PHO EVER | Pho Restaurant | Bubble Tea | Poke — Restaurant in Krakow

We looked at the reviews for this place before we decided to come along while on our 2 week Poland round trip. I do have to say, my Fiancée has been to Taiwan many times and she loves the food and beverage here.

I’ll be honest it’s my first taste of Taiwanese food but having ethnic Chinese/Cantonese/Hong Kong/Hakka origins in my DNA and being from Manchester, United Kingdom this place is BOOM!

The jasmine tea is proper good and you can taste the aroma and differences as it is from Taiwan. I tried my wife’s warm 50% sugar Taro bubble tea and OMG, we nearly got into a fight because I took it off her and called it mine.

Food wise, we ordered the chilli wontons with meat twice, they were gorgeous.

We also had the Spicy Sha-Cha & Sesame noodles (hand made like the wontons). So relieving to the soul as we have been on walking tours today in the minus 10 degree winter weather.

I’m just a sucker for rice and ordered the Taiwanese rice with Pork meat sauce. All your protein, carbs, fat and fibre in a sweet bowl. Oh did I mention all the eggs that came with the dishes are the soft boiled, iced bath ramen types with the golden runny yolk in the middle marinated in gorgeous sauce.

We didn’t stop there we had a side of salt fried chicken wings and they were finger licking good.

Definitely worth coming along for such a hearty meal.

(Adding this in my edit- Asis who served us, provided excellent service, my Fiancée also gathered some intel and found out the boss and the chef is from Taiwan). (2nd part of the edit- my Fiancée said we are not married yet on my...

When a place has such a catchy name and overwhelmingly positive reviews, anyone would be tempted to go. On the first page of the menu you learn the story behind the place, the technique of cooking and a little bit about the owner.

This place does look great, especially on photos. And despite a nicely organised terrace, you feel like a tomato in the greenhouse. Quite hot and not enough air to breathe. One ventilator in the far corner only helps someone sitting next to it.

Each dish contains 4 levels of spiciness. We thought to try level 2 and 3, and if they satisfy our taste, we’d try level 4 as well. It was disappointing when 3rd level, presumably “asian level” wasn’t as spicy as expected. That led is to believe that level 4 isn’t worth the additional 5 pln.

The meat here is delicious, perhaps one of top places I’ve tried meat at. However, if you try pho, the broth is quite disappointing, especially after so much text about how it is prepared. It sort of lacks depth and isn’t as rich in taste as you’d expect.

What we also loved is bubble tea. Combining tapioka with a herb/black flavoured tea isn’t something other places do, especially in Krakow.

The only things that did disappoint were the broth, the spiciness level, and low level of oxygen. Other than that, the place wasn’t too bad and is worth visiting...

We were looking forward to the fried noodles with vegetables listed on the website menu. However, when we arrived, we found out they weren’t available at all. We then decided to order spring rolls – but were told they couldn’t serve them because they had no salad.

In the end, we chose to build our own poke bowl (rice, salmon, avocado, cucumber – which turned out to be sour, although it was supposed to be fresh salad cucumber – plus egg, tomato, bell pepper, peanuts, and honey mustard dressing). Unfortunately, the whole dish seemed like it had been prepared long in advance. The egg looked unappetizing and didn’t seem fresh, so we didn’t even eat it. The dish had an unpleasant sour smell and taste – even the honey mustard dressing, which should have had a sweet and tangy flavor, was overwhelmingly sour and didn’t go well with the rest.

The final touch was the use of plastic cutlery – which nowadays feels more like a last resort than a standard.

It’s a shame, but the overall experience didn’t match the expectations or the way the restaurant presents itself online. From a place with such a high rating, I expected much more – quality, freshness, and attention to detail. Unfortunately, all of that...