After a good 20+ min wait to be seated for a quick lunch on a Sunday afternoon, I was grossed out right away to see the server wipe down our table with a dirty towel (yes, a towel. like the hand tower you would use at home) as we sat down to haphazardly push the remnants of the previous diners spills onto the floor. The restaurant was crowded and the servers seem so flustered, busying around taking orders, cleaning and cashing people out. Totally disorganized.
We waited another 10+ min to order our food and 20+ min more to get our food. We ordered a large house Pho and a satay beef pho. First off, their condiment bottles were just disgusting with caked on spill overs of sriracha and hoisin. Our chopstick basket sat empty and we had to ask them to bring us some chopsticks.
My husband's house pho was ok. Decent size bowl of noodles with different meats and meatballs. The broth tasted fairly standard and nothing to write home about. My satay beef pho was the most curious looking thing ever since my encounter with just as odd bowl of satay beef pho at Pho Mono in Ajax. The broth was thick and it was a yellow curry base. Out of my surprise, I asked the lady who brought the food and she simply said, "yeah, satay beef."
The satay beef pho was over-cooked noodles bathing in a thick (thickened with cornstarch) in a yellow curry soup base. My years of Pho eating experience failed to prep me for this encounter but since we had already spent too much time waiting to be seated and getting the food, I decided to just eat it so we could leave.
Over all, the flavour of the satay pho wasn't bad. It was just not the satay beef pho I wanted. Would I be back to Bong Lua? Not in a million years.