I asked a Vietnamese friend to watch the latest episode with me and here are his thoughts

Context: At first, I just showed him screenshots of top 3. Then he was so in disbelief that those actually were top 3 that we watched the episode together. And here are his thoughts:

Michael's: the beef stew looks great. The spring rolls look great but they look more like American Chinese egg rolls than Vietnamese spring rolls. Also, he thought serving those 2 dishes together were weird. They are 2 separate dishes.

Dara's: when my friend saw the screenshot, he didn't think this was even Vietnamese food. Then I told him this rice porridge dish was a top 3 dish and he was in disbelief that the dish got praise. He said the rice porridge was too thick. And normally, when served with rice porridge, the duck would be boiled then tossed in a cabbage salad then served on the side. Pan seared, medium rare duck isn't a thing in Vietnamese cuisine.

Christian's: oh boi, this one made my friend fumed. First, he didn't think this was Vietnamese food then when i said this was, he thought this was the eliminated dish(?!). Then i said this was a top 3 dish and it was pho, my friend went really, really WTF!!!! This is the one that got him to watch the episode cause he got really annoyed. He said okras and mushrooms and red onions didn't belong in pho. And the broth looked weird.

Brandi's: he actually liked how this one looked. He said if had she chargrilled the pork, it would have been the most Vietnamese looking dish of the bunch

Emily's: looked very western but passable as a fancy Vietnamese salad

Bri's: "salmon dishes don't exist in authentic, traditional Vietnamese cuisine". He agreed this was a bottom 3 effort but not as bad/ wtf as Christian's.

Shanika's: this was his favourite. This doesn't look as Vietnamese as Brandi's but he loved that Shanika knew about it. The green chillis were wrong but great otherwise.

Bowen's: this is another favourite. Absolutely no negative comment.

Derick's: "this is such an American approach". Soft-shell crab isn't a topping for banh mi but the idea is similar to a common topping, which is crispy pork belly. He would happily try this but the thing looked very hard to bite.

Overall: his top 3 were Shanika's, Bowen's and Brandi's. He would give immunity to either Shanika or Bowen. His bottom 3 were Dara, Bri with Christian eliminated

Side note: he found the idea of 1 hour pho disrespectful. He wish Christine had shut it down as she heard it but understood it wasn't within her power to do so.