Pho Islington — Restaurant in London

UPDATE: I have decided to downgrade my rating from 2 to 1 based on some lies provided by the business owner in their response to my review. I never requested the affogato with espresso or with condensed milk as they said "as mentioned before." They served the affogato as I described it. Also, it was not condensed milk ice cream as they mentioned in their response, it was vanilla and very poor quality (almost tasteless). This response from them leads me to believe they're throwing a curve ball on me which is even worse. Learn to provide an excellent service and learn from your mistakes, do not blame it on customers or the flu. Don't recommend it, don't go through the same as me. Sadly, this visit was supposed to be a great experience but resulted in a bad one due to the poor service and the pedantic person with red hat (a chef maybe) that handled the bill in this restaurant. The service does not reflect Vietnamese culture at all. I have been to other restaurants and service is truly amazing. Too expensive for the quality of food, drinks, desserts, and service. Here are the details: as we entered the place my wife and I were not attended, we walked to the counter and finally were greeted. The place was not busy so we chose the table. The girl that served us was polite and attentive. We ordered pork & lemongrass meatballs, one spicy phò house, and one crab noodle soup. Plus two beers. We noticed a bad smell across the restaurant which came from the kitchen through the food elevator located inside a pillar next to the counter. We thought the food was going to be awful but it was very good. We liked all the dishes. We were left unattended for long between the starter and the mains, and the mains and the desserts. Still, we wanted to give it a try for desserts. We ordereded one Vietnamese affogato, you can see in the last picture that we were served two glasses. One had a spoon of vanilla ice cream, the other had "Vietnamese coffee." The presentation was terrible, and the coffee was not true Vietnamese coffee (no condensed milk, no espresso strength, and was cold). Vanilla ice cream was horrible, a Ben & Jerry's tastes better than this one. When the bill came, the person asked if everything was ok, I said my impression of affogato was different due to the coffee, I expected an espresso. He literally replied: "This is a Vietnamese restaurant. We only served Vietnamese coffee." I said I understood that it was a Vietnamese restaurant, did not want to start a useless conversation on Vietnamese coffee. I left feeling horrible, my wife too. We won't go back again, not even if the...

I am also Korean, and I felt that I experienced racial discrimination. We live near Angel Station and have always loved the pho at this restaurant, having eaten here many times before. So we know that there are plenty of seats inside.

When we visited last night, all the staff members were white. The restaurant seemed full, and there were tables near the entrance and next to it. A white man, who appeared to be the manager, told us that all the seats except for the entrance table were reserved, without even checking the inside tables. At first, we didn’t think much of it, but then a white couple who arrived after us was immediately guided to an inside table by another staff member after checking the availability.

I asked if there were any tables inside, but the staff member ignored me and turned away. Only after seating the white couple did they come back and tell us that a reservation had been canceled and guided us to the table next to the entrance. Additionally, they spoke to us in a dismissive tone, saying they only accept card payments, not cash—something they didn’t mention to others.

When our pho was served, it was brought out separately, and we strongly felt that our table was being treated carelessly. After that, the manager never approached our table again; only a younger male staff member came by once to check on us.

Although I didn’t want to pay the service charge after this experience, I still paid it in hopes that the white manager would reflect on his behavior.

It feels incredibly upsetting to experience racial discrimination at an Asian pho restaurant that I used to love. I never want to...

Nice food but left with a poor taste of bad management.

If you're looking at this place to eat arrive at least an hour and a half before closing, maybe more.

We arrive at 9, we re sat, we order. Nothing is said about the restaurant hours closing at 9:30.

As soon as the food arrives bin bags begin to be laid out, lights are switched on and the music is off. Still nothing is said. A card machine is promptly placed on the table. We pay, we leave.

This isn't on the staff in the respect that they're paid the hours they're contracted and they have a set time to leave.

But the hostile passive aggression that you're somehow at fault, when no one has informed you of company hours and somehow mistaking an open sign and being served in effect means your closing.

There's a systemic policy failure from management and the franchisee, these are some possible solutions that I came up with by vaguely thinking.

-Inform customers of the closing time on entry. -Pay your staff overtime if their hours exceed that of the contracted time. -Apply management skills...