PHO NAM VIETNAMESE EATERY — Restaurant in Victoria

Waiting almost an hour for food that was barely edible made this the worst food experience I've had in a long time. I highly recommend that you avoid this place.

A friend and I were passing through the area and got hungry, so we stopped by for one takeaway banh mi each. The front counter had no line, and only a couple of people waiting for their orders, but the restaurant seating area was pretty full. We ended up waiting almost an hour for our banh mis, with no warning or explanation, by far the longest wait I've ever had for a banh mi. This is completely ridiculous - banh mis are fairly quick to make, and walk-in takeaway customers are generally expecting a fairly short wait for a small, simple order. If the kitchen is backed up, that's totally fine, but customers should be informed that they are experiencing delays, so that they can decide whether or not to proceed. It's also totally normal for busy eateries to put a hold on accepting orders. Clearly this eatery was priortising money over the customer experience.

This was bad enough, but things got even worse - both the bread roll, and the pork crackling were burnt. I can accept it when things are more on the brown side of golden brown, but there were parts of the bread and the crackling that were dark brown, almost black, and tasted ashy, acrid and bitter. We would have gone back and asked for a re-do, but we had already walked some distance away and were running late due to the extremely...

I’ve always loved Pho Nam and have been going there for years — but this visit was really disappointing.

I went in on a quiet Sunday and placed a takeaway order for barbecue chicken rice paper rolls and just a bowl of pork crackle. I asked for the usual peanut sauce and a side of mayo for the crackle — it all seemed clear at the time.

But I ended up waiting nearly 50 minutes, even though the place wasn’t busy. When I finally got my food, the sauces were wrong — all I got was soy sauce. The rice paper rolls were bland, barely had any chicken, and were packed with lettuce — honestly felt like I was eating a salad wrap. Then the pork crackle was covered in chilli, which I wasn’t told about, and it was way too spicy to eat.

I’ve had great food and service here before, which is why this was such a letdown. It just felt sloppy — and for $35, I expected better. Hoping this was just an off day, but it really...

Lovely place, would get 4.5 stars if I could as the only reason it's not 5 was a bit of a mix up on delivery of meals - entree forgotten for 1 guest and mains/ entree delivered simultaneously for another. Not a real big deal but you can't give 5 stars if it ain't perfect! But there's lots here that IS perfect and that includes the table service and the food, yum yum yum. 1/3 of the main courses are vegetarian and plenty of entrees are as well. Serve sizes are plentiful and is all DELICIOUS. Our waitress was lovely and polite, reading back our order to us to ensure all was correct on both drinks and meals (it was the kitchen that messed up...) The tables and all facilities were scrupulously clean, and the food smelt wonderful the moment we walked in. Great value as well, highly...