This is one of those places I always walked past but never went into for a reason. I think the Comic Sans type pretty much says it all, but my friend picked the place so...
While the menu was impressive, I apparently ordered the blandest food item on the entire menu: pho vegetable. I've never had pho before and I was excited to give it a go but it was tasteless. Really. It tasted like nothing. Then I chose to douse it in hot sauce because they wouldn't prepare it spicy for me, and I wound up with what looked like a bowl of blood-soaked noodles that still managed to taste like nothing, but spicy. If I could give this negative stars, I would.
My friend and I both got the tom kha? vegetable soup (the last soup on the menu) and it was unbelievably amazing. This alone gets a star. If I ever go back to this place (which I won't), I would just order three of these soups. It actually blows my mind that their soup was incredible.
Like everyone else said, this place is total food court material. My friend and I were slightly charmed by how food court-esque it was (I tried going down the "hole in the wall" route) but in reality, I am not sure how this place stays in business. It's the Annex. There is pretty much only Asian food in the Annex, the competition is ridiculous.
The wait staff was friendly and they deserve to be acknowledged. My favourite thing about them was I saw that there were two reserved tables right next to mine and I thought "Who the hell reserves a table at Noodle Bowl?" but at one point, several waiters descended on it and ate in pure silence. It was almost a cultural experience.