Pho Bay Vietnamese Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Islands District

I know it just opened, but really not very good.

We arrived at 11:40 am, and we were told to order drinks first, and food could be ordered after 12 when the kitchen opened. We ordered two drinks, one of which was drip coffee, which we were then told was not available although it took ten minutes before we were told that. We ordered a different coffee but were told all coffees were out. I changed to beer. The waiter kept asking us if we wanted the first drink hot or cold (there times). He finally brought us the first drink at 12:10 pm, said the beer was out and would be substituted and finally brought it at 12:15 pm (yes 30-35 minutes for drinks to arrive). We were just about the first people in the restaurant.

We ordered two bowls of different Pho and a sharing platter just after 12pm. The first noodles arrived at 12:20 pm, and they were decent. The second dish, the mixed plate, arrived at 12:30 pm, and it was bland. I ordered a second drink whilst waiting for my food, but they brought the wrong beer (and later tried to charge me for this). We sent it back and got the right one. We also asked about the second noodles, which we had ordered.

At 12:40 pm, the waiter told us that our noodles would be ready in 1 minute. At 12:45 pm, the manager came over and told us that we had not ordered a second bowl of noodles. We argued with him, as the waiter had written down our order on a pad (and it was only three dishes, pretty hard to get wrong).

Finally the second noodle dish arrived a little after 12:50 pm, after waiting for an hour.

We won't go back until they get their...

Everything seemed fine with the restaurant, although with me being vegetarian, there was little choice. My friend ordered the same dishes as me, so it was a simple order. The forgot to bring the second serving (as per the pic) until we reminded them we placed two dishes, not one.

Customer service was pretty much non-existent, not counting bringing the dishes to the table, but I still paid the included ‘service charge’ and a small tip, which I didn’t think they deserved.

I think the sweet chili sauce was off, as it not only smelled strange, but probably contained fish (if so, it should be labelled as such, given some people have serious allergic reactions to such things). I’m convinced the food resulted giving me a stomach upset afterwards. At first I wasn’t sure if it was the food until my friend suffered the same bout of sickness as me, with exactly the same symptoms. Given this was the only meal we had in common, it’s fair to assume it was the food that gave us the stomach issue.

Whether is was via the salad (unclean handling) or the chili sauce, I don’t know, but it was a warning to me not to go to this...

Do not open a restaurant if you are not prepared to serve customers.

My friends and I experienced a very disappointing Sunday evening, during which we wasted an irreplaceable 80 minutes.

We ordered chicken satay and four bowls of pho, and we waited for an hour, understanding that the restaurant was busy. The waiter approached us twice, each time assuring us that our food would be ready in two minutes. On his third visit, he brought disappointing news: the restaurant had run out of both beef and noodles. Unfortunately, he did not offer any alternative dishes, suggesting only appetizers as a substitute.

We ultimately decided to leave the restaurant, and are now on the ferry back to the island, having placed an order with Deliveroo.

It is baffling that the restaurant accepted our order without first ensuring the availability of the necessary ingredients. This certainly ruined my...