Pho - Vietnamese restaurant & Noodle bar — Restaurant in Rotterdam

I’ve been a loyal customer of this restaurant for the past eight years and have always enjoyed my visits. However, my recent experience left me truly disappointed, and I’m not sure I’ll be returning.

I was looking forward to ordering a specific type of spring roll that was pictured on the menu. I asked the waitress, who I could tell was new, if she could help me identify which spring roll it was. I explained that I really wanted the one in the photo on the menu. There were about four or five options, and she told me they were all Vietnamese spring rolls ( referring that I was kind of stupid as we are in a Vietnamese restaurant) and looked the same. I asked if she was sure or if she might want to check with a colleague or the kitchen. She reassured me that it was fine, so I trusted her and ordered starter number 10, thinking it was the one I had asked about.

When the food arrived, it was clearly not the spring roll I was expecting. I politely let her know, and she replied bluntly, “You told me number 10, and this is number 10. If you're not happy, you can order an extra starter.” I found this response rude and unhelpful, especially since I had specifically asked for guidance and trusted her recommendation. Mistakes happen, but rather than acknowledging it, she made it seem like the error was mine and offered no solution except for me to pay for another starter and of course pay for the started number 10 as well.

What surprised me even more was that after this interaction, she avoided our table for the rest of the evening. We had to flag down another waitress every time we needed...

Warning: PLOT TWIST at the end. 1- Atmosphere: Nice, cozy, good for family and date as well! Beautiful decorations. Table privacy is on point despite the crowd. Everything about the setting is perfect! 2- Staff: All very nice & kind. Serve quickly and will go back and forth to your table to ask whether everything is okay. Good that they check on us from time to time and also cleanly clean up. Good job you all! Also I feel like because they are sufficiently staffed so the employees don’t seem to be very exhausted and rather more chilled so they could serve us in a good manner as well, props to the manager for that! 3- Food: Okay here comes the conflict and the minuses. The ‘bo bun’ or ‘bun bo Nam Bo’ was so so and smelled a bit chemical. ‘Nuoc mam’ (fish sauce) wasn’t adding to the plate as well, just very plain/bland/bit tasteless. Pho Bo & Pho Ga were good, especially the Pho Bo (beef noodles). The broth was very yummy!

HOWEVER, here comes all the minuses. I got diarrhea right after eating. Don’t tell me it was because of ‘other food’ because I hadn’t had any food that day and was fasting until dinner for the meal at this place. Definitely something wrong with the ingredients or the food because the Pho Bo was nice, but the Bun Bo Nam Bo smelled so so so so so much of a ‘chemical plate’. Indeed disappointing because with all of the good points above, the place deserves 4+ stars if the food quality wasn’t too bad.

WON’T COME BACK....

We visited Pho for dinner as a small group of 4. We shared a papaya salad with shrimp, the salad was fresh and tasty with a lot of herbs, and the dressing was on point too. I ordered a pho with stewed meat (pho bo nam), the broth was the highlight of the evening for me! It was so light and fresh, and packed-full of flavor. It was nourishing without being heavy, perfect for the summertime! The meat was the weakest point though, and the noodles were also OK. The rest went for mixed beef pho (pho dac biet) and grilled pork belly (com thit nuong). Compared to my stewed meat, the pork belly and the med rare beef in pho were so much better!

From the drinks menu, the sugarcane syrup was surprisingly good! A lot of flavor without being too sickly sweet.

While the service was good and our food arrived fast, they refused to serve us tap water although we ordered multiple drinks and quite a bit of food as well. Do keep that in mind, especially if you want to dine as a...