Essence of Saigon - Northland | Bistro - Vietnamese Pho Restaurant — Restaurant in Calgary

I have been going to this restaurant for the last 10 years. It has always been great and service used to be the friendliest. They did change servers a few years ago. Today I went on my lunch break and as I entered I made eye contact to the servers that were behind the counter and I said hi. I sat down and waited for the server to bring me the menu and take my beverage order. The restaurant only had one table and they had already finished their meal. Ten minutes went by and as much as I tried to made eye contact, I was completely ignored. Since I only had 30 min to eat I ended up getting up, I walked towards the counter and asked both of them if they could take my order. One of the servers the youngest with very short hair rolled her eyes at me and without even apologizing or trying to be polite, she just blurted out “ok what do you want” I should have left right away, but since I know the owner I asked for him. She then smiled and said that he wasn’t there, and she promptly smiled and said “ don’t worry I will take care of you”. I got my food fast as the kitchen is very efficient in this place. As I was eating two different men came into the restaurant, they were received with a smile and the servers brought their menus right away. Complete different treatment than what I got. Watching all of this made me realize that apparently single men get treated very differently here. I hope the owner hires different servers, many people in this city are looking for jobs and hiring the right people is very important. Servers are the face of the restaurant business. I am not sure if myself and my family will go back to what used to be our favourite...

I had the most disappointing Pho experience ever today. First, my order was incorrect. I had ordered satay beef pho but was brought chicken pho instead. I had to go up to the counter to tell them my order was wrong and the waitress told me that they would fix it.

They didn’t fix it, they made it worse!! The cook simple dumped the pho with the chicken in it into a different bowl and just put the beef on top. 😠 By the time my supposedly correct pho arrived the noodles were very very soggy. Once I started to eat, is when I noticed that there were still many pieces of chicken in it!! It was so gross! I hate the chicken pho.

Is this their standard of quality?? Do they not have a best practice policy when they get the order wrong?? No QA training so that we don’t get recycled soup?? What if it was an allergy?? Very poor.

The waitress walked by and noticed that I wasn’t eating it and that there was still chicken in my soup. She offered me a 10% discount but I would have rather had the proper soup that I ordered in the first place. What a waste of money and a lunch break. I will never go back. There are so many better options for Vietnamese cuisine in the city where the staff value and take pride in quality. I sure hope the owner works to...

UPDATE:

Because the pho always tastes great and the beef saigon summer/salad rolls are always delicious, I have changed my 3 star to a 4 star. Still upset over the betal leaves and will probably not order them again.

ORIGINAL POST:

I've made at least 10 orders from this place in the last year through skip (I know skip has a feature that tells resturants how many times a customer has ordered from them)

Normally I would rate it 5 star but today my grilled beef wrapped in betel leaves are either half or entirely burnt. The shrimp saigon rolls are ok, not as good as the beef one that I usually get but I did order extra since I love salad rolls with basil and though they would be as good as the beef. Peanut sauce is pretty good, not my favorite but not bad.

The saigon special was as delicious as i remember :) my past orders have always been great so I debating whether to give a 3 or 4 star but I couldn't get past the burnt betels which I've had before that tasted amazing. This time they just where just burnt and it doesn't look like it but they are iverly seasoned or sauced cause all I'm getting is overly powered somewhat sweet sauce coating? (Photo shows 1 burnt side and 1 okayish side. It's much darker and...