Oren Pho Vietnamese restaurant — Restaurant in England

I've been eating Viet food for decades. I have been to this restaurant before and I have to say this wasn't the same restaurant that I had been to before. The service initially was unfriendly with the server making us feel an imposition. That didn't improve during the meal. Our drinks came quick enough but then our server disappeared for awhile without coming back to take our order. Eventually the orders were taken. We had a Vietnamese iced coffee and a jasmine tea. The coffee did not come, as some other reviews show, made at the table and poured over ice, rather it was premixed. The pho was okay but there were no bean sprouts, chillies, herbs or sauces available. We ended up asking for hoisin and sriracha which did improve the soup some. Smallish bowls as well. It seemed that £11 was a lot for this. We also ordered goi coun (summer rolls) which were unimpressive. Two small rolls cut in half, with contents being half a small piece of pork , half a prawn and a mint leaf, a small amount of rice vermicelli and a ton of lettuce. The rolls were cut in half and placed in a saucer of satay sauce . Unappetising and it fell apart quickly. There was some prawn shell in one and some gelatinous inedible ? pork? as well. The menu has all sorts of stuff from all over in it now .. kimchi, laksa, miso rice.. now a hodge podge rather than truly Vietnamese. I guess that the owners need to so something to attract customers but making consistently good food would be a great place to start. I'm giving a three because it's sort of an average faux S E Asian restaurant. If you want good traditional Vietnamese food, perhaps this isn't the...

I figured it was time to re-review Oren Pho following a second visit in March 2019 with their new menu. Great news for fellow Northampton vegans: almost all the vegetable-based dishes are now vegan. Only one of the large plates has egg as a core component. The veggie spring rolls were served with chilli sauce on request, not fish sauce.

This time my wife and I avoided the vegan pho and went for grilled/stir-fried dishes. The best dish was aubergine and sweet potato tossed in a tasty sauce/coating - amazing! We also ordered a plate with fried tofu, mushrooms, and broccoli in a gravy-like sauce. I'd guess its authentically Vietnamese, but the tofu used is silken-like inside the crispy coating. It reminded me of sweetbreads (YMMV) and would have preferred crispy firm tofu. The sauce was also a bit bland!

Service overall was fine, and a free glass of Prosecco was available for Mothers' Day. I really want to love Oren Pho but I've been disappointed by a dish each time! I'll definitely come back to try some of the other vegan options on the menu as I think it's a case of finding...

Awful waitress. Would suddenly walk away to do something else when youre speaking or she'd simply ignore you. That happened throughout the meal. Starter and drinks took one hour. There was only 4 tables filled so it wasnt even near busy.We saw 3 cooks in the kitchen working too so no idea what took so long. ONE HOUR for drinks is inexcusable. And we had to ask for refills 3 times before she finally did, 25 minutes after the 1st request. Even when the starters finally arrived it was incomplete. The rest of it arrived after all our mains were served. She was serving alone but not once did she excuse herself or apologise for the long waits. We were the only table left by the time we finished, and she didnt even bother to look up and say a simple bye when we left. Really rude waitress with extremely poor service. Never written a review before thats how bad it was. Like we were unwanted. The 3 stars are purely for the nice food. Seriously though train your...