Pretty Boy — Restaurant in Athens-Clarke County Unified Government

Now before anyone comes at me and says that this restaurant is fantastic because the owner and main chef was on top chef I need you to glance at my last name. Now after doing that take this review with a grain of salt, but to be completely honest the food was subpar. The menu is small, small enough that the drink menu is basically the same size. Now this isn’t typically an issue but why are the noodle options so limited and the rice options non existent. I got the beef pho and my friend got the chicken pho. One thing to note about both styles of pho is that is not the typical bowls of pho you’d receive from something like I luv pho or etc since the bowls are northern style noodles. And this isn’t the issue, the issue is that restaurant claims to give you the vibes of a market in saigon but serves northern style food? I don’t know, feels a little misleading. I understand that the main point of the restaurant is to add a spin on Vietnamese food but it felt unauthentic and lackluster. The food also came out lukewarm which is odd considering we were sat right at the bar and I could literally look into the kitchen. The flavors weren’t bad but for a 20 dollar bowl of pho that is usually 10 dollars the portions and flavor were underwhelming. The food left so much more to be desired that we decided to head to MacDonalds which by the way, the fries I got from there were hotter then the pho. And all this is to say we did go on official opening night and left with...

We arrived and we were able to be seated without a reservation, which was very nice.

Once seated, we had to wait several minutes to be served probably around 8 to 10. We were offered a free appetizer which was very kind of them.

I also ordered a beer and got a glass of wine, which they quickly remedied.

As far as the food goes, somethings were good. Some things were OK.

We ordered the cucumber appetizer, which was nice. Definitely something to split with 2 to 3 people. Definitely also has a kick. I would get this again.

We got the pork skewer as well for an appetizer. It was enjoyable. I would also get this again. The sauce was nice. The pork was tender, and the nuts made a good addition.

For the main course, we split the omelette and the drunken noodles.

The omelette I would get again and it was my first time trying something like this. We got the shrimp and pork mix.

The drunken noodle noodles was very celery salt forward. A little too saucy for my liking. A unique flavor profile that eventually became overwhelming. I wouldn’t get this again.

We tried the pandan cake which we both enjoyed.

All in all, I would give this place a solid, four out of five. The atmosphere is cool. I really like the music. The food is OK. The service was well trained and I really appreciated how everyone worked together.

I...

The food was just okay. I wanted to love it, but it just didn’t really hit the spot. And I usually looove pho. The place on Baxter is way better in my opinion. What I didn’t love about it…broth not hot, broth too sweet and a little bit lacking depth of flavor, herbs pre-incorporated so they cooked and lost their crunch and their fresh pop, the meat (chicken) was lean and lacked succulence. I also missed the bean sprouts you usually get with pho. Nothing exciting about the egg. Would have been tastier as a marinated/seasoned soft boiled egg. Thick rice noodles just aren’t my preference… We also got the fried chicken skins that people have been talking about…kind of tasty but huge (hard to eat), dry chunks. It’s nice they come with herbs but for me we’re missing flavor. They should come with a sauce… I asked for siracha and that was fine, but I have that at home. We got a couple other not very memorable things.

The food and drink menus are small, so I just would have expected to be more impressed with what’s on there.

I will say, the service was very good. The ambience is nice. I love the lighting by the bar. I could see myself just stopping in for a drink now and again. I don’t think the food will be on my frequent cravings...