I hate giving low stars to places. Our server was friendly and the woman cook that came out was very nice. But the food just wasn't good. My husband and I were excited to see a new Viet place open up in Chandler so we had to give it a try. The pictures looked delish. We didn't eat all day to prepare to try a few things. Also the prices were low so why not indulge a little.
We started with egg rolls and spring rolls. The spring rolls were warm. Not something I expected because they're supposed to be cool and refreshing. The dipping sauce was a watered down hoisin sauce with fried garlic and pickled carrots.
Eggs rolls were hot and fresh. However full of carrots mostly. They were served with sweet Thai chili sauce. Not the traditional nuc Cham.
Next we had the fish sauce wings and butter garlic wings. They were crispy and fried very well. The waitress said there was 6 per order but we got 5. The garlic was a little burnt so it was bitter. My guess is they were cooked in a wok. But they were okay.
Then I ordered the rare beef salad. Reminded me of a Thai papaya salad. Just with beef. It was tasty but too much red onion.
Now main dish! How we had room, I don't know. But I ordered the pho and he ordered the vermicelli noodles with pork add beef.
I have pretty high standards with pho because my mom always made it growing up. I understand everyone makes it differently. This place was definitely different. There was a yellowish film around the bowl. The broth was a different flavor than I'm used to. I was glad I ordered the beef on the side because the meat was super tough. Different quality of beef because even the rare beef on the side was really had to eat and chewy.
Had a few bites and was done. Oh and the salt, wow. Way too much salt. I felt my fingers and toes swelling up before we left.
The noodle bowl looked good. However they need to chop the meat up into edible pieces. My husband constantly had to pick the meat out with his hands and eat it caveman style.
So In the end. The prices are low. But the food just misses the mark. Service was great. Our waitress was nice. One last thing that bothered me, once everyone was done cooking and serving our food, all the staff was seated in the main dining area. I've seen this at plenty of other places and they're eating their dinner or what not. That's fine. But they were just chatting and blaring videos on their phones. I mean isn't there a back room for that? We never got refills. They were just too busy after bringing us food. Then my husband had to go up
To pay since no one brought us our check.
They just opened. So they have time to improve.