Pho Thin Australia (Pho Thin 13 Lo Duc MELBOURNE) — Restaurant in Melbourne

We came here twice during our two-week stay at Melbourne. Nothing is more comforting than a hot bowl of pho in Melbourne’s winter. 5 star for the pho but 1 star for the service. I think while the staff did try, the service flow/ management needs a lot of improvement.

The first visit was around 7pm. We used the QR code on the table to order and got the confirmation on the browser. After waiting for 30mins, we checked with the waiter and then he said those were not working and we had to order via the counter (though the waiter didn’t say anything when he seated us and it said scan to order on the table). After we ordered via the counter, they missed one bowl of pho again. We thought it was just still cooking but had to remind them after another 10mins wait.

Because the red wine pho had been sold out during our first visit, we thought we would give it a second try. We visited again around 2pm to avoid the lunch crowd. We were told by the waiter to wait outside as there wasn’t any table available inside, but there were several outside seating available. Soon we realised customers who came later just seated themselves, so we had to find seats on our own. Then we went straight to the counter to order this time. While I was about to order, the lady at the counter told me to wait for 10mins. She left the Kiosk and went around to each table to take orders / confirming orders. I then realised the wait was all caused by their messy ordering system. During my 10 mins wait, I also saw they literally put the ordering slip printed out by the kiosk on top of the pho (and only removed the slip while they were about to serve). After waiting with a long queue of customers, the lady came back to take my order. We paid at the counter and got a number, just like what we thought how the ordering process was. Again, we have seen 3 different types of ordering process during our two visits. It’s still very confusing to us on what to do next time. If there is a next…we should probably visit Springvale instead.

Food wise it tasted very good, though I think the broth was high in sodium (they claimed no msg). I got very...

(10/2022) This place now surcharged card payments again. Not sure what owner was thinking?

(8/2022) So apparently after moving to new facilities, the quality gets a bit better: _Takeaway no longer charges for containers _No more surcharges on card payments (update: now there is again) _No more tasteless broth. The broth is now better than last time. _More meat than last time.

The problem that remained is that the staffs are not too professional. But I guess that is what expected of an Asian food vendor. Overall food is acceptable for its value, given that it’s in the heart of CBD.

Old review in 1/2022: Being a former favorite customer, the place have left me with a chain of disappointments after few times of ordering, from customer service to food quality. A restaurant that starts to disrespect the customers when the fame is big:

_Price go up by $2.5/bowl, but cut down the meat by half. _Broth was tasteless. Seems like the chef poured tap water in the whole pot to serve more people. This happened to us up to 3 times, regardless of take away or dine in, morning or evening, so no excuses here. _Up to $0.5/takeaway box, and each meal uses 2 takeaway boxes. Imagine ordering for a group and pick up, only to realize that it’s more expensive than using food delivery apps. _Gave them a review on how to improve, never see them saying thank you or sorry to me, but they did reply to some of the comments here.

Ever since the original owner left, this place no longer care how the customer feels. Please do yourself a proper customer...

DO NOT COME AGAIN. I rarely post negative comments, but this restaurant made me outraged. Since the first day I arrived in Melbourne, I was a big fan of this place. I brought my friends here and celebrated my successes in my academic journey, etc. I was very fond of their unique garlic ingredients and always ordered a plate of Vietnamese doughnuts with pho. These doughnuts are quite similar to Chinese doughnut sticks, which are long, deep-fried pieces of leavened dough typically served in pairs. Initially, they served a plate with two pairs of Vietnamese doughnuts, totaling four pieces. Vietnamese/Chinese doughnuts are a very cheap street snack in Asia, typically costing about A$0.25 per pair. At that time, I thought the price of A$2.50 for two pairs (equivalent to four pieces) was higher than expected but still reasonable.

However, one year later, everything changed. They replaced their doughnut product with a different type of small, round dough. Now, they serve you two pieces of these smaller doughnuts on one plate and charge A$2.50 for each piece. When I asked the restaurant owner why, he LIED TO MY FACE and claimed they had never changed it. Changing your product strategy is one thing, but lying to customers is on a completely different level.

I won’t come back again, and by the way, there are rumors around town that they accept stale and questionable meat products from their suppliers. I wouldn’t have believed it, but I have no faith either, since the owner just lied to me about the...