Ja & Jon Banh Mi — Restaurant in Hobart

The food is good, but it is not worth the risk. We went in yesterday. They've replaced the staff with touchscreens. Not my favourite, but fine. But they have one at the door which everyone queues at because the place is so pokey, and three tucked away deep down the back that aren't used. Then I find a table that has not been cleared, but take a seat anyway. I then have to tell the staff that the clearly-finished plates etc are not mine. They take the trays, but leave crumbs, grease and all manner of debris all over the table and never come back to clear it. Ok, gross, but we make do with a stash of napkins. The whole time we are dining the staff are yelling out table numbers around us, even though the tables clearly have numbers on them. And there are people sneezing and coughing away in the very congested place. Hmmmm.

Then we see their heavy but dodgy steel sign outside blow over and slam onto the foot of someone just walking out the door. It wasn't even overly windy. Now it is starting to feel like negligence as the sign is then tucked away in a spot that clearly looks like they use it regularly all the other times it has blown over. The sign didn't have any props to stop it from collapsing, but is heavy enough it could kill or mame a small child.

So in summary, prepare for dirty tables, being very crowded, and be cautious of the dodgy sign out the front (which should be removed) if it is...

While ordering at this restaurant the other day, I encountered an extremely “enthusiastic” and “funny” waitress — the one who’s quite round and has a particularly face.

I walked up and clearly said may I have the beef rice noodle salad. She acted like she didn’t hear me and told me, “Go look at the menu and come back.” I glanced at her, and then she asked, “Oh, you mean the rice noodle salad?” Maybe what I said was just too advanced for her to process on the first try?

I said yes, and then she started chatting in Vietnamese with her colleague next to her, and the two of them started giggling. Not sure if the menu was hilarious that day, or if the dish I ordered was just one big joke. Getting laughed at mid-order, what a “unique” dining experience.

Then she asked if I wanted chili. I said yes. Well, guess what, my salad had absolutely no trace of chili. Maybe she was too busy enjoying the comedy hour during work to actually do her job? I get it, happy employees and chatting first, customer service second.

Bottom line: food was fine, not as good as before. And the waitress’s performance definitely...

My rating refers only to the pho on offer here. The other offerings look great. I love pho and was hopeful that someone in Tasmania might be serving something good. The size of the bowl was what I expected here, that being a medium sized bowl at an XL cost, but that’s par for course in Tasmania. As usual there were none of the accompanying sprouts, chillies or basil on offer. A handful of sprouts was already in the stock. Of course, a combination pho here is not what you’d get in a combination in Melbourne, for example. No tendon or tripe here but I wasn’t expecting there to be. What really let this pho down was the extreme saltiness of the soup. If there are any subtle aromatics in there, they’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of salt present. The noodles and beef were ok but again it was so salty I couldn’t finish the bowl. I don’t think I have ever left pho in a bowl before. Maybe someone slipped with the salt and this was not a typical batch. But I can only go by what I was served and sadly this was not a...