Pho Exeter — Restaurant in Exeter

We were on a day trip to Exeter and had already decided to visit Pho before arriving after researching online.

We aren’t strangers to Vietnamese food so perhaps our expectations are a little high, however simple mistakes were made. The beef brisket pho noodle soup was overly bland.

When a member of staff asked how our food was, I pointed out my displeasure and he seemed to nod and walk off. He came back shortly after and suggested I add the fish sauce condiment on the table. While that may have helped, the base soup shouldn’t have relied on me adding a sauce to give it actual body and flavour. The brisket it self was nice, but it didn’t seem authentic and it was overly thick for that type of dish, almost off putting to eat.

The beef betel also looked unappetising, and the actual beef was quite dry and chewy. The vegetable garnishes were good, as was the sauce which accompanied the dish but they need to use better quality beef and they need to wrap it better in the betel leaf. Failure to do so makes it look awfully similar to a dog poo in the park (Refer to picture).

The wok fried rice was actually very nice, but maybe spice rating would be helpful as my wife couldn’t handle it despite being relatively good with spice. Overall I enjoyed it though and would order this again.

The restaurant gives the impression of being family friendly with its child menu, but we were disappointing to only see one rest room which was for “whichever” (their words) meaning it was a mixed gender bathroom. Not ideal for a parent wishing to take their three year old daughter to the toilet - having to share it with both men and women simultaneously.

When it came to paying the waitress brought over a card reader and went straight to the payment screen. Luckily my wife had my card and was taking our daughter to the rest room so I delayed paying and she left the card reader at the table. I decided to press back on the payment screen to view the order details. It appeared that we had been unknowingly charger for an optional service fee which was £6.79. I noticed the waitress give me a strange look from a distance when she saw me looking at the card reader because she realised she had been caught out. Needless to say, she didn’t come back over. I ended up calling over one of the male waiters and asked him if the service fee was “optional” and he said yes, so I asked him to take it off, which he did. The underhandedness left a bad taste in my mouth, but then again having said that a bad taste is better than “no...

First time eating here, which can always be a worrying time when there are specific dietary requirements in the party. We needn't have worried at all, when you are seated and order, you are asked if you have any dietary requirements, which is something that I wish all places would do. We were informed that if the menu items have an asterisk against them, it means that they are not free from gluten, which is really nice and rather refreshing compared to having to scour menus for something that is gluten free.

The lovely guy that served us, I am so sorry I can't remember his name, I think was new as we did enquire about items being gluten free and he had to check with a colleague (no problem at all, much rather he checks and is sure than gives wrong information), was lovely and gave excellent customer service. Also huge shout out to Paula (who was the colleague he asked the question to) who, on realising that there were dietary requirements, ensured that she was always not far away and available to help if needed. So many places could learn how to give excellent customer service from her!

The food was delicious, my partner enjoyed summer rolls to start and a hot and spicy soup for main, I enjoyed crispy spring rolls to start (I can eat gluten without issues) and stir fried noodles as my main. All absolutely perfectly cooked with bags of flavour. I can highly recommend the peanut sauce, absolutely divine!

It is also worth noting that we are both vegan and often find it difficult to find places that have both gluten fee AND vegan options and, more often than not, if they do they have just the one thing and no real choice. Dining out as Asian restaurants can also cause issues due to the common use of fish sauce. This was not an issue at Pho, they even explained that that some dishes or sauces contain fish sauce and ensured that none of our food contained this. Great to see a restaurant serving This Isn't Chicken, that brand is a personal favourite. Although in this instance, I went for the tofu as I really love tofu.

To summarise, both the food and the service was excellent and cannot be faulted, we have agreed that we will definitely be returning to Pho again in the...

I love Pho, it’s one of my favourite foods. I am currently unwell so I thought pho would help me on the road to recovery. I ordered the immunity boost deal via the website which took me to a deliveroo page. When the meal arrived the driver informed me the restaurant forgot to pack my drink (£4.50 if bought outside of the deal). The driver said I have to contact deliveroo but when I called the number on the order details, the call went through to pho and the person who answered the phone said they’d investigate but didn’t take my details and then cut me off. I called pho back who said I should call deliveroo who she said should have contacted me to arrange a refund as they won’t replace the missing drink ‘no available drivers’. I contacted them 3 times: phone twice and once online. then received an email advising deliveroo have refunded me 80p! presumably because the drink was part of a meal deal ! So not only did I not get my drink but I have actually not received any ‘deal’ having paid what is now essentially full price for the main meal and starter with no drink. It feels like a scam, customers think we’re getting a good deal and then Pho leave out an important element, refusing to replace it and then refund a minuscule percentage of said missing drink so you’re actually paying normal price and not receiving any deal . I am incredibly disappointed with this service and honest has put me off using Pho again which is a shame as it’s our favourite...