Vic C.
Yelp
Pho Lang Thang is located next door to High Five Salon and down the street from Findlay Market. Metered street parking is available.
Looking for something to have for dinner last night, I used Yelp to help my husband and I find a place for dinner. I wanted hot food since I am getting over a cold so we opted for Asian food. With this place being highly rated (overall 4 star rating at the time of this review), I thought this would be a good place to check out... but was I wrong... so wrong.
Anyways, after we came in, the bartender acknowledged us and told us that someone will be with us. A few minutes later, a female employee came out and got two menus and then led us to a small 2 person table. Being that the place was pretty empty (we arrived after 5:35 pm), I just asked if we could sit against the wall so we could have the bench seating. What surprised me was the attitude she gave us as she picked up the menus and tossed them onto the other table. I honestly do not know what is this employee's problem but I saw her give attitude to other customers whom she seated too.
Anyways, we had a very nice employee take our order, in which we ended up ordering:
Goi Cuon, $6.50 prior to tax- pretty standard spring rolls, these spring rolls were pretty heavily packed but surprisingly held up and didn't fall apart. I liked these spring rolls but think the price is a bit expensive for 2.
Pho Tai, Regular, $14 prior to tax- My husband ordered this pho with brisket. The broth was salty and not very flavorful. The meat itself was okay though.
Com Tam Chay (Tofu), $12 prior to tax- I ordered this broken rice dish because I wanted rice. The pickled carrots with very little radish was too sweet, which I did not like. The tofu was too salty and also very oily, it should have been better drained (I ended up placing the tofu pieces on a napkin to help remove some of the oil). Honestly the only things that were fine with this dish was the rice and vegetables.
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(Total= $35.03 after tax, prior to tip)
In addition to the food not tasting good, the service was pretty lacking. Our server was nice but he was never around and never refilled our water. He also never bothered to come by to ask us where is our food. After the spring rolls were brought to our table, we waited 30 minutes (with the photos that I took on my phone, they are time stamped). After 20 minutes had passed, my husband had to ask another employee where is our food. She ended up getting our server, in which he said that the rice dish is what is taking so long and so they just want to bring out both my husband's pho dish and my dish out together. He had said that it should be coming out any minute... which was 10 minutes later.
That is very unacceptable to wait so long for a meal, especially a rice dish. A Vietnamese restaurant should have that on hand. Also it doesn't take that long to fry up tofu. We saw another table that came after us in which they did not have to wait long for their rice dish so I don't know what the problem was. We were never apologized to or given anything to compensate the time we waited, etc.
I didn't have high expectations for Vietnamese food here in Cincinnati but I wasn't expecting this.
Congratulations Pho Long Thang, you are officially the WORST Vietnamese restaurant that I have ever dined at (and I have dined at a lot, including those that aren't really that great).
This place is hipster and lacks taste, service and is overly priced. I feel sorry for you locals who think this place is actually good because Vietnamese food can be so much better.