I give 1 star to the super nice waiter. Other than that, let me tell you why it doesn't get any stars from me. I know you may be thinking I'm biased because I'm Vietnamese and can get home-cooked pho. However, I do eat at other Vietnamese restaurants too and this was the first time I've ever come across the worst tasting pho of my life.
What I ate: beef spring roll (goi cuon) and the meatball pho (pho bo vien).
1. The food is pricey compared to most restaurants. $7-$9 for a bowl of pho. You can find much, much better pho for $5-$6 a bowl.
2. The spring roll: the beef was dry and was more like steak meat cut up and put into it. Usually, you find spring rolls with shrimp and/or pork.
3. The pho: when it came out, I tasted just a bit of the broth because that's the most important part of pho. It was sweet! I've never in my life had pho that was pre-sweetened. It baffled me that they would even bother bringing out the hoisin sauce. That's what the hoisin sauce is for: to provide some sweetness to the soup's broth. It was like drinking sugar water. I had to ask for some fish sauce to try and balance the sweetness. They brought me a little sauce bowl for it and I dumped the whole thing into the soup - it didn't help. If anyone's tried fish sauce, they understand how salty it is. I could only eat the meatballs. I couldn't stomach the rest.
I'm shocked at how upset I am by how poor the food tasted. I'm offended that people will come into this restaurant thinking that this is representative of Vietnamese food. I'd rather go to Unphogettable, Da Vang, or Phu Thanh any day.
Please save your money, taste buds, and stomach - don't go here!