Soo H.
Yelp
Today, I ordered my usual bahn mi thit nuong (grilled pork) and also tried the grilled pork vermicelli from here since I normally love their grilled pork in their bahn mi's (Normally I go around the corner to get the grilled pork vermicelli at Saigon 1975 after picking up bahn mi from here.) ...EXTREMELY disappointed in the quality. In all the years I've been coming here, I've never gotten such poor quality food like this from here before. I don't know the cause of this, but I was very underwhelmed.
Let's start with the fact that we are in a pandemic. I've been to some restaurants for take out during these times, and it's unnerving seeing the people that hand you food or make your food not wearing a mask, or seeing them handle money then going directly to deal with or make your food without washing or sanitizing their hands. They have a glass partition set up at the register but it does not cover the entire counter, so their employees still wear masks. The last time I came, the gentleman at the register had his mask on the whole time (applause). Today when I came, the lady was wearing her mask on her chin while she was talking with customers, handing the food, making the drinks, etc. The mask never covered her mouth. I also paid in cash, and a couple customers behind me they ordered drinks. After their transaction, the lady didn't even wash her hands before she started making their drinks! Needless to say, I did not feel safe with the handling of food and transaction.
Now the grilled pork and egg roll vermicelli (bun thit nuong). (I wish I had taken photos before I threw everything out...) Continuing with the pandemic quality check--when I took the tray of food out of the bag at home, I was appalled. The plastic fork was inside the tray inside my noodles... Even before the pandemic, this wouldn't be acceptable, but now in this current climate that is even more uncalled for! The utensils should NEVER be in the food! They should have put the fork in the bag with the food, but not within the noodles. Because it's not an open kitchen, I don't know where that fork has been. I don't know what it's been in contact with. I don't know how it came to be placed in there. Anyway, moving on... I pushed on and was starving and drove almost an hour total to get the food and bring it back home, so I just threw out the fork and began to eat. The quality of the food was terrible. It was stale. There were peanuts were EXTREMELY stale. The pickled radishes had no flavor whatsoever. The grilled pork was so dense and so dry and barely warmed up. It honestly seemed like pork they were about to throw out the night before that they forgot to get rid of. The vermicelli noodles were overcooked. I took a few bites and had to throw it out.
The grilled pork bahn mi (bahn mi thit nuong)... My all time favorite from this place... Boy... it was disappointing af! The bread is always good here so I'll give them that. (Honestly the bread is the only reason this review is 2 stars instead of 1.) I've been ordering the bahn mi thit nuong for almost 10 years from this place. Never had I had bahn mi of this lackluster quality from here in all those years... The meat was cold and even worse than the meat in the vermicelli noodle platter. It was basically pork jerky. Also, never in the 10 years have they ever put peanuts in the bahn mi. The pork was slathered with pork and the stale peanuts and not that fresh green onions (I've never had bahn mi with green onions and peanuts from here). I don't know if maybe it was pork that was going to be used in a platter or something, but it just was not it... And again, this was slathered and drenched with mayo.
When I called to complain about the quality so they can do a quality check for the food, the lady's apology wasn't an apology. She said the typical 'sorry you don't like it', not 'sorry we served you something of poor quality'. I wasn't even calling to expect a refund, but I was told to drive all the way back to show them the food, to get a refund and that's all that they can do. Why would I drive a whole other hour to get a refund? Two hours of driving for food, the disappointment, the food to go in the trash, the refund, all to come back home again? Maybe if you paid for the gas and time. So no thanks.
Super disappointed in the complete downfall of the quality of the food. I know restaurants are hit extremely hard during the pandemic and I don't feel great writing a bad review for the public, but I also did not feel safe.
