fat» noodle with pork and shrimp in fish broth). It didn’t look very appetizing and most of it was left on the table.
While there was a mix-​up with the silverware, overall the staff was very nice and accommodating. The lady, whom I presume to be the owner’s wife, took care of us by explaining how to prepare and eat the grilled fish and hot pot. She also put most of the ingredients into the hot pot for us and brought us complimentary fruit dessert at the end of our meal. When it came time to pay the bill, she gladly split the check among our big group.
L&T remains at 3 stars for me («A-​OK»). It’s not great Vietnamese food (there are some good dishes), but it’s not bad either. Between last night’s visit and my previous one, I’ve tried just about all the menu highlights. Be sure to check out my first review below for my thoughts on many of this restaurant’s other dishes including the phở and bun bo hue noodle soups and some of the com (rice) dishes.

Came here for an Unofficial Unilocal Event (UYE) hosted by the awesome Daniel B. Hanging out with fellow Unilocalers was the bomb plus one, but the restaurant left VERY much to be desired.
My biggest complaint is the service was awful. I’m beginning to realize Asian immigrant restaurants just don’t have good service. They never had the right number of plates or cups of water — we had to constantly ask them to bring stuff out.
Also, the concept of a family style Viet meal was new to most of us (unlike individual bowls of phở), so we didn’t know that the fish we ordered had to be flipped otherwise it would’ve burned. Thankfully we had two Vietnamese Unilocalers in our party who helped to explain, because the waitress wouldn’t explain or assist us in understanding how to eat the food.
Another pet peeve was they brought out the propane burners at the very beginning along with all the hot pot ingredients (fish balls, veggies, meat, etc) but never brought out the actual hot pot until 30 minutes later after we asked them to bring it out.
And it’s not like the place was packed so they couldn’t focus on us… there were only a couple of other tables there. I felt like I was eating in a ghost town.
Now onto the food! It was interesting because it looked like Vietnamese food, but it didn’t taste like what I was used to at phở places. The squid salad started with a nice flavor, but the aftertaste made me question what I just ate.
I was excited for the fish dish cuz I love fish, but it was surprisingly difficult to make especially without instruction. Apparently you dip the rice paper into water, then put some vermicelli noodles, fish, lettuce and herbs in the rice paper and roll it into a spring roll. The sauce that comes with it is basically a sardine purée. Let’s just stick to our normal Spring rolls next time.
The hot pot broth was a bit more spicy and herb-​y compared to Chinese hot pots. As a big fan of Chinese hot pot, I’ll have to warn you that this isn’t as tasty or abundant as Chinese hot pots — but I may be biased. Overall, I would strongly recommend not wasting your time or money eating here when there are cheaper and tastier Viet restaurants around Buford.

BAD!!! Had lunch today and was very displeased, my food came out overcooked and tasted just like leftovers, owner asked me if everything okay and i told him about the food quality is bad, and my chicken was hard (like beef jerky) especially for an overpriced vietnamese restaurant, so owner told me that the chef fried it too long and that he is sorry, wtf not even another batch or money back, the waitors talk loud and eat in front of customers, nam phoung on jimmy carter has better tasting food and at a reasonable price.