Mai Village

Horrible veggie soup. Smelled super meaty. Pan fried noodle is called chow mein and is ok. Hardly any noodles.

Food is not even good, average at the most, actually I can probably just cook it myself. Overpriced and sucky service. Not worth it. Racist towards asians as well. Very ironic. Wouldnt even rate it but I have to for the greater cause of the people :)

Why do people like this place — the only interesting is the indoor pond. Food = Fail, Service = Extra Super Fail
Ordered apps after a very long wait. Half way through eating them, manager/​owner looking guy walks past table, stops and says they were served with wrong sauce. Right sauce didn’t help, they still tasted bad — did not finish them.
When ordering entrees — we asked server if the dishes we wanted had a similar sauce (they sounded like they might be from menu description). He told us they were different — they were identical!
Drinks never refilled eventhough our server passed our table atleast a dozen times durring our meal. I did notice the clinking of large amounts of change innour servers pockets every time he passed — probabaly due to the fact that no one tipped him more than the coins left over from their bills.
Would not go back — Little Sezchuan next door to Mai Village has much better food and service.

First things first, koi pond the second you walk in! All kinds of intricate woodwork everywhere. We ordered Vietnamese egg rolls for an app, and I got the hot and Spicy chicken, she got the phở. Phở was a huge bowl, and the hot & spicy chicken was on point! We went in at lunch time and service was quick the entire time.

Excellent vegetarian food! I really enjoyed the fresh asparagus, tofu, basil, and shiitake mushroom dish. Also the mock duck noodle salad is delicious!!! Great service every time we eat there! I would highly recommend eating there!

The place is BEAUTIFUL!!! The food was good but not great. I think if you want to show somebody a cool looking Chinese food place there is no where better in saint Paul. If you want to show somebody the best Chinese food saint Paul has to offer this is not the place.

Loved it! Staff were very friendly and food was delicious. Loved the décor. The owner said all the wood was hand carved in Vietnam. Beautiful embroidered silk!

Excellent food and service! Everything that we ordered was authentic and amazing! Highly recommended!

Hot n Spicy chicken dish was delicious! Lo Mein was pretty good too. Tasty egg rolls.

I visited Mai Village for lunch in the middle of the week. I was seated at a very small table far away from anyone else. We walked past several empty tables, so it was strange. I’m assuming it was because I was alone? And needed a two top? I have no idea. The place is huge, and everyone else was seated in the same general area.
Service was very slow and tricky due to the fact I was far away from the rest of the group. But my server was very friendly and full of smiles, so it sorta made up for it. I couldn’t decide what to get and asked my server for recommendations, mentioning that I was interested in trying something new. She was able to rattle off several different items and her eyes lit up when she told me about the egg rolls — which she said where amazing. The noodle salads she recommended caught my eye and she highly recommended the the beef noodle salad or the egg roll noodle salad. I couldn’t decide and she suggested getting the beef salad and adding an egg roll to it for an extra $ 2. Sold!
Now, I’ve never eaten an egg roll in something like this before. The salad came with a dressing on the side and I poured it over the whole thing and mixed it up. It was very good! I really enjoyed it. I tried to eat most of the egg roll before it got soggy or fell apart. The server was right, the egg rolls were very good. The beef in the salad was fantastic which, for some reason, surprised me.
It took forever to get the check and to get me out on my way. I’m guessing this might have something to due with the fact they don’t seem to get a lot of the business crowd? I’m not sure but it was really pushing it to get there and back to my office over my lunch hour.
It was slightly alarming to have an Asian restaurant full of white senior citizens and it sorta makes me not want to return. I suspect that this is the reason they didn’t rush to get me in and out quickly. I really couldn’t (and still can’t) get over the fact that the place was full of older white people. It made me question and doubt everything about this place. I did enjoy my meal. But I’ve only been here once… and I don’t really see myself returning too soon unless I’m desperate for lunch.

We have really grown fond of this place. By far, the best tasting phở in the Twin Cities. The staff is always warm and friendly. We no longer have to give them our order as they remember it, right down to my wife’s request of no onions. We are weekly regulars now and spend every Sunday evening enjoying great company and great food!

