Phuong Nam — Restaurant in Tokyo

I live nearby and was really excited when this place opened because yay, Vietnamese food! I was disappointed on my very first visit, when the grilled pork was full of gristle. Not just one bite, I mean half of the "meat" was gristle. But I kept coming because I love Vietnamese food, and it usually wasn't as bad as that first time.

Speed and professional service have always been an issue. If you only have an hour lunch break for work, don't even try eating there during the main rush. These days, the inconsistent service has become a dealbreaker, especially if you're trying to get takeout. Recently we've had orders cancelled by the restaurant, orders that are massively delayed, we've received pho with no noodles, pho with cold noodles... I'm no expert but those noodles must have been precooked and left sitting out for a long time to get that cold and gelatinous. It's clear that the owner's priority is just making money, not having pride in their food or investing money in more help to cover the rush. So no more Phuong Nam...

Second time... Really love it for lunch. Haven't been for dinner yet. Nice service, if not slightly inexperienced this time. Like others mentioned, very clean and professional kitchen. It doesn't wow with maybe super-authentic flavor but everything had been solid and when everything is very obviously made fresh you have to appreciate that.

Addendum. There was a little trouble making change for a ¥10,000 note... Which delayed me a bit getting back to work on time, but they handled it fairly well. Something they'll need to fix, as on any given day every table could potentially pay with a large bill. Norm for Japan. Cards would be nice and it seemed like maybe they were in the process of getting...

Very bad service and attitude of the staff. We came in a group of 7, 6 of us ordered same lunch set and 1 ordered alacarte. When 6 of us almost finished our set, the single dish of the other one didn’t even arrive (after 50mins) When we asked them when my friend could have his food, they said wait then came back saying they didn’t have that dish available. No sorry. No compensation. Not to mention the food is not even close to Vietnamese food. The ingredients, the taste, everything is far far far different to Vietnamese food and worse than any other Vietnamese restaurants I have been to in Tokyo. And very expensive compared to the service quality and...