Le's Restaurant — Restaurant in Ames

First, let me start by saying this review is being done several days since I dined here. If you have NEVER been here before and you don't have your phone....you WILL miss it. I spent 30+ minutes driving up and down Lincoln Ave trying to find it, only to find it tucked in a crevis behind a convienece store.

When I walked in...I felt like I walked into a really old business strip mall from back in the days. It was an extremely small restaurant. Cleanliness is a 1* as it could use an EXTENSIVE deep clean all throughout the restaurant and kitchen. Decore was minimal and basic. The menu was HUGE! I didn't even get to look through it completely to see what all they offered. I bought the "beef pho" with extra meat and spring rolls. The food when it came out was not very hot. It was like warm. So warm, the meat wouldn't cook in the broth and it remained pink so I had to remove it. The beef isn't your typical round steak thing slices....it's ACTUAL steak, brisket as if it was cooked in a crock pot prior to serving with the pho. I asked for extra bean sprouts and jalapenos and got none. They also served "cilantro" instead of the typical asian basil. It was definitely a different experience. The siracha sauce was old and clumpy and expired (I.did look).

The gentleman who was my waiter was an absolute sweetheart and he is what made my experience more enjoyable. He was extremely polite and kind and very nice. He was so courteous and sweet that he even helped me out when I had paying a minor mishap with my card during payment in the end.

The pho itself was different than I've ever tried. Besides the meat and cilantro, the broth was like warm and barely hot. It was a bit bland and didn't have a lot of seasonings in it. The noodles given I felt were a small amount than the average I have seen. The broth is also "SWEET" in a way....which I found odd because typically it's not sweet broth but more of a salty broth. The meat looked like it was all the fat cuttings from the steak they use. I don't eat fat on meat so I lost more than half of my meat I was given. Hence wanting extra bean sprouts, though I never received them and can soda's are $2!?! Holy moly that's expensive! Good news is, they sell beer 🥰

Would I go back again? Sure, I'll try it again. Now that I know where it is actually located LOL. I'll give it another chance. I'll be better prepared this time and I'll check out the whole menu this time too. It won't be late and super dark like last time 😂

(Phone died before I got there, so no photos this time, but there will be with the new review update...

I just want to say that I used to eat at Le’s Restaurant quite often but I never really interacted with the staff. Now I can say that unfortunately due to my experience with the staff I will not be supporting Le’s Restaurant anymore. Today I called the restaurant and I asked for a bubble tea but I asked if they were able to make it with no ice and not blended into the blender and the guy hung up in my face so I called back and I said “You know you just hung up in my face right?” and his reply was “Well I don’t know what you want, what do you want?” and I repeated my request and asked if they could make my taro bubble tea sweeter and his reply was “No we’re too busy for that.” I asked “So does that mean that I can’t have a bubble tea?” and he said “Well you are saying that you don’t even like the way we make our bubble tea so why do you even eat here?” and I tried to apologize because I am assuming that he must have misunderstood me and he hung up in my face again. I was really hurt because I actually have done business with them since I moved here to Ames two years ago and now I will never do business with them again. I don’t think anyone should do business of any kind with a company that does not care for their customers. The reviews for this restaurant are already low and I’m sure that they are aware of that but I hope the best for them and God bless them. I wanted to leave this review so that hopefully it will help someone and also help Le’s Restaurant do better...

If you’re looking for a good bowl of pho you’ll have to go some place else. I ordered two chicken Pho bowls. They gave me one plum sauce that was barely enough for one bowl. There was no basil with the fixings. It was not pho it was plain chicken soup. The broth didn’t look nor taste like pho. It tasted like chicken bullion. They didn’t use pho rice noodles it was egg ramen noodles. It was basically chicken ramen soup. The food wasn’t bad but I was very dissatisfied I got chicken ramen soup instead of pho.

Another thing that was distasteful was when I walked in there was nobody to be found in the restaurant behind the counter or in the serving area. There wasn’t anyone even sitting down to eat. It was like it was closed. I picked up my order on the table and walked out. That’s horrible customer service. Someone should always be up front to greet customers. My regular phone place is closed on Mondays but I regret coming here. I also regret my 25% tip I left. It wasn’t deserving. Over all disappointed with this place. I’d give a half a star if I could. They need...