Pho Balham — Restaurant in London

Very disappointed with our experience yesterday at the Balham branch of Pho, we usually love eating at this chain in different parts of the country and recommend friends and family to try something new.

Yesterday was a special occasion where In-laws were meeting for the first time.

Having ordered drinks we asked for water which never came throughout the entire meal despite asking our server several times. We asked for forks which came near the end of our meal despite asking several times, which at this point wasn't much use.

One of the highlights of eating Pho is the Thai basil that comes with the herbs to add to the broth, none of our herb trays came with Thai basil, which I had to request (even though this is usually standard at every Pho I've been to), this came half hour into eating even though I asked our server several times. Also seemed to skimp on the chillies (usually there are quite a few on the herb tray to add to your broth)

There was no Accessible toilet with the only toilet being downstairs, having 3 people with a disability meant 1 of them couldn't use the bathroom, we had also requested on our table booking a table easily accessed due to mobility issues - expecting to be placed at the front of the restaurant to reduce walking - instead we were placed at the farthest point of the restaurant with a bench very difficult for people with disabilities to access.

The second server who looked after us once the food was finished and we were having drinks was great, the first one seemed to forget a lot despite the restaurant being empty.

I felt put out paying the service charge and a high bill after such a poor experience but not wanting to make a scene in front of family begrudgingly paid and left, we went onto a pub after - but would have stayed inside for more drinks if the service was better and there was an accessible toilet.

Food was DELICIOUS and we will go back to other Pho's just not this one, very disappointing experience that put a damper on what should have been a special occasion.

Also huge step into the restaurant with no ramp/level access options - poor...

We ordered through Deliveroo, there was no allergy information available and no opportunity to add a note to our order. So after ordering we tried to reach Pho to double check if it would be safe to eat and if they could leave the ingredient out if needed. Even though we had phoned multiple times regarding our dietary requirements (about 10-15 times at least) there was only a voicemail option (which we didn't hear back from). My boyfriend had to order food from somewhere else because he wasn't sure if it was safe for him to eat and we rather not spend Christmas eve at the hospital.

From our three vegan chicken orders, one of them did have actual meat in it. I haven't eaten meat in 10 years and I didn't plan on starting now. As you can image I was quite upset to realise what was in my food. I have had the This isn't chicken before (which is amazing), and because we had the vegan chicken in the other meals we were able to compare and one of them was definitely actual chicken!

What was supposed to be a lovely and convenient meal ended up being very frustrating. We spend £40 on food from Pho (plus then extra for the other order somewhere else) with only 1 out of the 3 of us enjoying the meal. Very disappointed and definitely...

DEVASTATING. The customer service was mediocre, NOBODY was in there for a good reason. The Food was atrocious , took about 3 pictures and the food already went cold went to dig in because it looked lovely (don’t judge a book by its cover) couldn’t even eat the food when the noodles are sticking together like some damn power rangers ,we had ordered the beef brisket and when I tell you the meat was tougher than me and my dad’s relationship i could not even chew no flavour to the meat at all not even the broth and don’t get me started on the broth if I wanted some basic unseasoned chicken broth I would’ve went to the Sainsbury’s down the road and got some even added chilli oil , sriracha and fish sauce still there was still no flavour .the atmosphere was of a funeral home as we went to pay (ordered beef brisket £13.75 and coconut pineapple apple drink 4.95)the meal added up to 18.45 why when we leave we are realising they charged us £2 more like basic common math isn’t simple. Feeding off of Vietnamese culture and giving bad reputation for their food is wild...