Pho Bournemouth — Restaurant in Great Britain

I try and be as fair as possible.

Food: The food itself was flavoursome and enjoyable. Temperature wise it was luke warm at best and felt like it just have been sat under lights for ages on the pass. Hot bowls, but tepid food.. We had a hot and spicy beef brisket Pho and a chicken curry. We didn’t order starters and food took over 30 mins to come out at 3pm when the lunch trade had died off. I appreciate they are currently offering discounts as it’s their soft opening to allow for training errors but this still seemed poor.

Service: Loads of staff around, 3 different people visited our table. Our waitress explained the menu but didn’t try to sell us anything. We would of probably had a starter based on a recommendation? The person who brought our food over explained the Pho and the various garnishes and how they could enhance the dish - we thought this was great!! No one checked back on our food until after we had finished. We had to search for someone to be able to pay.

Payment: We didn’t like the pay at the table option. It takes away some of the personable side of the process and turns it all transactional. What happened to being hospitable in hospitality? The service charge is added already and there is no option to remove it unless you ask the server. A lot of people will feel awkward having to ask to get it removed.

I personally felt based on my experience today I wouldn’t tip and felt I should of had the option in a table of 2 to choose whether I wanted to tip or not.

The option to opt out should be added to the card pay system for the customer to choose. It’s not obvious a tip has been added unless you go through the menu and select to view your transactions. I appreciate service charges on large tables etc however I would also expect some personality and interaction too?

I work in hospitality myself at the weekends and am also a pub area manager during the week. I work hard to talk to my customers and enhance their experience and feel a tip shows I did something to enhance my customers visit

Today I felt annoyed that there was no option to choose whether to tip or not without feeling like a naughty child having to explain at the table why I would like the service charge removing .

All in all we felt the food was nice and had a fresh feel to it so we didn’t leave feeling too heavy, food presentation was also good however we were left disappointed and both said we would probably not choose to...

I have dined here many times, but our last experience wasn't good. We entered the restaurant and the staff member (Dwayne) couldn't find a table for us even though it was not busy. I was the one who suggested where to sit, and the other customers said that we could take their table since they were almost finished. Then we sat down, he didn't give us any menu nor asked for drinks. We have four kids and he just ignored us. We took the menu from the station because no one was assisting us. No kid's menu, no highchairs, no crayons or anything that was offered. We waited for almost 30 mins just to order. We called him and said we were ready to order. He said he would come back, but he didn't. He prioritized other tables. He was clearing up empty tables, which he could do after taking our orders. He was hosting. He was taking the order of other table even though we came first. He was walking around looking for something to do apart from taking our order. He really ignored us the whole time. I guess he wants us to leave because we have 4 children with us. No one asked if there was anyone with allergies in our group. Then I asked for the manager so I could complain. The staff, which I don't know the name, did a great service recovery. He was the one who looked after us the whole time and his service was great.

As an assistant general manager in another restaurant, I know that we didn't have good service. I never complained in the restaurant, but our bad experience was enough reason to complain. I am writing down this review/feedback so they can improve the service, especially for customers with kids. The food was great, but the service needs improvement.

**Dined Aug 4...

It’s a 3 star for me and my Vietnamese wife. Having lived in Vietnam for 7 years, sorry to say but this is very much fake Vietnamese food made for the UK masses and very very far away from what you would actually get if you went to Vietnam.

Firstly, the service was excellent, very attentive and friendly, well done.

We received the food and we were surprised. Wow, this is definitely not Bún Bò Huế! The noodles were phở (flat noodles) not (bún). Flavour tasted 0% like Bún Bò in Vietnam. It tasted fine but I am just a bit confused as to why it would be passed off as Bún Bò, when the noodles are wrong and the flavour is nothing like it really is. Head scratching stuff.

The bún thịt nướng is meant to be a balance of sweet (fish sauce and sugar) and sour (pickled veg). This dish was more like someone giving me a tablespoon of salt and asking me to eat it for a tenner as a laugh. Pure salt. I guess it’s perhaps suitable for UK tastes.

Finally we ordered the Vietnamese coffee. I love Vietnamese coffee, so I was excited. My god what a sorry state of affairs that was. Watery and tasteless, I was beginning to wonder if they bothered putting any coffee in there. Considering Vietnamese coffee should be blowing my socks off, this was like a fart in the wind.

Overall, nothing really to complain about really, as I am biased having lived in Vietnam for so long. The meat portions were generous and my family seemed happy enough. But if you’re looking for authentic food, this ain’t...