Pho Harborne — Restaurant in Birmingham

First and last time!

I decided to try Pho Harborne for the first time today at 1:00 PM. The restaurant was nearly empty, with only three or four occupied tables. I waited to be seated, and when the waitress approached with menus in hand, I told her it would be a table for one. She looked around at the many empty tables and then said, "Sorry, we’re fully booked."

Fully booked? On a Tuesday at 1:00 PM? And yet, not a single table available for just one person? That’s some truly disappointing hospitality. If this is how they treat potential customers, I won’t be coming back—and I’ll be sure to share my experience.

This is the response I received on 24/2 after they asked me to email them. Their reply is just as unprofessional as the situation itself.

'First and foremost, we would like to apologise for the inconvenience we caused you on Tuesday 18th Feb 2025. We are truly sorry about the experience you had at Pho Harborne.

Since the incident, we immediately arranged a team meeting to investigate the situation that occurred on the day. After speaking to team members individually and making them aware of the situation, we found out it was a result of a miscommunication and a language barrier.

We had an unexpected case of shortage of staff being available on duty - due to illness; as a consequence of this, the team were left with new trainee staff who had just started that week and were not mentally prepared for the frustration of this situation. Being unable to cope with the situation herself, rather than explaining this in full detail to guests (that the team was unable to open for business properly based on the circumstances), this member - out of panic - said we were fully booked; only in order to stop taking any walk-in customers, and to prevent any more potential setbacks/stress.

We are truly sorry; this situation should have been explained properly on the day. We just didn't have the staff to ensure we could take any walk-in guests at that moment and provide the service we're supposed to deliver based on our own standards.

Instead of taking in any customers for the purpose of making sales, we prioritise guest satisfaction and were unable to care for our guests properly on this occasion. Which is why it was decided to keep the customers coming in at a slower rate, so that everything was under control.

We totally understand that a table of 1 person wouldn't have made the situation worse. However, the staff member who happened to greet you on arrival was trying her best to handle the situation as instructed whilst the management team were solving other issues at the same time.

It's heart breaking to know that the team member being unable to explain the situation at hand - due to a language barrier - has caused so much damage on the day. She has passed along her apologies and as a team we're all sincerely sorry that you had to be on the receiving end of this.

We've taken precautions to prevent anything like this happening again - staff have been briefed on how to communicate with customers moving forward.

Thank you for contacting us, we appreciate your kind patience.

All the best, Pho Harborne...

I was excited to see a Vietnamese restaurant pop up in our local area, so I booked in for Mother's day. When we arrived, we were seated at a sticky, dirty table. Then my son went to sit down, and showed us his chair was covered in something sticky. Not a great first impression. However, things didn't get much better from then. We asked to be seated at a clean table - and the waitress replied with a huff and a puff. Great, we had a waitress who didn't like providing customer service. All this within the first 2 minutes of walking in. Had it not have been mothers day, and everywhere being fully booked, we would have left after that.

Right, food - no complaints on the food. It was good, in fact, authentic is best to describe it.

Service however, never improved. My wife was left waiting for her ordered dessert, and in the end just got fed up of waiting so we settled the bill and left. Even whilst settling the bill, no apologies for the endless delays or lack of service being provided. Some staff were just miserable, whilst some were ok. It's the ones that are miserable that bring the whole place down.

I feel the staff training needs to be stepped up several notches to bring it up to acceptable levels. People don't just visit for the food - if we wanted that, we can visit food stalls...

I ordered the beef combo rice noodles, which included steak, brisket, and meatballs.The rice noodles were pleasantly chewy. The beef was stewed until very tender, and each of the three types of meat had a distinct texture. The steak slices were likely thinly cut — they were firm but still tender and not dry. The brisket, being leaner, had a slightly drier texture in comparison, but it was soft enough to be pulled apart into shreds, practically melting in the mouth and soaked with the broth’s flavor. We also ordered summer rolls. The rice paper wrapper had a slight vinegar tang, and when dipped in the sweet sauce, the overall taste was refreshing and quite good. The only downside was the service. Despite the large size of the restaurant, there were only one or two staff members. No one was assigned to seat customers — we had to ask a server ourselves to find a seat. Even after sitting down, no one came to take our order for a long time, so again we had to go ask ourselves. The service was really lacking. Moreover, when paying, they didn’t mention or notify us about the 12.5% service charge, which was a bit frustrating. I am not asked to select the service fee in POS machine. That makes me not...