Pho Van Vietnamese Restaurant — Restaurant in Calgary

Our family wanted to have some vietnamese for dinner and since we were close by, we picked this restaurant. We had been there in the past and had a good experience so we felt comfortable picking this spot.

BOY WERE WE WRONG. My parents went into the restaurant first while I waited for my husband and baby to unload from our car. Once we got in, everyone was seated however we needed a high chair. We went over to the corner where 2 high chairs were and rolled one over to our table. I noticed the high chair was dirty ( the table attachment where the food goes still had crumbs and liquid stains on it), so naturally as any mom to a baby would do, I was hoping to get it cleaned. We waited a bit for our waitress to come by however when she didn't, I thought I might just go to see if I could find anyone. From the entrance of the restaurant you can see the kitchen area. I waited by the door to the restaurant and saw the waitress (she was wearing a blue and white shirt on Jul 23rd) look at me and give me an irritated look. She huffed and puffed as she walked towards me. I politely asked if they had something to wipe down the high chair with. She said what?! And i repeated myself asking for something to wipe down the chair with. She looked and me rudely replied "the high chair is clean. I cleaned them all this morning." I looked down at the table part and it was not. I tried to show her the dirty parts and food crumbs and said "its dirty here...". She didn't acknowledge what I said, she kept saying "no, its clean" and "if I wanted it cleaned there was a sink over there" (she pointed to a sink close to the table were were sat at) and then walked back into the kitchen rushed and angry. The other customers around us also looked in disbelief. One of them said, thats not okay... I was in a bit of a shock to be honest. In the service industry, providing a clean place to eat is kind of important and if the client is asking for an extra wipe down, especially where their children's food is going, then do it. Its not my job to take this over to the sink and wash it. Its part of the business industry that YOU chose to participate in and I wasn't asking her to hose down the whole high chair, just a wipe with a cloth on the table attachment so the area where food goes would be cleaned.

We were appalled by her attitude and lack of respect for the customer. Her actions displayed arrogant contempt for the paying customers and we decided to take our business elsewhere. We noticed that she didn't care that we were leaving (again, contempt for the customer).

When retelling my experience at work, my coworkers at the hospital said that they've gone to this restaurant and encountered the same bad attitude from the same waitress. She was wearing a blue and white top - maybe a relative of the owner or the owner themselves.

Calgarians, if you find yourself there and experiencing that bad behavior, just leave....Pho Hoang is around the corner. Maybe the restaurant will re-evaluate how they treat their customers. I don't need to dine there, but I would think as a small business, you would want the customers.

I will not give this restaurant...

Short review - our dining experience on their grand opening today was meh. If you want more authentic Vietnamnese food, go to Pho Hoan Pasteur in Royal Oak, or Sage Hill.

Service - We walked in around 10:45 AM today, and there were about 7 tables, including us. With maybe 20 customers. Not super busy IMO, but our food took a looong time to come, by Vietnamese restaurants standard (They said because they just got a lot of orders when I places our order). people that was working also seemed a bit overwhelmed/lost, even though it wasn't super busy. Like few people didn't seem to know the tables' number (there are no table number on the tables). This is surprising to me, because they have at least one more restaurant in Harvest Hills. We were greeted/served by 4-5 different people, so again, a lot of people working, but our food and drinks came out very slowly.

Food - our first drink came out very quickly, but then we had to wait at least 15 mins for our noodle soup. After that, we got our appetizer, then our second drink. 🤷‍♂️

We asked the older gentlemen (owner?) if we can get lettuce instead of bean spouts (because my wife is pregnant, and bean spouts are more prone to have salmonella), but he said it is not possible. Pho Hoan Pasteur Sage Hills usually would give us lettuce.

The Phorrito was unique, but didn't wow us with its taste. The beef noodle soup didn't have a very good broth, IMO. not a lot of taste, but quite a bit of MSG. Their satay beef noodle soup was a big disappointment. They basically made the normal broth spicy, which usually means they are lazy, or don't know how to make a proper one. Again, go to Pho Hoan Pasteur for their beef satay soup.

Overall, it wasn't a very good dining experience. We will definitely not return, with Pho Hoan...

Normally this place is my go-to for Pho Rare Beef and tripe and is usually the owner (older gentleman) I see. We went here today and I am very disappointed on the food and the service when there was literally just us and and another table. I ordered my usual requesting cooked bean sprouts and my partner ordered a Pho Satay. Pho came and the Pho Satay does not look like Pho Satay at all, told the waiter we ordered Pho Satay and he just gave us sauce on the side….he then brought raw bean sprouts later …when I requested cooked. Anyways, the first bite of the beef I had I instantly knew there was something funky , beef tasted sour like it’s turned bad. Same acknowledgement from my partner. Owner came and asked us how’s the food and I told him the beef is sour and not fresh (his following response is what really triggered me to write this incident) He was surprised and said “no way!” And walked away. He then came out wish some frozen sliced beef and showed me and said the beef was freshly sliced. I told him it’s the beef that’s bad, doesn’t matter if it’s “just sliced”. He walked back and kept saying it’s fresh. We told him to try it himself, but clearly he didn’t. Anyways he basically just ran away and when we went up to get the bill he was just in the kitchen and literally no resolution to the bad food. Sorry, it will have to be a while before I come back to...