Pho Leicester — Restaurant in Great Britain

So excited to have Pho open in Leicester but I couldn’t try until yesterday due to broken ankle and ORIF back in sept... both my friend and hubby tired it and both gave high rating about this place. So yesterday we all went to the restaurant and what a disappointment. Both of them saying it’s nothing like what they had last time and they had it during weekdays. I gave 2 stars because of the service but the food... sorry the worse viet restaurant I had so far.

Brisket beef with steak noodles in beef broth... soup not hot and noodles undercooked. I asked them to please put in microwave for me as I don’t want to waste food. They made me a new one in no time as they don’t have microwave. I was impressed with the fast service, but when he second bowl came it was worse than the first bowl, some noodles were still sticking together. So I quickly ask them to maybe put in the pot and boil again as I haven’t even took a bite. Finally the third bowl came and noodles were much softer and the soup was hot but... the broth has no taste and the brisket beef is like cardboard texture.

Starters, spring roll was recommend by my hubby as he liked it last time, but this time, it looks like they over fried and burnt a bit but... is not crispy, feels like it was fried in the morning and quickly fried again before serve.

The prawn crispy crepe... oh my god... what was that? You call it crispy? That’s worst than the spring rolls. The so called crepe texture is like cold plastic... and inside with super rock hard chicken bits and beansprouts... and prawns? Yes 4 bits of halved prawns lol

The green papaya salad... I can only taste sour vinegar and nothing else... maybe they have forgotten to add seasoning in the dressing. The sauce came with spring roll was normal and the salad was pure sour.

My friend also thinks the first 2 bowls noodles were way undercooked and the one he previously had during the week he described the noodles as “smoooooooth”.

At the end I asked the waitress if the chef is different during the week and she replied no. But we guess the good chef don’t want to work on Sunday. I just don’t understand how you not able to cook the noodles right when charging nearly £10 per bowl of noodles.

When the bill came I was surprised that they have deducted the noodle that I had...

Wish I could put 0 stars. Used to be my favourite restaurant, I have been countless times and always order the same dish because I love it so much. But this time was my worst experience in a restaurant. To start with, I told the reception I cannot have gluten as usual. after we ordered and our food came my partner realised the spring roll on his meal had been swapped for a summer role, and turns out they had mixed up who had a gluten allergy. Thankfully I know the meal I order is completely safe for me to have, but under other circumstances this could be so dangerous for people with allergies. The restaurant wasn't even very busy so just incredibly poor communication. To make matters worse the food was completely tasteless, nothing like the dish I love so much. Honestly felt like I had a plate of just boiled noodles and veg. My partner also ordered a dish he has had many times before and had the same issue. We spoke to the staff and manager who did offer to have it remade but said it will likely come out exactly the same again because there is nothing wrong with the dish. We decided to leave it and just eat because we don't like to waste food and did not see a point. When we got the bill I asked if anything can be done to discount the meals because we were really unhappy and disappointed. The manager came over and was incredibly rude to us, said we cant just eat the food and not pay for it. he told me that the likelihood his chef had made two dishes wrong was impossible and we had to pay the full bill. He was argumentative and rude, told us that it sounds like we just don't like the food despite me saying I had this dish many times before. This comment made us both feel so uncomfortable. Really ruined what was my favourite place to go for special occasions, and I have limited options since I am gluten free. Should have gone...

Although the food was, as always extremely nice, I couldn't help just feeling really disappointed on the way out. I'm so frustrated with restaurants automatically adding on a service charge onto the bill these days. In this case it was 12½%. They're preying on people feeling awkward about asking to take the service charge off which is exactly what happened with us.

When we sat down to eat I'd assumed there was no service charge because a couple sat next to us asked to have a service charge removed if there was one, and the waitress politely told them there was no service charge. So I never gave it another thought, until I was about to swipe my card and I noticed the discretionary 12½% service charge. So either the waitress just blatantly lied to this couple or she was new and maybe not aware. By this point anyway I couldn't bring myself to ask for it to be taken off because I felt awkward. I normally have to build myself up to something like that, I guess I feel a bit cheap or whatever. Anyway I shouldn't even have to do that. I go out for something to eat to enjoy myself, not feel awkward, and not to have to mentally prepare myself to ask for a charge to be removed. If I thought the service charge went solely into the pockets of the waiting staff I likely wouldn't mind so much, but I'd bet the entirety of the service charge I paid that it doesn't. Which riles me somewhat. So regardless of how nice the food and the staff are, me and my wife probably won't ever be gracing this restaurant with our presence again. Unless I am with my sister who has absolutely no problem removing all unnecessary charges from bills and making her discontent plain for all to see. I'll just pop to the toilet while it all unfolds without me. 😀 Thanks for the nice food over the years anyway. Shame it's destined never to...