Jennifer K.
Yelp
I can't tell you how excited I was for pho, as I love a good pho and had heard great things about Pho Bac. Originally I wanted to go to their location on Jackson St, but when I realized this location was within several minutes walking distance of our hotel (aka no need to look for parking or pay for an Uber), I decided to check out this location instead.
It was pretty busy but there was luckily one open table so we didn't have to wait to be seated. There's a QR code and you have to order and pay from your phone. Like others mention, you have to prepay your tip before receiving any service. Usually I don't mind and I didn't at the time, but the service is usually fairly decent. I didn't care for the service here.
I ordered the pho dac biet (beef pho with all cuts) and my boyfriend got the pho suon bo (beef rib pho). We also got a Vietnamese iced coffee to share as it was dinner time, and we really shouldn't have too much coffee at this point.
The Vietnamese iced coffee was okay, nothing special- not great, but not bad. I'd get it again I suppose. Typical of most Vietnamese restaurants, after they receive our order, they bring out the herbs (basil, beansprouts, jalapeno, lime) before we get our pho. They gave us the saddest presentation of herbs I've ever seen. There were only a few sad sprigs of basil and a handful of beansprouts. Luckily my boyfriend doesn't add herbs to his pho but they wouldn't have known this. There was sriracha and hoisin sauce on the table, but no chili oil (I looked around and only ONE table had chili oil on their table). We also had no saucers to put the sauce. I asked the server for saucers for the sauce. She came back with just one, and we had to ask her for another one.
My pho either had the tiniest pieces of tendon or none at all because I don't recall any. The noodles also weren't the best quality. The soup itself tasted alright but definitely nothing special. My boyfriend had ordered the beef rib pho but the meat tasted dry, and we had to ask for a knife cut off the meat from the bone. I think I was half done with my pho before he could even start eating. Overall, the beef rib pho is supposed to look super instagrammable and amazing, but due to the sad presentation, just looked like a lot of work (and it was).
So I mentioned the service being mediocre, I will have to say they are VERY fast with clean up. They are very quick to notice when a customer leaves and very quick at clearing the dishes and wiping down the table to make space for the next customer.
TMI warning: To make matters worse, we both felt sick (upset stomach) later that night and spent the night taking turns in the bathroom. Not saying for certain that it's from the pho (although the bf feels pretty confident that it was) but just to be safe and because we didn't enjoy our experience there at all, I won't be back.