Nice spot on university! Enter the doors to an inviting spacious eating area, walking over a pond filled with beautiful fish:)
Full bar food was on the speedy side $ 10-​$ 13 a plate but was well worth it. Curry chicken um yes please!!! If you need more rice they were willing to give more without additional charge or hesitation. Very chill Wednesday night, not sure of the atmosphere on a busier night.
Definitely going back

I was a bit reluctant to come here at first because of the many things I’ve heard about this place. One day a friend and I I stopped here for some phở. It wasn’t that busy but we had to wait a bit. There was a couple before us and they had waited some time too. After a few minutes someone finally came to sit us. It took even longer for someone to come take our order and bring us water. I had a bowl of phở and some egg rolls. Nothing special and the service doesn’t make me want to return either. Next time I’ll drive a few blocks over to Trieu Chau to get my fix.
One thing I did notice though was how responsive they were to catering to their white customers. I don’t know if it’s the stereotype that Asian people don’t tip well or what, but I was upset about this. I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone else. Unless you’re white, in that case they love you here.

Attentive service, relaxed atmosphere and quality food at very reasonable prices. We always enjoy ourselves. Love the make our own spring roles and chicken bun/​salad with rice noodles. Highly recommend for a St. Paul lunch meeting or date :)

Came here for a lunch with a group of 5 during the week and were seated right away. This is my first time at a Vietnamese place and it was pretty darn good. Décor is very pretty and it’s a big place. and the fish pond once you enter is oh so pretty! Had from the lunch special. the Beef and Shrimp Noodle Salad. very yummy! This was the last day of a MN trip but I fully intend on going back the next time I’m in town. And our waiter was quick and efficient with our orders. We all left with fully tummies and happy hearts!

When I walk into a restaurant filled with old white people, one of three things tends to be true,
1: the restaurant has amazing senior/​cheap specials & stellar pie
2: The food lacks flavor and is covered in sauce to make up for little to no flavor
3: the patrons have been going here forever and old habits die hard
As for Mai Village, #3 rings true.
–Ambiance:Mai Village has fabulously asian themed décor featuring a large coy pond and prints that one might find in the «global» section at Pier 1 Imports.
–Service: The severs are super friendly but tend to be a tad slow
–Menu: Catering to the Midwest Anerican Paelet; heavy on the sauce, oil and MSG. The food isn’t horrible but one can find something ten times tastier and cheaper less than a block away
–Parking: A large parking lot located behind the restaurant, plus tons of street parking nearby. Easily accessible By light rail and bus
Overall, Mail Village is by no means a bad restaurant, I just can’t rationalize going here when there are a ton of authentic, fresh and cheaper places nearby.

If you don’t mind paying a little more for a spacious restaurant with beautiful décor, this might place might be for you. There are plenty of mom and pop holes in the wall that have better food at better prices, but aren’t amenable to large groups or don’t serve alcohol. If group space and ambiance is important to you, then Mai Village is a nice alternative. Food-​wise, from my experience it was just passable.
We started with the spring rolls, which were pretty standard. I got the beef phở and my husband got the fried tofu noodle salad. The phở had an interesting broth with hints of cinnamon. However, there were way too many noodles and they clumped together in a huge mass. It was otherwise okay, but $ 8.50 for just okay phở is a little steep when you can get amazing phở for about six bucks at one of the holes in the wall. The ratio of noodles to ingredients was similarly off with the tofu noodle salad. Way too many noodles and scant lettuce buried underneath. The fried tofu was tasty, but my husband remarked that the salad seemed heavy, didn’t leave him with the fresh feeling that often comes from these salads. The sauce was also nothing special, perhaps a little on the vinegary side.
About the décor, there’s a koi pond in the entryway and the whole place, including tables and chairs, is accented with authentic-​looking dark, carved wood. Colorful scarves are draped about, and the whole place is quite lovely. I didn’t try the regular entrees, so maybe they serve something that’s more their specialty. From this one experience, though, the food was nothing to write home about.

I went to Mai Village in May 2014. We were seated and had a little bit of a wait until our server came to our table for drinks. Speaking of wait time, there was a lot of wait time through out my experience there. Now that I think about it, everytime I go it’s always a long wait and the servers don’t really seem that friendly… :(
I gave it another try June 2014, we walked in and there were 2 booths that had people in them, so they were fairly slow. We waited by the sign that stated «please wait to be seated» After 5 minutes of waiting we left. I have to say that is some pretty terrible service.
Food is great. Chicken chow mien is my favorite.
Expect slow service with long wait time and great food

The food a great and our waitress was super helpful and checked up on us to see how we were doing every once in a while. I would go back again.

Personally I am spoiled by my wife’s cooking but I tried this place and if I cannot have her food this will do just fine. :-) I enjoyed the phở and the stir fry was tasty. The service was good and the place is beautiful inside.
I understand, by some of the local law enforcement that I talked to that this is the place to go for a good meal. One officer said to try it spicy and he was right …